Army Surplus

I spent a good chunk of time two nights ago trying to write this blog. Then suddenly it all disappeared - and you can't control+z to change that. UGH - draw back of Blogger.

So - I wanted to write about my chili story.

Last Thursday was a bad day. The shoot had a lot of setbacks - and as is the norm with first week hiccups, there was just a huge amount of tension on set and between even the keys of the departments. Never a good thing - but it comes with this being our first feature film and also a very heavy day was ahead of us - a lot of pressure on a lot of different people. Luckily, we're all cool and have addressed the situations and everything is now fine. :)

But that doesn't change that last Thursday was a downer. So yeah - lunch time. I was asked to bring back some dinners for the team in the production RV sitting through a meeting. That's fine. So we shuttled over to holding, grabbed a bunch of meals and DA helped me bring them all back to Todd, Tore and others. I put mine on the table in hopes of coming back later to eat it. It was chili - very yummy looking.

So lunch time ends, and i finally find a moment to go and eat my food. Get in the trailer - it's not there. Todd ate it. He thought it was spare food so he just chowed down. Sad.

So then Magali and I, who at this point probably haven't eaten in HOURS (most likely all day if I recall) - decide to head back to the holding area in hopes of finding some food remaining.

Luckily - there was food left. Elaine, what a doll, even put cheese on our chili so that by the time we were back on set it would be melted and yummy. Goose is driving, and I am holding one bowl of steaming chili in one hand, and a plate with four pieces of garlic bread + a bowl of chili in the other hand. So we drive onto Fairleigh and Todd meets up with our minivan to apologize for eating my dinner. At this time, I set the bowl of chili onto my lap, probably to fix the plate or something, honestly I don't know why. So - magali steps on the gas to get off the road - and dump - the chili bowl on my lap falls over (seriously felt like it was in slow motion). Ugh ugh ugh. So I'm sitting there not knowing what to do cause we're in a rental vehicle that we want to keep pristine, and there is NOTHING around me to clean up the mess. All the while, my thigh is cooking under the heat of the chili.

Maybe it is due to lack of sleep but Magali and I just lost it at that point and couldn't stop laughing - like crying laughing. Cause honestly - why is this happening to us? So I put the remainder of the bowl of chili onto the dashboard and also the plate (with another bowl of chili on it) so that I can try to contain the spillage. I guess in the midst of the laughter I told her to just drive - so that we could get back to Chris' house and get this cleaned up.

So, once again, magali puts it into drive and DUMP both the bowls and the plate fly off the dashboard all over me and the floor. Probably the hardest 1 block drive EVER - we could barely move. Once we got back to the house too - it took forever to try to clean it up cause it was chunky chili. On top of all of that is that this is our SHUTTLE van. So now we have a carpet and seat stain and also a bunch of chili hiding underneath of the passenger seat. It smelled bad and honestly looked as though someone had vomited in the front seat. :p

Mind you - magali and i had a GREAT LAUGH from all of this - so it was definitely worth all the trouble. Tore ended up pulling next to the van at one point to see if we were okay and I couldn't move I was laughing so much. He got out of his car and checked out what had happened from my side of the van - and he just smiled. :)

That was the great moment last week.

It's Thursday - rain is on its way - so scenes are being shuffled around. Big scenes. We barely have anymore interior locations to run to if rain is on its way. I think the most recent forecast has it that we will only see rain on Monday. Thank you God - cause if it went until Wednesday, we would have to give a day off almost.

This week has been fairly good. Better than last. Our production RV is now the craft RV. We weren't productive in there - so now Chris' master bedroom is a huge office space for 6 laptops and two computers. It's honestly quite funny. :) And quite messy. I'm behind in paperwork - which always always sucks and Karl has made our to set box a pile of junked paper. :p

David Ottier (sound guru) brought his 4 year old puppy to set yesterday - he's a cross husky/wolf. Beautiful beautiful dog - and so well behaved. His name was Smokey. I think he should be our set pet. :o) Matt also has a puppy at home which I tried to convince him to bring - but I don't think he would be as well behaved - nor quiet.

