MY CONSTANT EXPRESSION ON AND OFF THE SET

FEARBOT

A lot changed during the second week of shooting including the weather, moving from interiors to exteriors and transitioning from day shoots to night shoots. This was also when the script moved on from the scenes where the characters arrived at the cabin during the first week, to scenes where the creepy, scary stuff starts to occur.

On Monday the 21st, the clear, sunny skies we’d been experiencing suddenly turned dark and rainy, and my morning scenes were cancelled then pushed to later in the day. We also had a night scene that was postponed several hours due to fog. It’s strange: every few hours the weather seems to change here in Michigan, but except for having to swap around a few scenes here or there, we’ve been extremely lucky in that nothing has been completely ruined or scrapped by the rain.

GRAY/GREY, WHATEVER

GRAY/GREY, WHATEVER

On Tuesday of last week most of the cast and crew took off for neighboring county, Farwell, to let off some steam and to celebrate 2nd AD Ali Locke’s birthday at a bar called DJ’s Lounge. The drinks were cheap and the karaoke was rockin’, a combination which made for a fun, memorable night. Line Producer Brian Raider kicked things off with a heartfelt rendition of Celine Dion’s “I’m Your Lady” and I continued the festivities with Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy.” Later, costar Shelley Dennis and I tore it up with the Prince/Sheena Easton duet, “You’ve Got the Look” and Michael Cornacchia brought the house down with his belting of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’.” My fellow actor, Jeff Lorch, and I ruled the pool table undefeated (a win from a scratch on the 8 ball is still a win) before we all called it a night and drove back to the set.

DA CREW

DA CREW

The next day we began our night shoots, going from 6pm to 6am, if I’m remembering correctly. It really wasn’t that hard for me, and I think much of that was due to the fact that I regularly stay up past 4am most Mondays and Thursdays finishing up JEFbot strips. The hard part was sleeping during the day, since I find sleeping past 1pm difficult, even when we wrap late and I don’t get to bed until 9 or 10 in the morning. Also not helping was getting sick with a cold that had been going around the set since our arrival, and waking up in the afternoon, burning up and sweating profusely. Not pretty, but it only lasted a few days.

The thing I’ve loved most about the night shoots has been the amazing sunrises greeting us as we walk back to our cabins, and the campfires Kevin Parson makes almost every morning for us to relax by once we get back. The cast and crew isn’t able to do as much partying by the fire now that we’re doing night shoots; it just seems wrong somehow to start popping beers at 7 in the morning and most of the cast and crew are too exhausted at that time anyway. While we’re all still having fun, the workday definitely seems longer now.

WE EVIL

WE EVIL

Less than a week left to go, and I feel we’ve all gotten into a groove of working and living together now. I know this last week of shooting is going to zip by in the blink of an eye so I’m trying to enjoy and appreciate everything about making this movie while it’s happening. Unfortunately, I know this amazing experience is going to end way too soon.

For daily updates check out my twitter feed at: http://www.twitter.com/jefbot