Gina’s First
Hello, and welcome to the “The Eternal Dance” blog. We are now about half way through the filming of this movie and I sincerely apologize that we didn’t start this blog sooner, however, the bright side of this is that when this movie becomes spectacularly popular, you will have the pleasure of saying that you were with us from the beginning, without actually having to endure the beginning, which was full of wheres, whats, whos and hows. Wait a second, now that I think about it, things haven’t changed much. So I guess what you really missed were frustrated rants about the fine art of eyebrow penciling, and reflections on my 10 minute cleaning rampages. Since then I have learned the error of my ways and realized that I’m a hooker and my eyebrow pencil should look hoochy, and I’ve stopped caring if Carlos knows what a massive slob I really am. Since the beginning of this film we have all suffered car trouble, weather trouble, line trouble, and lots of backpack-bruised knuckles (and let me assure you, this is FAR more painful than it may sounds). But all this has been coupled with awesome food (thanks to Ben’s generous donations and my brilliant suggestions) and wonderful tea, which is very important when its cold outside and all you’re wearing is a tanktop, mini skirt, and a paper-thin pleather coat.
Last Sunday found us back in the deserted parts of industrial San Francisco (the natural habitat of hookers on the job), finishing up one of the exciting early scenes. We also happened to stumble upon another independent film being made. This one featured a guy on a skateboard, repeatedly hurling himself off a loading dock. Or maybe it just seemed that way to me, because I’m learning the hard way that making a movie is 1 part glamour, and about 99 parts mind-numbing repetition. And the one part glamour only comes from the little you get from the people staring at you while they walk across the set (which is actually more irritating than it is glamourous, but at least it’s not mind-numbing).
We finished up staring at skateboarder guy and moved on to Union Square, where a big band was performing. This part of the filming went smoothly with the exception that there was no place to sit, and Ben and I did a fantastic job at completely forgetting all of our lines. We hid the script behind us, for quick between-shots reference but never got to use it because the band and the wind kept us from hearing the camera so we couldn’t tell if and when it was rolling. Therefore most of the dialogue in this scene ended up being “Is he still filming? Where are we at? Can we look at the script?”. To add to the absurdity of the moment, a couple of latino guys decided to take turns walking past us and sitting on a little bench in the shot for a few minutes each. They played it really cool and casual like. Strolling into the shot, sitting there staring blankly in another direction for a few minutes, and then sauntering back the way they came. Eventually Carlos got enough of Ben and I staring blankly at each other asking what we should be doing and he ended the shoot for the day. We dashed to the amazing bathrooms on the sixth floor of Macy’s (seriously, it’s the only way to go if you have to go downtown), and left Union Square just as the band wrapped up their rendition of “I Left My Heart In San Francisco”. I think this is the way every well-spent day should end, with luxurious bathrooms and Frank Sinatra.