Son of a gun, we did it. After 3 weeks of four hours sleep a night, agonizing over paperwork, money, purchases, pick-ups, storyboards, rehearsals, wardrobe conferences ... it finally happened: we shot 15 minutes of footage.

How'd it go? Pretty damn good. Our crew was aces. Mostly people we didn't know going in, but our primarily female crew (I mention this just to mention it, not 'cause I'm saying anything) was terrific. Led by the almost preternaturally laid back DP, Raoul Germain, these gals were fast, efficient, professional. Fan-freaking-tastic.

Raoul made drama out of some shots that I probably would have just thrown away if I'd called them. There's one bit of business in the kitchen -- quick, simple -- but dude did a whole backlighting thing with one motivated spotlight that took the scene to a whole new level. Forget about it.

And the performances? Actually, the performance (not plural). We had only one actor today, Rob Gomes, doing little pieces of action from various scenes with no sound recording. Really tough for an actor ("now you're in scene 4 and you're happy ... Okay, now you're in scene 112 and there are body parts flying everywhere.") But he handled it with professionalism and aplomb. Very nice.

Any down sides? Well, we missed a set-up. All stuff we can grab later, but technically -- by the book -- we're a little behind. I'm not concerned, but I'll be keeping a watchful eye on days two and three to see if we're keeping pace with the old 21-day shooting schedule plan.

Okay, like you care? I know, no pictures from the set, no funny anecdotes ... we'll try to get those soon. Although, actually, there's one funny story involving a product placement deal gone awry with a vendor who was extremely generous with their product. Suffice to say, I have over 20 boxes of their merchandise in my apartment. We need maybe 4 or 5 boxes to feed the crew, then I'll be eating this stuff for a year. The good news: it's good stuff. The bad news: sorry, that wasn't much of an anecdote. I'm too rushed to try to capture the you-had-to-be-there comedy of that "holy shit, my door man's going to freak at 21 boxes, and how the hell will we eat all of that??" moment.

Oh, well. The diary entries may suck. But the movie'll be great! I'll try to get pictures for next time ...