DAY 2

I didn't know it would happen so fast, but the decision has been made to do one of the big fight scenes today. As I am the fight coordinator, this is a big deal to me. My experience in fighting comes from years of martial arts practice and watching every action/fight/chop-socky movie ever made. I think I know what I am doing, but I soon discover the second day out is my day to screw up.

Somehow I looked at the storyboards wrong and Mike the director has to tell me where the hell we are and what the hell we're doing. Hey, just because I co-wrote the damn thing doesn't mean I know what's going on.

Utilizing years of karate routines and katas, I quickly recover and we hash-out a reasonable series of connected fight sequences. The actors, with little or no time to practice, look pretty good. It is a hot, but they put their hearts and bodies into it, full force.

Cinematographer David Wexler (left) on break from shooting with co-writer James Charbonneau. (Photo by David Zajac.)

This is where the technical aspect of making a movie comes crashing into the "What I really want this to look like is…" We have a limited budget; we have limited film stock; we have limited time; and last and most important of all, because of all of these other factors, we can only get a tenth of the coverage (shots) we would like to get. It looks good out in the sunny field with the camera rolling. We can only hope it will look as good when it is put on, what is ironically referred to as "the big screen."

Today's lesson in filmmaking: It's all in the editing.

DAY 3

Mike the director's sense of humor is baffling to many of the people here. He can be sarcastic and acerbic, while at the same time critical. Everyone stares at me when I laugh at something he says that they think he is being serious about. I am glad I know him as well as I do.

Today is the big fight scene: the characters Mic (Zeke Rippy), John (Scott Parrish) and Billy (Philipp Karner) vs. Bob (James Thalman), the soon-to-be dead guy. I am, once again, very busy all day. It is a good day as the actors are warmed-up from yesterday's rumble, and this is more a realistic donnybrook, with people falling on the ground with each other and rolling around, than the stylized "slow-mo" fighting of the day before. At the end of the day, we are all happy to see Bob die.

I learn that actors come in many forms. The first is the type that will do anything short of death to get the job done. (And even death would be something he/she would consider if it were a good career move. Think James Dean.) The next type starts out like the first, but somewhere between the second and third take starts to ask for all the little pebbles to be swept and strained out of the dirt. The third, and by no means last, is a big canned ham just waiting for that special metal key to be inserted and turned.

All, however, idiosyncrasies aside, are professional, and working very hard, very long, under adverse conditions, for very little pay. More on them later.

I go home that night to find that my cat had been sprayed by a skunk.

DAY 4

Hot, hot morning. I am wondering what I am doing, what I am writing. Long days, short nights. The word trust comes to mind. This whole thing seems to be a trust process. Is everyone capable of doing their job so that the end result will be a finished film in the allotted time?

Faith is another word that comes to mind.

Exhaustion is a third word. And it's only day four.

I think perhaps I just need to record what happens and let God and me sort it out later.

It is the first day of the steadicam, and I can't be there to watch. This disappoints me. But with the type of shot being done, the less people around to get in the way the better. A hurry-up-and-wait day.

Everyone talks to the writer.

It is not because I am a natural charmer with cosmopolitan wit; it is because, I discover, much to my chagrin, almost everyone in the production is writing their own script and wants help, or advise, or just to tell their tale. Actually, I like to listen because a lot of the ideas are really good, and these are all people with heart. At least, I think, until they get to Hollywood.

Continue to DAY 5