Since today is a day off for the cast and crew, we've broken into splinter cells for the day. Andrew went to the airport to pick up his girlfiend, Christina, flying in from New York. The crew is largely hung over and lounging the campus of EKU for the day. The Missouri boys (Chad, Kurt and me) hopped in Emily's big truck and drove down to her family place in Booneville, KY. The road between here and Richmond is where we will film most of the driving shots next Wednesday. It is not Colorado or Utah or Nevada...but it is beautiful country--steep hills, remote hollows, tobacco farms...
Wading in the creek where we'll shoot the waterfall scenes Friday...
Right this minute, I am on the wrap-around porch of Emily's home-place having just finished uploading a dozen or so pix to the other blog then hunting down bugs in my sloppy HTML code so I could make that post work. Emily and Chad and Kurt are in the pool below and I am watching the sparrows hunt wasps in the eaves of the porch and the black tobacco barn through air so thick I want to slice some, wrap it in wax paper to bring home.
Yesterday we scouted the location for the morgue scene. Chad told me that he and Andrew didn't want me to come to the set the morning they filmed it. I said they were being silly--I've talked and written and told and read this story until I have power over it. Pretty much. Still, when we were checking out the location--a basement in one of the medical classroom buildings on EKU--it was a relief to see how different this space was from the one I actually remember. THAT space was all stainless steel and well-sealed concrete floors and ominous steel cabinets. This place was full of medical mannequins tucked each in a bed. While Chad and Andrew and Emerson and Emily framed shots and imagined blocking, I sat on the edge of a bed and looked down the long row of ailing dummies.
Chad rubs the sun out of his eyes.
It's weird to see the pics and not to know which ones are the film and which ones are pics of you, or of off-set stuff. And the names are all mixed up for me, too. With two Tabs and two Scotts that I know of, and not knowing for sure the difference between a Brian and a Chad, it's just such a new and interesting story unfolding, one which is almost as interesting as the original. This story is the one about the screenwriter who revisits his past through the movie he is watching being made. Not that you want to write another screenplay and make another movie after this one (and so on and so on), but this is really compelling and powerful to watch play out. Kind of like a poignant version of ADAPTATION or something. Anyway, this blog hits it just right.