Throwback to Summer Rehearsals…

After the most horrendous winter we’ve seen in a good long while, I think it’s FINALLY safe to say we’re officially approaching Summer. Next weekend we arrive at the Vernal Equinox and this muggy week beckons in a hot next few months. To celebrate the warmer days, here’s a collection of  our warm Summer Memories from the 2011 and 2012 rehearsals for The Dick and The Rose: 

 

Accepted to Snake Alley Festival of Film, AGAIN!

We at the Outcast Cafe are very proud to announce that our short film COYOTE GIRL has been accepted into the 2015 Snake Alley Festival of Film in Burlington, Iowa! “Dedicated to showcasing the best shorts from around the world, with a strong emphasis on story,” we are honored to be a part of a festival recognizing these accomplishments.

Screen Shot from opening of "Coyote Girl"
Screen Shot from opening of “Coyote Girl”

This is our second film to go to Snake Alley. In 2013 One Year’s Crop was nominated for Best Documentary ! In celebration let’s take a trip down memory lane:

Poster for our documentary "One Year's Crop"
Poster for our documentary “One Year’s Crop”

Artistic director, writer, actor, artist Robert Biggs talks about One Year’s Crop. Very interesting to watch now and draw similar parallels from his interview to our newest tale, Coyote Girl.

Here are some pics of the last time Biggs and Sims were at Snake Alley:

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The Snake Alley Festival of Film Marquee

 

Traci Rauscher interviews Robert Biggs on his 2013 documentary "One Year's Crop".
Traci Rauscher interviews Robert Biggs on his 2013 documentary “One Year’s Crop”.

 

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Robert Biggs mingles with the SNAFF crowd.

 

Biggs addresses the audience about his nominated doc on the SNAFF stage
Biggs addresses the audience about his nominated doc on the SNAFF stage

 

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Discussing “One Year’s Crop”
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Biggs and Sims celebrate with friends and family (Teri Biggs, David Biggs, and friend Linda).



It’s a pleasure and an honor to return to “the crookedest film festival in the u.s.” And let us know if you’ll be joining us at #SNAFF2015 !

Fondly Remembering “Flyering”

Courtesy of one of our original Ministering Angels, Dylan Wittrock, we are happy to send you on a journey down memory lane. Here is a compilation video of our promotional efforts on the Royal Mile at Edinburgh Fringe 2011, shout out to Bob and Mickey for all their hard work:

The Evolution of Coyote: Part 2

Raw Materials used to build Coyote's head: Masking tape, brown paper, cardboard cone, Japanese Hibiki Hand Saw
Raw Materials used to build Coyote’s head: Masking tape, brown paper, cardboard cone, Japanese Hibiki Hand Saw

With a few raw materials, an old coyote skull, some petty cash, a rough idea, and a good dose of faith in hand, off I went to make a puppet!

When I returned to the Berkshires in late June of 2013, Biggs presented me with the top half of a coyote skull that he’d found and a plush coyote, about four feet long, constructed of muslin and stuffing,  by the lovely Emily Justice Dunn, creator of our Drape and Baby Noah from “The Dick and The Rose”. We had discussed, while I was still in New York, the upcoming story he was spinning into play and screenplay form, and that in this story we needed a talking Coyote. He told me to take inspiration from Emily’s sweet pup, mix it up with what we learned in Tom’s workshop, and dive boldly into the experiment of making an approximately life-sized Coyote puppet for an upcoming short film and play.

Emily's Baby Noah from The Dick And The Rose
Emily’s Baby Noah from The Dick And The Rose

So home I went to do some research on Handspring Puppet company, the amazing South African group that Tom worked with on War Horse, a company that has been producing incredible animal puppets that move in lifelike ways while maintaining a creative, homespun, story telling aesthetic in their overall look. I knew this is what I felt inspired by and envisioned for Coyote. Before I moved back up to the Berkshires, I’d had the good fortune of being invited to puppeteer with HiveMind Theatre Company in their short puppet play at St.Ann’s Warehouse’s Toy Theatre Festival. Over the rehearsal period, I watched puppets be tinkered with and built from wood, fabric, paper, glue, paint, staples, and pretty much anything else you could imagine. Witnessing the work behind Chan Thou’s Tuk Tuk also gave me confidence to dabble in the unknown.

