Edit Surprises

David Wittenstein and I met a year and a half ago when I chose to re-edit my behind-the-scenes video for "The Woods Opened and Through: Tala and Louison." We have a funny working relationship, or certainly I've never had one like this. We tend to argue a fair piece. It seems to be our way making sure that we're being understood. No one takes offense, we just keep at it until one or the other of us is convinced, and then as David puts it, "The piece wins." I think that's a bit hokey, but it works for us.

When we began to work together I didn't understand anything about video, and he has certainly taught me everything I know about this medium. It's different than every other art form I've worked in. For example, with video we can only use the footage we have; there's no inventing new material if we decide we need it. This is the reason we chose to have three cameras at the We Vow shoot. There was one on me, one on the cast, and one on the design team and crew. As a result with two days of shooting, we had so much material that it took us four days to inventory it all.

The good news is there are some amazing and beautiful moments of footage. At this point, we have a solid rough draft. Our normal quick cut pace didn't suit the content we were working with, so we both kept being surprised by the longer lyrical visual passages we were creating. Additionally we were surprised in going over the interviews at just how "hard" the political message came through, but that's what everyone was talking about. One of the major debates after sifting through the material was whether or not there would be "a kiss" in the video since I didn't end up using an actual kissing shot in my photographs. After a week of arguing, the kiss won.

"We Vow" has been shot!

Deep into post-production, Ara won't be blogging this week, so I (Liz Cross) am standing in for her today to report on the shoot.

Well, let's get the bad stuff out of the way: It was cold. We stood around for two days straight in the (did I mention cold?) Illinois woods. Many of us got little or no sleep. But it didn't matter.

It was thrilling! As the kind of writer who writes poetry, I've never had the experience of seeing something I'd helped create come to life.

Ari Khatib ("Josie"), Elizabeth Cross (Writer)

And oh boy, did it! It started Friday night, when Helene's (Costume Designer) room was the center of activity.

Below: Aimee Bello ("Cora"), Helene Siebrits (Costume Designer); below right: Kyle Rehder ("Pastor Phillips")

There was a final fitting for the actors, so we had the costume team pinning and tucking, actors coming and going, hair and make-up crew seeing the garments for the first time, prop displaying, Ara making final decisions, all whirling around, and all coming to a complete stop whenever an actor emerged from the bathroom fully dressed. The collective gasp became a joke, but we couldn't stop doing it. The clothes were gorgeous and transformed the actors into their parts. Kyle was our minister. The details were hard to believe–buttons for Samuel's military jacket were from the Civil War, hand made corsets for Josie and Cora, a hat for Josie that changed anyone who wore it into a glamorous 19th horse woman, and miles and miles of silk and wool material that no one could resist reaching out to touch.

Enisa Seric (Second Hair Stylist), Gianluca Mandelli (Hair Stylist), Ari Khatib ("Josie")

Saturday morning at sun rise, Somme Park opened and the two hour set-up began. That's when some of us started. Hair, make-up and acting teams had a 2:30 a.m. call in the RV. The shoot was 200 yards in from the parking lot, so equipment had to be brought in on deer haulers. The logistics of this part of the day alone were mind boggling, but thanks to the individual teams and Dan Miller it went like clock work.

I wish you could see Danelle, our photographer, and Brian, the digital tech, in action together. They're magicians! Telepathic magicians, who never seem to lose focus, or tire, or stop trying for the very best shot. Danelle was often very physical in her work – running, lying on the ground, climbing ladders, all while talking to the actors or shouting "Again!" over and over.

Dan Miller (Key Grip), Danelle Manthey (Director of Photography)

The acting was incredible. The actors were so talented and the casting just couldn't have been better. These four were so connected that the affection was clear both on and off set. (Our floor of the hotel sounded like a French farce with doors slamming and shouting and laughter until far into the night.) As a result, they were able to generate moments that felt powerful and real for the duration of the weekend. Shot after shot it seemed the entire crew couldn't take their eyes off of these characters.
At one point, Ara had to ask everyone to move back to give the actors room. I think everyone took exactly one step back and that was it. No one was leaving.

