I have now earned my black belt in sleep depravation.

Friday morning, at 8AM, Jerry flies out to Daytona Beach, Florida and the film is going with him.

That is, if I can GET IT DONE IN TIME...

The pressure is becoming increasingly overwhelming. I am alone, to finish the film. I am living sitting at my computer desk, CHAINED TO IT. I am stopping for NOTHING.

I have no idea what time it is and it doesn't matter. I edit, edit, edit and edit... When I find myself falling asleep in my chair (and I mean that LITTERALLY), I walk to the bedroom and get in bed, under the covers, with my clothes still on. Usually a two hour nap will do and I am recharged enough to sustain another 8 hours of editing.

Occasionally, my body signals it is time to put some food in it or I will pass out. I reluctantly stop my work and walk to the kitchen, staring at the womb of my fridge, eating whatever I can find. I am hungry, starved in fact, but food is the last thing on my mind right now.

All I can think about is that I am afraid I am going to miss the deadline and Jerry will not have a film to give to the Daytona Beach Promoters.

AGHHHHHHHHHH 

I am pushing my body well beyond it's limit and pray to God (literrally) that I will not collapse now. I edited all night, had lunch at 2AM, breakfast at 2PM and I think I must have skipped dinner altogether cause I can't remember for the life of me what I ate... Sleep depravation will cause short memory loss, so I found myself calling my ex boyfriend and telling him what a great guy he was.... And how badly I want him back into my life LOL ... Really? No, not "really" HA!

I'm just pulling your leg.

Earlier today Jerry came by and we did the Al fins insert that was missing from a scene. My test screening indicated that my non car savvy audience could not figure out what they were talking about in the scene (I should have figured this one out from minute One, what was I thinking? Not a lot of women know what a Buick finned drum is - coming to think of it, not many men know either) HA! So I decided to create an insert. This shot would be filmed a YEAR after the scene was filmed and yet integrated SEAMLESSLY into the scene. You cannot tell it apart from the others.

When I shot that scene a year ago I had 8 hotrodders hovering all over the car, my beloved actors. Today there was no one else here but Jerry (a retired man) and a girl. ..

It is at times like these that I wish I could find my magic wand...  but I can't remember whre I put it cause I am sleep deprived LOL... Short of the magic wand, I turn to my impetuous ingeniosity and it immediately kicks in in high gear.

 TILT light bulb !

"OK Jerry, here is pair of Levis 501 from the wardrobe. And here are the shoes Zip was wearing in the scene (since I own these, it was easy to pull them out of the closet). Go put them on"

Meanwhile, I put on another pair of Levis (I believe those were Frank's pants - Fresno's pants) and I own them as well hehehehe... And I put on "Bob's" shoes on (I own those as well). they are 4 sizes too big, but noone will be able to tell... Walking around in them is cute, I feel like a little girl walking in her Daddy's big shoes!

We now have the bottom part of two characters in the film/scene "Zip" and "Bob". Our pants and shoes match, and since this is the only thing the audience will see in the shot, who cares if from the waist up, it is a man in his sixties and a girl in her... (haha! You didn't think I was REALLY gonna tell you, did you?? LOL)...

I set up my shot, match the light, color, quality angle and the shot looks mighty nice in my monitor.

Let's shoot it!

To pull this magic trick off, I will have to both stand as an extra (moving extra) and do the camera pan. basically being on BOTH sides of the camera at the same time. I move my tripod arm to the front so I can steer the camera while standing in front of it. Doing a smooth pan while also moving my legs in the shot will be interesting.

Luckily I nail it in only a few takes...

Back inside the studio, I download the footage and insert it right there and then into the scene.

Result?

AMAZING!!!!!!!

Noone will ever be able to tell.

Ahhhh the magic of movies...

Below: Pulling an insert shot out of my (you know what) for this scene below and once again making Lemonade out of ROCKS.