Great experience with puppet creators of all types at the Toy Theatre Festival at St. Ann's Warehouse in 2013
Great experience with puppet creators of all types at the Toy Theatre Festival at St. Ann’s Warehouse in 2013
Chan Thou from "Chan Thou's Tuk Tuk" by HiveMind Theatre Co. Emily Leshner and Ryan Minezzi on bottom left, my arm in top image and bottom right.
Chan Thou from “Chan Thou’s Tuk Tuk” by HiveMind Theatre Co. Emily Leshner and Ryan Minezzi on bottom left, my arm in top image and bottom right.
Coyote Skeleton as inspiration
Coyote Skeleton as inspiration
Coyote shadow puppet inspiration
Coyote shadow puppet inspiration
A beautiful drawing of a coyote... so soft and wise, but slightly a trickster all the same.
A beautiful drawing of a coyote… so soft and wise, but slightly a trickster all the same.
Coyote Skeleton
Coyote Skeleton
Amazing Coyote Marionettes as inspiration
Amazing Coyote Marionettes as inspiration
Scary Wolf puppet as inspiration
Scary Wolf puppet as inspiration
Tom Lee's puppet feet and legs....
Tom Lee’s puppet feet and legs….
Joey from Warhorse by Handspring Puppet Co.
Joey from Warhorse by Handspring Puppet Co.
My Previous puppet making experience, circa 1999
My Previous puppet making experience, circa 1999

And so several months of experiments began as I started on what I envisioned as a two to three person, Bunraku-style, life-sized Coyote puppet. I started with a rough, wooden  skeleton. I used the size and shape of Emily’s plush Coyote, as well as photos of coyote skeletons found online, to create templates out of large sheets of masonite that I had on hand. Then, I planned to connect them with wire, dowels, and backpack strap (a useful, strong material that Tom suggested). The main part of the skeleton consisted of a ribcage with a front  and back piece of masonite and wire “ribs” connecting the two. A hole was cut in the front piece to allow for the neck stick of the head to come through and the back piece was designed with a wrist rest so that one hand could manipulate the shoulders and head together. The rib cage then connected to a spine, which would have some hips constructed in a similar fashion to the shoulder piece, with an identical, dowel-sized hole for the tale. The legs were built of masonite, dowel,and backpack strap with appropriate joints and as natural movement as possible ( this inspiration I pulled from Handspring), and the feet were weighted to potentially relieve the puppeteers of excess manipulation.

Half finished legs and Emily's plush Coyote sit on top of templates for a Coyote Skeleton
Half finished legs and Emily’s plush Coyote sit on top of templates for a Coyote Skeleton

Then came the head. Building roughly in the format taught by Tom Lee, I created a coyote skull out of crumpled paper and masking tape. Mounted on a short dowel (functioning as the neck, and also as a mechanism to control the head from within or beneath the body), I took the rough skull shape and added finesse with fine, transparent paper (similar to the traditionally-used rice paper) and watered-down wood glue. After completing the moveable top half of the skull, I also made a working jaw. Biggs wanted an active tongue, if possible, so I began to play around with trigger systems and got a little in over my head. I’m no engineer and that’s for sure! But, with a little help and patience, I managed to rig a spring trigger inside the mouth to move the jaw from the hand which would be inside the rib cage,  and saw potential to make moving ears/ tongue.

A second iteration of Coyote from the upcoming short "Coyote Girl" and play "Riley Ann Visits the Outcast Cafe"
My first draft of Coyote. Complete with head and jaw… glass eyeballs and leather nose.

