In the Works: 3 Days Short Film Part 3

Day 1 of 2 of production was exciting. All scenes were inside a home and air condition was thankfully available. This was the end of May 2005 and already the temperature outside in Southern California was in the 90s. Production proceeded at a steady pace and the whole day's filming took approx. 10 hours. That night consisted of setting up a garage to look like a basement. Day 2 would be our biggest challenge.

Day 2 of 2 of production was significantly different from Day 1. For one, we were dealing with with more specialized make-up effects in a garage that was increasingly getting warmer as the sun rose higher into the sky. Not that the two have anything to do with each other, but still. The garage did have a small window air conditioner but because of the mic used and sound, it was never on for more than 5-10 minutes, barely cooling anything off.

Second was that I was sick. It wasn't viral or an infection, it was nerves. My mind was a flurry of activity and there was a small part of me that was saying "Call it off. Schedule another time. You can't do this while your sick." But I stayed true. I'd lie down when I could and between scene set-ups I'd go around the side of the house and vomit. In the late afternoon, Eleanor, our make-up/sfx artist, was ready to do the "money" shot scene. Where our heroine rips her hand out of a pair of hand-cuffs only to have her skin pulled back in grisly fashion. Really killer stuff. Eleanor and her assistant, Kelly frickin' rocked and I was so glad to have them there. It was at this time I started really feeling better actually. Maybe I was stressing out about that scene the whole time. Who knows.

Day 2 was hard and we didn't get half the shots that I wanted. Already 12 hours into shooting and the daylight fading, we grabbed some audio from the actors and some quick 2nd unit stuff and wrapped it.