Am I Special Film Site

Yesterday was very calm and slow, but full of intense talks and interesting dialogue. In the morning, we woke to rain, a steady rain. We were so thankful that we had decided to cancel filming, as the rain would have really messed us up. However, we did go over the church and clean it from Wednesday. Everyone worked together, and it get done very quickly.

Than we came home and after lunch we sat around discussing filmmaking and christian filmmaking in particular. Our discussion was really very deep and thought provoking and all of those involved really felt that they learned alot in it. We kinda wondered if we had been brought here to have that conversation. It brought so much to the table that many of us had either not thought of or had considered before. Yesterdays conversation was a real growing experience, for all of us.

And than, we had decided to make a fun movie, because we had all these people and talent here, we had to make SOMETHING! So we brainstormed up a quick, funny, hooky film that we shot in less than two hours. The whole process took about 3 hrs from start to finish, at least. It was so much fun and we laughed SO HARD!! I had never made an funny, hooky film and I loved every moment of it! I look forward to ding it again one day, espeically with all the guys who have come out to help me.

Today we are planning on shooting interviews and getting the last of the documentary wrapped up. The guys are planning to head home on Sunday morning. I am really going to miss them when they leave, but I will look forward to working with them all again. These guys have become almost like my brothers in the five days I have known them and I am really going to miss them.  But I thank God for the opportunity to meet and work with them.  I pray that one day I can work with them again, even if I have to go to LA

We are now on day 3 of filming and we have three scenes in the can. WOW! This week has been WILD! I (Tabitha) knew filming was going to be hard, but I didn’t think it would be this hard!

So, how about I tell you what the week has been like. All of the crew and most of cast arrived on Monday afternoon, after making an unannounced diversion to Subway in Benson, 15 minutes east of my house. But that was after the car overheated while driving around the airport. See, we had to pick up Jordan at the airport, but we got there way early (though we thought we were late). So we drove around and around the airport at about 25 mph. But the car doesn’t like speeds that low. So it overheated. So instead of going down to where my Dad worked to have lunch with him, he had to come all the way to the airport for lunch. But we had a nice lunch and got to know Jordan alittle better, which was good, since right after lunch, we went stright to the orthodontist. Before everyone came out here, we were thinking this orthodontist thing would be a big deal, but really, there wasn’t any fuss what so ever. The nurse did ask about the guy who we had said would be with us, but I think we would have raised more of a scene if we had had Josh, Stephen, Jonathan, and Jordan coming into the office with us. That would have been funny.

But anyway, we got all the guys to our house and unloaded all the gear. The gear is now living my garage, right where my dad used to park his motorcyle. Notice the use of the phrase “used to”. The entire free floor is covered with gear, except when they load it all up and put it in the truck to go some place, like Joanna’s house (long story, I’m coming to it).

After we got all the gear unpacked, the guys came in and we had a meeting of sorts. We talked mostly about the chatroom, but also about the color palate of the movie. After getting that all figured out, watching FOUND, and eating tacos for dinner, we headed out to WallyWorld, where we proceded to shop for the next two hours. We found the things we needed for the chat room, came home and crashed.

That was Monday. Tuesday, we got up and went location scouting. Thus the stress level rose. The locations I had picked out wouldn’t work for what Josh and Stephen wanted. So we scratched those and began to search for new locations. One good thing about living in a small town is that when you say “movie”, ears leap up and people will do just about anything to help you. It also helps that nobody has taken advantage of this town, other than me O:). So we pretty much found all new locations, even though Stephen and Josh weren’t totally happy with them. So than we went to get the beds we needed for one of the sets. But the one bed I was going to buy didn’t come through, so we didn’t buy that bed. Instead we ubducted Joanna’s bed. There are some funny videos Josh took of them stealing the bed from Joanna on his blog, : http://joshuamm.blogspot.com/2009/06/multimedia-message_5286.html , http://joshuamm.blogspot.com/2009/06/multimedia-message_714.html . Than we got everything home and set to work shooting a scene! We started setting up at 4 PM and we wrapped 12:30 AM. Than Josh, Stephen, and I stayed up till 1:30 AM watching the dailies and trying to figure out how in the world we were going to shoot all of this. Man, that was so hard to do! So by 1:30 AM, the crew finally got to bed.

That took care of Tuesday, but Wednesday was breathing down our necks. We had decided that we were going to shoot at Joanna’s house on Wednesday, so we got up by 5:30 AM, the crew was up. Most of the cast slept in a little longer. However, Wednesday was our big extras day! What fun! We were able to get two scenes done, including the big opening scene with lots of party extras. It honestly took forever to get that first scene set up and shot, but we got some really beautiful shots. The footage is looking so beautiful, I am so happy with it.

So now we are planning on shooting all the chatroom scenes today. Please keep the film in prayer, especially the crew, Josh and Stephen and Tabitha. We have been operating on less than enough sleep for two straight. Please pray that we get through everything without getting seriously sick or going insane or stressing out too much. Thank you so much!