Over Exposure
1
Overexposed
MAY 18, 1971
I NEVER IMAGINED that I would one day spend an entire night with Fran in my bed. She was, frankly, far more suited to a fuck in the back seat of the limo. Not that I had any difficulty having sex with her a few times that night. If anything, she was an energetic lover and kept me awake longer than I intended to be.
And pumping into her well-lubricated pussy was like scaling the Matterhorn and living to tell about it. It was both exhilarating and exhausting. I think the most disconcerting thing was lying flat on her and being held away by those artificially inflated boobs. They really didn’t move around much at all.
No matter what I might say about it, though, I genuinely liked Fran and I was excited for her success in this movie. She already had a contract to play a small but good role in an upcoming thriller, to be shot in Hollywood. It turned out that an actor I had photographed recently was also in the movie and I wondered how many strings my Fifi was pulling.
Fran had also signed an option for a sequel to Over Exposure, assuming the original was a success. She would play the same role, but it was a major part in the proposed new film. And Fran credited all this to taking her clothes off for a photographer on a first class flight to Los Angeles. She was determined to show the photographer how very much she appreciated meeting him and giving him a blow job in the lavatory.
“Every coincidence is a blessing in disguise,” she said. “A connection in the eternal web of our existence. I believe that good things happen because we put ourselves in the way of them happening.”
The clenching of her pussy muscles on my cock was definitely a good thing happening. I lost my load in the condom and she got me ready for another round.
Fran was joining several others preparing for the premiere in a spa day in Hollywood, where they would not have far to go for the limos to circle from the spa to the theater at Hollywood and Vine. A limo would pick up an actress or actor or couple at the spa and then drive them to the theater for their walk on the red carpet, then cycle back for another passenger. Not all, of course. Most were arriving in their own limos and a lot of the crew would simply be walking up to the entrance and presenting their passes.
I thought a Hollywood premiere was the opening of a new movie. Turns out that it isn’t that at all. It’s an opportunity for the glamour set in Hollywood to make an appearance and make appreciative noises in the audience. And critics sit there and prepare reviews that will run before the movie actually opens a couple of days later, probably in a different theater altogether. No one was actually buying a ticket for this event.
As usual, I’ve just jumped into the middle like you already know what’s going on. I should start back in August of 1970—nine months ago. You can’t really have a movie premiere unless it gets shot and edited and all that. We’d scarcely gotten back from Stratford and I was flying to LA to be there for the first day of filming.
Don’t ask me why. I had no idea what I could possibly contribute to a Hollywood movie production.
I’m Nate Hart. I’m a twenty-year-old photography student at Columbia College Chicago. Somehow, I’ve established a photography business with studios in Chicago and in Stratford, Ontario. We’d spent a very entertaining and profitable first summer at the Canada studio and raced back to Chicago in time for me to repack and leave for LA.
We. That would be my three girlfriends, my goddaughter, and me. Until a couple of weeks ago, I had four girlfriends, but Elizabeth had abused our mistress and I couldn’t tolerate her being around anymore. Nasty breakup, but I wasn’t sorry about it.
Ronda May is girlfriend number one, by longest continuous relationship. We shared a girlfriend in high school. Christine was the sweetest and most passionate girl I’d ever met. Ronda and I both loved her and in the course of loving Christine, we fell in love with each other, too. We thought that was going to be all there was to it—happily ever after. But Christine didn’t feel that way. She’d been harboring feelings of guilt over being a pervert for having a girlfriend and a boyfriend, and screwing around with a couple of other girls as well. As soon as she could move to college in August of ’68, she broke up with both Ronda and me and took off for Peoria. Cut off all contact. It was pretty heartbreaking for both Ronda and me, but Chris was determined to purge herself of perversion. She got married last June. We didn’t attend.
Ronda’s a brilliant student, studying International Relations at the University of Chicago. She transferred here from Boston last year because it was just too hard carrying on our long-distance relationship. She surprises me with the depth of her love and devotion daily. She really missed her girl-girl relationship, but she came to love Patricia and Anna and lately, they’ve all found ways to comfort each other physically. I think they’re actually enjoying it, too.
