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10.08.2011

That felt SO good!

After a day of filming - running-and-gunning, guerrilla-style shooting - I arrived home and remained awake (and upright) long enough to speak with each of the boys, hugged them good night (regretted not doing some dishes) and then fell in to bed - literally.

I was so brain-drained I don't even recall lying down!

The girls must have known how badly I needed the sleep, for when I woke up this morning, there wasn't one cat in sight. Sweetly, they even left me alone until I woke up on my own. Usually there is clamoring for food and mews to help me wake up and realize my wrongdoing...but not today. Nope, today I was allowed to sleep until I actually woke myself and tumbled out of bed.

[heavy satisfied sigh]

It felt SO good.

Spent the day yesterday crisscrossing the city, filming what is commonly referred to as "b-roll" in the film and television industry. Even though it was written as individual scenes and not a montage, the footage will be strung together in editing to show our drifter-artist character as on the move, heading somewhere, alone and footloose.

The best part of the day was gaining entrance to the new Cass Tech High library balcony in order to shoot an 'overhead', high-angle view of an earlier shot (because the writer-director had this vision in his head). Of course, we were about a mile or so from the actual first location, but the sixth floor bird's-eye view afforded us almost a perfectly unobstructed shot.

I protested that they had our actor walking the wrong way to match the shot, but they were not concerned, so I noted my concern and moved on.

The funny for the day happened when we were riding from one location to the next, and one of the cam crew was relating a little Detroit history to our actor, David Dastmalchian. David had commented on the beauty of some of our older Detroit landmark structures, and he was sad to learn that many are standing derelict shells.

Sadly, they are being left to decay and vandalism.

Well, our eager camera assistant went on to say that the patriarch (not his word) of one of Detroit's more affluent (also not his word) families named Belle Isle after his daughter - "Belle."

"Yeah," he said, "that Isle family sure had a lot of money."

INFORMATIONAL SIDENOTE: You Michigan folk may have chuckled, but for those of you unfamiliar with Detroit history you should know we once had a large number of shakers and rollers back in the glory days of our metropolis flagship. After many names and uses, the island which graces our shoreline in the Detroit River was eventually (officially) named for the daughter (Isabelle) of one of our illustrious citizens who became governor of the great lake state - Gen. Lewis Cass. NOT "the Isle family."

Ah well, that was worth a giggle or two.

If we are to work the entire shoot without a video village, without chairs and nothing for me to write on, this is going to be a monstrously horrible experience.

But, I managed to finish prepping my book and got the day's paperwork in 'on the day,' so I am happy. That felt so good, too.

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