Oh, ok, we aren’t officially a team… I mean, if I was running my own little empire and had the money to create a team, these people would be on it! But yesterday, we really worked like a team, and it was joyous. So joyous, I’m still riding high. I’m sore and exhausted, but I’m riding high!
Yesterday, David and I; two hired camera people: Sonja Stark and Tommy Nolan; David’s brother Greg; and my friends Jim Garrity, Isabel Rivera, Priscilla Warren, and Sam Pocker met at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in midtown Manhattan to spray (that’s camera-speak for film everything imaginable) the entire cathedral. (Well, Priscilla went to Old St Patrick’s first… but thank God for fast and friendly NYC cabbies!)
What a day. I got up at 3:30 am to finish up a few things I hadn’t done the night before and to get ready for our 5 am departure. I’d gotten my hair done the night before at my favorite salon, Adolf Biecker, so I just had to do my make-up, get dressed, and pack the car. We left on time (Nemo was VERY upset) and had a nice drive listening to Ingrid Michaelson after a rosary. We had absolutely NO issues getting in to the city, and after some minor traffic issues right on 50th street as we rounded the cathedral, St. Anthony was good enough to find me a parking spot right behind the cathedral! Things just went smoothly after that.
David shot the Archbishop’s 7:30 am Mass as our team trickled in, first Jim, then Isabel, Sony and Tommy, Greg, Priscilla, and then Sam later on in the day. It felt like we were getting off to a slowish start, but we moved at a relatively good clip. David and Greg went to shoot the side altars and the majority of the interior, Tommy and Jim went to shoot all the windows, and Sony, Priscilla, Isabel and I shot A-Roll (me in front of the camera).
I don’t think I can say how happy we all were to meet and to experience the amazing assistance of the entire St. Patrick’s Cathedral usher staff. Every single one of them had a constant smile, was so kind and helpful, funny, and they were all handsome, too! And the majority of them spoke Spanish, which is just awesome, and was helpful when we shot the Spanish scenes for the show. Who can I remember: Giovanni, Jose, Louis, Cesar, Michael the sacristan was awesome, too! Teresa at the gift shop was just fantastic! Everyone we met at this cathedral was full of joy and full of life. It made everything so easy, and just such a pleasure. When you go to St Patrick’s–and you MUST!–be sure to say hi to some or all of the ushers. They are AMAZING guys, who also know a LOT about the cathedral. Many of them have been there for 5, 6, 10 years, even!
I’m laughing thinking of the one young guy–I didn’t get his name–who had to get into a cherry picker to change some light bulbs. We were all admiring his toy (the cherry picker), and saying how cool it was. Or thinking of Tommy and Cesar climbing the stairs to get to the triforium.
Isabel was a star by helping me with not only the teleprompter, but she was checking the Spanish, and actually helped correct a few of mom and dad’s mistakes! (oops, mom and dad!) Priscilla was just a joy. I’ve known her for going on 10 years now, and she is such a rock of peace and happiness. Plus she’s an amazing performer herself, and she was giving me great tips. (Not sure if I ever chilled out enough, but i tried…). We all broke for lunch during the lunchtime Masses, enjoying the variety of foods across the street at Rockefeller Center. It was at this point that I seriously almost passed out from exhaustion, dehydration, and hunger. Thank God we’d just gotten food. It was an icky feeling, but I got over it in a matter of minutes, and was ready for more.
After lunch, Priscilla and Isabel took a break to watch the equipment while Sam joined us, and Jim joined our team. Sam was a PRO with the prompter software, even teaching ME a thing or two about it!! And he did fabulously with the Spanish. I could even tell he knew when I nailed the dialogue; his head would punctuate the end of my sentence. I loved it. And Jim was a master of just doing everything!! He moved quick as lightening, thinking of what you needed even before you could ask him for it! He was intuitive–of course, he has experience in TV–and just awesome.
And then, of course, I can’t say enough about our camera operators. Sony is always a pleasure to work with. She not only keeps me calm, but she makes me laugh, and I trust her shots. Tommy was just as nice, and after having reviewed his footage today, I know he’s just as talented as Sony. And David, well. He did fabulous work.
How luck am I to have a husband who is willing to make such sacrifices? To get up at 4 in the morning to drive to New York and film a cathedral?! And he was cool as a cucumber the entire time, and his footage is just amazing.
I can’t believe we actually all finished by 5 pm. And that was a good thing, considering we had a few things to do after that. Since Sony was shooting on a camera that didn’t use tape, we had to capture and transfer her footage to our external hard drive. That took about an hour. But then Sony discovered that the battery of her brand-new car was dead because she accidentally left the lights on…. and then Priscilla came to the rescue with some roadside assistance plan she had, it was great!! The jump came pretty quickly, and Priscilla got a ride home, which made me happy.
I thought I would be exhausted by the time I had to start the 2-hour drive home, but I was just so HAPPY… I didn’t have a hard time falling asleep, though. We’ve been preparing for this shoot for months, and now it’s over, and I have to focus on finishing this up so we can deliver the tapes and be one with Season One just around the time you all get to start enjoying it!! It’s been awesome, and I’m sure all the prayers we requested made the difference.
And now… on to finishing those two St John Neumann Scripts.