So... I am waiting for my first Chemo but also getting a second opinion on treatments. A good friend of mine suggested that I check out UCSF, which has the cutting edge newest treatments... so I am, which is yet another stack of paperwork and phone calls, etc but well worth it in the end. I'm still pretty sure about Chemo at this point. It's weird, you know no one can make this decision for you. And it's all a crap shoot in some ways backed up with statistics. My alternative medicine providers are against it, Meg is 50/50, other cancer survivors are mostly for it. And then there is me. With my gut. My gut says a hestitant "yes"... so, we will see. Oh yeah, and if my insurance decides they will pay for it (more on that later.)
Meanwhile, my life is not just about cancer. It's also about my passion for filmmaking and the amazing people I get to work with. I'll tell you right now, I love actors. As most of you know I worked on a web series "We Have To Stop Now" which is making it's mark on the internet and beyond. Season One is playing round the world in film festivals and from the looks of it, Season Two will be heading that way as well. Those ground breaking peeps at Wolfe Video are celebrating their 25th year and so happy that the show is a part of the Wolfe family. And amazingly proud to watch a project that started as a whim, that we produced for about 50 cents and bag of Doritos turn into full-fledged series.
As a director, I have to say the most satisfying thing is working with the actors. I could rave about working with the ladies of Dynakit (Jill, Cathy and Ann) but I've done that over and over (just listen to the commentary on the fan video of Season One) But what I want to talk about is the other crazy good talent I was lucky enough to work with on the show.
Starting with Suzanne Westenhoefer. I actually didn't know much about Suzanne before working with her. I knew she almost made me pee my pants when I saw her at Dinah in 2008 and that she was super sweet when we all hung out backstage. What I didn't know was what a hard working actress she would be... how much she would grow as an actress in the process of Season One and Season Two. How honest she is as a performer and willing to go wherever she needs to go to give a good performance.
Acting on the screen is not an easy to thing to do...ever. Even in a huge budget film, the stop and start... the disconcerting way a director has to break down a scene to film it. And on our series, the hours were xtra crazy long. We shot 8 - 10 pages a day in Season One and then topped it by filming 10 - 12 pages a day on Season Two. Sometimes on a moving ship with a hurricane at our heels.
Now I can tell you stories about producing and directing on that kind of schedule that would curl your hair, but imagine being an actress during that. All the actors pulled off such great work under those conditions, Jill and Cathy having the largest load as the leads. But Suzanne won the prize on our first day of shooting. I remember watching her on the 16th hour:
I was scrunched down behind the camera with the crew... we were all dead tired (I'm still sorry for the hours I put that crew through) and going for the perfect take. No lights in our eyes, not having to look good or perform. Suzanne had been there all day... performing the lines for other actors and then, into makeup and hours later... there she was. Performing like a rock star, like she had been on a film set her whole life.
She put so much trust in me and gave such a nuanced performance at the end of the day... when the rest of us were wilting behind the camera, she knocked it out of the ball park all night long. She friggin rocked it!
I can't wait to see what else Ms. Suzanne Westenhoefer will do in her career. I'm just grateful that I was lucky enough to be one of the first directors to see what a talented and dedicated artist she is.
Johnny McLaughlin...the last I heard, John was working on a new feature that would really show the world what this man can do. Always committed to bring the best to his character and the show, I loved every minute of working with him. My favorite is a scene which you actually haven't seen yet, so I can't give it away. But it's funny, touching and beautifully portrayed.
John is the kind of actor that is willing to expose himself in his part and I love that we get to see what a wonderfully complex character "Guy is. And it would only take an actor with access to all his sweetness, his snarkiness and his grounded talent to pull it off the way John does. Kudos Johnny. Johnny W. McLaughlin I mean :)
My only regret is that I took on too much during that production, so my time with the actors was much more limited than I would have liked. Because there is honestly nothing more amazing than watching what a great actor can do with the written word. Or the unwritten silence. When I was editing Season One, I used to just love to watch Jill and Cathy interact in the silence... or the exquisite timing they found in Ann's words. Ann's writing is a gift in itself... you already start on such a rich ground that it inspires you to do your best work in return.
Watching the actors navigate through the lovely twist and turns of Season Two was especially sweet. I'm really proud of how we all worked so hard in each creative session to find the more complex story lines of Season Two and build off what we sometimes created out of sheer instinct of Season One. And that in face of rocking ships, inhuman hours, carrying grip equipment back and forth, squeaking ropes at dock and other strange noises that come only from "shooting on a ship," I am so proud to see how far this series has come. And that only happens with the passion and dedication of everyone who worked on it.
Part Two: the other uber talented guest stars and supporting leads we got to play with.
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