SLUGLINE

Well, as I do the post mortem on day one of principle photography, I cannot help but be pleased. We fell a bit behind in the morning - falling as much as an 1:10 behind schedule - but thanks for a hard working cast and an A.D. who "cracked the whip" in the afternoon, we not only caught up, we wrapped :15 AHEAD of schedule!

I was a bit concerned, coming onto this series set for the first time as director (it really helped that I was co-directing with regular director Dave Mason - who was giving and from day one of prep made teamwork the watchword of our collaboration), but the cast was both professional and patient. There was one point where, I got so into a performance I was getting from Larry and Renee that I yeld cut in the middle of the scene because I wasn't sure where we were. Embarrassing, to be sure. But my gaffe was soon forgotten.

And when I came up with a few extra bits on the set, Rob (producer) and Quinn (A.D.) as well as the cast rolled with them and give it their all.

Even when we had to coax performances from an actor who, for some reason, didn't get the script until a week before, we got exactly what we needed. A happy accident was a last minute replacement of an actor who couldn't make it for scheduling reasons. It ended up being fortuitous as the actor who pinch hitted brought more to the roll than I conceived when I wrote the script 15 years ago. He turned a background character in the story into a rich contributor with a character arc.

What a gem.

Every project should go like this one has, so far.

Two days to go.

Production 402 "Piracy of the Noble"
Day 1, Principal Photography

Full cast wrap times: 16 minutes AHEAD of schedule
Parts of scenes filmed: 15
Pages filmed: 12 6/8
Added scenes: 3
Raw stock: 131 minutes used (229 minutes remaining)
Cinematography setups: 92 planned, 117 actual

Shooting Call:
Unit S (First Shot): 9:55a
Lunch: 1:47p to 2:35p
Unit R (First Shot): 2:52p
Last Shot: 8:10p, Wrap: 8:14p

Delays: 50 minutes
9:10a-9:50a, audio/video sync difficulty for live broadband transmission, electrical power load tests to studio, added cinematography setups, change of scene filming order.

12:48p-12:58p, both surge protectors activated, cutting power to the dual lamp lighting apparatus in Studio 2, due to unannounced energy spike. CRT's in all areas excluding the studio and the control room were disengaged.

Notes:
Sixty-second tape replay is requested before the first shot on Day 2 of principal photography for audio/video sync and power load tests.