I’d been dreading the Jerry / Erin scene. Having seen it so many times in casting read by so many different actors I had lost sight of the lines and could only hear them one way. I also felt the actors were having the same problem. I used an old trick that Judy, my acting teacher, uses all the time. I made Erin say “But I’ve just cooked dinner” before every line. I made Jerry say “I want to go to Orlando” before every line. And the scene worked great. (You can learn many neat tricks like this from Judy – if you want to check out her class leave a message in the guest book or read her book “Directing Actors.”)

By the time we’d got back into the Spelling Bee everyone was in a holiday mood: it was Friday afternoon. We have acheived an enormous amount this week, have shot all of Act V and something from Acts I, II, III, VI & VIII and have managed to stay almost completely on schedule shooting mostly 12 hour days. It’s only rained about half of the time and we’ve all been to Chilliwack and back. I also feel I have connected with Marc (my DP) and Kevin (my AD) – I am touched by the quiet patience and unchecked enthusiasm they both show when I present them with my huge storyboards every day. Thank-god they both found me. My first night nerves are over now and I have to be on my guard to see that complacency doesn’t set in.

It’s Saturday night and the band are eating dinner over at QT’s place. I have stayed at the hotel to work: I felt the pressure of my shot-list bearing down on me and I needed to get that pencil moving again.

Passed Hilary Swank in the hotel lobby this morning – very serene and quietly beautiful. We also keep seeing vans for the guys from Spinal Tap waiting outside our hotel. They’re making a dog movie called “Best In Show.” I wonder if their movie will look wet like ours does?

An easy day: 120 extras, 4 contestants, one moderator, a bunch of cheerleaders, a couple of stunts and five fat-man outfits. A piece of cake…well almost but it was certainly a bit crumbly at first. Doug was brilliant: “It makes me a Heathen,” he sang over and over as the show fell to pieces around him. QT lapsed into his coma about 27 times (perhaps Jerry told him about last night’s kissing scene) and Chad took fall after fall – never once leaving his fat-man outfit. Come to think of it he’s taken a bashing these last few days – the wet-suit and now the fat-man thing…and we haven’t got to the speedo scene yet!

At the end a kind gent called Randy Thompson, who’d been one of our extras, gave me a copy of his book “A Journey.” At first glance it appears to be a description of his passage through many difficulties to a place of self awareness and peace. He writes: “Change is sometimes hard for people. Whatever is familiar is more comfortable even if that familiar is unhealthy. People are usually reluctant to change. They don’t know how it will come out. They don’t know what will happen. Fear of the unknown. But change is necessary for growth. Without it we stagnate.” Amen to that Randy.

Film-making, like any group endeavor, is often made by a million small kindnesses and thoughts coming 2gether. As I knock on wood I feel that making this film is an experience that is changing my life irrevocably and I feel blessed to be sharing my time here with so many good souls.

We started the day with a drive-by and finished with a stunt. A drive-by involves the crew and me sitting in some ditch and having the Indian park in some convenient lay-by 1/4 of a mile away until we’re ready. We then call “action” down the walkie and the Indian trundles into action towards us. After she’s passed we wait five minutes for her to turn around, drive back, do a second U-turn and reset. It’s all very time consuming and boring as hell for the actors. Then Doug had to swerve because there was a pole in the middle of the road and suddenly everyone was very focused again.

Movie / language trivia for you. What’s the French for “Walkie-Talkie” ? Would you believe “Talkie-Walkie”?

The stunt involved Marc (the DP) hanging out of the back of one of the Windstars with the camera while two stunt men swerved across the road behind us. We had to lock down a street and shoot it three different sizes. All very time consuming for just a few seconds of usable film.

Buss is ill with a cold / flu. I sent him home to bed – his boys will need him next week.

“Gentlemen knuckle-down time has begun.” So says Mr. Buss when he starts his boys on their inevitable road to stardom. And that’s where we are tonight…tomorrow is the first day of shooting with our guerilla-style splinter unit. Kevin has christened it the Sphincter Unit . We’ll be shooting drive-bys and bits and bobs that we don’t need the whole crew for – but even so this will be the first time most of us have gone into battle together or even 2gether! As the troops settle in for the night I feel rather excited – we have a great team both in front and behind the camera: I can’t wait to get my hands dirty and shoot some plastic. Wish us luck and some good weather!

I’ve met Doug at last. Doug will be played by Kevin Farley and Michael, Noah, Alex, Evan and I all had fish and chips with him for lunch. He’s funny and fun to be with and could be described as the missing link of our new Supergroup.

Today’s drama was the news that Bob Buss wouldn’t be making it up here on Sunday night as planned – he’s filming something else in San Diego that’s running late and he won’t be able to leave till Monday evening at the earliest. To help us out he is going to fly up here tomorrow for a wardrobe fitting before flying back in the evening to return to work. Like our DP who was shooting a video in Toronto till 9pm last night and appeared at the location scout here in Vancouver at 9am this morning, and myself who spent three weeks bouncing around the West coast like a yo-yo, Mr Buss is going to line the pockets of the airlines and tire himself out in the interests of creating a fine film and putting 2gether on the charts where they belong. As Buss would probably say: “Story of my life: they put problems my way, I bounce back…”

I’m in Vancouver for good now and it hasn’t stopped raining the whole time I’ve been here…the shape of things to come? We had the production meeting today – a big deal where the head of every department sits around a huge table and goes through the script scene by scene: 7 skateboarding punks here – 30 screaming fans with big hair there; one stunt double here – 4 breakaway table lamps there. Our first AD, Kevin, led us onwards at a breathless pace delivering his pithy version of each scene with a dry wit that reminded me what a gem of a script this is. Like many of the crew members he is not shy of staking his claim on his favourite gags. This very particular filmic ritual took place in the Squamish Recreation Centre, a beautiful building with the most highly polished floor I’ve ever seen on a basketball court. Thank-you the Squamish Nation for providing such a fine ambience for the first meeting of our little film tribe that will be burning plastic in just over a week from now. I hope I can complete this job with the same dignity and fortitude shown by the totem pole that watched us all as we climbed into our cars and drove off back to work.

Bill, our producer, has seen the perfectly adequate (and environmentally reasonable) car I was driving and has insisted production change it. Apparently it was not suitable for a man of my stature and, despite my protestations, Meredith (my assistant) and I are now proud parents of a humungous and ungainly black SUV. It takes up two spaces in the hotel parking lot.

We call it The Beast.

Just two weeks before kick-off and still no Doug but the crew’s getting bigger day by day. We’ve hired the costume department, the DP, an AD and the Production Designer and they’ve all quizzed and caught me out. They all see the script from their own perspective and it’s fascinating to watch them fixating on details that will be but mere pixels in the finished ‘work’ but which irrevocably create the atmosphere in which our actors will bring their parts to life. I feel overwhelmed by all these details. I remember a story John, who co-wrote Private Investigations, told me. He was directing his second movie and bumped into Francis Ford Coppola one day. John asked the bearded one for a word of directorial advice and FFC replied: “If you’re not constantly terrified, feeling sick with worry and unable to eat or sleep, then you’re not trying hard enough.”

Oh well, I must be doing OK then.