Just a few days prior to the first day of filming, we still didn't have a location to serve as the lead character's home. I had a vision in my mind of a red brick home since the time I started writing the script. Though several homes had been offered as a prospective option, none were right. The stress of not having a location was beginning to mount. In desperation, I prayed fervently to know where to film. While working on other aspects of the project, a whispering so clear that I practically heard her voice, the inspiration "Grandma's house" came to me. I halted all activity in the moment and pondered the idea. It was brilliant! My grandmother Karen passed away last February. Her home was still owned by her children and was currently vacant in preparation for sale. A vacant house that we would not displace anyone for six days of filming, was ideal, along with the fact that it was red brick! I jumped up and ran to Shawn to tell him about the inspiration. His only concern was the fact that it was vacant because we would have to stage furniture in it. The benefits far outweighed that inconvenience and we agreed that the idea was inspired. We prayed about it and felt that my grandmother wanted us to film there and that she was anxiously helping our cause. My uncle, who is the trustee to her estate, agreed to let us use the house. After it was set up inside, it was just as I had envisioned.
Day 1:
May 9, 2011
It was so exciting to be back on a movie set again. All the night before, I felt as though I were ascending the world's biggest roller coaster. That anxious exhilaration that forms in the pit of my stomach and the thrill that follows, was just the same! I brought a journal on set to capture the miracles that we experienced as cast and crew on "Uphill Battle."
Day 2:
May 10, 2011
Aura, Taylor and Sierra drove the Nissan pickup to the set that morning, a 35 minute drive on the freeway from Draper to south Provo. They noticed a strange bumpiness about the ride. The steering seemed to be shaky, though they could not tell what the problem was. Later that morning, Taylor went to get food and ice. He backed attempted to back out of the parking stall at a gas station. Suddenly, the front driver's side tire completely fell off! In his words:
"Aura and I noticed steering bumps from home to set, but we ignored it. Later, I was running errands, and the bumps just got worse--the wheel would wobble even at slow speeds. Pulling out of a gas station parking space, the right front wheel fell off the axle! I wasn't even out of the parking space. If that had happened at 70 mph, the tire would've flown off. The tire people (at the fix it shop) said that the car would have flipped seriously injuring or even killing me! Even at 40, 30, or 20 mph I would've been seriously bounced around and hurt, possibly hurting the car pretty bad too. Couldn't have been a better time to lose that wheel. Guardian angels. -- Taylor P."
Apparently, when the tires had last been rotated and balanced a month prior, the tire shop inadvertently tightened the lug nuts too tight. The friction caused by driving caused the lug nuts to become completely shorn off. There was literally nothing holding the tire in place. What a blessing no one was injured or killed. Taylor gave the thought after cast prayer this morning. His thought was about using your talents to bless the lives of others and doing God's will, and of the power of joining with others who are doing the same. By the avoidance of a near fatal accident, it is obvious his life mission is not yet fulfilled.
Day 3:
May 11, 2011
We ended shooting down by five scenes on Day 2. We were falling behind and the stress was mounting. The morning cast and crew prayer was a plea for efficiency, organization and order. Levity on set was huge yesterday and all our silliness was taking its toll. Saturday was not originally scheduled as a work day, but I knew we'd use it. It was obvious we'd need it. Yesterday, Shelby's cycling helmet was missing. She didn't have it for a scene. I was bothered about the fact that I remembered packing it but it was nowhere to be found. I went on a bike ride early this morning before our 8:00 AM call time. I made another scan of the garage for the helmet as I got my bike out. No luck. I prayed I could find it and asked to know where to look. Not but two minutes later, as I mounted my bike in the driveway, I happened to have a bird's eye vantage into the back of the moving trailer we'd been using. It was empty, except for a plastic tote that was lying on it's side, open side facing me. Down in the corner of that tote was the missing helmet! What a miracle! Three times on set today, someone was asked to change their wardrobe choice just prior to shooting a scene because the actors kept inadvertently picking matching outfits! It was funny! The matching for this scene was intentional!