Patricia Kowalski is number two. She was my best friend’s wife until he was killed in action in Vietnam. At first, I was just comforting her over the loss of her husband. We’d been close ever since I moved to Tenbrook and I’d considered Tony my best friend. We shed a lot of tears over that and I took photos of her pregnancy progress every week. Somehow, comfort became passion and we ended up boyfriend and girlfriend. Now, she and Toni live in Chicago with me and with Ronda. I’m Little Toni’s godfather. Lately, I’ve noticed the two-year-old sometimes calls me Daddy. I don’t mind.
Anna Marx is number three, though she was my first girlfriend when I moved to Tenbrook in ’66. When she found out I was taking sexy pictures of girls in my studio, she broke up with me. But we stayed friends and worked together on the yearbook at school. She found out the condition my accounting was in and sort of moved into the studio to help get it in shape and make sure I was paying my taxes. And the more she hung around, the more like a girlfriend she became again. After our senior prom, we became lovers as well. Unfortunately, she’s going to school out in Rockford and only lives in the Chicago apartment with us on weekends.
It wouldn’t be fair of me not to mention our mistress, Adrienne. I’m still not sure how it happened, but she’d come as a model with a photo request from a guy who had paid an exorbitant amount for a couple of my pictures. She ended up a lover, but she lives in LA. And when she met the girlfriends, she became their lover, too.
That was what got Elizabeth and me into trouble. Adrienne is a submissive and gets off on a little pain. Beth took it to an extreme and beat her half to death. She’d been out of town half the time we’d been boyfriend and girlfriend, trying to make it as a comedienne. I was too mad at her to grieve over losing her as a girlfriend. Thank goodness, her parents are still friends with me.
The LA connection is convenient because I got recruited and hired as a consultant for a movie about a photographer. They wanted to pattern the photography after my style—I call it Attic Allure—but they didn’t want to tell my story—thank goodness. It’s pretty cool to get flown first class out to LA periodically to take pictures and to review the script or the shooting. In fact, I’m heading there the last week of August.
Damn! That’s today! I’m flying out Sunday, August 23 and back on August 29, just a week before my junior year in college starts on September 8, 1970. It’s going to be a busy year.
That brings you up to date on my life. We just got back to Chicago from our summer home in Stratford, Ontario, and I have to turn right around and leave again.
AUGUST 23, 1970
WE GOT TO THE APARTMENT in Chicago and were there barely long enough to air it out a little. I repacked for Los Angeles. Sunday morning, the girls took me to the airport and then went on to Tenbrook for the week. I boarded the plane and was seated in 2A. I looked, but it wasn’t Missy in the galley.
I kept the Nikon on my person as the stewardess took my hat and suitcoat. While others boarded, the stewardess offered me a mimosa, which I accepted. A guy in a business suit sat beside me and gave up his hat, but not his jacket. He passed on the mimosa and asked for a Johnny Walker. I wasn’t sure what that was, but when the little bottles arrived, I saw it was some kind of scotch whiskey. He poured it in his glass and tipped it back before it even had a chance to get cold on the ice.
He opened the second bottle and repeated the process.
“I hate this flying stuff,” he grumbled.
“I kind of enjoy the service,” I said.
“Just wait till we hit rough weather. There are storms over the Rockies and we’ll get bounced all the way to Mexico before we manage Los Angeles.”
“You must know the route pretty well,” I said.
“I watched the weather just before I boarded. Shouldn’t have. Don’t know why the company has to have me in LA for a meeting first thing Monday morning. Cuts into my weekend,” he said.
“I can appreciate that sentiment. I’m supposed to be on the soundstage at eight in the morning. I didn’t even know they worked that early in California,” I laughed.
Might as well make the best of it. It would be a long four hours if my seat companion was a nasty drunk. It seemed like his two drinks had just relaxed him, though.
“Soundstage? You’re an actor?”
