I have done a lot of very challenging and exciting things in my life, but making this film by far tops them all. One of the things that I find most compelling about being a filmmaker is creating an entire universe in my head and then making it 'materialize' and become reality. Today I get to play God. Well... Sort of.

Today I get to take a young teenager and turn him into an older man and I also get to give him a son. His son will look very much like him, as he would have, in true life. I also get to give him an illness and see him struggle with his conscience.

And I made it all happen. Little ol' me. Who would have thought??

6AM - It's Tuesday today and I'm not going to work. I have taken a precious vacation day to shoot, because the main actor today works on week-ends. So much for a vacation LOL !! My i-phone alarm goes off. It's the guitar strumming sound. Goes on and on forever. One day I'm gonna have to write me a song on these three chords and record it. Then I'm gonna play it to my i-phone 5 minutes before the alarm clock goes off and watch it wake up, grouchy. Pay back time LOL.   But for now I am happy it's ringing cause I have a big day ahead of me and I'll rest when I'm dead. I jump on my feet, throw some clothes on and step out onto the grass. Cross the sidewalk and knock on Jerry's door. Yop. I drove the trailer down to Inglewood last night and Jerry and I started to scope out the living room, where we are to shoot the scene today. So I slept in front of his house and am already here and ahead of the game and I'm gonna need that little head start cause I have a key scene to nail today and it is going to be a challenge to get it all done before the sun plunges.

7AM- I am already moving furniture around. Janet, Jerry's wife, watches us dismantel her beloved living room, as she sits on the couch, supervising with a loving smile. Janet is very supportive of the film and for that I am very grateful, considering how much time Jerry has been spending helping me these last few weeks.

8AM - My crew arrives. I use the word "crew" liberally because it usually consists of one to three people max, if I'm lucky. Marco, the young Italian filmmaker, is back. He is starting to really grow on me. He is a nice fellow, always smiling and pretty happy go lucky. And since he has assured me that he is available every week-end for the duration, I think I will keep him on board as our shooter. And this takes a huge load off my mind, because this whole "no shooter" situation has been very stressful (and counterproductive) for me.

9AM - I am done setting up the light. This is a dark scene, and I want it to feel dark. Jerry's living room colors are perfect, dark navy blue armschairs, dark wood and dark blue blinds. But there is a fiftie's jukebox in the corner and it is going to end up in my shot: It looks very "happy" . I'd love to move it out of my shot but it's a real mammoth and weighs tons. ... We try to cover it, but that doesn't look good... Finally, I discover that, at the right angle, I can use the side of the jukebox as a mirror, and it reflects the blinds and window pattern, adding a lot of texture to the shot. You know what they say: "If the mountain doesn't come to you, go to the mountain".

Below: Going with the Jukebox (left side) instead of fighting against it.

9:30AM - Jack Curenton, my actor, arrives. Perfect timing. I am now ready to dial the lights on him and finalize the shots. He is one of many who auditioned to be TOMMY MILLER in the modern days. And soon as I had seen him do the scene once, I knew he was the one. A very expressive actor, his caliber was up to the challenging, emotionally charged scene. I sit him outside and I do his hair  (yeah, one more notch on my belt!! LOL) - I'm back to being my usual set hair dresser self ... But today I am doing another kind of hair: Facial hair. Today I'm gonna pile up a good ten years on Jack (sorry Jack !! LOL) by giving him a lot of white hair. A visit a few days earlier to the Special effects store and I am applying white dye with a mascara brush... Works like a charm!

below: Jack just aged ten years in 20 minutes. Ouch!

10AM - My other actor, Terry G. Reed, arrives. A soft spoken man who is truly a natural when it comes to acting. I am looking forward to working with him too, today. I glance at the both of them together and I am speechless. Terry HAS to be Jack's son, for sure. They just don't know it (yet) ...

below: Look at the striking resemblance between these two men!!!

11AM - Everyone is now in wardrobe and we start to roll. We gave Jack a pair of dark colored pajamas so no doubt he is going to be comfy during the shoot ... I pull out an old Zippo lighter, authentic from the fiftie's, purchased over a year ago at a private auction, with this scene in mind. It's been sitting in a drawer all these months, waiting... Waiting for the moment to shine... And now it is shining in Jack's hands, as Jack recreates the same Zippo lighter action that became the famous signature of young TOMMY MILLER, thanks to Jordan Warren.

Below: Old hands have old habbits, but it's not so easy now to open up the old lighter.

ROLLING!

I am behind the camera, since I am not in these 'one shots'. Amazing how what you see is not what you get... Around the camera, one thing... On the screen, another... I create a new reality, a world of my own.

Below: What you see with the naked eyes is not what the eye of my camera will show you.

Below: This is what you will see...

NOON - "CUT!!!!!!!!! What the hell is that 'sound'?????"

That sound would be the local gardener who has suddenly decided to blow every leave off of every tree, of every house, on this so very long street.

"What's going on? We have no sound... Make him stop!!!!"

Murphy's Law: The urge of a gardener to stop his noisy blower is indirectly propertional to the primordial need of the filmmaker to have quiet on her set so she can roll and finish her scene before she loses daylight.

Jerry's Law: The urge of the gardener to stop his noisy blower can be exponentially increased by introducing a $60 bribe into the equation.

JERRY: "He's gone. I paid him $60 to clean all those yards tomorrow"

I see I am not the only one playing God today . God bless Jerry, if it wasn't for him, we would all still be standing there, waiting for the damn blower to shut the f**** up.

