Six of us arrived by rented van at 9:30pm Thursday night. Jean Pierre welcomed us into the house where Catherina had prepared a late dinner of deep-dish lasagna, salad and brownies. We chose rooms like we’d won a prize and Jean Pierre poured wine from the Trader Joes ‘Charles’ label. Totally perfect.
John and Mike talked about camera and hardware for a bit and then we all did a read through. The forecast was cloudy and dry on Friday, more and less on Saturday, 20% chance on Sunday. We were scheduled to leave by rented van on Sunday afternoon. Between now and then we had to shoot more than a dozen pages of script. Tropical storm Ernesto is 300 miles away.
Friday morning it’s dry overcast and we’re shooting by 7:40. The set is a rolling forest in the Poconos. It’s cool for a Labor Day Friday but the light is perfect, John’s behind the camera and I’m in the bear suit. Soon Mike was in as Adam and we’re arguing over the prop fruit tree - “ Hey – you just talked!”, “..No I didn’t…”.
Lunch is baked ham sandwiches and pasta salad with broccoli and then we’re back at it. Tammy is in by 3:30 and now we’re shooting the three-handers with Adam, Eve and the Takalope. Jad and Annie are on the set, Cathrina is in the house and Carolyn and Jean Pierre are running in between - everyone hits stride and become a production machine. John takes the support - and the ball - and pitches a no-hitter! Awesome! He has a clear vision, he's done the homework and calls good plays. We had a lot to get done, we all needed to be good and we were. It was a joy and a blessing.
Dinner is baked salmon with rice, vegetable casserole and a lemon loaf with red wine. Mike runs a music label and can list the names of a LOT of new bands, which when said in a list make me laugh. We then engage in finding band names in general dinner discussion. The Green Beans, Decadent Life, Too Many Squirrels in the Chimney and the winner of the weekend, IMAO is - Graham Cracker Crust.
Saturday is wet and cold from sunrise. We wait till almost noon to give it time to break up but it gets worse. Suddenly being in a bear suit is enviable and Adam is blue, literally. Mike and Tammy are troopers though and with the support of Team Super Team, both deliver strong performances and more. Lunch is homemade carrot soup, more deep-dish lasagna and green beans. Three scenes, three different ways then we’re doing stills. That’s a wrap.
Dinner is BBQ Chicken, salad, potato gratin, wine, homemade bread, lemon loaf and brownies. Now we’re spent, again well-fed and heavy sleep is coming fast. We screen the material shot that day and laugh. It really looks beautiful.
The power went out around 11pm. I woke Carolyn up and informed her. She said that she was deeply asleep and that she wished that I indeed had not. She then said the power goes back on by itself in time and was asleep 47 seconds later. I turned off my PSP and passed out. I dreamed that someone knocked on our door in the middle of the night with a flashlight. Carolyn took care of it. The next morning I learned that John spent much of the very early morning waking people up and making sure they were or would be okay. It seems he had had a his semi-annual apocalyptic dream and then woke up hard in pitch blackness. Convinced as he was of his own permenet blindness he was unsure if the catastrophe was natural or man made. The fact that there had been an apocalypse was not in doubt.
The truth was, the power had gone out and the team once again had to adjust. Cathrina and Jean Pierre fired up the BBQ and rigged it for eggs and bacon. Perishables were on special. There was no filming scheduled today and plans for an early departure were made. We all hugged our love and thanks and we were on the road before noon. Traffic was good and we were able to drop off both Tammy and Mike in Jersey. John, Carolyn and I were able to get the stuff up to his place in one load. He’s still waiting for his new windows.
Carolyn and I just finished the baked ham, potatoes gratin and lemon loaf. We have almost 7.5 hours of content and it looks great.
I know, it could be argued that this whole thing is about food but I believe an army marches on its stomach one should give credit where it is due. It was all so good and not surprisingly so were we.
The next shoot is booked for Sept 23rd and 24th and we’ve got momentum
Well done everyone and again our deepest thanks.
Stay tuned for more from Graham Cracker Crust –
Best
Russell Hamilton
