The cowboy rode yesterday and it was a hell of a ride. Ryan Dee Gilmour and I started moving props and the set out of my basement at 3:50 AM Sunday morning, and worked until 7:00 PM. The cast was great. Director Kevin Chatham kept his cool all day long and took in stride the two parking tickets the city of Chicago issued his car, several of which came minutes before his meter ran out. Some of them run fast, I don't doubt it.

Typically, we ran very behind at first, caught up with ourselves, got ambitious, ran behind again and several things failed completely. I beat myself up that I thought cranberry juice would work as a substitute for real fake blood. It just ran too clear on camera. Those will have to be re-shot, in close-up, with the sets we saved, unless people accept that being shot results in a massive loss of lymphatic fluid. Perhaps it's innovative?

At any rate, many thanks to the talented cast, my patient and lovely wife, and chief set designer, architect and builder, Heather Elam, who amazingly juggled time between job, partner and young daughter Daphne to do something nearly impossible.

I'll post more as we near a final product.