Saturday morning we started filming ABRUPT DECISION.

The first day is stressful to me because of the vast unknown. Will the actors actually fit the roles?  Will all the plans I’ve made pay off?  Does the script suck?

Yesterday was terrific.  Steve Callahan plays a very convincing fella who’s worked 11 years for the same IT company and is truly lost when he gets canned.  We filmed the termination scene, several scenes of him interviewing for other jobs, and the scene when he goes back to his old employer after starting a new career.

Steve did a terrific job, as did Jenny Keto, Ed Garcia and Tim Brough who had scenes with him.  Greg Risley and Chris Ritecz even snuck in some fantastic cameos.

We had a few bumps in the schedule when Tim’s flight from Philadelphia was late Friday night and he didn’t arrive until mid-morning Saturday.  And the location we were using for another scene was too noisy, forcing me to reschedule the scene to Monday morning.   These are the kind of things that happen with indie filmmaking, and the crew rolled with the changes.

Saturday was a wonderful day.  I was working again with Dusty, Kingslea, Patrick, Greg, and Chris – the same folks who’ve made movies with me before. In fact we are so well-bonded the jokes started first thing in the morning and lasted through the day.  Adding to the crew this time is Ryan, working on set decoration, and Beckie who was making sure everyone was wearing the right clothes.   It’s a great group of folks and I’m loving it.

Today is a scheduled ‘no film’ day.  I make sure we have the second day free to solve any problems from the first day, and to prepare for the next six.  No problems to fix from yesterday.   Just all the plans to make for the next six.

So far, it’s alllll goooooood.