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.