Ari Khatib ("Josie"), Lia R (Assistant Makeup Artist), Alfred Lester (Makeup Artist)

I'll give you an example of something you won't be able to see in the photographs due to the camera angle. The scene focuses on Cora and Josie's faces as they respond to Samuel's attempt to stop the wedding. In the photograph, you can't really see Samuel's face, but the emotional range conveyed was remarkable. He was frightening (terrifying really), but the expression on his face ranged from anger to shame to confusion to love, and he held it there; they all did. You'll see it over and over again in the shots, just an impressive ability to communicate complicated emotions in order to tell this story.

Ara Lucia (Director/Artist), Matt Devine ("Samuel")

And in the center of everything was Ara. Ara in her giant parka exultant when the shots were good; moving in as close as possible to the actors to urge them on; huddling in front of the monitor with a space heater watching for the right image; making the continuous calculations for time and money and light and ability necessary for each shot. And somehow still talking to all of us to keep us in, keep us focused on the work. In spite of all this, it hit her. And she had to walk off set at one point, weeping, just completely broken up after one shot, because it was so real and so unbelievably beautiful. Ara told me the video documentary guys asked all the rest of the day for her to talk about that shot, but each time she'd start she'd become too overwhelmed to be able to say anything.

Marc Sirinsky (Post Production Translator), Ara Lucia (Director/Artist), Brian Eaves (Digital Tech), Jacob Hand (Lighting Tech)

Aimee Bello ("Cora"), Ari Khatib ("Josie"), Ara Lucia

So when anyone asks me what the weekend was like, I try to stay professional and say it was the best art making experience of my life. What I don't say is that it gave me so much joy that I sometimes had trouble breathing, but only because when I looked around the set those two days, I knew I wasn't the only one.

A Little Truth

Everyone is asking me how I'm doing, and it isn't that perfunctory kind of" how are you doing?" either, but genuinely "how are you holding up under the strain?" kind of question. My pause tells those who know me that the stresses are hitting pretty hard.

We've been at a rough stage for some time now. We (or rather our producer, David Wittenstein) worked very hard to get the location we're going with, and we were sitting on the edge of our seats for weeks waiting for it to come through. In the end, he made it happen in an amazing way (that information will be saved for the Tell All Version). This site has some serious complications, so despite David's efforts I attempted to move us to another location at the last minute. The new site was even more beautiful, but had a host of logistical problems that turned out to be insurmountable, so now we are back to the first site. This meant, among other things, changing contracts back over to the various original vendors.

Meanwhile, there have been a host of other pre-production difficulties. Now, I'm fully aware that these come with the territory, and David and I are pretty darn good at digging into problems and finding clever solutions, but that doesn't mean that after months of work and compounding factors in the final week that I'm not fatigued, wiped out, and partially beaten. That is the little bit of truth I'm willing to tell.

The other side of the coin is that all the creative components are falling into place even better than I dreamed, and this is keeping me going. One of the latest of these happened tonight when Alfred (make-up) and Gianluca (hair stylist) from Ford came to rehearsal. They were able to see the actors move through the scene, and now they're excited, too, about what we'll be creating Saturday and Sunday.

So, how am I doing? I'm really really tired, pooped, and did I mention tired? My fire, however, is still burning, and when it comes time to direct this piece I will be more than ready to go.

Rehearsals are on!

Although rehearsal is a highly protected practice, I want you to get a sense of the excitement that's growing over here. First of all, these actors are so gifted and smart. They are already discovering things about their characters and their characters' world beyond anything I could have expected. It was never my intention to impose characters on these actors. I created (and am still creating!) this rehearsal process so that we can discover the characters and flesh out the story together. This is why we have this kind of rehearsal process. It's intense, challenging, and exciting, and the actors are more than rising to the occasion.

For the first rehearsal, just to help everyone get to know each other, I researched Victorian parlor games. One of the games we played was called "Poor Pussy." I know, I know, but that really was the name of the game. It took the actors a good five minutes of negotiations before they could start, but these are professionals! So imagine one actor on hands and knees playing the kitty for all she was worth, looking forlorn and mewling, and crawling up to one of the other actors who now has to say to her with a straight face, "Poor Pussy, poor poor, Pussy" without laughing. The first person to laugh is out of the game.

In the second rehearsal last night, things were more serious. I began to get a sense of the range of the actors and what they are going to be able to bring to the shoot. One truly impressive thing that is already emerging is the sense of connection between these actors. They don't just show up ready to discover their own characters, they are already learning parts of their own characters from each other. It is amazing to watch this happen.

