DAY 2: Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Today I face an unusual challenge: I’m a set dresser’s assistant, a production assistant, a background actor, and finally a website writer for the movie but simultaneously have to work especially hard to stay out of the way. Why? Most of the day, with the exception of one short scene involving Jason Biggs making a phone call from his living room couch, is filmed on the top floor of the house, which has about a third of the surface area of the bottom floor.
The top floor includes Phil’s room, Emily’s room, a bathroom, and a fourth room into which the junk that was originally scattered throughout all the other rooms is pushed. I thought cramming messes into one room when company arrives only happened in real life, but this is my first job of the day – our fearless director, the HD red camera, the camera crew, the actors, and the makeup artist all have to fit up there. Add to this the first AD, a couple of PAs, and wardrobe and makeup, and it makes for one crowded set.
Joel David Moore, playing Grant Cogswell, has his first day on set, which involves staring directly toward the camera anxiously as he anticipates having to write a campaign speech. I’m obliged to stay out of his sight in order to avoid distracting him while maintaining a clear view of the set. So I get a lot of jobs that don’t involve watching the filming; I miss this, since it’s entertaining, but I learn a great deal from my on-set odd jobs.
My first role as a set dresser’s assistant included fifteen minutes getting the State of Washington flag set up just right on the wall behind Biggs in the living room scene. The DP Sean loves how it was hung yesterday, just crooked enough to look artfully disheveled and let some natural light through the window. Cheryl, the continuity goddess, shows me the photo she took yesterday, and I do my best to make reality match her photo.
Unfortunately, one of the set dressers who had been painting Emily’s room a lovely shade of green upstairs tracked paint all through the bottom floor, and I get it on my jeans (which are pricey for a recent college graduate with limited financial means) while kneeling on the couch, on which she has unwittingly stepped in her attempt to adjust the curtain. One of the wardrobe women gives me a bunch of Shout wipes and I manage to salvage them by scrubbing vigorously in the Honey Wagon. Thank goodness for considerate and appearance-conscious film professionals.
My PA part of the day is a drive to a locksmith to make copies of the key to a Chevy about to be used in the film. Emily has to pull groggy Ninja fighters from the backseat during Grant’s campaign. The extras, usually friendly and unimposing, looked frightening in their stocking caps.
As a background actor, I’m one of Phil’s roommates, walking through the room with a notebook. The first AD decides not to make me act too far from my real character, since my day mostly involves walking around the set with a notebook anyway. But now I get to wear a sundress with a thin woolen sweater and purplish leggings. Hooray for joining the grunge crowd. Let’s bring that trend back, okay? Those clothes were comfortable.
On lunch break I hear Stephen chatting with Jason Biggs, who asks for feedback on his performance. “For some reason, that last scene didn’t feel -” Biggs takes a second to look for the word, but Gyllenhaal anticipates it. “It’s never going to feel good.” He says. “But I think that last take, where we cut straight to the end, was what we were going for.” Gyllenhaal says he can edit this take together with others to achieve exactly the intended effect. This exchange shows that he’s all for opening up to his actors so that they feel confident, allowing them to do the same with him.
So what about Joel David Moore? I don’t get much exposure to him this first day. He wears a Hawaiian pattern shirt with waves crashing against rocks, and slightly sagging green corduroys. But I did hear him talk about Grant Cogswell, whom he recently had the chance to meet in person, describing him as “hopped up in a sober way, not jittery or crazy, but hard to wrap your head around.” That sounds like this shoot too, on Day Two!