“Oh, no. Just a consultant. I’m a photographer. They want production stills and character shots of the actors.”
“Really! I used to dabble in photography a little. No time these days. Too bad. We’ve been looking for a product photographer. Seems like we are always having to test out a new guy. You do product photography?” he asked.
“No. Mostly all portrait and glamour photos. I know a good product photographer in Chicago, though,” I said, thinking of Jim Lehman from my composition class.
“Really? I’d like the referral. You have his number?”
“I don’t have it with me. I can give you my card, though, and I’ll look up his info. He’s pretty new in the business and has been working out of Pro Color in Chicago while he gets established.” I dug in my pocket for a business card and handed it to him.
“Attic Allure,” he read. “Ontario, Chicago, and LA? You’ve got three studios? How many photographers do you have?”
“There are only actually studios in Ontario and Chicago,” I laughed. “LA, like I said, is soundstage work. It happens the set they’re using this week is a copy of my studio, so it will be like home. Otherwise, I’d be doing location work.”
He dug in a pocket to give me his business card and our stewardess, Candy, came around to offer us another drink. I asked for coffee, and after a pause to consider, my seatmate did the same. While we were talking, the plane had taken off and we were above the clouds. He finally found what he was looking for and handed me his card.
“Bill Harris,” he said, offering his hand.
“Nate Hart,” I answered. Candy arrived with our coffee and a sweet roll for each of us.
“You seem young to have so many irons in the fire, if I may say so,” he said.
“I am. You’re right about that. I guess I’ve just been in the right places at the right times,” I said.
“That’s a good attitude,” Bill said. “You take a professional ball player for example. He might be a Mickey Mantle, but if he doesn’t get to bat just when that fast ball is coming across the plate, he’s nobody and gets traded to the minors. People underestimate how much of success is being in the right place at the right time. But when you’re in that place, you still need the talent to capitalize on it.”
“I’ve met some pretty incredible people along the way,” I said. “An uncle showed my pictures to a camera pro. He wanted to see what I could do with a better camera. The pro showed the pictures to some people who had money and they stepped up to back me. My life is full of things like that happening to me.”
“Don’t underestimate your own role in making them happen,” Bill said. “You know that if the photos weren’t good, your uncle wouldn’t have shown them, or if he had, the camera guy wouldn’t have been interested. Even then, if you weren’t producing consistently good images, the backers wouldn’t have stepped up. It speaks well for you that you produce something that gets these people excited about it.”
“Sometimes I feel like I’m just along for the ride,” I laughed. “But what a great ride!”
We had a companionable chat all the way to LA. The predicted turbulence over the Rockies proved to be pretty minor. Bill forgot about ordering another drink. The food, as always, was great. He promised to give me a call for Jim’s phone number.
When we got off the plane, I was surprised and delighted to see Adrienne waiting to pick me up. When she greeted me with a big kiss, I heard Bill breathe, “Definitely the right place at the right time.”
“What would you like this evening, my master?” Adrienne asked in the limo as we were driven to her apartment.
“It would be nice to have a relaxing night in front of the fire, but I suppose it’s a little warm in LA for a fireplace,” I laughed. I’d been trying to decide if there was a way we could add a fireplace to our home in Stratford. It would extend the pleasantness of the season by at least a month on either side.
“I could probably find a picture of a fireplace,” Adrienne laughed. “Or I could be your warm and cuddly blaze.”
“I think we hit on a solution to the problem. Can we just order something to be delivered for dinner?”
“I’ll tell Samuel to get us sandwiches from the deli. Pastrami?”
“Perfect. And if he can get it, I’d like some ice cream and chocolate syrup.”
“Oh, my dear master, I have that in my freezer just for you.”
We had a relaxing time at Adrienne’s apartment. I called my girls at Anna’s house where they were camping out for the night. Anna reminded me that I should check Adrienne’s wounds from the beating, which I intended to do as soon as I could get her undressed.
We ate and shortly thereafter, I did get her undressed. While we kissed and loved, I inspected every bit of her body.