We also have a plush sheep that has become a favorite in this house. I fell asleep right beside my laptop one night (in the office - and this is only cause i was so cold - and the vent on the side of my teal top was so very warm so I got up close to it to warm up my face and fell asleep) - and when I woke up, this lamb was on my keyboard looking at me. Oh, and then there are pictures. Anyway. It's now downstairs with Anton in the 'Astral Labs' and Joanna has grown fond of him. He is very soft and cuddly.

I'm getting over my cold slowly but surely. Thank God it was not a flu. Saturday I was out sleeping all day in Toronto. I lost my voice two days ago - but it should be coming back soon. Making calls to suppliers sucks though cause sometimes my voice cracks and no sound comes out (and so is the nature of this hoarse throat thing). But yay for getting healthier.

There is a Gidim-zul makeup test happening as of 9:00am today. Unfortunately, I don't think I will be able to make it out anymore. I would like to, however, I have much to do here. It was like pulling teeth to get this spfx makeup artist to finally do the test. We have an important night with the Gidim-zul on Friday - and it was addressed on Monday that we would do another test on Tues/Wed. When I spoke to our spfx person today - she was like "WHAT??? I can only do it on Sat/sun!!!". I put my foot down - cause this is what happened to us for the main shoot - she kept pushing off the tests until we were hooped and went to camera without having seen them. And they sucked. For the money we're paying - she should want them to look good. Ugh. So yeah - a new test today.

At random, while trying to find foam latex appliances to create a spine for Avvadon at this "Amazing Party & Costume" place, this one worker gave me contact information for this airbrush artist. I saw a picture of a hearse he had airbrushed (while I was at this store) - and it was covered in 'Angels/demons' - and my jaw dropped. I was like "That's exactly what they are supposed to look like". So I called this random guy up - and he's going to come out to the makeup test today to see what he can do. NICE.

I'm happy about that. Let's see what today will bring for the Gidim-zul. So far they are not looking good on camera. I feel I could do a better job. Their prosthetics might look nice close up in real life - but they aren't working for our cameras in the least.

I'm nervous about this - but breathing. :)

Chris and I still need to do the latex test and build a hump with the liquid latex. Our spfx team was supposed to do this - and before they kept saying 'we can't, we can't' - and now they're like 'well, you should have said this earlier - we don't have the time now'. SO FRUSTRATING. So Chris and I will try to build them and just have them airbrushed for camera. Who knows they might rock!!! :)

I love wrap time. Not cause I don't want my crew around - they are amazing and I truly appreciate them. It's more for the pow wows between the people living at the Jones' for the shoot. Lisa, Karl, Magali, Martine, Chris and I just sitting around, drinking wine and eating 'dinner' at 6.30/7.00am. It's just funny.

I will miss this part of the production. I will miss the crew - they have been wonderful - and we're coming together really well. We have some tough days ahead - but hey, we're only shooting for 19 days total - so no matter what, it's almost over. Being on set is short lived. :(

I must go now. I slept from about 1.30-4.45am today. It was a bad wakeup though - cause in my dream a crew member came up to me and hit me on the shoulder asking me why we were wrapping out at 7am. I darted up (from the universal naping mattress) and was completely freaked out. Yet it was still dark. I didn't know what time it was - but I still had my walkie in my ear - and all I hear is Karl's voice come up saying 'window'. All smiles. We wrapped at 5.00am. Very good. And we had an hour lunch - so yay on that as well.

One last "story" to explain my title. Yesterday morning, Chris, Magali and myself spent some time going through all craft supplies that Tore had bought from Costco (so much stuff - like overflowing shopping carts (several)). And I get to this one box of canned tomatoes. I started putting them through the back cupboards and Magali made this comment from the front of the RV - that it looked as though we were getting set to go to war. Here I am packing in the preserves - and the strangest ones at that for a film shoot - and it's all just funny. Ironically, most film crews make a reference to "going to war" when they talk about a film shoot. We do definitely go to battle when making a feature film - a lot is sacrificed (your life/time/family/friends) - and you're in it as a team. But it's wonderful.

Let the "Battle of the Hammer" resume.

day 6 in the can. 13 days to go.