July 26, 1997 - Day 21

I'm calling today Day 21 since I've lost track of the total number of days I've actually shot for this project. Many of the B roll days had no number and a lot of the scheduled days we didn't actually shoot.

The day went very smoothly. All of my fears about not having enough crew were unfounded. We didn't get any of the car footage, but it would be better to do that with Sam and Katy both there. We simply ran out of time besides. All in all, though, we worked very efficiently. Edgar helped out quite a bit. We'll certainly put him to work tomorrow as well. Stephanie got today and tomorrow off of work. I must remind myself to reimburse her, also to have Julie sign the new contract.

It's so hard to know how well a take will hold up in the finished edit. This seems to be the hardest part of filmmaking, to visualize how what you're seeing in the viewfinder will blend in with what you've shot and what you plan to shoot. The vision thing. It was so cold on the beach in Alameda (though a good deal warmer than it would have been at the ocean.) Will that come through, or will the audience see the fire? We can only have faith.

We struggle. We do what we can, trying to capture in each take a glimpse of the vision, all the while dying a little bit.

What am I talking about? Time to get some sleep. Tomorrow we've got a long shoot ahead of us.

-George