“Master?”
“There is still a mark here that has not healed completely,” I said. “Give me your cream and let me rub it in.”
“Yes, master. It will fade. That was the deepest of the cuts and took a while to heal. It will go away. I promise,” she said anxiously.
“Honey, I don’t care about what you promise. I promised. No permanent marks. Every time I see these, I get angry.”
“Oh, master, please. I hope you can forgive Beth and continue to love her.”
“There are three different issues there, Fifi. I don’t know how to stop loving her, but that just makes what she did hurt more. We broke up. She left us with her apologies and admitted that our family just wasn’t right for her,” I said. “As to forgiveness… Reverend Mother Superior summed it up: If you can’t forget, you can’t forgive. Maybe one day, I’ll forget what she did to you and then I won’t worry about forgiving.”
“I am so sad to have brought this on your family,” Adrienne sobbed.
“No, my Fifi. You did not bring this on us. As I have found from other breakups, the final reason isn’t usually the reason at all. It’s something else entirely. Honestly? I think Beth was feeling trapped by a decision she made in the heat of the moment. She thought she would be in college for four years and I would be her college boyfriend. She didn’t expect to have the opportunity to go on tour before her sophomore year, or to be invited back to Vegas to perform that spring, or to be opening on Broadway in two weeks before her junior year would have begun. Having even an exclusive boyfriend in Chicago would have been too much for her, let alone sharing a boyfriend with three other girlfriends and an incredibly sexy pet. Come here, my pet. I want to pet you all over.”
Adrienne let the topic drop and we spent the next hour making love before we got up to have ice cream and chocolate.
I had far more equipment on this trip than on any before. I had all three cameras, their lenses, film carriers for the 4x5, both Pan-X and Ektachrome film, and three tripods. The tripods were packed in a duffle bag, but Dave in Stratford had found me a couple of good Zero Halliburton aluminum camera cases. I figured most of my black and white work would be with the Hasselblad, while I’d be shooting standard color transparencies with the Nikon. Standard for me now was Ektachrome. It was just too undependable to have access to enough light for Kodachrome. I loved its fine-grain characteristics, but 35ASA needed halogen or carbon arc lighting.
I’d use either black and white or Ektachrome sheets in the Linhof, depending on what was appropriate. I loved the color work I was doing with it, but I also loved the black and white prints the camera produced. Though I shot fewer photos with it than with either of the other two cameras, the photos were fantastic.
Samuel came up to help carry the equipment down to the limo at seven in the morning. This time schedule was almost like being in school again. Adrienne had packed a bag for us as well. She said I could dress down during the day because I’d be working as a professional photographer. The evening would require nicer clothes. She chose black slacks, a black T-shirt, and my gray blazer for the daytime. I wasn’t sure what she’d packed for the evening. I had visions of working around the clock.
The soundstage was a different one than we’d worked at for screen tests. It was larger and there were already two sets on it. My equipment was loaded onto a cart and I was told not to touch the cart. That was a union job and the guy followed us into the massive soundstage. The studio set, I was told, would be the primary set used during the beginning of the shoot. Interestingly, they were jumping right in with most of the nude scenes, which took place in the studio.
The other set was a kind of standard kitchen and living room like you’d see on almost any sitcom or soap opera. In fact, I wasn’t sure but what it was from a sitcom. It looked almost familiar.
There was almost nothing for me to do for the first two hours we were there. I snapped a lot of pictures with the Nikon, but the rest of my equipment remained on the trolley with the grip guarding it. It looked like that was his job assignment for the day.
The actors were still in makeup. Twenty or thirty people on cameras and lighting and sound were moving equipment around the set to determine the best angles. I got a glance at a shooting script and it looked nothing at all like the script I’d read.
It had several columns with the ‘shots’ numbered for Day one. Each shot had a column describing what the camera would see and/or how it would move. Then there was a column with the script/audio that would be in that shot. There was a column indicating what props were needed and a column for the setting. The most confusing thing was that the scenes weren’t in the order they’d be shown in the movie. To read the shooting script, you’d never know what the movie was about.
