Finishing Up Round I, Begin Round II

Last Monday was our last day of the shoot. We were at The Pleasure Chest, in WeHo. While Leah, Brian and the crew were setting up, I asked Cristina, our scripty, to make a note of all the brands on the shelf that we were going to shoot so that we can obtain clearance. Laura was tasked with set dressing. I think she enjoyed dressing that set a little too much. At one point, I asked her to find a product that Jenny can pick and say "This is all very disturbing." Now, if any of you haven't been to The Pleasure Chest, you should check it out. There is something there for everyone. The store has about 5000 square feet (if not more) of adult toys. Anyway, Laura waved me over and showed me the suggested item for Jenny: an anal ring-toss. This is like that game at the amusement park where you throw those rings onto the milk bottles but instead of the milk bottle, it's...well, you know...I cracked up. It was the perfect prop for that scene.

We had to be out of The Pleasure Chest by 2pm, and again, hit time pressure to get the shots I needed vs. the shots I wanted to have. We ended up getting the transition shot that I needed and wanted, and all was good.

After The Pleasure Chest, we headed to my brother's place again to shoot a very "small" scene (1/8 page) that we didn't have time to shoot on the other days. Since I only needed to show Jenny leaving the house after the BJ scene, with one line of dialogue from Tim, we kept the crew to a minimum...Paul, one of the camera operators, ended up making his cameo appearance in the film.

And then we wrapped. Hugs all around.

It is hard to describe the feeling of having finished up this shoot. It has been very challenging, in large part because we didn't have the money that we needed and had to cut corners in as many ways as possible, while also trying to maintain the commitment we made to our crew. I've been told that with a bigger budget, it will actually get easier. Considering our limited resources, in hindsight, the production turned out pretty well. Our actors gave great performances, 99% of our crew stuck with us to the end, and I think we have good-looking shots for our editor to play around with.

I'm so grateful to our actors, crew, friends and family who were there for us throughout this production. We couldn't have done it without them.

And now it's onward to find a kick-ass editor(s), and onto the next round of production.