Generally, the process of scheduling should have been easier for the second half because there are far fewer people involved. On the other hand, we're now bouncing between locations. No two days are in the same place for the remainder of the schedule. Before, once we set up the shooting schedule at our pool location it was just a matter of getting people there. However, with the remainder of the shooting days we had to scout locations, lock them down, find an adjacent holding space, and then get our cast and crew to and from these places. Trying to figure out what actors you need to call to which location and estimating how much time you'll need them and not call them too soon or too late is enough to send most people into a panic-attack. Example, we had one scene with two actors at our first location yesterday morning. We then needed to release one actor, keep the other, change locations and meet up with a new actor at the second location, all while taking New York City traffic into account. Not to mention, the new actor at the second location had a hard out after 2 hours so we had to make the first actor standby during three scenes before we got back to shooting with him. "Hard out" for those who don't know, is an completely in-flexible release time for either a person or location. As a 1st AD (aka timekeeper, ring leader, task master), hard outs are my nightmare. You absolutely MUST get everything done by then. There's no wiggle room. That clock strikes midnight and Cinderella's coach turns back into a pumpkin. And no glass slipper.
The benefit of the hiatus, besides a much-needed rest, is perspective. We're able to take all of the lessons we learned the first half and use them to our advantage planning and producing the second half. The production team has gotten together multiple times, professionally and socially, and have re-capped, re-counted, de-briefed and analyzed every aspect of the production: our strengths and weaknesses, how we can better help each other and better prepare for the inevitable surprises. That doesn't mean that things don't come up. On the contrary, things always come up. We can just handle them better since we have everything else under control. Mostly.
As I've said before, things are always going to go slightly off plan. The trick is to catch the problem early, find a solution and fix it while maintaining a positive attitude. The two jobs I've done most often on set (and the ones I think I'm pretty good at) are Script Supervisor and 1st AD. Problem is both of those people rarely have anything great to say. Ever heard a Scripty say, "That was perfect!" Nope. Or a 1st AD say, "Sure you can take as long as you want, we're running early!" Not a chance. We're the messengers of bad news. If the Scripty comes up to you on set you either flubbed a line, missed a cue, changed your action, were seen in reflection, caught on camera, heard on the mic... Not good. As a 1st AD, you're always telling people "no" or "move faster". "No you can't take a bathroom break right now." "No you can't have an hour to set those lights." "No we can't do 'just one more take'. Lunch was supposed to be 5 minutes ago." I'd like to thank my Political Science degree and my horrible summer interning at Fox News for my ability to spin a bad situation and convey bad news in a way that you won't take it so hard. "Oh the dollar is tanking? Well, at least foreign tourists will now travel to America and spend their money here." See? Don't feel so bad about it anymore. That's spin for you.
I'm not trying to manipulate you, but I'm never going to be 100% honest with everybody. Sorry. It's the truth. And it's not malicious. If I have bad news, I tell the people who can handle it best or, better yet, those who can aid in the solution. I'm not going to tell anyone who can't help with the problem. Yes, I'm deliberately keeping you in the dark for your own good. Why bother you with something you can't assist in? Otherwise, people just walk around feeling defeated. All these things are going wrong and I can't help. That's a morale killer. And unhappy people, typically, don't work quickly.
Anyway, this we got another 20 4/8ths pages and 22 scenes done. And I'm pretty sure people enjoyed themselves. I hope. We brought on 8 new, reoccurring characters (some of which we had only met once, or only seen through internet casting videos) and subsequently wrapped all of their scenes in a single day. Shout out to Lizzie, our Casting Director, for finding not just talented but incredibly nice performers to add to our little "this is whY" family. I promise to write more scenes for you guys in the season 2 script I'm currently formulating in my mind!
8 days down, 5 to go!
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