I hit the record button again... ROLLING!

"CUT!!!!! What the heck is that sound?? Can't we EVER have any quiet around here???"

That sound would be the garbage truck which, coincidentally, happens to pick up the trash on Tuesdays on Jerry's street.

Mental note: I really need to have a little mano i mano talk with the city of Inglewood.

I guess even God has his limits because Jerry won't be able to bribe that one away....

We sit and wait, as the truck picks up every single garbage can along Jerry's (oh so long) street.

(sigh)...

I hit the record button again...

"CUT!!!!! What's that glare? It wasn't there a moment ago!!!! Where is it coming from????"

We look and look, and look some more... Yes, there is a strange bright reflection in the window now, but we can't figure out where it is coming from... Pretty soon we all are outside, looking at everything, trying to figure this unsolved mystery out... Looks like we have a serious case of sunray bouncing off of several things and not unlike a pool table ball, finally ending up in the pocket: My frame. We waste a good 30 minutes with this dilemma. Finally, I figure it out. To block the reflection we will have to put a huge roll or ND filter on the window. To affix the ND filter on the window, we will have to climb up Jerry's front wall... And install tall C-stands and then sand bags.... Gaffer tape... Poles... Another 30 minutes later, the reflection has been subdued.

I hit the record button again...

"CUT!!! What's that sound?? Do you heart it??? I hear it... "

We all hear it....

That sound would be the ND filter now flapping in the wind because (wouldn't you know it) the wind JUST NOW decided to kick in.

Murphy's Law: The velocity of the wind and the amount of noise it generates when colliding with a large, gaffer taped ND filter, is directly propertional to the primordial need of the filmmaker to have quiet on her set so she can roll and finish her scene before she loses daylight.

Jerry's Law:  Huh.... Well... He aint' got one but he's trying to think of one LOL...  We all are...

We do the best we can to secure the ND filter and after a lot of fussing and quite a bit of French (not so sweet) talking ( @###&*^&% !!!!) we stop the filter from flapping in the wind.

I think about hitting the record button... But hesitate... What ELSE will go wrong once I hit it??

LOL

5PM - We are almost done. It seems to be clear sailing (pun intended LOL) now... Jack is nailing the scene and giving me an award winning performance. The light looks good. The sound is good... Everything is good (pinch me I must be dreaming?)...

A glance at the sun and my blood pressure sky rockets. SHIT! We are going to lose daylight before I can do my shots??? We must move fast now. I jump in my wardrobe, throw some make up on and zip back onto the set. We tackle the master shot first, which goes well... In order to light my face we will have to set up lights outside the window and sneak the light in through a crack between the dresser and the armchair... Marco thinks I am crazy and resists the idea but soon realizes I am right and it works. And quite nicely if I may add.

6PM - I let Jack go. I will do my single shots alone, as always, but because I know my script inside out (hey, I wrote the damn thing!) I don't need him there to say his lines. I know what he says, how he says it and how long he takes to say it... By heart.

Below: Once again acting in a vaccum, with no one there.

As I do a few takes the sun plunges down. It's a good thing I can nail it in one to two takes because this is basically all we can get today. Or should I say "tonight"

8PM - We are far from done. The conclusion of the scene happens in the hallway so we have to light that. Outside, it is pitch black but there is a blue glass window pattern on the front door, and you can see outside, so I have to light it so it looks like it did when it was daylight out. On top of that, the hallway is extremely tiny so there is no room to put the camera for reverse shots, but I somehow manage by cheating angles quite a bit. Terry is doing a wonderful job, easy to work with, professional and humble. He nails his part in a few takes. Thank God cause it is now very late.

11PM - We are now done putting Jerry's living room back in order and packing the stuff. Jerry and I will have to load up everything into the truck tomorrow morning before I head back to work. I will be sleeping in the trailer, parked in front of his house for the second night in a row. Tomorrow morning, i will drive straight from the set to my day job. Yeah, I got a day job cause I have to keep a roof over my head... . Maybe one day I won't need to take a vacation day to film on a tuesday. And I'll be able to sleep in a little after a long shoot. But this day is not today, so for now, I'd better hit the sack and sleep as much as I can...

"I'm going back to Italy until the end of June to visit my family"

 What??? Marco is saying it matter of fact, like there's nothing to it. I guess he doesn't remember the part where he told me he was available every week-end until the end of filming... And we have just barely started... ... "They had some really good deals on plane fares" he explains. To him, it makes all the sense in the world, going on a little vacation to visit his family. Yeah, maybe, but his timing SUCKS. This will be his last shoot with us and leaves me once again shooterless and with no notice. I think I'll never cast myself in one of my films again. It's too much of a pain in the ass replacing me behind the camera. And I can run circles around many of the shooters I have used so far... And I'm FREE. And dedicated. And reliable. And when I say I am going to do something I DO IT. I never back out, I never flake out and I get the job done.

Feeling very discouraged, I retire into my little trailer Houdini. Johnny Cattaway greets me... Yeah, Johnny moved in with me and he is waiting for me in the trailer, eager to see me so he can claw my legs and arms to his heart's content and turn them into bloody moosh. ... He is just as fiesty as the real Callaway LOL.

And almost as irresistable.

And I don't think he is going to leave our team anytime soon.

Below: This would turn out to be Marco's last shoot with us... One down, two millions to go.