First Day of Shooting

Ah, the first day of shooting is always interesting, usually long and particularly testing. But its part of the work to get into the rhythm of making a film. May 5th was that day for us.

Start time was scheduled for 8 a.m., meaning most everyone was up at dawn. Some people, Marv, Kris, Craig and Mike had stayed up the night before till 5 a.m. finishing the set (which by the way was fabulous!). Craig stayed throughout the entire shoot and came in handy when trying to speed up some of the major makeup work at night's end.

Our first location was at the Guild Inn, a historic site that among other things, has some beautiful pieces of history in its backyard. It was the perfect setting for two of our scenes: where Mike Hollace meets the lowly displaced god Apollo (Ayman Hassan). The other: the bastard kids Elbe (Clint Maguire) and Zokai (Erick Fournier).

We have a terrific cast of very talented actors who are making it wonderful actually seeing this come alive. Especially Jeff Orchard, whom next to the crew, spent the most time on set - and will spend even more on it. His baritone voice and newsman grandeur is the thread that holds the storyline together. He's been an amazing, giving actor on set - spending more time than should be required of any actor to come in and rehearse, as well as stay the entire spell of the shoot - which on its first day lasted from 8 a.m. to 3 a.m. the next day. Yes: 19 hours.

A lot of that time was spent getting the look right. Shamaila Siddique, our makeup artist on this go, stayed with us the entire time - and had a monumental task of making the Cheron's half-white, half-black (which side, depends upon your politics). And getting our Marta (Melanie Kastner) completely green. And she was flying solo on it. She was another one who didn't get a break during the long run. Thanks for sticking through it Shamaila.

And getting painted green isn't all that easy. Melanie has been such a trooper throughout the shoot. The paint job took a few hours, and we found we kind of ran into a lot of the troubles that TOS had with the Marta character played by Yvonne Craig. The good part is I think the set and Marta on it made it all worth it in the end. It looks so Star Trek.

Our two Cherons, Erick and Clint were a ball of energy. We were afraid they'd waste it all and injure themselves practising tumbles for a fight sequence. It's the old "Hurry up and wait" film saying with a bit of "don't break your back - at least not till we've finished shooting your scene" thing. But its a great scene and one of the funniest bits of banter and delivery in the film.

Ayman was a great Apollo. A little irreverant but with a broken ego - it was a very solid performance. His prop work may need a little working on (inside joke), but terrific job, buddy. Thanks for the help.

To top off a first day, we also had visitors on set. Liana K and Ed the Sock. Liana now is in the picture. And Ed is doing a little bit on his show about the production. Thanks also to our cinematographer Mark Krupka, who gave up a lucrative day of work to shoot these first scenes for us. Really appreciate it Mark and hope the wife's not too angry with us for keeping you up late. And Lindsay for hanging around, running around and making sure the costumes and wardrobe were together. Also Milos for coming in at the last minute there and helping with sound, Bob for co-ordinating while I ran around. And thanks to Lisa for all the food. It was really great to get a bite when we finally could. Food always helps.

Finally Logan, hope your first day was good. The next ones will get better (and shorter - god willing). Good job buddy. It's coming along.

Great work, everyone - can't wait till get this all shot and edited. Really, I can't wait.

Maninder
Producer