May 12, 2011
Aura gave the thought after the prayer today. The thought she shared was about nothing being impossible with God. She quoted Phillipians 4:13 which states "I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me." Exterior shots today. One great miracle is that the weather cooperated. It has been raining non stop for the past three days and that has been okay since all our filming was interior. Today needed to be sunny, even dry would work, but miraculously, we got both! On the first shot of the day, Shelby (Erica) was to clip into her bike and ride away. She did it beautifully. On the way back to do it again, she had a bit of a struggle unclipping and tipped over. Miraculously she landed on Will, the sound technician while she was simultaneously steadied and righted by Jon, the 2nd AD. At lunch today (and this is significant, since disruptions on set can ruin the scene while the camera is rolling) several women stopped by and I met them on the front porch. They turned out to be a realtor, a home buyer and her friend. They had just put my grandmother's house under contract. Tears welled in my eyes as I remembered back to a conversation I had with my uncle when I asked him if we could use the house for filming. He was worried that we'd tie up the house and make it unavailable for showings and thereby hold up the sales process. I was inspired to tell him that I knew that my grandmother had inspired the idea to use her home and that I was sure that if we used it, she would help to get it sold. It was true. She had indeed done just that. The buyer had experienced many miracles in finding the home and securing financing. I walked them through the house during our lunch break. As I talked with them, I felt very strongly, and told them so, that my grandmother had hand picked her as the new home owner. My grandmother took meticulous care of her home inside and out. lt had been her mother's home before that. She purchased it from her family's estate at her mother's passing some twenty years ago. I couldn't help but feel that she really wanted the home captured and immortalized on film for the family's sake before it changed hands to a new owner. The buyer and realtor and I shared a tear welling moment before lunch was up.
After lunch, the sound technician, Will, found out that his father had just had a stroke. A group of us had a prayer for his father. The weather was perfect for the water fight scene. Not only was the weather perfect, but the take itself. It was our first "one take" miracle. All we had was one take because once Aura and Taylor (Stacie and Lance) were wet, there would be no "retakes." It was tricky also in the sense that the water fight action outside was being filmed on a 7D camera, while the scene of Shelby (Erica) watching the water fight from inside the front window. We had a prayer just before the scene started that the water fight would be perfect. It was beautiful! That seems like a strange word to describe a water fight, but it was! It worked out perfectly in one take and the height of the action occurred when Aura dumped the bucket of sudsy water on Taylor's head, exactly as Shelby drew the curtain and peered outside! Late in the afternoon, extras started arriving for the party scene. Kelly Steele did a beautiful job staging the party scene and set up the food and fed the cast of extras. She even got the BBQ going for the scene. Though several neighbors seemed to be purposefully causing problems throughout the week as they were annoyed with the extra cars in the neighborhood belonging to cast and crew, several neighbors kindly ceased lawn mowing during the dialogue portions of the party scene. That was much appreciated as we were scrambling to beat the setting sun to catch the takes before the light was gone. As a bonus, we were able to fit in a family picnic montage scene just as the sun went down.
Just like the inspiration for another movie came while filming "Stand Strong," the inspiration for another movie came today on set. It will have a pro-life message. I'm praying about the scripture it will be based on.
Day 5:
Friday, May 13, 2011
Today was a scheduled late start so that we could get the true exterior night scenes. Call time was 1:00 for actors with 1:30 PM being the time for the first scene in front of camera. Today was also a big day for important and demanding scenes. Because of this, opposition was strong. Before the cast prayer, I felt oppositional about the scheduled order of the scenes as they seemed to have been arranged inefficiently and it already looked like we'd be using Saturday to catch up on the five or so scenes we were down so far. If it weren't for the cast and crew prayer, and the thought offered by Taylor on doing God's will to lift and strengthen others, I may have stayed in an oppositional mood. I was able to re-focus on praying for the Spirit to be on set. Shelby prepared well for those scenes and brought a strong feeling of reverence to the set. She asked that the set be cleared so that she could fully immerse herself in the emotion of the scene and be more receptive to feeling the spiritual guidance necessary to carry the powerful impact of the scene. The set was silent, peaceful, and the Spirit abounded. I found myself saying "Amen" to the prayer at the end of the first take and I was moved to tears. Many eyes watered by the time the perfect take and coverage were complete.
We had several miracles during the filming of the Shelby and Keegan's scenes. Keegan's coverage was perfection on the first take. Just as I called "Cut!," the 4 x 8 that was darkening the window came crashing to the floor. There was loud knocking on the front door too by a neighbor who wanted a crew member to move their vehicle from the street in front of their home. Also on "cut," the set filled again naturally as Keegan's family arrived as well as several others who were arriving on set for the first time that day. The timing was nothing short of miraculous as the reverence and Spirit present as well as the actual takes themselves would have been thwarted had we not finished exactly when we did.
The mood lightened after those scenes. When Taylor arrived from running the morning errands, he mentioned that he narrowly escaped a car accident--twice!
The afternoon wore on and soon it was night. We prepared exterior lighting for the many front door and front yard scenes that were scheduled. At 9:55 PM, opposition struck. A neighbor had called the police to complain about the bright light streaming into their front window. The police asked to talk to me. I was polite, at first. The policeman became threatening despite the fact the filming was occurring on private property. I affirmed "You can't make me shut down." He threatened to arrest me. Other cast and crew were more compliant and were quick to assure him that we'd dispense of the lights and handle it another way. 30 minutes later, we were again on track and Rod was inspired with how to light up the yard by flooding the house with light. It worked beautifully and we continued with no more problems. We were again racing the clock to completion. Our wrap for the day needed to occur by 1:30 AM, twelve hours from call time. We wrapped at 1:29 AM!
