Survivor's Club: Together Again...in Misery.

There are a lot of days when we film in bad weather - days so hot your eyeballs feel like they're frying, days so cold your hands might fall off, and rain pouring so hard you could almost drown on set. Each month we'll remember one of those horrible weather days and celebrate the survivors who braved the elements in order to film.  Why would we want to remember those days?  Because going through hell on set has a way of bringing everyone closer together when they can say they survived mother nature AND filming on a Yibble set.

Together Again...in Misery!

The rainiest shoots occurred while filming for Pandora’s Box.  We shot several scenes from Together Again, Episodes 21-23, while it was pouring rain.  Why?  Cause I never cancel filming for a sensible reason if at all.  On one of the days we filmed the tavern scenes – most were inside, so that was good, but we needed to film the scenes arriving at the tavern and leaving it. It was pouring.  I’d try to describe it but you really just need a visual, so here you go:

See?  Pouring. Pour. Ing.  However, those were short scenes and the actors didn’t have to stand around outside for too long.  However, the day before (or was it the day after?  Whatever) we were filming at Busey Woods next to the Anita Purves Nature Center.

The day started out with gray skies and a good chance of rain was predicted for the afternoon, but I was hoping it would hold off until later.  It didn’t.  The first few scenes in the woods were fine, but by the time we filmed a fight scene with Edward and the extras it was drizzling. We kept filming, of course, because I never stop a shoot because of something little like bad weather (obviously since this is an actual category of it’s own).  We filmed several scenes in the rain and although I hoped it would lighten up it actually just got worse.  Some storms are just a heavy pour for ten or twenty minutes, then it clears up, but not that day.  It was a hard, steady rain for most of the afternoon.

I really should have called off the shoot, because the cast was miserable filming in a constant shower that varied from light to heavy but never really stopped.  It was the kind of day you wanted to be inside curled up with a blanket and a book, not filming outside by the woods. The idea that I could film in that much rain was crazy.  Clearly I was delugeinal.  When the actors asked how soon we’d be done I’d say “soon.  Monsoon.”  (Okay, I’ll stop the puns now. Just channeling my dad.)

There was another problem with filming in the rain – costumes.  I had not taken copious amounts of rain into account when I chose the costumes for the scene, of course, and although most of them weathered it okay there was the problem of white shirts on a few of the girls.  That was all extra kinds of no good, as those actresses will attest to.  Here's a story about that day from Annamarie MacLeod:

By the time everyone was so waterlogged they could have drowned in their own costumes, the rain had finally started easing up.  The last scene of the day to be filmed was in a different location and involved two characters fighting in a lake.  So I figured if it was raining for that scene, no biggie – they would be wet anyway.  Of course it had stopped raining by the time we filmed that scene and the storm had cleared off.  I had even made sure there was a good reason in the script for why a character who always wore white was wearing a dark colored shirt for that scene, but of course by that time she’s worn a white shirt drenched in rain for several hours.  Oh the irony!

During the shoot whenever the rain turned into deluge, the cast and crew sought shelter in the nearby Nature Center, which ended up causing problems.  Needless to say, the staff were not happy to have a large group of about ten people, who were soaking wet, tramping inside on at least three separate occasions and bringing lots of mud with them.  When we showed up the next day (which was sunny) to finish filmed scenes we hadn’t gotten to yet, we were kicked out of the park by the staff of the Nature Center.  I remember being really annoyed at the time (since I thought it was a public park and in CU you can film in a public park without having to ask permission), but looking back I totally get why they kicked us out.  And I feel bad now. 

Mostly I feel bad for the actors getting soaked, but not bad enough to have stopped the filming. I think have the cast ended up with a bad cold at the very least, although I don’t think anyone got pneumonia and I know that no one died, so that was good.  Have you ever tried to arrange an all day film shoot with 10-15 people, matching all their schedules up to find one day they can all be there for several hours?  It’s hard - really frickin’ hard!

To those who survived the flooded film set I thank you and salute you:

Rachel Anderson

Roger E.

Chris Hutchens

Annamarie MacLeod

Julia Mayfair

Virginia McCreary

Michael M.

Nathan M.

Diana Neatrour

Anna N.

Margaret Olson

Nina Samii

Edward Stasheff

Michael S.

Travis S.

Alex T.

Charles T.

Jen Weber

Kate Weber

Now I’m gonna go throw two of you in a lake, the rest can go home.  Here are some toasty towels fresh from the dryer, go dry off, change clothes, and drink some Echinacea tea so you don’t die from pneumonia.