Enjoying the Craft

The last few days have been better, but things still have to change. Tomorrow we are going to be in the same location for the 7th straight day and the end can’t come any sooner. The director is getting more comfortable with his actors as well as streamlining his thought process, but once we are out of this “comfort zone” we will be moving to exterior locations or even interiors that are less hospitable to a big crew and I just don’t know how well he is going to deal with that.

As for myself, things have been high stress most of the week. Not that high stress is a bad thing, because I can deal with things in high stress situations pretty well, but it does take a toll on your body. Standing most of the day, constantly having to be vigilant about people making noise or being in the wrong place at the wrong time, is a difficult mentality to maintain.

For example, two nights ago I had a nightmare that woke me up every half hour (for the 5 hours that I got to sleep). From what I can piece together, the nightmare mainly involved me outside with a large group of people all going towards a large mist. For some reason I knew things were not going to be good so I kept trying to get people to stop walking and no one would listen. It was very eerie. I rushed back inside for what I thought was safety, and the people just kept leaving and going outside. No one would listen. I think I heard screaming. I think I heard the sound of people going outside and then rushing back towards where I was. It’s all kind of blurry, but obviously a result of my work and what it is doing to me.

One of the positives to take from the last week of shooting is the level of acting. The lead male is a pleasure to watch because he delivers each line with a high level of emotion. Before now I had only worked on comedies that did not allow the actors to display their full range of skill. Now, with a serious drama, all three actors work as if that day’s performance is going to land them an Oscar.

12 Days Left.