It's our last and final day in Salisbury. Before work we all packed up and checked out of our hotel rooms in preparation for heading back "home" to Charlotte after work. The day went fairly smoothly and despite having some night work it looked as though we might get off at a reasonable time. But then the rain came. And boy did it come! It rained so much the pool just about flooded. We all moved inside as the lightening and rain threatened to shut us down for the evening. With only 2 more scenes left to do, we were so close to packing up and leaving "Little Versailles" for good. One scene quickly proved to be a loss cause. With so much lightening in the vicinity, even if the rain did go away there was no way we were putting our actor in the pool and letting him swim around. But there was still that one dialogue scene left to shoot. Originally, the scene was blocked by the pool, but we began to rethink that when the rain appeared to not want to let up. So we moved the blocking to beside the pool but under the covered walkway. That appeared to be a great decision until the generators had to shut down because the lightening was right on top of us. Great. We can't shoot outside without any lights! The wind was picking up too and our giant helium china balls had to come down as they were no longer safe to fly. While the Director and ADs scrambled to figure out what to do, the rest of us moved inside to make ourselves comfortable and wait out the storm.
Fortunately, the Olympics were still on so we all snuggled in on the couches and watched the Olympics. I enjoyed getting the opportunity to get paid to watch the Olympics, but what I really wanted was for them to just let us go home. As the minutes ticked by, we got restless and hungry. Thankfully, props still had some food leftover from the lunch scene we shot earlier in the day. I had already eaten the ribs, beans and potato salad for lunch when the props department invited me to join them in eating the wonderfully catered food that they had brought in for the scene. But, since they dragged the food out again for our actress Morena to have some, I too had another rib. The perk of shooting lunch scenes with good catered food! I'm glad I'm friends with the props department. Not everyone got the invite to join them for lunch. Eventually, after reblocking the scene a 3rd time (this time inside the mansion), the lightening finally went away and we went back outside to shoot the scene. Since the rain was still coming down, we went with the covered walkway scenario.
Needless to say, it was a much longer night than any of us had anticipated thanks to the tremendous rain delay. However, while I was driving the hour back home in the rain, I remembered the saying I read a while back on a piece of artwork, "Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass. It's about learning to dance in the rain." Originally, I thought this applied to accurately to my life and spoke to me on how to dance in the rain of the storm of grief that was cast over me. Now I see how it applies to so many things in my life. In the film business, we have to be able to learn to dance in the rain all the time. If we always waited for a storm to pass, no movie or TV show would ever get shot. There are so many obstacles that get in your way when filming, they you must learn to overcome them and dance along side of them instead of waiting for them to resolve themselves. I've learned that this is true with friends too. Not all my friends are going to get what happened to me or ever be able to empathize with me. I could spend my entire life waiting on them to figure it out, or I can just get over it and dance around them. In the end, I will be the better person with more growth and experience. Maybe one day they will experience a loss so great that the storm will hit them too and they will experience their own rain delay. Then and only then will they understand the place I've been in for the past 4 1/2 months.
It's our last and final day in Salisbury. Before work we all packed up and checked out of our hotel rooms in preparation for heading back "home" to Charlotte after work. The day went fairly smoothly and despite having some night work it looked as though we might get off at a reasonable time. But then the rain came. And boy did it come! It rained so much the pool just about flooded. We all moved inside as the lightening and rain threatened to shut us down for the evening. With only 2 more scenes left to do, we were so close to packing up and leaving "Little Versailles" for good. One scene quickly proved to be a loss cause. With so much lightening in the vicinity, even if the rain did go away there was no way we were putting our actor in the pool and letting him swim around. But there was still that one dialogue scene left to shoot. Originally, the scene was blocked by the pool, but we began to rethink that when the rain appeared to not want to let up. So we moved the blocking to beside the pool but under the covered walkway. That appeared to be a great decision until the generators had to shut down because the lightening was right on top of us. Great. We can't shoot outside without any lights! The wind was picking up too and our giant helium china balls had to come down as they were no longer safe to fly. While the Director and ADs scrambled to figure out what to do, the rest of us moved inside to make ourselves comfortable and wait out the storm.
Fortunately, the Olympics were still on so we all snuggled in on the couches and watched the Olympics. I enjoyed getting the opportunity to get paid to watch the Olympics, but what I really wanted was for them to just let us go home. As the minutes ticked by, we got restless and hungry. Thankfully, props still had some food leftover from the lunch scene we shot earlier in the day. I had already eaten the ribs, beans and potato salad for lunch when the props department invited me to join them in eating the wonderfully catered food that they had brought in for the scene. But, since they dragged the food out again for our actress Morena to have some, I too had another rib. The perk of shooting lunch scenes with good catered food! I'm glad I'm friends with the props department. Not everyone got the invite to join them for lunch. Eventually, after reblocking the scene a 3rd time (this time inside the mansion), the lightening finally went away and we went back outside to shoot the scene. Since the rain was still coming down, we went with the covered walkway scenario.
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