DAY WHATEVER: Home, James

Recap of yesterday: We had the day off and did nothing.  Literally, nothing.  Well, to be fair, our director Johnny, producer Colin and I did go to two bars.  At the first one we did the old "walk in and immediately walk out" move.  There was a guy at the bar in a cowboy hat and sneakers.  Not really my scene, maaaaaaaaan.  Also, you can smoke in bars here, which is totally disgusting.  As those that know me will attest, I own a very limited wardrobe and I don't want my gear smelling like smoke.  The second bar was "better," but still only worth two pints.  I ordered a Guinness and the bartender tried to warn me against it because it isn't as cold as other beers.  Also, I ordered some wings and when they showed up we were all shocked by how large they were.  Remember what I said about the Carboniferous Period the other day?  Yeah, same thing. Anyway, we paid and politely left.

I'm going to keep this update short, because because.

So, today was our first day of shooting with our full crew and the local Tulsans (?) were telling many a story about what jerks the August: Osage County people have been to local film types that were trying to get work on that shoot.  Remember that guy from Die Hard that says, "Hans, bubby..."?  Apparently that's exactly what the their line producers are like.  In short, George "wait, you'd don't own a villa in Italy?" Clooney has struck again.  Way to alienate the locals, dickwad.  Also, there's a rumor that Benedict Cumberbatch has been talking mad smack about me, but to be fair, I may be the person that started that rumor.

Our day was awesome.  First full day with full crew and everyone nailed it.  The local crew kids are great.  They work hard and are willing and eager to learn what they don't know.  We started and wrapped on time and got what we needed.  Couldn't have been a better day.  Except...

The 788T.  Ugh.  Love of my life machine, why have you forsaken me?  Total trouble in paradise.  For the first time ever I had it freeze up on me during a take.  All was well, but when I hit record for a take mid-day it just crashed.  The time code stopped, the take didn't advance...nothing.  It wouldn't even power down.  We had to hold up shooting for ten minutes as I removed every single power source until it just finally ran out of juice.  Now, this particular 788T has been oddly temperamental since the night I had the soft key command problems with it, but this critical failure is completely out of the norm for the model and Sound Devices in general.  I'm going to call Gotham Sound tomorrow and ask Nick (if you ever need to rent sound gear in NYC, do it from Nick at Gotham Sound) if he has any idea what could be causing these ghost in the machine moments with a machine that is usually flawless.  Seriously, it's like finding out that your parents had been Nazi sympathizers.  Total let down in something you trusted.  On a similar note, I've finally experienced the only flaw I've ever heard about the Lectrosonics MM400c series transmitters: the on switch doesn't always work.  Sadly, the only way to fix it is to Arthur Fonazelli them - bang them on a table - to get them to work.  I guess nothing is perfect.  Except my winning smile, which never fails.

BTdubs, indie films run into the strangest problems.  We spent thirty minutes today trying to hide Julie's left nipple and almost an hour searching for a single piece of string.  No joke.

Ugh, tired.  Anyway, last note of the day is that we were all wrong: our G&E team, the Gill brothers, are neither identical nor fraternal twins and are just run of the mill, boring brothers.  But they are both Eagle Scouts, which is super cute.

Lastly, fuck you, Clooney and watch your back, Cumberbatch.  We're coming for you.

Here's the one set pic I took tonight.  It's our leads Johnny, Kerry and Julie (nipple not pictured) rehearsing with my pink-taped boom pole in the shot.  Yup.

Stay gold, Pony Boy.