One of the important things we are doing now is developing the characters' backstories. We began the first night with exploring the forest that is the landscape for the shoot. The second night, we worked to find the significant moments for the characters in the shots we'll be photographing and then going back in time to discover how they became the people they are in those shots. Usually this work is done individually by actors, either in their head or through writing. It's unique to have the opportunity to explore these in a way that makes it concrete – more experiential than imaginary. I'm already looking forward to tonight's rehearsal to see what happens.

Okay, okay, so this is quite late getting up. Since I wrote the first segment, we landed a new location that is uniquely beautiful, but has a whole host of logistical challenges that have me scrambling to get our ducks in a row. Also, yesterday we shot a new video, so you could see the rehearsal process and we will be releasing this before we shoot on Saturday, so ahhhhhhh, I'm swamped --- but excited and delighted with how everything is moving forward.

Notebook Glance

I've been encouraged to let you have a glance at my notebook today. The internet is down at my house so, I'm at Dale's Donut's in St. Joseph, Michigan. I've had a bite of a cake donut and a few Nantucket Nectars: 2 Orange Mango and 1 Big Cranberry.

These items were noted in my book this morning on September 21:

Talked to Andres Imaging set appoint for Oct 1. (potential printer for images)

LM (Left Message) with _______ at Ford Modeling Make-up for meeting re: design and ordering hair

Call John back after 1:00 about referral for who could plow snow by 4am this winter. (This is when Dante leaves to write).

Put in Google Calendar: Actor fitting 3-9 Saturday 26th (book hotel)

Send fax to _________ re: errand person for shoot.

Get Direct Deposit forms to NDH (accounting firm) with voided check for actors.

Pick up Earthborn Ocean Fusion dog food.

Get tags for security.

Make final count for 4am breakfast for the shoot days. 2nd breakfast for catering/totals.

Verify heaters for shoot.

Finish contract contract for 2nd assistant.

Scheduled meeting with Dante tomorrow over PR at 1:00pm.

Find out if Filmore in Detroit has real seating (311 in November).

Determine room count for hotel 23 plus video team. Talk to David about which hotel.

12:54 pm Call Michael break for breakfast/lunch

This is what my morning looked like.

Locked and Loaded!

David Wittenstein secured our location. This was tricky with quite a few complications, but with persistence, patience and ingenuity he prevailed.

We can't say exactly where, but our secret location is in a forest preserve. Whew!

Costume and Prop Shop

On Sunday we shot video (not really, no one is really shooting tape anymore, but apparently some people still call it that) of the costume and prop shops at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. I say video as I'm trying to distinguish it from shooting stills which is what I do.

It was so exciting to finally go down to the shops, because even though I've been working with Helene for several months, she has guided most of the team without me.

Anne and John – the Tailors, who have been married for 31 years! – are making the men's suit coats and pants from scratch. This is rare in the theatre as usually men's jackets are just pulled from stock. They created unique patterns from the measurements Helene had taken of the guys, and I got to watch the pieces of paper begin to take shape as they were laid out on the cutting table.

Rose is our Corset Maker. The corsets match the women's dresses and were constructed to fit the actresses perfectly. They are gorgeous. The precision of the bone as it fans out is exquisite.

Rene the Milliner (or hat maker) was creating Josie's hat. The beginning structure was there, and I saw the form being created. I was able to see how she uses a pliers and a leather thimble to shape the form.

Then Julie. Julie, the Prop Master, and I gave each other a huge hug upon first meeting, because even though we have only been working on the phone and on the internet, it is as if we've been working together for a long time. Julie is binding books and making letters to look exactly as if they were from 1900.

Mostly, it was a working day for me. Helene and I had hours and hours of little decisions to make about the two wedding dresses. While she and I were working the video team was taping our process so that we could show you how these costumes come into being and the way that Helene and I work together. There's lots of laughter and excitement when get things right – each time we make an adjustment that is just right the character of Josie or Cora comes just a little bit more to life and the camera caught our tears a few times too, because we care so deeply and sometimes the work moves us.

In that way, it was a bit weird to have a camera crew and the entire shop present while Helene and I were working. It is intimate to work in the way that we do, so it was a bit tough to have the cameras there, but I'm also glad that everyone is going to be able to see at least a glimpse of these incredible people and the amazing work that they do.

Watch for our Preview Coming Soon!