 

However, my patience began to ware thin. I was struggling with maintaining focus and inspiration as well as solving what felt like challenging physics, and I was reminded of why I chose the artistic path that I did. I’m a collaborator, and find my fuel in the melding of my passion with others. I was having a really hard time working mostly alone, in silence, assembling a creature I couldn’t yet bring to life in a satisfactory way. There were other issues, too. The head I’d worked so hard on, was much to large and long for an actual coyote. The body was becoming too complex to manipulate with ease and we weren’t sure that we’d have more than just myself as a puppeteer, especially for the film, so I needed to get back to the drawing board and work on a simpler, smaller, more accurate puppet for a single puppeteer. The good news is that I could focus on just the top half of the body for the film’s sake. I decided to start from a place of necessity, the bare bones of what the puppet needed to do, and to come from a puppeteer’s functional perspective rather than a design-oriented angle. But this a tale for next time…

Coyote Girl Sneak Peek!

Happy #tbt (Throw Back Thursday) everyone! Can’t believe our shoot of Coyote Girl is becoming a memory. Keeping the sweet memories fresh with another exciting sneak peek of a still from our short film. To keep you all up to date, our movie is currently being authored in Santa Cruz, CA. Looking forward to having those mastered discs very soon! Keep your eyes out at your local film festivals and we’ll release info about our circuit for Coyote Girl A.S.A.P:

Riley Ann (Gail Shalan and Old Man (Robert Biggs) in action! A still from our upcoming short film Coyote Girl.
Riley Ann (Gail Shalan and Old Man (Robert Biggs) in action! A still from our upcoming short film Coyote Girl.

Blast From The Past

Hey readers,

Outcast Café is hard at work on our future projects. Our team is spread far and wide right now (and so is our film Coyote Girl) before we come together again early this Spring to start work on the next installment of Robert Biggs’ original works. We can’t wait to tell you more about are plans for the Spring of 2015, but first lets all go back to some past adventures in a little image throwback. Enjoy!

