First day of shooting "I was here"

First of all, you are not going to believe it, but I was on set at six in the morning today. Others were not. Our lead actress had to drop off her daughter at daycare and then catch a train and she got to the house at half past eight, so by the time we got around to shooting our first take of the day we were already two hours behind schedule. And we still finished an hour earlier than we'd originally planned! So yes, we were off to a slow, slightly chaotic start, but around noon we found a rhythm and we worked really well. We just had a few minor hiccups with the photography due to our photographer, but all in all the team worked well.

The actors were great once they were there and we all got into our rhythm and got better organized. Especially our little child actor, Anja's niece Hanna, even though she technically had a really boring day because all she had to do was lie in bed and pretend to sleep every time she was in frame, and then a few times roll over in her sleep, but she did great. She kept her energy and spirit up. She seemed to have a genuinely good time. She even drew the birthday card that we needed for the breakfast tray that the dad brings the mum in the scene (and she drew it the way she would have drawn it when she was six even though she's seven, because he character is six! She even misspelled "Congratulations" to make it authentic!)

I was really worried that we wouldn't have time to get all the shots we needed for the day, especially this morning when we still hadn't heard from our actress and she didn't answer her phone, but we did get all the shots and we finished ahead of time!

After the actors had all left I sat down and cut and pasted the storyboard for tomorrow and planned the shots around Hanna so she wouldn't have to wait around all day when she wasn't needed and around the hours we'll have of daylights (the shots with the window showing have to be shot before it gets dark, and the ones facing away from the window we can recreate the light in, it's probably our biggest issue time-wise, since we have good daylight between half past eight and three this time of year -- and it only gets darker! -- and the entire film takes place during morning and noon basically, besides one tiny scene...) and while I did that and Kalle and Anja started cleaning up in the kitchen, the rest of the crew fell asleep on the set upstairs! It was rather funny actually, they'd spread out on the few comfy surfaces that were available and just passed out, the sound girl and photographer shared the couch and the 2nd photographer sprawled out on the bed we used for the scenes!

I'm really happy about today. We got some great shots. Especially the ones of her in a coma in the hospital, the lighting was excellent and it looks beautiful!

I'm really excited about tomorrow, I don't even mind the early call, I can't wait to get started and keep going with, hopefully, the same energy and rhythm we found today, and also, hopefully, the same result! It's so much fun! I'm exhausted and my whole body aches or some reason (probably the tension) but I feel awesome!