Day Seventeen

Vehicle wrangling, I would call it. Yes, we have some more vehicle issues, but of a different flavor. Moving on … as we get a simple exterior shot taken care of (with a vehicle) and then go inside for the hospice shots the rest of the day.

And the makeup work Jason did on Thom was amazing! Aging him forty years took some real craftsmanship. And now the actors, especially Thom, playing the dad Frank, have some serious work cut out for them.

Watching a family member waste away and then finally die can never be easy. But trying to put that on film in a tasteful but believable way will never ever be easy. Nonetheless, here we go … as Mason (Charlie), Dylan (Don), and Frank (Thom), three generations of the Ward family, start to play out the beginning of the end here, I can’t help but feel I really had my work cut out for me in helping get them where they need to be, performance wise.

Day Eighteen

Today we are still at the assisted living center. And the vehicle issues mount in a way that I don’t think could have been predicted. Yes, a bit of vehicle wrangling in the works. Short story short …

The lost vehicle story. Turns out the vehicle we needed was transported by a trailer that lost its rear license plate. So, your friendly police officer who pulls you over wants to know what’s up. When said vehicle cannot be proven to have not been stolen, the trailer is towed to the local police pound. All the while the case is being made that this vehicle is needed for a scene we are shooting … right now!

So, we are sitting around at the location waiting for the late vehicle when we get the word it ain’t coming. I try to hold my temper, as the vehicle stuff is starting to get to me. Anyway, on the spot we have to rethink the scene without a vehicle and stage it in a different way with some altered dialogue. Ha, just another day of indie filmmaking, right?

Now the heat picks up between the two oldest brothers, Dylan (Don) and Dan (Tom), still vying for the dying father’s attention. They push the tension to the edge, as fists come out and we are on the edge of some serious violence.

The last shot of the night arrives … the major dying scene. Thom, Don, and Charlie need to be at their best to pull this off. As the director, I only hope I have helped and not made it harder for them. As the writer, I feel a bit guilty putting them through all this, as I can tell there is some real anguish here. But that is part of the territory. I can feel that the crew in the room is affected too.