April 16, 2010: Awakening Day 1 - Joseph Mallozzi's Weblog

6:00 a.m.: Wake up early to get in for the 7:30 a.m. call.  Check my phone and notice a message from the production office informing me that shooting ran late yesterday and the crew call has been pushed to 8:30 a.m.  I go back to sleep.  I dream that I offer a stranded Ashleigh a lift home, only to have her abandon me when I experience car trouble a block from her place.

Lulu. The girl loves to sleep in!

6:30 a.m.: Wake up, angry with Ashleigh, take the dogs out, feed them, give them their eye treatment and treats.

7:00 a.m.: Green tea, shower, harness the dogs, buckle them into the car and I’m off.

8:00 a.m.: Drop the dogs off at daycare and get into the office.  Ashleigh greets me as if nothing is wrong.  I ask her if she is going to apologize. She plays dumb.

Apologize? For what? I don't know what you're talking about. And thanks for the lift, sucker.

Miffed, I retire to my office where I work on the script, banging out three glorious pages.

Little Miss Innocent.

8:30 a.m.: Swing by the catering truck and pick up breakfast – a breakfast burrito with avocado and cereal with protein shake which I eat while chatting with actor Louis Ferreira about his character, Colonel Everett Young.  He pitches a more lunatic Young, one that will allow him to delve deep into his wide repertoire of hilarious impressions.

Fuel up because you'll be doing a lot of sitting around in front of a monitor today!

8:45 a.m.: Andy picks up the “smoking gun” scene from the other episode.  I’m bouncing emails back and forth between Vancouver and Vegas, growing increasingly frustrated.

Director of Photography Jim Menard tells me to lighten up!

9:30 a.m.: Blocking begins on the first big scene.  What has the potential to be a disarray of complicated  choreography goes off without a hitch – thanks to Director Andy Mikita. Damn, he’s good!

Johnny Z. all smiles and smooooooooooth sailing!

11:00 a.m.: Onto the next scene, an important exchange between two characters that will set things in motion for a little arc I’m pushing for (and Carl is resisting).  It’s a brief conversation but loaded with significance.  Both actors are amazing.

Blankets by the sealed door. What does this mean? To quote Scooby Doo: "I ron't row."

12:00 a.m.: I head over to Stage 5 where Robert Cooper is directing the second unit scenes from Aftermath and Awakening (Robert Carlyle is scheduled to assume directing duties on Pathogen’s outstanding scenes later today).  The all-important seating issues are settled.

12:30 p.m.: Back to Stage 4 where they’re setting up the kino room scene.  David Blue and Alaina Huffman  coincidentally, given this morning’s email flurry, start talking about Vegas.  David loves it.  Alaina, not so much.

1:00 p.m.: Shoot the kino room scene.  Gorgeous.  We leapfrog scenes 65, 66, 67, 68, 79, 70, and 70A, tackling scene 108 that we end up moving up to a pre-lunch window of opportunity.  Andy suggests shooting the scene in such a way that we never really see HIS face.  I like the idea – but, just in case, we get coverage.

2:00 p.m.: We break for lunch.  I head back to the office for a cold veggie burger and soggy yam fries (well, what are left of my yam fries that Ashleigh didn’t pilfer).  I retreat back to my office to deal with the Vegas situation.  Alas, it doesn’t end nicely.

3:00 p.m.: Picking up a pre-lunch shot, then launching into that gaggle of scenes.  I tell the production office to give me the heads up when they’re ready to block scene 24, the last scene of the day (for main unit anyway.  Looks like Carl will be here late, keeping the second unit crew company).  Everyone is amazed that things have gone so swimmingly.  Main unit may actually wrap early!

4:30 p.m.: Linda puts out the outline for Alliances.  I file it away for later perusal.

5:25 p.m.: Wrap up the slew of scene and move on to scene 24.  It’s a complicated little sequence for a number of reasons.  While they work out the blocking, I spot “the prop” and wonder what the hell it’s doing there.  I’m assured it was there at the end of last episode.  I find it hard to believe and phone up Rob who passes me on to Carl who informs me the prop WAS there for the rehearsal, but he killed it before the scene was actually shot.  So I kill it once again.

They get the blocking down and run through it.  I make a minor adjustment, adding a line to end the scene.

6:15 p.m.: Lighting and green screen issues cause a delay.  I leave to pick up the dogs from daycare and drop them off in my office.  Their piercing unison howls echo through the production offices, much to the chagrin of David and Nathan still manning the front lines.  I return to set and watch the sequence being shot.  I love it – except for the passing background extras who only serve to distract.  Andy kills the background extras.  Not literally.  I hope.

7:15 p.m.: With only the coverage to go, I head back to the office, pick up the dogs, and hit the road.

Arrive home, feed the dogs.

8:15 p.m.: I enjoy a bowl of ricotta, protein powder, and fruit, then am back on the computer, cataloging.  Soooo tired.

9:30 p.m.: Hey, Faith aired!  And the back of my kitchen chair gives out!  Two down, two to go.

11:00 p.m.: Post my blog and prepare to head up to bed.

I thought today was busy.  Tomorrow looks even worse!