Wednesday, Dec 15
Slept OK, considering…
Picked up Cathy at her place and drove to the station to meet the crew and extras for the bus scene. The first available bus had a wheelchair on it (right where the scene has to play) so we had to wait an additional 45 minutes for the next one. In the end it was a good thing, as it gave us some more prep time and delayed us until the Bay Area morning fog lifted and revealed the sun, which looked gorgeous streaming and flickering through the bus on our first takes.
We did two full runs and two partial ones. The drivers and the very few real passengers took our presence in stride, and one driver even let us keep shooting during his layover at the end of the line (we did the extreme close-up inserts there).
Then on to Naveana Nail Salon, which felt like a cinch after the anxieties of stealing the bus scene. Lincoln suggested swapping the planned shooting order, so we did all the dialogue first and the pedicure closeups last, which was much better for light but meant the actors had less help getting into the deeply relaxed state necessary for the scene, which they managed just fine with a few extra takes.
Wrapped at 5:30, then loaded out and took everyone to dinner at Britt Marie’s down the street. Good fun. Then drove to SF and returned Bob Elfstrom’s lights and equipment (what would we have done without him?) and finally home, not too late. That’s 95% of the movie in the can – just a handful of inserts and pickup shots to grab when we can over the next couple of weeks.