Week #2 of principal photography completed!

The crew and I are pushing into a fantastic technical and creative groove.

We've moved to several different locations in the past couple days after enjoying filming one part of our story in a very comfortable place. Next week we stay in a single spot for most of the week, and move to a couple more at the end.

I won't give anything away by saying that I believe Elisabeth Röhm won't be ordering a pepperoni pizza any time soon... Here's a direct quote: "I'm going to puke. Let's shoot."

Game girl, that one!

We're right on schedule - no problems we couldn't solve on the spot.

Today's props go to Brad Turner, props assistant, and property master Christopher McFadden! Brad is right there, every time we need a prop on set or on the actor - no matter how outrageous the request. He made disgusting fake dog poop using a popular protein bar (peanut butter-chocolate); it looked like the real thing. Eeew.

Christopher landed us amazing product placements (products we can use on set approved by the company that manufactures them), and landed us the use of several copyrighted publications, including the local daily newspaper the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which created an amazing faux "front page" with stories about our characters.

What I love about our film is that everyone gets to stand out - each department and individual within the 70-person crew is superbly represented on screen.

I'm mostly resting this, my birthday weekend. Before you ask ... 39. And a half. Again. Some friends are taking me out for a low key breakfast to shore up my energy. Directing this film with this crew and this cast is the best birthday present I could ever receive. Every day is like my birthday on the set.

Cameras roll in 9 days ..

THE WHOLE TRUTH update:

Location scounting, tech scouting (making sure all the locations we chose will work with all the technical aspects of making a film) is nearly at its end. Craig Stewart, our "Scout Master" and his team have landed us some terrific places in which to film that will be dressed by Production Designer Rachel Thomson, filled with props by our Prop Genius Christopher McFadden.

Director of Photography Paul Mailman and his crew, including gaffer (lighting) Ted Barnes - one of the best - are setting up equipment to create the most effect scene captures on film. Paul and I are a strong team .. and he has an eye for putting you (the audience) in the scene rather than just "taking pictures" of something happening, which is what I look for in a photographer, and few are capable of doing it well.

The lead actors begin to arrive tomorrow, a week early, and we're mighty excited to see them - with preproduction and preparation at its peak now. Our lead actors rehearse at no cost to us - they're paid for their work before the camera but make rehearsal at no cost part of their contract if requested. I find that fine actors prefer to rehearse and request it; actors like Paul Newman, in fact, insist on it and offer filmmakers two weeks of rehearsal "off the clock."

I am coaching some of the local actors to get their performances perfected for the shoot - we'll also have some rehearsal time before shooting each scene. I've been sending notes to all the lead actors that I believe will help them develop their characters.

Editor Stephen R. Myers, in LA, is prepared to receive our dailies to start editing them as we shoot; composer Ragnar Rosinkranz, also in LA, will be seeing them as Stephen builds the rough cut of the feature, assessing how the music we've worked on over the weeks will suit the characters and scenes.

We're all headquartered in a large former school house - giving every department plenty of room to work.

I have my keyboards in my huge office - which is shared by my assistant Matt Schmidt - so I can work on musical ideas. I even wrote a little ditty that will be sung by Elisabeth in the film.

This week end my "job" is to rest - and in fact although Paul and I will be prepping every night for the next day's shoot and on the weekends for the following week's work - all of us must rest on our weekends or we'll wear out, since we'll all be working hard for long hours during the week.

Our Leading Lady, Elisabeth Röhm, is working all 30 days of the demanding 30-day shoot. Now *that* is a lead role! We'll be rehearsing stunts this coming Friday - she's very athletic and strong so she might be doing some of her own -- if we're sure she won't risk injury! Fortunately, there are only a few.

She'll be rehearsing with Jim Holmes and Sean Patrick Flanery later in the week, which will be great fun.

Back to hanging out, tending a few TWT details, watching a couple films, baseball and football games for me! Enjoy the weekend!