The cast of the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe Tour of "The Dick and The Rose" hang out in the Gryphon Venues' lobby in Edinburgh, Scotland
The cast of the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe Tour of “The Dick and The Rose” hang out in the Gryphon Venues’ lobby in Edinburgh, Scotland
Our first Sleeper, Dave Demke, from "The Dick and The Rose" premiere production at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2011
Our first Sleeper, Dave Demke, from “The Dick and The Rose” premiere production at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2011
Actors Kelsey Hogan and Gail Shalan ( plus babies) in the Puppet Baby Funeral March from our preview of "The Dick and The Rose" at Shakespeare and Company in Lee, MA 2011
Actors Kelsey Hogan and Gail Shalan ( plus babies) in the Puppet Baby Funeral March from our preview of “The Dick and The Rose” at Shakespeare and Company in Lee, MA 2011
"The Dick and the Rose" Edinburgh 2011 tour's musical trio (Dylan Wittrock, Ian Milliken, and Robert Biggs) entertain at the Gryphon Venue's opening party.
“The Dick and the Rose” Edinburgh 2011 tour’s musical trio (Dylan Wittrock, Ian Milliken, and Robert Biggs) entertain at the Gryphon Venue’s opening party.
Our cast and producer celebrate in style at the Gryphon Venues Opening Party  (feat. Dylan Wittrock, Emma Sims-Biggs, Deborah Sims, Caley Milliken, Kelsey Hogan).
Our cast and producer celebrate in style at the Gryphon Venues Opening Party (feat. Dylan Wittrock, Emma Sims-Biggs, Deborah Sims, Caley Milliken, Kelsey Hogan).
Musical Director and Ministering Angel, Ian Milliken, plays around with Mickey in rehearsal for the 2011 Edinburgh Tour of "The Dick and The Rose"
Musical Director and Ministering Angel, Ian Milliken, plays around with Mickey in rehearsal for the 2011 Edinburgh Tour of “The Dick and The Rose”
Bob the puppet baby makes friends during rehearsal in 2011
Bob the puppet baby makes friends during rehearsal in 2011
Actors Emma Sims-Biggs and Gail Shalan celebrate the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe Tour at the Gryphon Venues Wrap Party (also feat. Jax Seager of Gryphon Venues)
Actors Emma Sims-Biggs and Gail Shalan celebrate the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe Tour at the Gryphon Venues Wrap Party (also feat. Jax Seager of Gryphon Venues)
The poster for "One Year's Crop", our original documentary film featuring artistic director Robert Biggs' journey from his upbringing on a small town farm in Westfield, IL to his hand spun theatre and film company in Lee, MA
The poster for “One Year’s Crop”, our original documentary film featuring artistic director Robert Biggs’ journey from his upbringing on a small town farm in Westfield, IL to his hand spun theatre and film company in Lee, MA
Our 2012 NYC Fringe Tour Sleeper, Ron Botting, holds up baby Noah at the end of our Berkshire preview in Lee, MA
Our 2012 NYC Fringe Tour Sleeper, Ron Botting, holds up baby Noah at the end of our Berkshire preview in Lee, MA
Ministering Angels Gail Shalan and Evan Gambardella share some puppet love on the streets of lower Manhattan during our 2012 NYC Fringe tour of "The Dick and the Rose"
Ministering Angels Gail Shalan and Evan Gambardella share some puppet love on the streets of lower Manhattan during our 2012 NYC Fringe tour of “The Dick and the Rose”
The Ministering Angels  and Puppet Babies take part in Fringe NYC 2012's "get off your couch.." initiative
The Ministering Angels and Puppet Babies take part in Fringe NYC 2012’s “your couch is making you small…” initiative
Choreographer and Movement Director Barbara Allen meets us for a pick up rehearsal in NYC. She discusses The Tango with actors Caley Milliken (Circus Girl) and Sleeper (Ron Botting).
Choreographer and Movement Director Barbara Allen meets us for a pick up rehearsal in NYC. She discusses The Tango with actors Caley Milliken (Circus Girl) and Sleeper (Ron Botting).
Actors Gail Shalan and Kelsey Hogan throw a tantrum with the other puppet babies during our Berkshire Preview for the 2012 NYC Fringe Tour of "The Dick and The Rose"
Actors Gail Shalan and Kelsey Hogan throw a tantrum with the other puppet babies during our Berkshire Preview for the 2012 NYC Fringe Tour of “The Dick and The Rose”
Actor Gail Shalan trains with puppet master Tom Lee in the traditional Bunraku form of puppetry in Brooklyn, NY April 2013
Actor Gail Shalan trains with puppet master Tom Lee in the traditional Bunraku form of puppetry in Brooklyn, NY April 2013
Actors Robert Biggs and Gail Shalan rehearse the Workshop sharing of "Coyote Girl" for our sharing at The Bookstore in Lenox, MA
Actors Robert Biggs and Gail Shalan rehearse the Workshop sharing of “Coyote Girl” for our sharing at The Bookstore in Lenox, MA
A first iteration of Coyote for the upcoming short "Coyote Girl" and upcoming play "Riley Ann Visits the Outcast Cafe"
A first iteration of Coyote for the upcoming short “Coyote Girl” and upcoming play “Riley Ann Visits the Outcast Cafe”
A second iteration of Coyote from the upcoming short "Coyote Girl" and play "Riley Ann Visits the Outcast Cafe"
A second iteration of Coyote from the upcoming short “Coyote Girl” and play “Riley Ann Visits the Outcast Cafe”
Our current iteration of Coyote learning his lines.
Our current iteration of Coyote learning his lines.

Coyote Girl Sneak Peek!

We’re very excited to announce that we are now on the way to getting Coyote Girl out into the world. Sims and Biggs are hard at work completing the Withoutabox application for submission to a handful of  national and international film festivals this upcoming year. Meanwhile, Rick and Biggs peruse the film on the big screen for any final edits or adjustments. For your viewing pleasure, here is another gorgeous still from our short film. I think it might be my favorite:

"This isn't what I expected to be doing"  Still from the short film "Coyote Girl" feat. Robert Biggs
“This isn’t what I expected to be doing”
Still from the short film “Coyote Girl” feat. Robert Biggs

Coyote Girl: Behind the Scenes Sneak Peek!

As Coyote Girl’s post-production phase comes to a close, and we prepare to submit to festivals, we are happy to share this little sneak peek behind the scene shot with you! Take a look at Outcast Cafe recording the  cello soundtrack (Composed by Robert Biggs and performed by Jonah Thomas)

last Monday at Pilot Recording Studios in Housatonic, MA.

