Am i delirious or is this truly surreal?

When we arrived at 10pm, the Casino was still in operation. Perhaps it was rush hour. Four elderly people sat around a black jack table. Business seemed slow, but the purple haired old lady seemed to be getting her fix of gambling. We waited... and waited. At 2am we were finally able to set up. We had 22 extras for the scene, who were friends of the movie makers. For example, sonia's neighbor, rafi's mother, family friends, etc. They got paid to be there as a guarantee that they would see the shoot through.setting up didn't take very long, and my help wasn't even needed, and so I continued to again do practically nothing besides take pictures and interview people for this blog :P

The actors, Henry and Diff, were rehearsing. Mariana (paola) did not have a scene to shoot, but she was here supporting them anyway. I had cut my hair the day before, since the closed set had banned everybody from doing anything on set... I was bored and it seemed like an appropriate thing to do in the spirit of Paola's character. The dramatic display of making herself over and renewing herself inspired me. i told her about it, careful not to boost her ego too much, and got to realize that she was a really awesome and nice person. Not at all a diva like I had imagined her. I think she just seemed like a diva because of her elaborate costumes and her concentration on set. I learned that argentinians dominate in the acting business, as they have a long history of theatre. she has been married for 6 years to a producer in advertising and they have a 4 year old son, who has a theatrical personality. she admitted to having good metabolism which strangely made me feel better about the 600 calorie donut i ate a few days ago.

I asked her if it was ever confusing to do love scenes, and if you develop feelings, and she responded that Henry and her talked about the scene, established where you could and couldn't touch, and she had asked him not to do the tongue thing. she seemed to have an enormous amount of respect for the aesthetics of the movie, and said that because of that respect, she thinks of it more as a choreography than as a love scene, dancing from place to place, moving your body in certain ways. It's all for the cameras.

Both Frank (Diff, seen above) and Mariana have proven to be amazing actors! I am surprised at how the producers got such talent, but I suppose the theme for the making of this film has been: "it's all falling into place."

I've learned, though, how fluid film production is in terms of "where is this going?" Because of Mariana and Frank's on screen charm and talent, the story itself has changed. Both of them have been incorporated more. The endings are completely dependent on how good the chemistry between everybody develops. The ending is still open to change! Thank the forces of nature.

I also had the chance to attack the photographer with questions during dinner. Thankfully her father is from wisconsin and she spoke english better than i did. It was a day of photographic break through's on my part, because i learned how to control the light sensitivity. I was feeling very comfortable with my camera and wanted to learn more about what it would be like doing it for a living. she had been a photo journalist, a freelance photographer, and a editor. she had shot weddings, funerals, politicians... I saw in her the excitement that i feel when i see symmetry and perfection, and i felt so validated! she also hates hannah montana, so we totally bonded :P

ONWARDs!

We did two establishing scenes in the lobby and then moved into the casino, where everybody gathered around one table and acted like they were having fun. The camera man, sonnel, was getting shots that were very frantic and grotesque. The footage will be edited to be slow motion, drunk, and beautiful in every way. The man in the middle of the man is playing Charlie, who is a chauvinist pig who Diff takes revenge on by robbing him and doing his bad ass thing.

This is Maripiri. she is the pamela anderson of puerto rico. she is a big boobed model that nobody takes seriously. she is perceived to be the ditzy model who didn't take the time to educate herself and look respectable. she was very nice, though, and I felt bad that I had heard all these horrible things about her :( But i ran up to her and said "ready for your close up?" and she struck this pose. so i didn't feel that bad because she's just a character, after all. As are we all.

It was getting really late... or early. I was getting tired. I even laid my head down on the black jack table and fell asleep for a few minutes while the Assistant Director yelled "Animo! Animo! Muy Energia! Ultimo! Mas! Mas!" To get the extras pumped up and to make them look like they were having fun. I felt so guilty that they were trying to be energetic and there I was, sleeping like a lazy ass college student on vacation in puerto rico. I walked around, found nothing to do, took pictures, tried to look alive, failed, and sat down again. The angel-like caterers came around with some sandwiches, and that suddenly woke me up! I all of a sudden realized where I was, and everything we were doing became very funny. I asked Gabo whether everything was really funny or if I was just delirious, and he replied "a lot of both." He had been knocking down Puerto Rican red bulls known as Cyclones, and was also a little bit wired, weird and delirious. I strangely and suddenly became a very prolific photographer in the next few hours.

The twins who were to be by Charlie's side and make him look sinful were amazing. Their energy was so amazing all through the shooting. They were exactly the way I would have imagined them . They were sleazy, beautiful, obnoxious, over the top golddiggers. The costumes were great, and they will look awesome in the final cut.

It was a really difficult shoot, and all the makers were frustrated. The lighting crew was having trouble because the existing lighting clashed with the set lighting (I think that's what the problem was) and the camera men were having trouble because the cramped space made it very difficult to get clean shots of the main characters. The extras were difficult to manage, and somehow it didn't flow as well. To top it off, there was a lot of difficulty with the Casino managers, since they had initially told us we could use their chips, and we didn't bring our own. They made the art director sign for 500$ worth of chips, and we had to shoot a scene before government officials came in to count the daily money exchange.... I don't really understand that part, but I hear it was complicated.

"It's a wrap!" Oh, music to my ears. Applause, hallelujah's, tears of joy, sighs of relief. I cannot believe that this is only the 5th day of shooting. 15 more to go!