That is, until

Someone pointed out that we could VERY CAREFULLY hook it up to a car battery.

But first, imagine this scene taking place....

You've spent however long getting all the last details ready: Setting the monitor up. Lugging stuff in from the cars. Preparing the exposure and white balance on the camera. Hanging curtains. Fiddling with the window shutters. Radio-ing back to the house "can you please bring ___?" Do we tie back the curtains (with invisible duct tape) or leave them down? It's overcast--not enough light will come through the window--not even enough to look like moonlight. Where is the fog machine? No that's not a purple box--the fog machine is in a purple box. Still working on white balance. The light inside is too bright--we need to find a better diffuser. Don't trip over the chords!! Yep we're still shooting it from this direction and then from over there and then... Laying linens on the floor to cut down on echo. Yes we're shooting it from over here. It's raining (again). We don't have enough wind to make the curtains blow--looks like we'll need a fan--how do we get one out there? Radio back: Yeah, can you bring the fan with you? Dealing with audio interference. Choking over the fog (but many thanks to JC who used Vanilla-scented fog and spared us the added torment of the regular stuff). What exactly do we write on the clapboard? Do we really need a fan? The wind is blowing now. Where is _____? Evan (actor number one) arrives with the rest of crew. The wind has stopped. Naylor sets up a light outside the window--it's so believable that the folks inside think the sun came out! Ok, so the white board is written on--what do we use to clap? Make-up!! Yes get the fan out there. Evan tries to concentrate The Assistant Director (AD) reminds everyone of the time. We need an umbrella for that light outside--it's still raining. Use dolly shims for clappers. WHERE IS THE MARKER?!! The BTS cams won't stop down far enough to expose properly inside--what is wrong?? Almost ready to roll. Doin' good. Other actor will be here any minute...

Flicker, sputter, dark and quiet.

Hmm. Let's try that again. "What happened out there? Why'd you unplug us?" "We didn't." Ok, up and running again. Continuing. John, can you turn the light up a little? Never mind, down. Good. "Sunlight" went away. Restart the battery. Test the audio. Continue working. Monitor goes out. "What's up with the battery? How long is it supposed to last?" "Several hours under a full load." "We're not even pulling a full load." Hmm. running again. Fan for the window curtains goes out. John Vines inspects the battery. Try again. It quits.

What to do? Pray.

Now imagine, your second and very important actor arrives along with extended family (we knew they were coming and were looking forward to seeing them!)...and there is no way you can shoot. But he's costumed-up and ready to go. Talk about pressure!! The room you're about to film in is way too dark without the extra lights. Power is at zero. People are still scurrying around and racking their brains to come up with a solution. Calls to our sound tech (the Snake Slayer who is at home in DFW recovering from his snake bite) have been made, but he doesn't know what's wrong either. The battery should be charged already. We've tried everything and still can't get it to pull even a small power load.

Actor number two points out that we could VERY CAREFULLY hook it up to a car battery....

Which we do. And to make a long story short, while VERY CAREFULLY using the car battery, we were able to get enough electricity to power ONE take at a time. Then we'd shut everything down until we were ready to roll again. Then we'd radio for the power to be turned on again, but we'd immediately turn off the lights, and just send the juice to the fog machine so it could warm up and get going. When the room was sufficiently re-fogged, the AD or Director would call for quiet on the set, we'd flip on the lights, call for "marker" (what we came to call the white board) and clapper, roll and action! Soon as Matt said "Cut!" we'd radio out for the power to be disconnected. We'd regroup and do it all over again.

Kind of choppy, but we got a real system down! Went like clock-work! Grace and creativity for problem solving once again! Thank the Lord!! The DP and Director were satisfied with the takes, and we finished just in time for our wonderful second actor to go on to his other commitments.

Many thanks to John V and Matt S and whoever else helped man the battery. Thank the Lord for keeping us safe, too--we weren't keen on an explosion at the cabin. On the battle field would have been fine, but that wasn't to be shot until Monday. And neither cars or batteries were period, anyway.

It was decided to just shoot one more scene that required only Evan, then pack up for the day. Plenty of work was done back at the house, I'm sure. Several of us went searching for an Internet connection so we could update the blog and get some other work done. We found our beloved 50's hot spot. After working for a good while, taking pictures, talking on the phone with some other Christian filmmakers about what God was doing through their project, and telling the folks back "home" to go ahead with dinner, we headed back for a planning meeting and to celebrate Rachel's birthday!

I have no clue what time we went to bed that night. Whatever it was, we got up early enough the next morning...

And here's a picture of JC for you. From Sunday, I believe.


-Kayleen for DCFM