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On Location for Coyote Girl: Thursday 01.15.15.

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):

Thursday 01.15.15

9:03 a.m.- Despite the promise of an early morning again today, the weather forbids our last effort to capture the drone shot in scene 7. Rick is awesome and emails me the night before, so I get a couple extra hours before our final day of shooting begins. Some sun salutations and serious journaling are in order.

11:13 a.m.- With the morning off and no plans to get going until after lunch, Biggs takes the opportunity to give me a further glimpse at the geography which makes up the history of our little tale. We plow through muddy roads that cut across fields and fields of ghosted corn. It’s sunny and warmer than it has been. Golden light floods the truck. In the usual fashion, each time we pass a certain piece of acreage, I get a detailed backstory of how the land came into, or passed from, Biggs’ possession. We go all the way to the far corners of the South Place, opposite on the property from David’s house, loop around through the land that lays so low it floods most of the year. We actually drive straight over a semi-frozen river and onto a special plot of land preserved by the government as a graveyard and conservation landmark. Here I hear the charming account of the time my dearest childhood friend, Robert and Deborah’s daughter Emma, was brought here in her youth and asked in wonder:”So… do we own dead people?”… perhaps, in a way. And on a more serious note, it’s the spirits evoked by this tour of the Biggs Farm, those who’s remains are buried in the graveyard, or the native people’s who may be in the fields, as well as the stories those who’ve moved on have left behind, which bring a reverence to the last day of my participation in this particular iteration of our tale of life and death. I’m glad to bid farewell to this understated character of our story. The magic of filming “on location” is not to be belittled on a project like this. It’s a memorable morning for sure.

2:34 p.m.- We meet the others at the smokehouse again for lunch and somewhat tragic news. This morning, while attempting to capture a drone shot for scene 3 in which the drone flies perilously close to the side of the house, an self-inflicted draft caused a crash landing. Being rather new technology, and quite expensive, the machine has had it’s run on the shoot and must be shipped out to Japan (I believe) to undergo repair. We toast to the drone, enjoy our last proper pulled pork, discuss travel to the airport tomorrow and head back to the Home Place to begin our final work day.

4:06 p.m.- First scene of the day features only the Old Man, so I settle up in the “green room” with my moving playlist I’ve made titled “Coyote Girl” and relax into the zone of Riley Ann’s final stretch. The goal for me, is to keep the energy level and focus clear until we begin scene 15 around 6 p.m.

6:30 p.m.- Scene 15 is gorgeous. I love working on this. It’s all close-ups. I feel like I’m finally understanding what part of me is framed in what shot and how to make the slight adjustments which give me control over my performance without damaging the organic experience of the moment. Day 4 is off to a good start. We capture several different options to chose from in post and Rick seems quite happy with the results of my work, which feels very validating, knowing he’ll be making those final cuts.

8:48 p.m. – Time to film the death scene… duh, duh, duh. While there is a bit of extensive choreography, the first few takes of the master go very well. When we sit down to watch them played back for a lighting or sound adjustment, however, we notice a major problem: The issue with what started as a play and has been made into a film (and this is not the first time we’ve worked our way through this challenge) is that sometimes simple, physical choices that work for the stage without a doubt, we just can’t get away with on film. In the continuous shot, from the Old Man’s last breath through Riley Ann’s long farewell, it is very challenging for Biggs to hold his breath, especially with the irregular nature of the “dying breath”… and it’s entirely impossible to mask the blinking of his lids, as the necessary lighting shines right into his eyes. We spend a lot of time trouble shooting this problem, and eventually, I believe we come up with a combination of distorted light and cutting the shot.

