Happily Exhausted

Whew. The first five days of shooting are in the can (approx. 3.5 hours of footage). Today I review it all to see if any scenes or moments need re-shooting. I've been doing double duty as Director and D.P. and so, it's very intense. I've done this double work shift before on two earlier features ("HYSTERIA" and "UNDER A SHIPWRECKED MOON") but it's been seven years and coming back to this process was a bit bumpy at first.

Last night, I shot my first sex scene EVER. None of my previous eight features had any sex scenes because none of them needed it but this story demanded a sex scene, especially one in a Golden Dawn temple replica, albeit slightly more aesthetically stylized.

We staged it completely under candlelight (13 pillar candles) and the low-light capacities of my XL-2 camera did not disappoint. The footage came out as I hoped (slightly grainy and with flickering shadows). The actors (Clody Cates and James Wagner) were awesome -- they showed serious courage and grace under pressure. I told them we were shooting an anti-porn scene that would, in the final cut, evoke beauty, power, and mystery. I am confident it will. Kudos to Beau Caughlan who did art direction on the gorgeous set and who also served as water boy to the actors -- dabbing them with aqua between takes. And also, many thanks to our magickal consultant, Sam Webster, M.Div., Mage.

After shooting five days in a row, today is also my first day off. I will be focusing on tomorrow's two shoots -- one complex scene with multiple actors will be shot between Noon and 5pm and another much easier scene will be shot later that night. And then this will be followed by more intense shooting days on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Next Thursday and Friday are no-shoot days but are filled with meetings. I'm happy to say I'm happily exhausted.