Monday, August 18, 2014

Cloud Nine

Making movies is pure heaven.  It's me at my absolute happiest.

Even when it's a silly film with a micro budget.  Even when it pours rain on an exterior shot and you just keep shooting because you have neither the daylight nor the budget to stop the cameras.  Even when a pimple (naturally) decides to sprout the day before you book a movie and you feel like a diva constantly asking makeup if it's covered.  Even when the location is so remote, you have to scramble up a trail in order to get to set, and scramble back down in order to use the ladies room, escorted by a production assistant of course. (Seriously. There is nothing more pointless than being assigned a PA to walk you to the bathroom, but producers are always scared the "talent" is going to wander off and get lost.)

But it really is pure heaven.  It's the group effort to create.  It's the electricity of stepping into a costume and bringing an imaginary person to life. It's the cast/crew family that is born by living together on location and working long hours through heat and rain and sunshine. It's eating breakfast together in the lodge dining room while looking over the day's sides and shooting schedule.  It's playing practical jokes on the camera girl or the director donning a funny hat while riding a bicycle around set.  It's singing happy birthday to a cast member, sharing cake and clinking cold beers at the end of a long day.  It's laughing together over the day's best moments on set as this group of former strangers hang all over each other on blankets outside and stare up at the stars.

It's magic.

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