Director's Diary - Day 2

did not get 1 hour of sleep last night. Crawled into bed at 10p.m., couldn't stop thoughts. 2 a.m. gave up, opened TikTok. 3 a.m. played Gin Rummy online, lost all of my coins, switched to crosswords, got out of bed at 4:30 a.m., meal prepped and made Andrew breakfast.

Meditated 30 minutes.

I am still thinking about the opening shot, character introductions and camera movement.

Watched "Moonrise Kingdom" on Sunday night. Allison, the world's best AD, is quickly becoming a dear friend. She prefers "Moonrise Kingdom" over "The Grand Budapest Hotel," which is one of my favorites, anyways I watched both.

He (Wes Anderson) is brilliant with character introductions, and they are not really grandeur but give so much in a few seconds.

For example, in "Moonrise Kingdom," when introduced, Bill Murray literally stands between his wife and Bruce Willis (her not known yet lover). Bill analyzes and argues about the travel distance in which Bruce presents to him, he speaks in such a way that his wife, Frances McDormand, replied, "I disagree Counselor."

Now that's an introduction.

Wes Anderson also loves to slide the camera to change scenes, Andrew says it makes him feel like he is in a dollhouse.

What a great reference. I had never thought of that before and now I won't be able to unthink it.

I really like the slide technique... Do we need dolly tracks. Hmm. I do love them but setup is a bitch. I think yes though, wondering about cost increase.

Huge WIN, Miranda replied to my DM and checked out the website, she is interested and said she'll read the script tonight. The only bummer is that she has a travel conflict on our scheduled weekend.

The Governor locked down California again. I get it, but it makes me sad.

Still aiming to shoot next month. Not sure if we can make the Sundance deadline if we have to push.

2020 is so strange.

Andrew came into my office this afternoon, he asked if I'd go to the notary with him at lunch. Said he is going to pull 10k out of his 401k, so that no matter what, "we are a GO."

My heart melted.

I did some retail therapy to recover from my ego deflation experience and long story short...

The Poshmark girl that I bought my Spell & The Gypsy Collective dress from, visited my personal website and mentioned that her cousin is Marin Ireland.

WTF. I freaked out a little bit.

I love "28 Hotel Rooms," and I sat down and interviewed the Director, Matt Ross during my second trip to Sundance.

I did it. I asked my Poshmark seller to send Marin the website. She did. Fingers crossed, so random.

Mackenzie praised Lauren, which makes me so happy. Kenzii sent me a text that said Lauren sent her a to-do list, said she loves Lauren's activation. I do too! I really appreciate that in Lauren's activation, Mackenzie will basically be shadowing a great producer.

I swear this is the female "A-Team."

Sam, the "work for free," storyboard artist asked for a deadline extension.

I really need a finalize interior apartment to send production designers, and the PM in me wanted to say, "no," but the leader in me said, "how would you want someone to respond to you? In the big picture, does this effect the production start or end date?"

The answer is - it does not.

So hopefully the interior build will go into production this weekend. I still have to run it by Tony, the well-seasoned art director and production designer, and then get a mockup to show Ray over at the CR8Stages. It will all work out and Sam is incredible, I am so lucky that she was excited to help here.

Finished the night with a prod. design call, Sarah Larson is the best.

We are 90% done with obtaining all of the set furniture and props. I picked up a table and chair set today - for free. Sarah is a research pro. It has been crazy trying to source early 2000 furniture and kid stuff, but she has done it and amazingly so. She has the best energy and working with her feels so zenlike. She has even agreed to help with Costume Design. Which, sadly we had to trim from the budget.

Cristen got the breakdown up for casting. She's able to cast from Florida, which totally messes with my mind. We now have the ability to audition from our homes.

I remember sitting in traffic to and from auditions as a kid and again as a young adult. It always felt like a rite of passage. Congrats, you go an audition! In the heart of rush hour.:) Please be on time. Wait for 15-20 minutes in a lobby filled with your competition, perform for 2 minutes and then leave and sit in traffic.

I'm glad that Coppen is reviewing the audition tapes. She is such a talented actress, that I know she'll have an incredible eye for good talent.

Miranda just emailed WOAH, she loves the script. The writer in me is so happy with this affirmation.

Going to check with Allison and see if maybe we can move Day 1 to Day 3, so we are on the stages during the weekend and extend it out to accommodate Miranda's conflict. That would be so cool.

One step forward, two steps back, production is a dance and a lesson in fluidity.

I still haven't done my shotlist and I am so very much looking forward to doing tit. I know it will take at least 4 hours and finding 1 hour right now is hard.

Going to have to block an entire day next week.