2/12/05: First day of shooting is complete! The acting was solid. Freakin Sami Haj rocks. I knew he was perfect for the part (I love taking credit for stuff I really didn't have anything to do with) and he really is a star. Even though he's playing a pretty thankless part, he draws you into the character. Gosh, listen to me! I'm becoming one of them artistic idiots! No, really, Sami blew us all away. There were a few technical problems, though all of them can be fixed in post production. Well, there are a few (and I mean FEW) shots that looks a LITTLE out of focus and I may have to reshoot those. BTW I'm shooting in Widescreen and it looks GREAT.
We shot the whole day, anticipated at 8 hours, in about 5 hours. The quality is there as well. This makes me very optimistic for the future. We didn't comprimise, we didn't skip steps, we just shot. Take after take after take, angle after angle, and we still came out ahead. Of course, there were only two actors and one consistent guy on set (Nathan Archer, who is the MVP of the day). In the ensuing weeks it probably won't go as fast because there will be more people on set.
My portrayal of Calvin thus far has been pretty sub-par. I am going to do some heavy work on his character this week, his quirks and such. I've got a few already, and I did those today, but today I pretty much acted like myself. This is not what I planned to do at all. Then again, every scene we did today is pretty Keith-centered, so Calvin didn't really shine. Still, I want to make him a memorable character.
Did I mention that Sami rocks? Oh, and Nate Boggs showed up for a while. He's playing Michael. Nathan Archer at times had to hold both the boom mike and the camera. Amazing. Nate is good on set for taking care of everything and making sure I stay humble. Oh, and he's pretty ugly, so when you get down on yourself just look at him and you feel better. Just playin! Nate rocks.