All this was explained to me by Geraldine Norman, a nice woman about forty years old, if I was to guess. She explained a little of what was going on.
“I’m the script supervisor. We appear in the credits down toward the end of the production crew,” she said. “Truth is, they’d never sort out all the film when it came time to edit without me. My responsibilities include making sure the clapper has the right information on it and it’s spoken clearly for the audio. I’ll get a reading about the footage on the tape recorder before we clap and after the director yells cut. I need to make sure any changes the director or writer make on the fly, or ad libs an actor makes, are recorded in the script. That way, if we need to come back for a cutaway, we know exactly what the audio is.”
“It sounds like you have an impossible job!” I said as Adrienne and I settled into chairs that had our names stenciled on the backs.
“I have a couple of assistants who will be charged with watching and recording specific things, like the number of takes, and little details like the axis of action.”
“What’s the axis of action?” I asked.
“If you imagine a line running from one character to another in a scene, the camera will be on one side or the other of that line. If we come back to shoot a closeup of one of the actors later, it has to be from the same side of the axis. There are a very few movies that use jumping the axis as a dramatic technique, usually by rotating around one actor from left to right, but mostly, directors follow the cardinal rule of not jumping the axis.”
“I had no idea this was so complicated.”
“That brings me to the first task I have for you. The first scenes we are shooting, as you see from my script, are in the studio with Joe photographing Myrna. That’s Lyle and Jayden as the actors. The director has indicated the left side as we look at it here as the camera side of the axis. The scene will open looking over Lyle’s left shoulder at Jayden. There will be a couple of lines and then the camera will switch focus from Jayden to the photographer’s lens. We need you to check the camera and make sure it’s in focus and ready to shoot,” Geraldine said.
“Okay. I see,” I said.
She led me to the setting and I looked at the camera. It was identical to mine. I couldn’t believe they just went out and bought a Linhof for the movie. Or maybe there was a place they could rent one. I opened the back of the camera and looked through the ground glass. Of course, the image was upside down on the glass. I tinkered a little and thought I had it about right.
“Adrienne? Could you give me a hand, love?”
She hurried to me and I positioned her on the stool, then returned to the camera to fuss with it.
“Geraldine, is the distance here set in stone? This would look better if we moved the camera and tripod forward about four feet.”
“Grip!” Geraldine called. “We need the tripod forward four feet. Keep it exactly on the same axis.”
“I could move it,” I said.
“No! We’d have a general walkout if you moved scenery or props. It’s a union shop.”
“Oh! I see.”
“Now how does it look?”
“I can focus, right?”
“Yes. But thank you for asking.”
I adjusted the focus and the bellows, then stepped away. Geraldine glanced at it and had the grip measure the exact distance from the stool to the tripod. Adrienne returned to her chair beside me.
“I don’t know for sure. It might not have been legal for me to use you to focus on,” I whispered.
“I have a card. We need to get you registered before the day is over. I’ll have Chrystal work on it,” Adrienne said, making a note on her own steno pad.
“Card?”
“Union card. You won’t be a full member right away, but you’ll have the right to work at a basic level. Like moving props.”
“Thanks. I think.”
Reg, Jayden, and Lyle appeared from the dressing rooms and headed for the stage. Reg gave them whispered instructions and they went to their places.
“Focus rehearsal,” Another guy called out.
It was a pretty complex shot when it was all set up. The camera was looking past Lyle’s left ear at Jayden, then it pulled back to focus on the ground glass in the back of the camera. He was pretty smooth. They did it three times before they said they were ready.
“Ready to shoot. Places everyone!” the guy called out. Adrienne whispered to me that he was the assistant director.
Jayden leaned back on the stool and shrugged her left shoulder out of her robe so it fell below her breast. Wow! Starting right at the hot stuff. Lyle took his position slightly to the right of the Linhof so the movie camera could see the ground glass over his shoulder.
“Sound!”
“Speed!”
“Camera!”
