Days 3 & 4 on set

Overall the shooting is going well. We're almost halfway done, and I'm hoping to wrap shooting by the first week in July. The release will hopefully be sometime in September.

I've learned a lot about filmmaking over the week. I've gone from "Holy crap, I have no clue what I'm doing!" to "Well, off to work."

Day 3

We shot part of an interrogation scene and an entire outdoor scene, where the hitmen leave the kids beside the road in the middle of nowhere. Why would they? It's a long story.

The challenge with the outdoor scene was that we were filming the whole thing in my neighborhood at an empty wooded lot (nobody has bought it yet.) We were restricted in the camera angles we could use, since we couldn't show any houses in the frame.

Above: pretty much the only angle we could use.

Another issue was the cars. Usually there isn't much traffic in my neck of the woods, but for some reason, Wednesday was the day everyone decided to go out-and-about. Which meant about every five or so shots were interrupted by cars.

One red truck drove past about three times. On the fourth time, the driver stopped and rolled down his window. We weren't really in the mood to talk to this guy, since he'd already ruined a great take (and a great take is very rare with the actors I'm working with.)

"Did you buy the lot?" he asked. The heck was he talking about? We're kids! We can't buy the lot.

"No," I answered, "just making a movie."

"Oh," he said, and drove off.

I wondered why he'd given us such weird looks when he left.

It wasn't until later that I realized I'd been wearing my fake mustache the entire time.

He probably thought I was thirty.

Day 4

Today we shot the remainder of the kitchen scene. It's the opening scene that's taken us about three days to shoot. Don't ask why. It's not even a long scene-- it's just that dialogue isn't my actors' strong point.

Later we filmed a scene down at the nature trail near my neighborhood, where we were yelled at by a creepy guy who was with his dog in his backyard. See, the nature trail is a long concrete path through the woods. There's a neighborhood nearby, and the backyards of these houses border the trail. There's also a creek that runs in between the backyards and the trail.

There's a log that runs across the creek, and when my actor for "Jack" attempted to walk across it, the guy told him to stop.

It wasn't a big deal-- it's just kind of strange that a total stranger would even care, since the creek isn't even on his property.

You meet some weirdos in the film industry.

Adjusting our awesome mustaches.