On Sunday I had my second day of shooting for a local indie film called Brackish Waters (You can read about casting and the first day of shooting here and here)
My first day of filming had me soaking wet from a rainstorm, on Sunday, I got to be dressed in a long skirt and shirt on a hot and buggy day. Good times.
The morning started with hair and makeup on location. (How fancy!) We were shooting one of a few external shots of the film. This particular scene takes place outside the Inn where most of the action of the movie happens. The director’s parents have a camp and since the Inn is supposed to be by the water, it turned out to be a pretty groovy spot.
We sat up some wooden chairs and placed that water view behind us.
Now, for those who know me well, you’ll know that nature and I don’t always get along. And trust, me, there were a lot of creepy crawlies. *shivers. Like ants crawling on the prop paper I’m reading before a take or a bee thinking the fake flower in my hat was real or simply just the gazillion other flying bugs looking at me as a good option for a landing strip. Even with all that nature, however, I walked out of there without a single bug bite! Nature 245,340/Danielle 1
The movie is set, primarily, in the early 1900’s, but does involve some time travel. Can you tell which one of us is stuck in the wrong era?
The character I play, Terri, is the unfortunate traveler. That works out GREAT for me because I get to wear sneakers (it’s in the script!) and get to feel uncomfortable in the awkward clothes. Dude. I can do that. I loathe dresses and most girly things so I’m not having to act there.
The scenes we shot that afternoon consisted of a series of my character reading some news articles out of the newspaper. She’s trying to acclimate herself to her time via the news. It’s probably a grand total of five minutes of actual scene time. However, the shooting time was about three hours, thanks mostly due to boats. Lots of them, enjoying the water on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon. Jet skis in the 1900s aren’t exactly an ideal thing you want passing through your shot. We had to shoot fast in between boat passes. And chop saws. I kid you not. The neighboring camp decided to use that block of our filming time to cut wood. Haha! That meant that when there was a second of quiet we had to shoot and shoot it fast. Talk about pressure to perform!
Once we wrapped those scenes we had one last shot where I was walking down a road. No lines! Woot woot! But it also meant I wasn’t near the breeze of the water, so it was hot, hot, hot! Mercifully, they only had me do the shot twice before they wrapped for the day.
All in all, it was a good day. Then again, any day I can escape nature unscathed is a good day.
Stay tuned for more.
Danielle Bannister, author and nature-avoider
Danielle Bannister, Author 
So which is worse, “Hot, Hot!” or “Wet, Wet!”?
Wet, Wet…because soggy skin hahaha