07.13.07 - we film Mathilda's tarot card scene

Pictured above:

Heidi Van Horne as Angel

Armando LeDuc as Dee

Victoria Charters as Mathilda

It has not escaped my attention that we are filming my tarot card scene on Friday 13^th. Charlie Brown orchestrator of mayhem!
Since we have time today, Heidi and I hang out and rehearse in the am and then in the afternoon we go out to the quarter – I want to interview one of the fortune teller’s in Jackson Square and we trot off with my laptop in hand to see who we can find to talk to. So we sit down with a reader named Sharon Murphy and she permits is to interview her, which is very cool and we ask her questions about how she came to be a tarot card reader and what she does and what it is like to work out there in Jackson Square.
Call time for cast is 6pm. Jason picks us up. Heidi and I have the usual actor panic packing our props, costumes and make up and hoping not to forget anything!
For Mathilda, I bring my ancestors to the set with me. I have the tarot cards my aunt gave me when I was 16. My grandmother’s turquoise ring and my mother’s lapis ring.
We film in a tent out back of Caffea Coffee Shop. They’ve dressed it to look like a fortune tellers tent. Armando has to leave for work by 8pm so we get his shot off and then when it is time for my reverse Charlie reads Armando’s lines for him. Around the fourth take we get the one that everyone says – “we got it”! Whew! And we move on to Heidi and my scene in the tent. This is a really tricky scene – it is full of mechanics and lines that were a challenge to learn. It is ten pages long … Talking to Charlie about it later, he says we booked it and it runs only 4 or five minutes. So it plays out fast. Charlie was attempting some fancy camera moves, but couldn’t get the result he wanted - so we end up shooting it differently from as planned – Heidi and I have been rehearsing and researching since we got here, so were are solid, she’s great to work with – it doesn’t feel like we nailed it on any one take, but Charlie assures us that he has the footage he needs to cut the scene together. We are wrapped by 1.30am- not bad!