11:39 p.m.- While, technically, the former scene took a while to capture, the good streak of artistic work continued. I’m feeling confident, and yet, remaining in a very heightened emotional state for the character. Or rather, flowing in and out of it repeatedly, attempting to preserve energy, but not being able to hang onto much. I figure we’re good, though. When we rehearsed the scene last week, we ran the entire screenplay through, or as much as possible. This, in turn, created the pattern that Riley Ann gets up from her dead father’s body and takes her Coyote boy to the window with her, staring out into the abyss in what, at the time, was fairly extensive and very fresh sorrow and loss. Knowing I needed to be in such a tender state, I revved myself up and remained incredibly emotional throughout the process of our first several takes. But something wasn’t working. The shot was coming off as incredibly theatrical. It felt too heavy.  It just wasn’t right. Biggs came in and out of the door, trying to give me sensitive and delicate directional nudges, but it wasn’t fixing the problem. Not sure if it was the bright lights and entire crew staring at me and my puppet in a somewhat unrehearsed moment that made me feel like I was failing, or the fact that I’d made Riley Ann completely frenetic and out of sorts, but I just wasn’t moving in the right direction for what the scene needed. I found myself confused, frustrated, feeling unprofessional and like I was wasting everyone’s time…. It was 1 a.m. on our last day of shooting, which thus far had been a roaring success for me, and I couldn’t get my shit together.
After a mini conference with my directors, Biggs and Rick, which yielded some useful conversation about what we determined earlier that week; what remained useful, and what we should scrap; and some other options to try, I took some very, very deep breaths and we began again. It’s quite possible that the scene had morphed, that the story had taken a turn none of us had foreseen, that Riley Ann actually had earned to come out the other side of her struggle and into the unknown. Beneath the dense wave of embarrassing emotion, and the thick wall of struggling communication, we had some how excavated a beautiful, truthful, and completely surprising final moment for our film and for our shoot. It was the epitome of the gigantic learning curve this entire process had been.

 

Wednesday, February 11th, 11:41 p.m.

I’m not sure I’m conveying the moment in an articulate manner, but when I woke up in the morning, with a few hours of deep sleep and a promising plane ride home to my beloved, I felt utterly proud, excited, and revelatory of a new chapter of my own work as an actor, as well as a large accomplishment for the company. Now, I move on to new projects, and tell you readers about fond memories, while our talented team puts together a gorgeous, potent, relevant short film called “Coyote Girl”.

 

Thank you for reading our log of the on location film shoot last month. If you would like to keep up to date on Coyote Girl‘s process, please check in with this blog frequently and follow us on twitter and instagram: @outcastcafe

 

 

 

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An encouraging and humbling message from my cup of tea on our last day of shooting…
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Sweaty, shadowy, death scene make-up on Riley Ann (played by Gail Shalan)
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“Hold my hand… it gives a soft place for the hurt.” Filming Scene 15 feat. Andy Turrett, Robert Biggs, and Gail Shalan
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Producer’s view of the final scene feat. fearless director Robert Biggs and brave DP Rick Sands
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Goodbye, Illinois! a view from my plane back to Boston.

 

 

 

On Location for Coyote Girl: Wednesday 01.14.15

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)

Wednesday 01.14.15

6:55 a.m.– SURPRISE!!! My phone rings a wake-up call just before 7. Good thing my ringer was turned on nice and loud! I’m a pretty heavy sleeper and am still adjusting to these country hours of up and down with the sun. Expecting to not go in to shoot until a bit before noon, I’d set my alarms in a relaxed fashion. But so goes life on a film shoot! The lighting is perfect! The wind is dead! We gotta get this drone shoot now, baby, or it ain’t gonna happen! Adrenaline surges and I hop on out of bed, looking very much forward to the coffee promised at the Home Place.

8:25 a.m.- Turns out that farm air is more fickle than we thought. The conditions aren’t conducive, so we post-pone the drone shot of Riley Ann driving up the road until a later time and decide to scrap the exterior shot of scene 7 that Rick had mapped out and forgotten to get during the long day of shooting yesterday. The guys still have plenty to capture, and to be honest, I don’t mind at all. It’s a real joy being on set, witnessing the commotion and the artistry at hand. Establishing shots and tid-bits are taken care of. In a couple hours we will start work on scene 13, the second Coyote talking scene. I can go ahead and get out of Scene 7 make-up and costume and into our look for scene 13, involving much more weariness, a pair of sweatpants, and a jacket.

