September 26, 2003

Jacky's headshots sent to us WAY back when. If she asks me to take them down I will.

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Not sure why I don't mention casting Jacky Reres.

We were having a hard time filling the lead role. I really only had one other serious contender and then we got a video audition from Jacky.

Rick really liked her. She was a little nervous, very spunky, and cute. She did the audition and at the end said some cute stuff to us through the camera. I think Rick wanted to bang her.

I told him we'd have to see her in person before I could cast her in a role that could make/break the movie. She lived in Virginia, so we set up a time to audition her at a house halfway between us--a friend of Rick's.

We met her and auditioned her at a table in the basement of the house. You have to wonder how creepy it is for young ladies to go to strangers' houses and audition in their basements...

I wasn't totally sold. Still wavered between Jacky and the other woman because, to be frank, Jacky exudes sexuality. It's not on purpose, I'm sure, but it really was the opposite of how I saw the character. I had based the character on someone I know who is like a sister to me, so to think that her character would be like that...hard to wrap my mind around.

In the end I took Rick's advice and cast Jacky. Now I'm happy I did--she definitely took over the role and made it her own.

Sept 26th

First day of shooting.
Got to the main set and the crazy lady who lives there started screaming through the door to go away, she didn’t want us shooting there. Very embarrassing for me in front of the crew. So, thanks mom.

Went incredibly well. Working with a four-man crew for today, since we don’t need a sound guy. Everything we’re shooting is MOS(without sound).

Banged out the first couple of scenes and we were ahead of schedule. Ate some dinner of sloppy joe(thanks Mom!) and then moved on. I did get a little bored, since we were doing all the “Lynn paints” scenes—I’m aching to kill somebody…in the movie I mean.

Last scenes of the day involved Jacky in bed. We put her in bed, Rick sprayed her down(quick note: I’m not sure Rick really does this for the acting—I think he simply likes spraying down the actresses) since she’s having a very bad nightmare involving clowns.

The innuendo was flying today even more than on the set of “Hunting Humans”.

Even went to Jillian’s and had a couple of beers afterward and beat Mun in a game of pool. Better luck next time, my nine-fingered friend!

Came home, went over the shooting script scenes for tomorrow so I’ve got an idea of what we need to do. First thing we have to do is move all the equipment upstairs since we’re shooting in the whole downstairs tomorrow.

Hope it goes well, but we have a lot to do.

Okay, little extra here. What I remember from the first day was being very nervous. I was worried that Jacky would be underwhelmed by our crew--that is, me, Rick, Mun, and Steve Carson. She might not take us seriously.

But she did. And then I remember infinite boredom--taking an hour to light the scene and then shoot scene after scene of her painting. BOR-ING!

We made our day though. That's important. I think it may be the only day 1 of any shoot that didn't end in total disaster for me...