DAY 30 – September 26, 2009
I got some more cutaways shot today. Meredith Powell, who I'd acted with in at least five previous film projects, made an onscreen cameo, and also provided voice-overs for three offscreen characters: Laurel's boss from Day 15, a cheery newscaster, and an adult film actress.
After this, I headed to Writers & Books to reshoot the audience reactions from Day 13. I'd made a decision that now seems curious in hindsight – I screened the entire rough cut of the movie (there were still some castmembers who hadn't had a chance to see it yet) in the performance space I'd rented, then quickly filmed the audience footage for the scene involving Terrance's play; the extras had now watched the scene in question and understood what their response was supposed to be.
The audience footage was much better this time – not only technically, but in terms of the performances, as this time I was taking the proper time to direct the actors. Renell Edwards, one of the breakout stars of Liz Lehmann's film Fury, gave the most memorable performance as a particularly disgusted audience member.
I then moved the actors outside so that they could double as other characters in a brief crowd scene. Although the specific setting of this scene wasn't hugely important, Writers & Books has the shell of a red British phone box as an objet d'art outside its building, and I was kind of hoping the scene would look like it took place in England. This scene was supposed to take place at the same time as other scenes set in eastern North America during daylight hours, so in the finished film I would darken the footage a bit in order to make the time difference less glaring.
As the day's shooting completed, Renell gave me a huge compliment when he asked, incredulously, “Why haven't I heard about this movie before now?”
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