Jake’s Corner Filming, Day 1

May 14, 2007

     So today, at the bright and early hour of 6am, filming officially began for Jake’s Corner!  What amazed me most, perhaps because of my own problems with early morning wake up calls, was not just that everyone arrived on time, but all were ready at once to begin work.  And work they did.  My job (filming behind – the –  scenes footage, taking photos for our web site, and, of course, blogging) was quite simple compared to the demanding tasks of the rest of the crew.  The level of professionalism on set, at all positions, is inspiring.  As this is my first experience on a major motion picture set, I was a little taken aback at first by just how much needs to get done by everybody involved to get one shot.  Thus far today, we worked mostly on a scene between Spence (Colton Rodgers) and Lianus (Ky-Moni Abraham), and also a little bit with Johnny (Richard Tyson).  Basically, getting all the angles the scene requires is a painstaking process of set up, shoot, shoot again, take down, and set up for the next shot.  Repeat as desired…

     Director of photography Paul Sanchez controls a large camera that requires its own crew of many to move around from place to place.  This crew moves in concert with the lighting crew, which manipulates the light and shade just so to make everything look good (I promise eventually to include everybody’s name, but today it honestly was too overwhelming a task to do so properly).  Further, the costumes had to consistenly be just so, each and every take.  And then the actors had to repeat and repeat their lines until director Jeff Santo felt he had enough to work with.  Further, as Jake’s Corner is a rest stop/market/gas station just off Highway 188 here in AZ, there was often traffic noise to contend with. 

     It should be stressed, though, that everything went great.  This is a tremendous crew, from top to bottom, and all are up to whatever task is to be faced.  And enough cannot be said for the hospitality of those who live in or near Jake’s Corner.  This fine combination of people who work on “Jake’s Corner” and the people who live at Jake’s Corner will make the hard work ahead seem not so difficult. 

     It is highly exciting to be able to see this great story come to life.  There is much that I have yet to mention (all the behind the scenes folks, the office crew, animal trainers, etc), though I hope to eventually describe, in some detail at least, the incredible amount of effort it takes, from everybody, to make a movie.  

Talk to you soon, 

Will Comstock