Harry Rightcourt is the kind of character that can only be played well by Alec Guinness. In anybody else's hands he comes across as pompous, arrogant, and foolish. Which was particularly good, because that was what we were going for, and there was nobody more pompous, arrogant, or foolish than me to play the part.
Okay, that's not exactly fair. I purposefully did not write a part for myself or with myself in mind because after careful consideration I knew that I would have to be behind the camera most of the time. That kind of time commitment and effort was going to be just too much if I added playing a part as well. Harry forms the light side contrast to Chester's dark side. The subtext of the film is this tug of war between Harry and Chester for the soul of the main character. Chester is the criminal, smuggler, and debonair handsome rogue. Harry is the middle aged family man experiencing a crisis of identity but doing so with a good heart. So, of all the characters that I wrote, I can honestly say that Harry was the one I least wanted to play.
Naturally, that's why I ended up with the part. It's hard acting like the "parent" to a bunch of "children". Most of the time I'm on screen, I'm dispensing advice like some sort of garden variety Confucius. It was a lot of memorization (even after the rewrite) and then I had to somehow bring life to lines like, "The path to one's heart is a lonely journey." Seriously, who writes this stuff?! I do not admit to be a great actor, in fact, I'm not even a particularly good actor. I will say that the thought of getting on screen or in front of an audience doesn't bother me nearly as much as it will bother them. I'm like the guy who gets on American Idol who knows that he can't sing, but does it anyway.
I feel sorry for Andrew having to direct me. I listen to his directions and try to follow them, but its kind of like my brother trying to describe to me how to remove the transmission for my truck over the phone. I seize on the first bit of instruction that makes sense and say, "I can do that." Emphasize this word... gotcha... what was that other part about looking some particular way or saying something with a certain inflection? Not important. I just gotta remember to emphasize this word.
Anyway, somebody with a lot of brain power saved the worst for last and Harry had most of his scenes left to film on the final day of regular shooting. Between Harry and the final pick ups on various lines and reactions, the only other thing we did was look forward to Sunday's final shoot. On Sunday, we have the big Family Day scene that provides the emotional center of the film. Gabriel gets busted for lying and he and Monica break up. But because it takes place on Family Day, we needed a lot of extras, and so, as part bribe and part thank you, we're hosting a barbeque at my church, and wouldn't you know it, as a result there will be a lot of extras there at the barbeque ;) Once this complicated scene (and a mirror one that takes place at the end of the movie, but is much shorter) is finished, the film is more or less wrapped.
More or less because there are two remaining sequences that need to be filmed. One takes place at someone's home and is the source of a lot of interviews of friends of Gabriel. We were short of actors when we started filming and since these parts were small in comparison to the stuff that took place at church, we decided to hold off on casting these parts. I think we've got about half of them cast now and we should be scheduling these scenes for shooting soon. The second set of shots are the ones we're going to do outdoors. The first is the "last" shot of the film - a group photo shot similar to the end of Episode One and Star Wars - that launches the credits. The second is the shot that takes place a few seconds later and reveals the truth that the audience should have realized a long time before (when we practically hit them over the head with it!) And the final sequence is a battle scene that will take place in a park between our Star Wars patients from Shore Leave and a group of Lord of the Rings patients from the nearby rival institute: House of Healing. This sequence will only have a short version in the actual film, but Andrew and I are going to go back and rewrite the longer version for inclusion on the DVD (since we had to cut out so much stuff in order to make it fit the film). We'll need lots of extras for this scene as well, but it should be fun to do.
And then, that'll be it. So we're down to like three filming days left, but only one of which is scheduled. And then post-production begins on Monday night.
I can't wait for Sunday to be over.
Have a good weekend!
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