It was an early morning and the chill of Pacific Northwest blew through downtown Tacoma. But there I was, parked next to the ominous building that would mark our first official shoot for the film, Mercy's House. Another one of the actors, Craig had already arrived and a moment later, Chris came pulling up in his Star Wars inspired road machine known as Sithlord, then efficiently pulled around the building finding the perfect spot to land, closest to the entrance. I didn't want to get back in my car and re-park, I would hoof it, the cold air would do me good; taking the place of the empty spot in my psyche that normally coffee would be filling. The local Starbucks wasn't open yet. A damn shame.
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| Adrienne Jordan and Sean Gill-Macdonald |
Soon we were inside, Mike, Shea and Charlcee were there and we set about getting everything ready. The actors and the extras began showing up, and the rest of the day is mostly a blur now. A good blur though.
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| Chris filming with the extras, photo courtesy of Charlcee Davis |
There was about 30 extras which was great! Some of my awesome friends showed up, as well as friends from some of the actors. I was deeply appreciative of this. I thought I would start our first shoot off with a bang and address the courtroom audience as they sat eagerly in the seats.
Hi everybody, thank you for being here. I introduced the lead actress Adrienne, and began. "This is Mercy, shes a small town girl with a some big problems." Then going through the rest of the cast explaining their motivation, to finish off with the crew on hand. I thought it was a great way to start things off, as if we were putting on a show for the extras/audience, which in one way, we were.
My buddy and fantastic actor Bill Read Jr played the part of the prosecuting attorney. I think he had brought a number of friends to play the extras, he was pretty amazing and as always a joy to have on the set. I was lucky to have him in my previous film "Waiting For Exit". Here's a shot of him and Charlcee (without whom a lot of these "behind the scene" pictures wouldn't be possible)
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| Charlcee Davis, Bill Read Jr and the obligatory clapper picture. Photos courtesy of Charlcee Davis. |
You wouldn't go this whole blog post without seeing the obligatory clapper picture. That picture alone is money in bank. The only thing during the shoot that really gave us any problems was the old radiator system that would start acting up in the middle of shot. We were not prepared for this. It was like a ghost from the past was banging on the metal from beyond. A lost soul who missed the glory day/ hustle and bustle of the old courtroom wanting one last chance to see a trial in action.
