And So It Begins

For those who don't know, I've decided to do a double concentration in school. I am in the Media Arts program with a concentration in digital design and film production. This term I am in a filmmaking class. There are no test, no homework, no books to read. The whole class is filming the Senior capstone projects. While this definitely has a certain appeal to it, there are definitely some draw backs. Like the schedule. Our first day of shooting for the term was last night, on a production called "Touchy" written and directed by Ari Jones. This is what things looked like:

8:30pm   Meet on campus to pick up gear. It starts to snow as I am driving to campus. For once the
               weather report is right. Thank goodness for my traction tires
9:15pm   Leave for Elgin (I was the last car to leave, we had to wait for a crew member getting off of
               work).
9:58pm   Arrive in Elgin. Although we were the last car to leave, we were the first to get there. The
               equipment van that was leading the caravan (minus us) got pulled over.
10:15pm All of the equipment is brought into the house we are filming in. Space is tight. The director isn't
               here yet.
11:00pm Second actor arrives from work. Her and I look eerily similar. We could be sisters. I didn't
               believe it at first, but the consistency coordinator took it upon himself to snap a picture of her
               and then me to compare. Unknown to us. We are doing the same smile/head tilt. Flipping back
               and forth between the pictures is odd. She looks more like me than my own sisters.
2:00am   Finish filming the first scene (scene 8). 3 more scenes to go
3:00am   Finish filming the second scene (scene 3). 2 more to go. Break for dinner.
6:15am   Filming is going over schedule even though we have cut 1 scene (the original plan was to film 5
              scenes tonight). Filming an EXTREMELY emotional high strung scene. The actors are doing
              great. The long night and running through the emotional scene over and over again is taking its
              toll though. We need to give the actors a break. One more run though before they get their break.
              A crew member falls asleep and starts snoring ruining the sound and throwing off the atmosphere
              The actors are trying to create. They get their break now.
7:30am  The final shot done. Time to break down. Greeted with 3 inches of snow. Finally pull out of
              Elgin.  Only 1.5 hours behind schedule (from the original 5 scene schedule)
8:00am  Arrive back on campus to unload gear. Director show up because some of her equipment got
              packed up with the schools equipment. She leaves as soon as she finds it. I guess it's up to us to
              manage and put away all of the gear.
8:30am  Finally make it back home. Dylan is awake but still in bed. I change into sweats and a sweatshirt    
              and fall asleep in the middle of a conversation.

Next shoot: Tuesday morning, 3-6am.