Blood Relative week 2
Important filmmaking lesson: real houses don’t have bathrooms you can shoot in. We had a handful of simple scenes to shoot in a bathroom, and they took hours to light and set up because there’s no room to do anything. In fact, I’m keeping a running list of things never to include in a script. Bathroom scenes are only one. Food is another one — it’s a huge pain in the neck to shoot scenes involving food.
Here, Cristin Milioti perches on a bathtub for a pivotal scene. Cristin has been exceptionally brave and unflinching in her performance, in addition to being a joy to work with.
On the other hand, another important filmmaking lesson is to cast good actors who show up on time, understand what they’re doing, know without asking what the scene is about, don’t complain about low-budget privations, remain in good cheer and have real talent. We’ve been very blessed on this project. Our leads — Cristin Milioti (super above), Michael Rady (above), Toby Huss (below) and James Urbaniak (super below) have all been astonishing. In the case of Mr. Rady, he does all of this while also being handsome, polite, funny, open and generous. Plus he’s a vegan. I’m guessing he also saves kittens from burning buildings in his spare time.
Here’s Toby Huss, as our nominal bad guy. I’ve seen Toby be side-splittingly funny on stage and in movies and TV shows, and I honestly thought I’d have a difficult time getting him to tone down his anarchic spirit. But it never even came up — he understood immediately what the role required and has been absolutely terrifying in every shot, no questions asked.
Here is Mr. Urbaniak during an outdoor setup. He has a face in real life. There are many pictures I could post of him on set, but they would give away crucial plot points.
The bulk of James’s work comes in Week 3, where he will be required to sit at a table, walk down a street and wield a pen.
This shed is also an important character in the movie, although it’s hard to tell from here.
Ah, there we go.
Stunt baby meets real baby. Real baby is on the right.
My co-writer and producer, Holly Golden, in addition to serving a million different production needs, also stands in for Cristin during lighting. Here she is on the camera monitor in what our DP, Mr. George Su, calls “Predator Vision.”