ErinLaing.com

This shot was done at night.

Arek, the young boy who plays Max in the film, was such a trouper on set. He had a lot of lines and actions to remember and pulled everything off without a hitch. Also in frame is the wonderful WildWords board game.

This was one of the last shots we did… we were in a huge hurry to get a lot of shots done in very little time… nevertheless I think it still looks great.

Here are a couple of stills from the rushes we got back last week. These are only “one-light” prints, therefore have not been colour corrected.

All these shots were dependent on natural light. Shane often overexposed the light coming in from the windows to give the interior of the house a surreal quality.

Here’s a photo Matt photoshopped together for the film. Lindsay and Alice are supposed to be “old friends” in the film and we wanted a photo of the two to place on the photoboard Lindsay makes for her funeral.

Here’s one taken on the second day of filming.

Photo credit: Sarah Buchanan

Best four days of my life.

So shooting wrapped Sunday evening. I was blown away by the crew and the performers. Everyone made the experience unforgettable for me. The kids themselves were unbelievable, on and off set. I was amazed at how perceptive and quick they were to pick up on the film-making process. Their suggestions were invaluable and they were just wonderful to work with. Everyone was extremely impressed by their professionalism and talent.

The “evil” twins, Emily and Talya… or Talya and Emily. I never get it right.

I just uploaded 55 photos from the shoot to my Flickr account.

By the way, I know many people were taking amazing photos - if you have photos from the shoot, please upload them to Flickr and tag them with “birthdaygirlshortfilm” and we’ll feed them through this blog.

There was no Internet on the set and no time to blog, so I’ll have to do a quick recap here.

The shoot wrapped last night around 9pm. Everything went really well. The rushes will be coming in this week, which will give Erin and Shane (the DP) a sense of exactly how well things went.

Here’s a shot from the second day of filming. Erin is directing Emilie (inverted on couch) in a fun scene in the living room during the party.

The cast was truly remarkable during the shoot. Erin spent a lot of time casting this film - auditioning over 150 people - and getting to know everyone over time through rehearsals. The result was a cast that was natural and comfortable on set and could communicate clearly, while understanding their roles.

(Photo: Erin checking the frame on a driveway shot).

Today was minus 14 degree weather, probably minus 20, with the wind-chill. All exterior shooting; except the last four hours. The cast and crew so far have been stellar - exceeding high expectations on all fronts. Here are a couple photos. Many more to come. I’ll set up a Flickr gallery for the shoot very soon.

(Photo: Alex, the script supervisor, burns a hole in his glove.)

(Photo: Iuliana, production assistant.)

(Photo: That’s a wrap - see you tomorrow! )

Shooting runs until Sunday, March 11 (total, four days).

Inventor, entrepreneur and former Montrealer, Peter Roizen, read about our Scrabble woes and offered his word board-game, WildWords, instead.

Once we lost the use of Scrabble, we decided to use a newspaper crossword puzzle instead. I think it was Phil, one of the production staff, who observed how strange it would be to have a five-year-old filling in a crossword puzzle. Hmm… it also wouldn’t read very well on film.

Regardless, Peter sent us a gently used version of the game earlier this week and - fingers crossed - it will be ready for the art department tomorrow.

Thanks, Peter!