For all of it, this is going to be really hard to do without giving *too* much away about the movie, or rambling on and on, but I'll try. Here's all the big bullet points, all times approximate :)

6pm, KickOff Meeting at the Warehouse Theatre:
Talk with Mark Ruppert, the 48HFP/NFC producer, who tells me that due to artwork issues the Best of NFC DVD was delayed, but that it is at the factory and should be out in 2 1/2 to 3 weeks from now. Sweetness. Go in to the theatre.

There's me in the lower left corner, looking tired already, not a good sign. Sat with another team with members from NPR that I met in the down elevator on the way to the meeting (to the right of me... Richard, a hilarious guy who actually works for CNN, Matt who works somewhere on the same floor as me at NPR, and Becky, who works in NPR development, also on the same floor ;p).

Every time a team pulled Musical/Western, there were cheers from the crowd. Pulled Horror. Was happy it wasn't the aforementioned genre, since Western would've been a little challenging on a naval vessel, although we could've done a twisted adaptation of the musical South Pacific. One day though, ONE DAY, I will get to have tumbleweeds in my movie... just not rolling across the bow of a boat (but that would've been HILARIOUS).

7pm - 7:45pm, In Transit:
File out of the Warehouse Theatre, whip out cellphone, call Kim Ha and others with the required elements. Get in car and begin talking to self all babbly-like in microcassette recorder while dodging DC traffic.

7:45pm'ish - 6:30am Saturday, The Script:
Alex Kristobek and Kim arrive, along with my usual writing partner, Scott Peck. Alex is toting a bottle of wine (our required prop), a bag of coffee, some Honey Chex Mix (I destroyed that by the end of the night), and most importantly, Starbucks Double-Shots.

I really wanted to go the route of something I had seen on the second season of Millenium, and that's pretty much what our idea meeting of the minds settled on, except, you know, on a boat ;p Scott then bowed out due to a rough day he had had at work and some writers block, and Kim, Alex, and I got to working on the basic outline of events in the story.

I think it was sometime around 2am when Kim left to get much needed rest and to finish the shooting schedule and Alex and I got to the really hard part. Together we actually were able to write dialogue That Doesn't Suck™ for 10+ characters. Thanks Alex for reminding me we needed to put in the required line!

By the way, Alex and Kim are both saints. At some point during the evening, earlier than I would have expected, my body was shutting down and I got really whiny about the whole project, the loss of my traditional writing partner, and pulling horror. They definitely helped pull me out of that, and I was grateful they did without slapping me.

Matt Anderson popped his head into the house at some point late, and said he was going out, and would be back to crash later. He arrived back at my house somewhere around 5am, when Alex and I told him that he would in fact, be our "star" for the flick, despite his lack of sleep to come. I couldn't picture anyone else doing his role, and I'm really glad he was still willing to do it the next day even in his condition.

Cast the rest of it, we gave all the characters great names, and Alex fled to get a nap at 5:30am and gather things from his house. I was up another hour fiddling and printing out copies.

A note: without these two wonderful people helping this script would never have been finished, or been as good. I can't thank you enough. The Double-Shots also had something significant to do with it being completed.

6:30am - 7:30am:
Precious one-hour of sleep... technically oversleeping for my planned schedule by a half-hour.

Forgotten point from Friday:
After enduring annoying emails and phone calls from me for a week, sometime past 10pm, Chris Ellison stopped by with our much-needed second camera, and some witty repartee. Almost as important, his wardrobe for the evening ended up providing the inspiration for a key element in the film.

7:30am, Up and Running:
Zip to Dunkin Donuts for a box of Joe and 1 1/2 dozen donuts. Adrenalin thank god has taken over and allows me to drive safely.

8am - 8:50am, Bellies:
Tim Unglesbee is up, wakes up Matt, and I feel bad for Matt, but not Tim, who has thankfully gotten a decent nights sleep (and he's going to need it for shift 2, the *really* hard parts, shooting and editing).

Most of the cast and crew then arrive at my house, a few others are meeting us at the location. There is a self-belly rubbing event that featured Becky Herron, our 7ish-month pregnant cast member, myself, and Brett Estey rubbing his "fuzzy kitty" in sync. It is documented on tape for posterity. Food/coffee groped and grabbed.

8:50am, Time to Go:
Everyone piles into cars with themselves and equipment and we leave Laurel for the Gangplank Marina.

9:00am, CRAP!:
I forgot the monitor. I turn around, go home, say hi again to the cats, grab it, leave. Call Kim and tell her I will most likely be the last one to get there.

9:40am, The Badtz Maru:
Arrive at the boat, where I realize not everyone has been on the boat before, which explains a lot of "um, where do we go?"'s. Duh. Get everyone corralled into the Junior Rate part of the boat, what we call the "Family Room" for the rest of the day.

10am, Captain Tom:
Get settled a bit and Captain Tom (who, incidentally ROCKS), gives us the house rules, explains the uniqueness of using the head on a ship, tells us when the food will be available (and that dinner is a special surprise) and, of course, where the coffee is. Read-through of the script. Discussion of camera strategy. Doug Wilson and Nguyet Mai Vuong are graciously among us despite the fact they've got a wedding to go to later in the day.

