Guest Blogger: Kay Panabaker Pt. 3

YAY! My finals are over, so I'm back to blog! I'm getting so excited - it's next weekend that I'm coming to Calgary! I have so many plans for when I'm there! Obviously I can't wait to screen the film to any of you who've been good enough to read what I'm blogging (I hope you'll introduce yourself and tell me you read along? or else I'll think I'm blabbering on for nothing!) and to see everybody who worked on it (some of them are traveling in, too - from Vancouver, from Edmonton...) but I'm also going to get to ride "Checkers" again!

My character in the film, a girl named Moondance, makes a special friend in Checkers, a pinto pony. Neither of them has been able to achieve their full potential and both are a little restless, so finding each other gives them the opportunity to achieve new things. There are other girls in the film who ride beautiful, well-bred horses, but you don't get the sense that they really enjoy each other the way that Moondance and Checkers do. When we see the other girls on their horses it's more like a business relationship - they work together. When you see Moondance and Checkers, you can just tell (I hope - you tell me after you see the film) that they have fun together. And that's why I'm so anxious to get back to Calgary - I really loved those horses!

I've been asked specifically what a day on the set was like. I have no idea who's reading this, so I'll try to write it as though it's for someone who's never been on a set - I hope that won't bore you. Because we were from out of town (I live in Los Angeles) we stayed in a hotel, and the production would send someone to pick us up every morning - usually Kim, who (because she had to leave her house to pick us up in the morning and go home after dropping us off at night) got less sleep than I did but always managed to be bright and cheerful! I think one of my earliest pick-ups on this film was 5:15 AM - but the weird thing is that it was already light outside at that hour!

Once we arrived on set, we'd go to "base camp", where all the trailers are kept. In my trailer would be the clothes I was supposed to wear in the first scene we were shooting (sometimes I'd have to change clothes (and hairstyles!) 5 or six times if we did a lot of different scenes) so I'd get dressed in that outfit and head to the hair and makeup trailer. That was fun, because we'd play great music, and Debbie and Cathy (I'm including a photo) and I talked, and laughed, and commiserated when things were tough. Also at base camp is the catering trailer, and I got a hot breakfast every morning (usually eaten while I was getting my hair and makeup done, because there wasn't time to sit down and eat like a normal person, at a table!).

L-R Lori, who played my mom (we'd worked together before and it was so great to play her daughter in this, because she's such a great mom to her own kids and I already loved her from our work together in "Summerland", that it took very little acting on my part to pretend to have a close relationship with her!) Debbie (who did my makeup) Doug (who, along with Laurette, was a Canadian producer who took care of everything and was responsible for most of the incredible crew - so I'm really grateful to both of them!) me, and Cathy (who did my hair, and who, along with Debbie, earned the nicknames "Puff and Comb" from Don - powder puff for makeup, comb for hair). I'm going to see them all soon, and can't wait!

On most projects, you start the day with a rehearsal, where you get to practice before they start filming. On this one, though, we rarely had time. We had a lot to get done, so the crew set up the scene and by the time I got to "the set" (which could have been a stable, or a dirt road, or a city street - whatever you see on the screen) it was time to go! You shoot a scene several times. First the "master" shot, which is pretty much all the action shot from far away (so that you can see everything at one time) then you shoot it again closer up - and maybe another time even closer. And you shoot it from several angles. If it's a scene with 3 characters, you might shoot each character by themselves, then two of them together, then maybe two different ones together - and if you have a scene with a lot of people, one scene can take all day! Here's 2 behind-the-scenes photos to help illustrate: the first one is a "master" - you can see everything going on. Just left of center is the camera (it's gray and black, and it's partially blocked by a tree and people) and I'm to the right of that on a ladder (under an umbrella so I wouldn't get any more sun - it makes the makeup artist's job tough if some days you're pale and other days you have sunburn and other's you're tan). Just right of the ladder is a big white sheet of fabric used to "bounce" the light, in this case onto the faces of the mean girls. This is a scene with 3 people - Moondance and 2 mean girls, all on horses. In this photo, they're getting ready to shoot just the mean girls, so I'm not in the shot. They put me on the ladder because when the girls are looking at and talking to Moondance they're all on horseback, and this way I'm at the same height as the girls during our conversation - it's to give them the right "eye-line", meaning where they look when saying their lines. (Sometimes someone on a set will yell "Clear the eye lines!", meaning crew members or extras or anyone else standing around should move so that the actors can't see them. Good to know if you ever visit a set.)
The next photo shows me more up close on the ladder. That's how the shooting day works - you start wide and go "in tighter", getting closer in on some things and cropping other things out of the shot.

So that's the majority of the day. If we were shooting more than one scene in a day (on the day shown in those ladder pictures, we did 3 scenes - it was our last day of shooting, and I remember trying so hard not to cry when we were done (and failing!), because I was afraid I'd never see the crew members again, and I liked them all so much!) then when we finished one scene, I'd rush back to base camp to change clothes, change hair and makeup, and then hurry to the next set to shoot the next one. Once in the morning and once in the afternoon "craft service" (the people who provide food all day for everyone to snack on) would bring around something more substantial than the usual junk food (sodas, candy bars, etc.) like sandwiches or soup. People visiting a film set for the first time are always shocked at the concept of craft service - there's a table full of snack food available all day long, with fresh fruit and veggies, pastries, cheese and crackers, and other goodies appearing sporadically through the day. But when you're shooting in the middle of nowhere (literally - on this film we'd be in the middle of a field somewhere - no electricity, no bathrooms, no houses as far as you could see) there's no water fountain, no vending machine, and the crew in particular is doing hard work and heavy lifting, with no time for a "coffee break", so having that snack food on hand is a necessity, so that they can grab it (or have someone grab it for them) and go. Usually about 7 or 8 hours after we'd started, catering served lunch. It was great - 3 choices of main dishes, veggies, salads, lemonade to drink, and some awesome dessert. As I said in my last blog, at lunch time I'd practice riding with the Kirk and TJ the horse wranglers, who were also my riding coaches (although I'm not sure they got paid for both jobs?) so everyone was kind enough to let me go through the lunch line first, eat quickly, then saddle up.

So after lunch we'd shoot another 7 hours of so - more of the same. The great thing about this film was that if I had some time to myself (sometimes there'd be a scene I wasn't in, or they'd be setting up equipment and weren't quite ready for me) not only were there great people to visit with, but great animals as well! I've told you (again and again!) how much I loved the horses, but this is a photo of Blackbean, a miniature donkey with the most BEAUTIFUL eyes! (It's a very close-up picture so you can see his long eyelashes) He got one great scene in the film and is a real character! Flo, who painted the horses (yes, the paint horses had to be painted! She was Checkers' makeup artist!) is an amazing dog trainer, so there were always a few dogs around and I learned a lot watching her with them. She made it look easy, but, as I found out with my own dogs, it's not!

At the end of the day, I'd change back into my own clothes and the wardrobe department would wash what I'd worn so that it would be fresh the next morning. Someone would tell me what time I'd be coming in the next morning, and Kim would drive us back to the hotel, where I was usually too tired to do anything but sleep! All of my sightseeing and shopping and eating out was on the weekends. Here's another picture of one of my favorite non-movie memories of Alberta - snow in July!

I leave for Calgary in a week! I can't wait! I'll stop in to blog one more time between now and then. Have a great weekend - and I hope to see you on the 23rd!