Day Fifteen

We have left the Ward house for good now, but we are still in Austin. In fact, for some hospital shots; a fairly simple exterior shot (so we think) and a fairly complicated interior one, plus a new baby’s entrance.

So anyway, we are at the Clinical Education Center (a part of Seton Hospital) all day, which is near the freeway and not too far from downtown. And it’s a pretty fancy learning hospital where medical students can train in an actual hospital environment. Good for them.

So that makes it perfect for our needs. Luckily, we don’t have to worry about being in the way of real patients, or we might be in some trouble here. The exterior shot is actually not complicated but the sound from the noisy cooling towers outside might present a sound issue. It’s possible that ADR might be in our future when we get to post-production. Oh well …

Also, co-producer Erin Gray had flown in from L.A. the night before to check out and see how the production was going so far. I think the actors appreciated her presence.

Once inside we put on some scrubs for the interior shot, which seems to involve most of the cast; characters Dylan, Dan, Derrick, Mason, Mariah, Jenny, and a new one. Some emotive resolution and bonding here, but not all is healed, as a lot is going here between all the characters. But maybe on the right track, though? The audience can decide that.

Oh yeah, and as a part of the intro to this multiple character scene my wife and I put on some scrubs as doctor and nurse and deliver a baby onscreen. Ha, now how in the hell did we get talked into that? But Kira as Jenny in labor was amazing. Worth the whole shot. And yeah, Tom as Dan, you were great too. But hey Tom, you only had to cheerlead, not have the kid (so to speak).

Day Sixteen

Today we head back to our wonderful little town of Lockhart for some car shots and a couple unexpected situations. We start in the afternoon as we have some involved night setups.

Our 2nd AD Blake gathers up the extras for the next scene and explains what is expected from them. Background actors provide a texture of authenticity and dimension to the main action in the scene. But remember guys and gals, no mugging the camera.

We have the Fury rigged to a process trailer to make shooting the car interiors a whole lot easier. Of course, rigging it takes a while, and a lot of people. We start with shots around the town square and county courthouse, and then out for some highway shots. Then a little trouble. We unload the Fury off the process trailer to get some exterior driving shots. Uh, oh, no gas. Say what? We have to rush to get gas because we are losing light. We get it quick but we also have no real control of traffic. Remember, it’s 1994, so we can’t see any other new vehicles. We get the final piece just as we lose that last ray of sunlight. Whew!

And now another car shot, at night and set in 1959. And we are supposed to rig this car to the process trailer. And then another issue comes up. A major thunderstorm is coming into the area. Oh man, are we going to make it? We blow off the process trailer and get what we can before all hell breaks loose. We just get started and the downpour starts. We rush down the street to our base camp, the local Mason Lodge, and hunker down inside. We wait around some, eat a little, and realize our day is done before we can finish. We get some voiceover lines from Cooper, who plays the boy on the bicycle, and wrap it all up, missing a big section of our scheduled day … and finish another week. Well, happy Friday the 13th.