E, F(-ing), G

Hi!

So I have begun work on the first dinner scene.   As anyone present for those few days of shooting will recall, Boston was enduring a heatwave, and we were in Somerville, far from the cooling ocean breezes we would have welcomed, and would have received, had we been shooting any of the beach-side scenes that week.  Temps outside were near 100 degrees and the humidity was bizarrely high.  We had lots of high-wattage (i.e., very hot) lights shining right on all the actors and turning our little un-air-conditioned apartment into an oven.  It's really kind of a wonder that no one passed out.  There was that one room with the window AC (referred to reverently as "the cool room"), where we had to send Kevin/Bill every so often to cool down and dry off because he'd start sweating through his shirt visibly, and we couldn't have this on screen.  Poor RachelO/Amy was wearing a sweater [*appalled face].

I took a break from deciphering the notes I made in 2002 (when I logged all the footage) to draw you (whoever you are -- or aren't!) a little map of our scene:

I considered trying to figure out how to change the smiles to grimaces, but the truth is, everyone stayed remarkably good-natured and on task (if red-faced) through it all -- even when the food was clearly spoiling after a couple hours and actors had to sort of pick around on their plates for the rare item that they felt they could safely eat.  In the long run, this was probably better for continuity, anyway:  no sequences where somebody's plate contents jump around from full to empty to full again; no one saying their line with a fork at their mouth for one take, but not another.  Then again, I haven't re-watched all the footage yet, so I guess I shouldn't feel too safe about that latter one.  I believe it was the greenbeans that remained safe and that everyone began to gravitate toward.

Anyway -- I called this post "E, F, G" (or something like that) because I wanted to say something about camera angles.

Here we have a dinner scene with FIVE people talking.  Shit!  Whose idea was THAT??  Not to mention you had yourself a crazy Director who had refused to make a storyboard or a complete shot breakdown for the scene in advance, and who was actually acting in this scene (as "Sarah"), so her already very tired, very distractable brain was not...quite... uh -- what was I saying?  My point was:  multiple takes.  She, the Director -- *I* -- made us all go through this scene over and over - in the blazing heat - from SIX different angles (actually eight, but more on that below), and doing several takes for each angle.  I don't think I made us go back to the beginning every time (did I??!) that would have been Truly Nuts.

I'm sorry!

Here's what I will be combing through for the best moments:

14B:  WS from kitchen door of scene's beginning (behind Bill on the map above)
14C:  MCU-Sarah, over Larry's shoulder
14D:  MCU-Marissa,  with Bill's profile sometimes on screen-right
14E-1:  MS-Bill from Larry's POV
14F-1:  MS-Bill from Sarah's POV
14G:  MS-Amy&Larry, over M&B's shoulders

...annnd..

14E-2:  MCU-Marissa, from Larry's POV (I think)
14F-2: MCU-Larry from Marissa's POV (I think)

because for these two sets of takes, we were running Cynthia's second camera.  Now, I write this based on my notes from 2002, having not actually looked through most of this footage yet.  I'm a little confused/concerned/puzzled by how 14E supposedly has two cameras in one position.  Is this really true?

I do thank Heaven that I already figured out that E and F were shot twice, simultaneously.  The dumb thing was that we did not slate them differently.  Let me say that again, just to strike a quiver of terror through any experienced editor's heart:  we did not slate them differently.  In other words, when I was first watching the tapes and making notes, I watched take after take of all the different angles, and then suddenly I was seeing a shot from yet another angle, that was identically slated with an angle I'd already logged.  "I already did 14E!  How can this one be 14E??!" I would have said to myself.  Then I would have played it and seen a whole new angle and been totally flummoxed -- because it's almost ten years later, and I can honestly say that I do not remember anymore which scenes we did with a second camera or not, let alone which angles. 

So here's your advice for the day:  If you shoot anything with two cameras, give each camera a different slate, each angle a different modifier, and note on the slate that the audio is identical to whatever other angle is also being recorded.  See?  All the dialogue from 14E will be exactly the same, though the two angles are completely different.

Ugh.

My annotations are done (I meant "annotations," not "storyboards" in teh previous post - Duh), so I shall now start watching all the millions of takes of this scene, and - no offense to any of us - I am not looking forward to the singing.

Cheers,
REA

Lahh Diddy Da Diddy Da-Dahh....