Raul's Take: Day 02: Rural Municipality of Estlin

by Raul Viceral, Assistant Director

Wow, what an exhilarating first day! My feet and knees are sore though from having to walk around on all the sloped, uneven ground yesterday. This morning C and Andrew and I were up early getting ready for today's shoot. C still had to finish the copper toy boat prop that she and Kristine made. It still needed some canvas sails so C was working on that.

C making sails for the toy boat.

Meanwhile, I was finishing off the threshing machine drawing that we'll use on Friday night.

It looks kooky but hopefully it'll look cool in the movie.

Andrew made another kick-ass breakfast for us of scrambled eggs and bacon with bacon toast. Oh man was it good, and a great way to start a hectic day! Moxie and Django miss you, Andrew!

Then it was off to the university to pick up equipment and craft services-type snacks. Today we're going to have the caterer, Kali, on site to make us supper. Should be good!

Estlin is a short drive south. The site we're using is the grounds of an old school house. The old baseball field is nice and flat and doesn't have a lot of telephone lines and modern farms to spoil the shot. It's perfect.

Jackie and Kristine unpacking the equipment.

The first scene we were shooting was a surreal dreamlike vision Tom Sukanen has from his hospital bed. So first we had to set up a hospital bed out in the grass.

"Do you think anyone'll notice?"

You'll notice we didn't have a real mattress and box spring (which would've made things A LOT easier), but the antique metal head and foot boards and frame were an antique size C found out, so no modern mattress would fit it. C and Kristine came up with faking it with fence planks from our garage, apple boxes and an old futon mattress. It's movie magic!

Don't worry, the chainlink backstop won't be in the shot.

Way back in the background you can see the mobile home one of the little girl actor's mom let us use for costume changes and makeup. Everyone's been real generous! It made it feel like a real movie set!

Candace (right) of course was on hand at the set. She's an amazing costumer. She was responsible for gathering and organizing the over 100 costumes used in the film and she even custom made several of them! Her boyfriend Reynaldo (left) will also get executive producer credit for his generous donation to the movie. Thanks guys, you totally rock!

"Where's the bee suit? Who moved the bee suit! @$&#% RAUL!"

Once Don was in his hospital costume and makeup, it was time to shoot some footage.

Gee Don, you don't look so good --which is perfect!

Megan Fries plays Tom Sukanen's mama. She looked great in her white gown out there in the tall grass.

"Has anyone seen my enchanted castle?"

The shots of Don in bed out in the middle of nowhere looked AWESOME!

"Can I have a bedpan, please?"

Today was considerably easier on the crew compared to yesterday as the terrain was nice and flat and the weather wasn't so blustery and cold.

Don's such a talented actor, he actually looks like he's lying in bed in the middle of the prairie!

C goes over the scene with Don and Megan.

One of C's professors, Mark Wihak, stopped by on set to see how things were going. His film, River, made it into the Montreal Film Festival and he was on his way to the airport to fly out. He even helped out holding a couple flags for us. After a bit he had to go, but before he did he told C he was very impressed with her crew and how well organized and professional he thought everything was being run. He told her she can expect a good grade this term. Woo-hoo! Can we all go home now? Ha ha. Just kidding.

That's professor Wihak in the foreground.

We got some of the most eerie and beautiful and surreal shots of the movie today. The overcast sky was exactly what we ordered, and it helped make things even more surreal.

Looks like this could be some weird music video.

"Okay Don, now flap your arms and sing, I CAN FLY!"

Poor Don, mostly his feet weren't in the shot so he was able to keep his Converse sneakers on, but there were a couple shots where we could see his feet. Walking on all that pokey grass and thistly weeds wasn't easy. I got the idea of lining the bottoms of his feet with gaff tape. Genius!

Sorry Don, we're all out of the men's size 10 gaff tape.

C directs Megan on how to stand in a field of grass. Brilliant!

C had Megan stand on an equipment case which made her look like she were floating on top of the grass. So freakin' cool!

"What? Did you say action?"

Once we got all of the shots here, we had to quickly pack everything up and head a couple miles further south to a long dirt road where we were shooting a few more scenes.

As soon as we got there C and Andrew began planning where the best camera positions would be. I love this picture.

"The camera will be here and the invading space aliens will enter frame over there, by the missile launchers."

This scene is of Tom imagining his son's funeral. It's another eerie, surreal scene. Kristine took care of hauling the coffin in place.

She's the hardest working art director in town.

We got a little bit of rain when we got out there, but not much. Don't worry, we had the camera covered with a plastic trash bag while it sprinkled.

At least it ain't snowing.

The poor girls were freezing out there! As well as Don who only had his hospital gown on for warmth. As soon as C would call cut we'd jump in and give them all jackets and blankets. They were great though! Don was a trooper, it's a wonder he didn't get sick after this. Who'd have thought it'd be this cold in late August!? It reminded us of San Francisco in July.

"Try thinking warm thoughts. Okay, funeral scene take 37!"

After the funeral scene, we shot the arrival of the dust storm scene. Poor Don was still clad in nothing but his hospital gown and we turned a leaf blower on him to simulate the wind and blew dirt on him. We were all bustin' up and Don was a great sport. Jeez, what'd he ever do to deserve this? Think twice before you go into acting, kids.

"Can you please tell Raul to quit throwing dirt clods at my head!"

There were a couple more scenes we had to get out here. We had to race back to the schoolhouse so the actors could change, then grab a quick bite to eat (and I mean quick) before we raced back out to the crossroads. The supper Kali made was great, but I ate it so fast I barely tasted it.

That was a pretty hectic scramble, trying to get all of the shots in before the sun set. I unfortunately didn't get any pictures of it, but the scene did look gorgeous. The sun poked out for a few minutes right before it set and we were able to get some awesome golden light for the Tom Says Goodbye to His Family scene.

Finally it was the wrap on another great day of shooting. It was even more fun than yesterday!

Ahhh, Saskatchewan film making.

Once the sun set, it got too dark to do anything else. So it was back to the schoolhouse to pack everything up and to clean out the mobile home we borrowed.

Thanks Estlin, we had a great time!

Then it was back to the university to unload everything into C's studio. The crew is really beginning to gel and get into the flow of things and we're looking forward to shooting the next four days at the Sukanen Museum. That should be cool!

Until next time... adventure!

R-