Friday, September 02, 2005

A Zombie Says What?

I know for a fact that 5 1/2 script pages can be shot in 12 hours without hurrying.

Today, it took us 15 hours (making yesterday our third 14+ hour day in a row) to shoot that 5 1/2 pages.

The director of this episode has been pulling a Warren Beatty*, which hasn't been making him any friends - with crews, at some point the money ceases to matter and we just want to go home.

Long days are wearing.. After three of them in a row, the entire crew was punch drunk - bad third grade jokes set off 15 minute long laughing fits, and everyone had that glazed look. I kept remembering that line from Fight Club... "A copy of a copy of a copy".. Conversations seemed tinny and far away, reaction times multiplied as our worn out brains took longer and longer to process information ("Look out, that light's going to fall!" "What?" :crash: "Oh. The light. Whoops.").

A very, very lucky few either found the coveted nap spots in the set or managed to sleep sitting up.

Sleep spot


*On Dick Tracy, Warren Beatty was ordered by Disney to do fewer takes (he was doing over 30 takes on every shot) - so what he'd do was this: He'd call take one, then have the actors do the scene over and over and over until the camera's film ran out. That way, he'd get the shot done 30+ times, but would technically only have done 8 takes.

3 comments:

The Baxter said...

loved the blog...have you visited the herald examiner lately...long days can be found there as well!

ps. today a honda spot did a day in 11 hours. un heard of.
bax

Peggy Archer said...

If I never see the inside of the Herald Examiner building again, it'll be too soon..

I've had some of the worst days of my life there.

Anonymous said...

wanna come work on "rescue me" - we do approx. 12-15 pages in 12 hours. U'll have lots more fun and we have a great crew!