ponies die PRODUCTIONS

So, we are at our third attempt to film scenes 6, 7, and 8 of The Fiancés this Saturday. The previous two attempts were blockaded by rain. Last week, rain was forecast for this Saturday as well, but as of today, it should be bright and sunny, and more importantly: dry.

So everything's good right?

Well, our assistant director and editor, Derrek Gabagat, threw out his back over the weekend while lifting a car seat out of his car.

Our acting coach, Paul Burt, has food poisoning, which he attributes to some tri-tip he had at Claim Jumper.

This weekend, I discovered that the restaurant we were going to have a company dinner at on Friday night went out of business.

I just wrote a check from my personal checking account to deposit into the pdP bank account to make sure we have enough money this weekend. That's the suckier part of making your own film.

But hey, it's not going to rain right?

Derrek and Paul, I hope you both feel better soon.

We have been trying to film scenes 6, 7, and 8 of The Fiancés for weeks now. Originally it was slated for January 23. Then rain moved it to January 30. Then wet ground from the rain the day before moved it to February 13. I thought that would be far enough in advance, that we would be safe from weeping clouds. Food has been ordered. Hotel rooms reserved.

This morning I woke and looked at the Weather.com app on my iPhone. The 10 day forecast placed a 60% chance of rain on February 13, and a 0% forecast on February 14. How romantic. I just looked again, and now our filming date dropped to a 30% chance. We're going to wait it out. I can't keep expecting people to reschedule for me.

I wouldn't mind having it rain for scene 7 on the playground, but the camera would get wet, as would two paintings. But I really don't want rain for scene 8 at the beach. It just wouldn't look right.

I just had to go and write exterior scenes.

Derrek cut the film together and today I got to see it all the way through. It timed at nearly 15 minutes. It looks pretty, which is always the chief goal.

It's so weird to see your own work on screen. At one point the stuff I was watching were just daydreams; now it's etched onto something that's going to be shared publicly. I'm already nervous about the release. I have such stage fright, and I'm not even on screen.

Up next…the music score.

Yay pdP! We're getting things done.

I postponed our next filming for a second time. Originally, we were supposed to film scenes 6, 7, and 8 of The Fiancés on January 23. Because of the rain, it was rescheduled to January 30. Well, there may be rain again, or maybe not–but we've also run into a potential delay in receiving all six of the pieces being painted for this shoot. I didn't want to risk not having all six and having to cancel on the day of the shoot, so I called it off in advance.

Last night, I was able to speak to most of of the cast and crew to give them the annoying/bad news. We have rescheduled to February 13. Seems appropriate, since this little film is supposed to take place around Valentine's Day. Part of me is happy to reschedule, because this delay allows me time to arrange hotel rooms for our cast and crew from Los Angeles. I'll put them up in Orange County so we can begin shooting very early in the morning as I had wanted. We'll get to film our scene on the beach (scenefirst, around sunrise rather than sunset.

But the other part of me is worried that I'm frustrating my cast and crew too much with all of these reschedules. If they are annoyed, as I would be, I hope they will at least be annoyed with me, rather than with our film.

Hopefully, after we wrap, all the scheduling difficulties will be forgotten.