With fewer than 24 hours to
Valentine's Day, thoughts of love were all around.
Kelly made Valentines for
everyone, and passed them out all day long. I'm not sure who brought the chocolate hearts,
but they could be found all over the place and seemed to be much appreciated. Matt Servitto brought pink heart-shaped cupcakes in to
Principal Holding and passed them out to the ladies there.
He and Beth McGuire also
brought news that Heath got a speeding ticket on the drive in from New York. From one of
the cops who had been working the location the week before.
O, thoughts of love were everywhere...
Set girlfriend/Set boyfriend: n Someone
on the crew you maybe have a little more of a crush on than anyone else on the crew.
A: "So the talk has been about maybe playing
a game on Valentine's Day. Here's what we would do: We'd get everybody in the crew...
everyone in the cast, a Valentine card. A blank one. And then we'd say, like, fill it in
and give it to your set boyfriend, or set girlfriend. And we're thinking, oh we'll get all
the cards..."
B: "And I'm thinking, I've got such a big
ego, I'm thinking I'll get all the cards..."
C: "But really they'll all end up going to
some PA or someone we're not even thinking about."
B: "And then some day, a month or two from
now you run into your set boyfriend on the street and you say to yourself: 'Oh, he's cute
after all.' [screws up face so it looks like a dried orange] Ugh!"
A: "It's all in fun. When you work this hard
you have to have fun. It's just fun. So, should we do the Valentine game?"
B: "I don't think so. How about having a
Skirt Day?"
A: "You mean where all the guys, and all the
girls, too, wear skirts?"
Today was Friday the 13th, not Skirt Day. But as the
weather went cold so did the thought of having everyone, men and women, wear skirts. There
was the penultimate scene to be filmed, actresses wearing flimsy gowns, and a stiff chill
wind blowing through the yard outside the church (see 2/24/98 entry
for more background information on this scene).
This was a tracking shot. The festive wedding party exiting
out to the street throwing rice, laughing, shivering. There are more than 20 people in the
shot and as the afternoon wore down they were increasingly unhappy having to do additional
takes.
The best way to keep warm was to put on the waiting down
jackets after each take, as everyone reset. Part of resetting was sweeping up the bird
seed (doubling for rice) off the sidewalk. Another part of resetting was picking the bird
seed out of everyone's hair before the next take, then fixing their hair. As well as
moving the camera to he beginning of the tracks and doing all the things that need to be
done to get the camera ready. Like reloading, which takes 3 minutes every once in a while.
Laurel, Issach & Kelly, Donovan, Heather and Aleksa
Cast took it upon themselves to sing Billy Idol's rock
classic, "White Wedding." Somewhat surprisingly, nearly everyone knows the
words. Not unsurprisingly this had limited effect keeping them warm. Spirits up, flesh
cold.
After four takes Jon and Joseph offered a deal: For each additional take
required they would each take off one layer of clothing.
"We're ready to go down to bare skin if we have
to," they said.
"Pants, too?"
"Pants, too."
I can report that they did nine takes of the scene. With
each call for a resetting, meaning another take, came a chorus of "oohs and
ahhs," as Joseph and Jon removed, in order:
Joe
Jon
Coat
Coat
Sweater
Wool Shirt
Shirt
Sweatshirt
Long
Undershirt T Shirt
T
Shirt
Long Undershirt
What was amazing was that after all of that, Jon still had
another four or five shirt layers left to come off.
"It's as if he came prepared to play strip
poker," someone said.
Jon and Joseph, stoic but chilly
Which brings us back around to another kind of love. Happy
Valentine's Day.
And special thanks to Elizabeth, my special Valentine. I
couldn't have done it without you, darlin'.
Peter
Kreutzer |
