Today we are continuing on the behind the scenes of Gretchen’s Lock. In case you missed the other posts you can read them HERE and HERE.
Filming: Day 2
The second day of filming started out with beautiful sunshine. There was a bit of Autumn chill in the air but the sun was warm. The forecast was calling for rain in the night and a 100% chance the following day, which we’ll get into in the next post. The campsite was already set up but we had to unload the equipment and prep everything to film. After the first day we were able to consolidate some equipment and I also wanted to keep things moving quickly since we had a bunch to film.
We smoothly executed Scene 04 where the campers talked about investigating the lock further. We wrapped up around lunchtime and got the drone, vehicles, and jib ready to film the car sequence. The only thing we were missing was the 1923 Dodge Brothers Phaeton Convertible.
I looked at my watch and saw that it was an hour past when the car was supposed to arrive. I wasn’t really worried at this point because we were filming the other cars pulling into the parking lot from the road so we had some more time. We did a couple takes with the drone and jib filming the cars pulling into the parking lot off of Sprucevale Road across from Hambleton Mill.
We were finishing up and everyone started moving the equipment back to the camp. I stopped and looked down at my phone to see that I had a few texts. As I stated before, reception service is a bit spotty where we were filming. I scrolled through them and saw that Robert, the owner and driver of the 1923 Dodge, was having some issues with the car and the tire blew out. Now it was time to panic a little. I then saw that he sent the texts about two hours ago and I never responded because I just received them and he still wasn’t there. The panic level started to raise slightly. At this point everyone was back at camp and I was about to make my way down the drive and suddenly my phone rang…
To my delight it was Robert! I was at the perfect location to get a call and to my surprise he was minutes from the parking lot. How’s that for timing? My panic quickly faded and was overtaken by excitement and relief. I stayed on the phone as he turned into the parking lot. Whew! I happily greeted him and hopped in and he drove us to camp.
After everyone checked out the 1923 Dodge, Jacob (boom mic operator) and I climbed in the trunk of the Monte Carlo to get the scene of Dominic and Jason talking as they pulled into the parking lot by the campsite. There’s probably a picture out there of us snuggled in the back seat with our equipment but who knows where that is. At any rate, we got their dialogue in a couple of takes and moved on.
We began filming the parking lot scene and the clouds started rolling in and the wind picked up. There’s even a blooper of the $100 bill blowing away in the wind.
Here’s a cool still I shot of Tyler (Man in Suit) and the 1923 Dodge before Robert took it back to Cortland (This vehicle and others can be rented for events. Check out BMZ Classics for more info).
After we finished filming in the parking lot we went back camp, ate dinner, and began preparing for the night scenes. The wind was still blowing and it was sprinkling very lightly. We covered up all the gear we could with tarps to prevent it from getting wet.
This area of Beaver Creek is unique in the way the sun sets in October. It quickly goes behind the hills and sets early. Not to mention the clouds aided in the early sunset. Thanks to Pakob and Nick we had a roaring fire and began filming. I love how you can feel the warmth of the fire as the light from the flames danced on the characters faces. Also, the dark woods set the mood on how the rest of the night started to unfold in the film.
As the night continued, the sprinkles started turning into light rain and we each had an umbrella to cover some of the equipment we were using to film. The rain was absolutely perfect! Just as things started to pick up in the film the rain got heavier. It made the scenes in the woods much more creepier and I was extremely pumped to see the raindrops in the beams of the flashlights. A couple of times water droplets fell onto the lens and I left them there because they created a unique look to the footage.
Creepy, right?
We wrapped up the scenes and frantically began loading the equipment into the cars. The tarp coverage wasn’t ideal but we were lucky that none of the equipment got ruined. We were able to leave camp by 10:30 pm. On the ride home this time I couldn’t stop thinking about the weather for the next day. We contemplated a few things at dinner time about rescheduling the next days shoot but it wouldn’t have worked with everyone’s schedule. I arrived home and began to unload the equipment into the garage to dry it out. I checked the forecast that still said there was a 100% chance of rain all day. I looked around for a moment. The rain pounded hard on the roof as I stood there looking at the waterlogged equipment wondering what to do. I thought hard, prayed, and decided to wait until the next day before I made a decision…