10:56 a.m.-  Diving right into scene 13, we attempt to figure out how to get a continuous master shot and again run into problems with getting the puppet on and in place in enough time, especially in the tighter corners that we have with this frame. We split the scene in two: A section of Riley Ann carrying a waste bin (…filled with waste) out and in the back door while the Old Man sits as witness to the chaos, and a section of Coyote’s pure frustration, revealing Riley Ann, and ultimately Riley Ann and the Coyote bidding the Old Man farewell.

1:46 p.m.- While I certainly struggle with comprehending the logistics of my shadow in the shots on Biggs during the first half, the rest of the scene is pretty seamless. It’s a bit of an emotional blur, as I attempt to maintain, or go in and out of, the state where Riley Ann has to be to start this fury. But I practice Terry’s advice of staying present only when I need to be as Gail, and protecting my mind, space, senses from the buzz around me inbetween takes.  We’ve done a lot of work to get to this place, and the story begins to carry itself just about here. At least for me and Coyote. It’s challenging for Biggs to play this tender moment against Coyote who at times simply cannot make eye contact (even if I could tell where he was looking from below the table) because of the frame needed on the back of Coyote’s head. But the work remains ever poignant and beautiful, and Coyote feels very triumphant with his performance, as well as the new skills he’s picked up on camera.We wrap the scene in good time.

3:15 p.m.-  Now’s our golden moment to capture the driving shot. With our last few hours of strong daylight, the gents head out to the field with drone in tow while I get costumed quickly for the first Riley Ann look. With a 21st century walkie-talkie system (iPhones), Sims crouches in the back of the Pick-Up while I master reversing down a semi-frozen dirt road in heels. After about the 8th take, I’m about ready to sign up as a stunt woman for the next Fast & Furious flick. Okay, not really, but it’s a lot of back and forth on about a quarter-mile of turf, I get pretty comfortable. Finally, we get a shot or two that seem useable and get cut for dinner.

6:03 p.m.-  Biggs skips the meal as he needs the hour or so we have to apply full body make-up for scene 10 in which the Old Man is caught dreaming, singing, and dancing naked under  the full moon (insert full moon pun here). When we get back I settle into my coziest costume, a set of hideous teacup p.j.’s. and lie down on a couch while Josh assembles the most gorgeous artificial moonlight through a lace curtain that I’ve ever experienced. Once settled in and rehearsed, as this scene takes a bit of combat choreography, we begin shooting the incredibly violent and upsetting piece. This scene is TRULY Coyote’s first appearance in the film, and it’s easy to feel how necessary a device the puppet/character is to our emotional little tale. While there are barely any words, very brief action, and a peaceful beginning and end to this moment in the story, it’s emotionally the most wrenching for me, Gail, on this journey. I don’t want to spoil too much, but in scene 10  the essence of the deterioration and redefinition of Father and Daughter is apparent in an instant, as is the necessity of the puppet device for both characters involved. If I were to pick one scene to sum up the story, I think it would be scene 10.

8:55 p.m.- Our second shadows-on-the-building shot has been scrapped. Rick feels he has enough from yesterday to make the piece work, and we have priorities to complete. Our final bit of filming for today is to get some footage of Coyote in front of a black screen called “Elements” footage which Rick will later lay on top of a shot or two that looks out the window. This will create an effect of Coyote staring into the window from outside. I quickly sew up the poor guy’s crooked mouth for his closeup while the guys set up the next shot.

9:28 p.m.- Blindly led through the most avant-garde element of this entire process, Coyote and I show off his tricks to Rick in front of the screen. By which I mean Rick quickly figures out a directing technique of guiding Coyote’s gaze in a rhythm and various directions to get the image he seeks. It’s pretty weird, wacky, cool stuff. Coyote rocks it, per usual.

10:03 p.m.- The day is a wrap! Wahoo! Final day of shooting is tomorrow. Early shot is planned at 7 a.m. so it’s off to bed I go.

What actually happened at 8 in the morning.
What actually happened at 8 in the morning. Feat. Robert Biggs as the Old Man
Josh and Rick set up scene 13.
Josh and Rick set up scene 13.
In the Zone to shoot scene 13
In the Zone to shoot scene 13
Cheeky Coyote Boy
Cheeky Coyote Boy