May 26th, 2006: Day Five

Shivers wants to give you Lasik, Bullet.

May 26th

A little better on the sleep front. Shower and head over to Tuckahoe. Chris O’brocki is there already.

We’re going to do the Horner family slaughter. Only, Frank informs me there’s a “problem…but with a solution.” Problem being that the house we were going to shoot in is no longer available; solution being, drive 18 miles to shoot in another house, then drive back to shoot the barn sequence.

Did I mention it’s the Friday before Memorial Day, and the road to the other town is route 50? (a major artery to Ocean City)

I know it’s not gonna work. So we start trying to improv. Maybe we can make part of the meeting house look like a house. Or maybe they can get killed on the porch, or be eating on the porch, or what the fuck ever.

I look at Bullet’s house—he’s the actor playing Old Man Horner. It’s small—a mobile home, but it may work. Then I see inside. It’s messy. Like VERY messy. And small.

But in my mind I think we can make it work, and it’s right here on the grounds.

So, another shooting script goes out the window as this house is not layed out AT ALL like the one we were going to shoot in.

Checkin' out the trailer.

Anyway, we do it. Unfortunately, we get a downpour. We shoot everything but the shots where the door is open and Shivers jabs his axe in. Not bad.

We’re losing light and we need some shots of Ogre in near-dark, but not total dark. So we fly across to the farm to shoot those, trying not to pay attention to the guy on the porch who owns the land. Frank tells me he’s a little crazy. He sits on his porch and doesn’t move even when our shot faces that direction.

We book back to finish the Horner’s wife scene—She gets an axe to the skull. It goes well, we get a good blood spurt. Michelle Trout does great.

Then back to the barn with Savannah and the boys. First problem is that the barn has no power. It’s pitch black out, because by now it’s 11pm. The scene takes place in daylight. We rig long stingers(extension cords) across from the other barn(no loft there) and get a decent setup. Still a little dark to be daytime, but it’s all we have.

It’s a confusing shoot for a director, because there’s so much FX—three deaths, and I’m not sure exactly how Doug is planning to do them. So we end up moving through the entire scene shooting one side(we have to stop before the deaths though, because to shoot those would bloody up the clothes, of which we don’t have duplicates) and then we move the lights and shoot another side.

It all works pretty well though. We get some good stuff. Savannah is good and is just as natural naked as she is clothed. Very nice.

We bolt out, but this time it’s 7am when we leave. We unload at Tuckahoe and are back here for an 8:00am nap time.

Turns out Frank’s wife is having a yard sale, so there’s no where to park the van. I park it on Frank’s back lawn.

I know, this is a Jacky-less post, so let me give you a little early Christmas present.

I call this picture E-Jacky-lation.