Chasing Daylight

“Today was one of the greatest, most miserable days of my life.”
The classic eloquence of Micah Kafka rings true. This weekend, sleep was scarce, clean clothing a luxury I didn’t have, and, with no clue what my actual purpose as second unit assistant director was supposed to be, I was mostly just making it up as I went along. For all the questions and uncertainties however, this weekend was a great lesson in what it takes to direct on a film set. I was privy to the tensions and stresses that came from people working on the first unit all day, and then saw the inexorable increase in efficiency once Kafka and I moved in and lightened things up a bit. Sunday, Micah directed all day with a splitting migraine as well, hence the miserable part of his greatest day. We had to pull some of our friends in at the last minute to fill roles, but I’m glad because my friends just happen to be some absolutely incredible actresses and actors. Who knows what we would have been left to work with if the originals cast had showed up?


Micah Kafka discusses the scene with Kari and Ramsey

Plus it was just plain old fun seeing my friend underneath a bookcase after simulating an earthquake. Kari is just flat out a great actress. There were even live sparking wires above the bookshelf, but you can’t seem them in this picture.


Kari Miller, under bookshelf

It was an interesting weekend. At some point soon, I’ll have to explain to you why Saturday night was the quintessential guerilla filmmaking experience… but for now I’m going to hold out and see if Micah doesn’t blog about it first.

Kari, Kira, Christyn, Tash, Micah, Brian, and Dap, ya’ll are all awesome. People are beginning to get the impression that Pepperdine turns out pretty damn good film/tv students… that certainly doesn’t hurt.




I couldn’t help but think that this weekend was something of a vision of things to come.