On Location for Coyote Girl: Friday 01.09.15

January has been an amazing month for Outcast Café! We have spent the past two and a half weeks officially entering the production phase of making our second short film, Coyote Girl, the poetic version of the 90 minute play script Riley Ann Visits the Outcast Cafe. After spending about two weeks on location in Westfield, Illinois the team has dispersed and continues to work on post-production for the film as well as upcoming projects for the company. Here is the next installment of our adventures on location from the perspective of company member Gail Shalan (Riley Ann, Coyote) :

Friday 01.09.15

10:04 a.m.- Today has been scheduled for the crew to get some other work done. Our Gaffer, Josh Schneiderman, arrives in addition to the gigantic semi filled with equipment from Hammer Lighting & Grip in Indianapolis. This means that bright and early in the morning, Terry and Rick hit the road with our hero, David, to pick up the truck. Biggs and I have our own rehearsal and check in. It’s been a lot of hubbub around what is usually a quiet and intimate acting process for the two of us. There’s a lot to discuss. We make sure we’re on the same page as actors and actor/director in regards to the story, arc, timeline, and each little moment we might see on film. We prepare the best we know how, and acknowledge that there’s also an element of trust and confidence in this process for which we cannot rehearse or prepare, but simply embrace.

1:33 p.m.- Biggs is not only an incredibly sensitive and articulate poet in his artistry, but also a strong and gentle mentor for my own work. I feel empowered and well taken care of. The space in my heart and soul, and the quiet in my mind, that this process allows has stirred up some pretty disturbing nightmares (of course, involving Coyotes) but I’m surprised by my lack of desire to wake myself up from them. I want to play within them. There is a sense of artistic freedom and curiosity in these dreams. I think of my late professor from Boston University, the genius Jon Lipsky, and his work connecting acting and our dreams. I head back to David and Terri’s to do some reading, reminiscing and processing. It’s a day of digesting.

2:45 p.m.- I take a quick road trip to Charleston to get some moisturizer for my face. This cold weather and the make-up that I don’t normally wear is taking it’s toll. Gotta get this face camera ready.

4:50 p.m.- Time for a little yoga before I cook my own dinner for one. A bit of quiet before the storm of shooting begins.

A helpful quote from Jon Lipksy's Dreaming Together. — A helpful quote from Jon Lipksy’s Dreaming Together.

My mentor and I in performance. A sneak-peek still from COYOTE GIRL (!!)

On Location for Coyote Girl: Thursday 01.08.15

Thursday 01.08.15

8:01 a.m.- This morning, at the Home Place, the cast and crew meets with the make-up and costume consultant for the film, Karen Eisenhour. Karen is a professor in the theatre department at Eastern Illinois University (in Charleston) teaching make-up and costume design as well as building puppets herself! Karen brings along a bright and eager student named Jason, who is an actor, writer and director, looking to produce his first feature film soon. For the next couple hours Karen and Jason teach Biggs and myself how to properly apply a makeup base and then age/ exhaust ourselves appropriately using shadowing techniques, exaggerated heavily for black and white film. In color we sort of look like a zombie-horror flick, but in color, we are spectacular! After consulting with Rick and Terry on our various progressions (or regressions), we move on to costumes.

11:48 a.m.- We break quickly for lunch. Chatting with Karen and Jason about their work and time at the University is a blast. Rick grills Karen on her film syllabus, and Jason grills Rick on making a movie. Turns out Karen is a bit of a neighbor to us Berkshire folk as she hails from our neighbor, Connecticut.

12:40 p.m.- Biggs and I change in and out of our many costume options and with the help of all our useful eyes (Rick, Terry, Karen, Jason, and Sims), we narrow down our costumes, scene by scene.

2:15 p.m.- Having made it through all of our looks, Karen makes an organized list and closet set-up. We move on to beginning a camera rehearsal with Rick (scenes 2/3, 5, 7, and 10) for blocking of the various shots in a more particular sense than our rehearsal yesterday. It’s been a long day. Make-up mysteriously takes an aggressive toll, but we feel good about powering through the first half of the film rehearsal and then finishing the rest up another day.

6:11 p.m.- The five of us head out to an amazing smokehouse in Charelston for dinner. This little recovering vegetarian is officially on a Chicken kick these two weeks. If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em!

The lovely Jason and Karen. Thanks for the help!

We settle on jewelry for RILEY ANN. Kind of crazy what ends up looking good in greyscale.

An utterly exhausted RILEY ANN. What looks like a black eye in color actually comes across as extremely weary in black and white.

RILEY ANN for scene 7. Here we see her fully made up, but having trouble hiding the bags of exhaustion.

On Location for Coyote Girl : Monday 01.05.15

January has been an amazing month for Outcast Café! We have spent the past two and a half weeks officially entering the production phase of making our second short film, Coyote Girl, the poetic version of the 90 minute play script Riley Ann Visits the Outcast Cafe. After spending about two weeks on location in Westfield, Illinois the team has dispersed and continues to work on post-production for the film as well as upcoming projects for the company. Here is a daily log of our adventures on location from the perspective of company member Gail Shalan (Riley Ann, Coyote) :

Monday 01.05.15

4:16 a.m. – Dropped off at Logan airport. COYOTE lays comfortably amidst many sweaters (brrrr, mid-west in January) and will be checked for the flight to Indianapolis. I carry on a copy of the Coyote Girl screenplay, a pillow, and a big pair of headphones attached to an audiobook version of The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, read by Jim Dale.

8:40 a.m.– Southwest Airlines delivers me safely in Baltimore for my transfer, while COYOTE coasts somewhere amidst many suitcases. See you in Indy, COYOTE!

10:55 a.m.– We have arrived! Biggs and Sims meet me in the lobby of the Indianapolis Airport. We head to baggage claim to pick up COYOTE and all those sweaters and hop on the highway for the last leg of the trip to Westfield.

11:58 a.m.– Having driven two hours to Westfield, we gained one back with the entrance into the Central Time Zone. For me, it’s like driving through a new country. My first venture to the Mid-West is alien. Flat land and ghosts of cornfields for miles and miles. Mostly semis on the road with us. We passed a coyote that had been hit on the side of the road. A good omen? We stop to get some gas and look across the the road to see a Fireworks Emporium. Interesting placement. Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.

12:16 p.m.- We meet our generous hosts, Terri and David Biggs, for lunch at a family owned establishment, Richard Farms right outside of Westfield in Casey, Illinois. Richard Farms is a traditional mid-western restaurant build of re-pourposed barn wood. They will cater our shoot and we are happy to be on the ground and eating well.

1:48 p.m.- After swinging by the Home Place, our location for shooting and where half of our cast and crew is living for the shoot, Biggs brings me back to Terri and David’s house for some much needed rest and relaxation before we depart. I check on COYOTE, who is doing well, clean up and settle in. Tomorrow our adventures begin.

Gail and COYOTE get ready for their big adventure in film. All packed up and ready to go.