“Rolling.”
“Slate it!”
The clapper took his place and read out the movie name, director, shot number, scene number and ‘Take one!’ He clapped the board and stepped out of the way.
“And action!” Reg called. The actors waited a beat and then Jayden started.
“Are you sure this is okay, Joe?” Myrna, Jayden’s character, asked. I finally saw how they were framing the shot. It started with a close-up of Myrna’s face, then as the camera pulled back, she went into soft focus, so you could only really see her nudity upside down on the ground glass.
“Baby, this is just perfect. You look fabulous. And it’s only for you and me. You don’t have a thing to worry about.” Then he clicked the shutter on the camera.
“Cut!” Reg yelled. “That’s real good. I think we’ll see exactly what is going on. Now Jayden, honey, I need you to sound a little more anxious about this. Joe has just pulled your robe aside to expose you like no one but your husband has seen you before. You need to give me a smile, but it should be weak.”
Then he walked over to Lyle.
“Joe, you lying son-of-a-bitch. You know very well you have buyers for her picture. Lay it on a little thicker.”
Reg turned to address the whole crew.
“Good first take. Issues?”
“There’s a shadow on Myrna’s left shoulder. We need to adjust a fill light,” a guy up on a catwalk called.
“Get it done. Jayden, honey, hold the position for the nice guys who light you. Camera?” Reg asked.
“I think I can be smoother on that. Lyle needs to move just another inch to the right so I can get a clear view of the camera lens.”
“Okay. We can handle that as long as you’ve got his silhouette in the opening when Jayden speaks. Anything else?”
“Am I permitted to say something?” I asked.
“Nate! You were so quiet I didn’t even see you there. Yes. That’s why you’re here. What did we miss?”
“The camera doesn’t work that way. Joe can’t take a picture with the gate open and no film in the camera.”
“He doesn’t have to actually take a photo,” Reg said. “As long as it looks like he does.”
“That’s the problem. You see this slot? The film carrier goes into it. Once the film carrier is in place, the ground glass goes dark and you close the gate. Then you can take the picture. In the odd case that an actual photographer sees the movie, they’d shoot that down right away,” I said.
“We’re using that bit as a repeating motif as he takes pictures. What would it look like to do what you’re describing? Do we need to replot the whole motif?”
“If you can go with the screen just going black, there’s a nice satisfying click when the film carrier is inserted,” I said. “I wouldn’t usually put it in until I closed the gate, but it could go in first.”
“What would that look like? Can you show me?”
“Do you have a film carrier?”
“Props?”
“We can get one. We thought all we needed was the camera since he isn’t actually taking pictures.”
“Not to worry, I have one. Um… If I can get into my case.”
It took a moment to show the grip on my trolley which case I needed to open and once he had it off the cart, I was free to move it and open it. I got back to the camera and checked the lens setting since I actually had film loaded.
“Okay,” Reg said. “Jayden, give us your yummy pose, please?”
I had the impression they were using any excuse to keep Jayden’s boobs exposed. I couldn’t object. They were really nice. We set up the shot and Lyle watched carefully. The camera pulled back and I slotted the carrier in. It makes a very satisfying click when it drops into place. As long as I was there, I closed the gate, pulled the shield, and snapped the picture. Jayden was still in her pose and I don’t think she even realized I’d taken a picture. I put the shield back in place and pulled the carrier.
“I don’t see why that won’t work,” Reg said. “How do you feel about it, Dom?”
“I think it works better than clicking the shutter. We were going to do post-processing to black out the screen when it was shot.”
“Okay, Let’s try it,” Reg said.
“Give me half a minute to pull the film from this carrier so we don’t get any accidental exposures. They’re expensive.”
I rushed to my dark bag and put a film envelope in it to receive the two sheets I’d just exposed. Then I took the empty carrier to Lyle and made sure he remembered how to insert it. I opened the gate and checked the focus, then stepped back to my seat beside Adrienne.
“Did you take it?” she whispered.
“Twice. I think it will be great.”
