Day 8: Baby, It's Cold Outside

Day 7: There's SNOW Business Like Show Business!

and on the seventh day . . .

I can't wait for people to see this. I've been working on this story for the better part of two years now. It has taken two years of writing, rewriting, and completely changing the story-telling medium to get the story and the characters where they are now -- and where they are now is nothing short of fantastic.

I can't wait for people to see this. I think it's going to rock some socks off. I'm so proud of all my actors, they're turning in performances of a lifetime. I'm so proud of my director. I've known Loren for nearly nine years now and to see him take charge of a set, to watch him coax those performances out of the actors, and always coming up with new and exciting ways to shoot these scenes (even when he doesn't feel like he has) has been a rare pleasure for me. I've never known someone as long as I've known Loren and to be able to mark his growth, to be able to see where he was and now where he is, is a real treat. I'm so proud of my crew. And when I say crew, I should really say Brian. We've had other crew members on set, but Brian has been our constant. He's been there every day, setting up and tearing down lights on a moment's notice, and somehow, always with the boom mic in hand.

I don't know if I can stress enough how thankful I am for everyone. Nobody is being paid to do this. Everyone is sacrificing their time and energy to tell this story. I appreciate each and every one of you so much. I am now going to spend the rest of my life trying to hire you.

And now, Day 7. Our last, big crazy day. I've prepped and I've prayed. Let's do this.

Day 6: Interrogation Techniques

Day 5: Running & Dancing

Day 4: Fratenizing with the Enemy

Wibbly Wobbly Timey-Wimey Stuff

Three days in and I can't believe it's only Tuesday.

Friday went fantastic. We had two cameras to speed up production, but the soggy ground and shooting in the confines of a car set us back. In the end, we stayed right on schedule, beginning and ending right when we said we would -- which is good. Which is fantastic. I had hoped that we would end sooner, what with us using two cameras, but -- again -- shooting around the frame of a car severely limits the amount of interesting angles one can get. And with such limited space, it's harder to choreograph two cameras at once. But the day went well. Matt and Bri were fantastic.

Saturday we relaxed. Come sundown, we went to house we would be shooting in (thanks again, Erika and Brian!) and prepped it for Sunday. Not much had to be done. The house was dressed. We just needed to clear paths for the camera and make sure family photos weren't going to be in too many shots. Of course, since our two stars are actually brother and sister, and it's their house we were shooting in, some family photos were okay.

Sunday was a long and fast day. We began at 9am and wrapped at 4:20pm. We had scheduled all of the mother's scenes (played by Nina Jones) for that day and so we were able to complete all of Episode 3 and then bits and chunks from about half of the other scripts. We were at our most efficient on Sunday and it paid off. By 4:30 we were headed home, absolutely exhausted.

It's an interesting kind of exhaustion that comes from a film set. We weren't physically exhausted, but were mentally depleted. Loren was in bed by 8pm and Kelly and I followed suit at 10pm (couldn't miss Big Love).

Monday went swimmingly -- and I wish that were a pun. The ground was slick and moist, but no awful puddles prevented us from doing what we needed to do. It was a more physical day, involving a big chase sequence. We weren't as efficient as we had been on Sunday, and so our arch nemesis reared its ugly head.

Time. Time will always be against us. We have to find a way to stay proactive and efficient with our time. Otherwise we're going to hit the end of the week and have big chunks of episodes that still need completion.

I have faith in us and our crew, so all this wibbly wobbly timey-wimey stuff doesn't scare me.

Just worries me.

A little.

Day 3: Inner Circle

Day 2: Blame It On The Rain

Day 1: Production A Go-Go!