Night 4 and 5

Monday, June 9, 2008 | 10:50 AM

First, a shout-out to Eric, as promised. Now, to business! It's been a busy weekend, and we're almost at the end of our primary shoot schedule (there'll be a few pick-ups that come a little later on).

Saturday night went very smoothly, another stellar shoot with some excellent sets from our set designer, Ren, and more incredible work from the cast and crew. I really can't say enough about them, they're really knocking these stories out of the park.

Sunday, however, was the inevitable speed bump. Or hurdle. Or brick wall...

Steve shot, I believe, around 11 pages of dialogue in one night. For a little bit of context, a good night usually has you shooting around 3 or 4. 5 if you're really good. And these scenes are really the glue of the entire series, our group scenes with the entire cast. The lucky part was that they all took place in one location, but there was a ton of coverage and costume changes. Our costume designer, Christina, had something like 50+ costume changes to keep track of, and Albert, the DP, dealt with 70+ camera set-ups. There were times when I could see the stress of getting everything (and getting it GOOD) was wearing on Steve and Albert.

But where other people might have folded, or resorted to a half-quality rush job, these two buckled down. They re-wrote shot lists, maneuvered cameras quickly, and kept the crew ahead of the clock. I don't think Steve even ate lunch. It was like watching two racers hurtling towards the finish line, giving it their all, beating the clock...and then collapsing in triumph.

And best of all, the cast and crew were on top of their games - very responsive, always staying sharp (not an easy thing to do in stressful situations, and certainly not when you start reaching 5 or 6 AM).

Just when you think you've seen it all, these guys go out and top it. Amazing.