They slated the scene again and shot take two. Then takes three, four, and five. They finally agreed they had this one right and everyone took a break while the grips changed the setting for shot two.
That’s the way the day went. At least food was served at lunch and in the afternoon for the crew. At seven o’clock, and the end of shot eight, Reg called an end to the day. The last few had gone faster, but there were scene changes between each of them. With the scene change, there was a lighting change. Jayden was the only one of the actresses I recognized. Lyle was a constant with each of them and there were a couple of scenes where he was actively with the actress, seducing her. There were other cameras involved as he freely petted and stripped his models before going to the camera for the zoom and shoot motif.
These actresses were obviously there for the sex. Jayden had been comparably tastefully displayed compared to a couple of the girls who were splayed out on a bed or a sofa, or against a different kind of backdrop.
The thing was that I recognized some of the poses. These guys had bought prints of nearly everything we shot in Las Vegas the year before, and were setting up the models in the exact same poses. They were doing a pretty good job of it.
Adrienne and I went into an empty dressing room and changed clothes for dinner. When we emerged, Chrystal was waiting for us.
“Have a fun day?” she asked.
“It was very interesting.”
“Well, we won’t work you in the soundstage tonight, but tomorrow night, I’ll whisk you away for an early dinner so you can come back and actually do some photography. Anything to process from today?”
“I did take a couple,” I said. “They’re 4x5 Ektachrome transparencies. I’d like to get an 8x10 Cibachrome print of each.”
“Couriers are just getting ready to leave. Let me get it marked and over to them.”
When she got back, she took us out to the limo, and my trolley grip rolled my equipment out and put it in the limo. Then we headed to the restaurant where Reg, Bert, and Frank were waiting for us.
“I thought we might not see you on this trip,” I said in the limo.
“Oh, I live in Vegas and didn’t get in until this afternoon. When Adrienne said she’d pick you up at the airport, all I had to do was get a limo for you and then come over this afternoon.”
“Nate needs a union card,” Adrienne said. “He can be registered as an apprentice grip, but at least then he can move his camera equipment around.”
“Is that what was going on with the porter? Got it. I’ll arrange everything and he should have it before the day is over tomorrow,” Chrystal said.
“So, what’s this evening all about?” I asked.
“Debrief on what went well and what went poorly. They have the stats regarding how long it took for each shot. These were all pretty easy and a lot of them are potential throwaways if we need to cut. It was mostly to get the team working together and work out any obstacles.”
“And they need me why?”
“I heard you made some significant contributions today. Nate, you have to understand and accept that these guys value your opinion. Especially regarding Lyle’s character, which is why every scene today included him.”
“Okay. I’ll go with it.”
It was a small group. Chrystal said she’d see us after dinner and went into a different part of the restaurant. Adrienne and I met Bert, the writer, Reg, the director, and Frank, the producer. This time, I accepted a martini before dinner and we all toasted the first day of production.
“Well, let’s order food first and then get right into it,” Frank said. We got food orders out of the way and sat with our drinks waiting for someone to start. “Okay, top level assessment, Reg.”
“Top level, as good as any first day of shooting I’ve had on a film. We stacked the deck, though. Five of the women we shot are extras we’ll use for filler to show that Joe actually does talk a lot of women out of their clothes. We learned a lot about the tech side of actually operating the camera, thanks to Nate. We should have thought to have someone come in and teach Lyle the basics, at least. Bert?”
“There’s no real script notes to speak of. In seduction scenes, we’re bound to get some ad libs. He’s pawing her boobs; she’ll probably say something. I’d like to know what Nate thinks of the characterization,” Bert said. They turned to me.
“Um… It’s a little hard to tell, since I think the longest scene today was about forty-five seconds. It feels like you’re building the empire State Building out of Lincoln Logs. It’s hard to imagine enough of them to actually reach that high,” I said.
“No feeling for what you saw developing with Joe overall, though? You saw him in six short cuts,” Frank said.
“I can only give the impression I have of him. He’s not very nice.”
“He’s a seducer and a murderer,” Bert jumped in. “He can’t be very nice.”
“But he’ll never succeed if no one likes him. I mean succeed with all those women. He treats them like rags to wipe his feet with. If he went into an unscripted session with one of those women and treated her like that, she’d walk out on him—or maybe call the police. He can seduce them, but he has to be nice about it.”
I could see Bert start to object, but he just put his hand on his forehead and sighed.
“It’s not the script, Bert,” Reg said. “I let him get away with that. I need to direct him into a different attitude. That’s a good point, Nate. You’re a nice guy. You get a lot of girls. If you were an asshole, no girls. I get it.”
“Do you think we need to reshoot today?” Frank asked.
“No. The dialog was really incidental,” Bert said. “If we watch for the attitude showing up, we can make it a silent piece, can’t we Reg?”
“Yes. I think I can salvage even these scenes. I’ll want to look at the rushes, but I know where to take tomorrow’s scenes,” Reg said. “It will be a good day for developing the characters of Joe and Myrna. I’ll do some work with them before we ever turn the cameras on.”
They continued through sheets of paper indicating how many takes had been required for each shot and how long it took. They analyzed the cost and set goals for what they wanted to achieve next. They asked my opinion a couple of times and asked Adrienne about what she saw. She said she thought I dressed better than Joe.
I pushed back a little and lit my pipe. Adrienne pushed her chair up next to mine and leaned against me as they ordered another round of drinks. They asked me how my summer had been and what I was doing up in Stratford. It seemed I was mostly getting jobs for my friends, but I took some good pictures, too.
Eventually, we were allowed to leave. Chrystal picked us up and I dozed on Adrienne’s shoulder as she and Chrystal talked about the schedule for the week. Something about needing meals catered to the soundstage so I could work late.
I would definitely be working on Tuesday. Reg started the day working with Lyle on his interpretation of the role. Geraldine asked me to please set up for shooting stills before or after takes. We decided that 35mm slides would be best for production shooting.
Jayden arrived from the dressing room at the same time my package arrived from the lab. In it were two transparencies and two 8x10 Cibachromes of Jayden.
“Oh, my god! When did you take these?” she demanded.
“These are literally what Joe saw through the camera lens. When we were rehearsing, I had film in the carrier, so I took the shot just as Reg called ‘cut.’ You’re really beautiful, Jayden. No wonder Joe wants to get it on with Myrna,” I said.
“The damned robe kept sliding open farther each time,” she said. “If we’d rehearsed that one more time, the short hairs would be showing. I like this, though. Can I get a print of that one?”
“I have to ask my PA what the rules are. I think technically these belong to the company,” I said.
“Maybe we could arrange a private session and you could show me how a real pro talks a girl out of her clothes,” Jayden suggested.
“Nate has a slot open this evening if you aren’t too tired to pose for him,” Adrienne said. She had an appointment book open and was keeping a log of all my hours.
“I think I’ll be able to do that,” Jayden said. “I reserve the right to cancel if they really exhaust me today. I don’t expect that, though.”
“You’ll need a wardrobe that is not associated with the show,” Adrienne said. “If the clothes are the ones you wear in the movie, the pictures belong to the production company.”
“Oh, clever. What about the set and all the scenery?”
“Nate has clearance with one grip who will supervise changing the backdrops and setting the studio lights. Nate will have his union apprentice card by this evening, so he’ll be able to move props and help with the backdrops. None of the movie lights will be used. We even have a different stool, so the camera and stool from the production will be cleared from the stage. Don’t worry, Nate, I have some alternate furniture we can use without using anything that’s in the movie.”
“Adrienne, did you set all this up?” I asked.
“I had Chrystal’s help over the past couple of weeks. She negotiated with the production company. The company will want to purchase some shots from you for publicity, but mostly your work for them will be between the shooting of scenes during the day,” Adrienne said.
“I guess you have the word,” I said to Jayden.
“Lovely,” she responded.
Please feel free to send comments to the author at devon@devonlayne.com.