10:30am to 11:30am? (here's where it all starts going fuzzy as to time/what happened when):
Everyone gets dressed in their costumes for the day, Nguyet artfully applies the required addition to everyone's outfit. Doug gets to work lighting the opening scene set. Alex and I get gussied up in our final scene outfits, the first we'll shoot, along with Matt. Tim and Adam Martray discuss how to handle this one. Umbrella grabbed.

Did I mention it was RAINING AND STORMING ALL DAY AND NIGHT SATURDAY? After a few painful takes and breathing difficulties, along with multiple angles, we get it done.

Somewhere in there, it is announced that brunch awaits us in the galley. Smorgasbord of scrambled eggs, bacon, fruit, and biscuits and gravy (*cries* didn't find out about the biscuits until the end of the day, missed them completely, DAMMIT ALL TO HELL).

Notes on the Majority of the Rest of the Day, surely missing lots of fun things and praises, yet purposefully leaving out all major plot points, in non-specific order, and sans time codes... which makes this a lot less interesting for you to read:

• Boats are filled with deceivingly cramped spaces (what fun for cameramen and lighting)
  

• Tim and Adam were our shining examples of teamwork. What these two ended up with on screen is so FUCKING COOL I can't find more intelligent words to express it. Along with the talented man-of-sound Jackson Allen (who, as Tim and Adam did, had to bend himself in pretty interesting ways to capture what we needed), this trio has formed a force to be reckoned with. I'm also really glad some of the stress was taken off of Tim, since he would have enough to worry about with editing. And Adam is such a great guy, and was so easy to work with during the shoot. THANKS TIM, JACKSON, and ADAM!
  

• Metal hurts.
  

• Things that are supposed to help you breathe sometimes make you hyperventilate instead.
  

• Walls of buttons, levers, and switches, even if you don't know what any of them do, are exceedingly cool to look at.
  

• Sean Eustis and Constantia Rioux are Gods of All Things Costumey, and I apologize again to them for making them bring way more than was needed. Thanks especially to Constantia for taking on the blacking-out window labor, and there are not thanks enough for their general patience with me and the set throughout the day.
  

• The Last Supper Scene... a large group scene in one room filled with one-liner dialogue that has to be shown to establish the story. Thank you Tim, Adam, and Jackson for figuring out how to shoot it and make it look decent, and thank you to the entire cast and crew in that scene for doing take after take interspersed with my complaints. It was one of the hardest things to get through that day. Thanks especially to Matt for not taking my head off during that, or the rest of the day, since he received the brunt of "me" due to his role.
  

• Doug W. did a great job getting us set up with lighting for a few scenes before he took off to the wedding, and made sure we were well-schooled for the rest of the shoot. THANK YOU. I'm really glad you could be there.
  

• Anastasia Summers is one of the busiest people I know. After a studio makeup gig in the morning, she popped by at 1pm just in time to figure out our makeup requirements after Sean's start with it to get our first heavy makeup-ed cast member ready to go. And, I think she finished one or two others. She claims that FX makeup is not her specialty, but you would never know it. We were all sufficiently creeped out by her results. I'm glad she could stick around til 6pm before she darted off to yet another gig after imparting her wisdom so we could carry on with it. THANK YOU.
  

• Tina Segovia made a fantastic intricately decorated cake for the Badtz crew, and we got to have some too! MY GOD, the decadence. MY GOD, the chocolate. When I saw the Badtz crew again on Sunday night, and they introduced me to some people on board, the people asked me if I was the one who made the cake, not if I was the one who was making the film. Apparently, there were only two topics of conversation after shooting finished and we had left... first the cake, then the film shoot. Tina did a bang-up job in her scenes, and had the privilege of being the first allowed to leave set. THANK YOU TINA.
  

• No one was minorly or majorly injured, and this honestly surprises me.
  

• Matt, if he was the violent type, would scare me to my core. He got to wield a gun and look ultra-cool doing it (besides tumbleweeds, my other film dream is to write myself a role where I get to do that). On the flip-side, he was able to portray the emotional/flipped out scenes in the same mega-cool way. For his patience and hard work, THANK YOU MATT!
  

• We were able to successfully hide the fact that one of our cast members was very obviously pregnant.
  

• Kim looks HAWT in military gear.
  

• Kim was a true saviour, and I am still continually amazed by her innate organizational abilities. We could not have done this without her. She did so many behind-the-scenes checks and re-checks, and was great on-camera. Can't find the right words. THANK YOU KIM!
  

• Sidenote: We finished a film with a Mayday scene on May Day.
  

• I get to die. OHMIGODMYDEATHSCENELOOKSSOFUCKINGAWESOME. Director's privilege.
  

• Thrilled that Adam got "his shot" with Brett and Matt, and that one is light years better than when I bite it.
  

• I'm really happy Brett could fit us in around his Death of a Salesman rehearsal schedule. Other than it's always a fun set when he's around, he was great in his "superior" role, and later, in channeling his Ellipsis one. He also took on makeup artistry. THANK YOU BRETT!
  

• We were docked next to the Odyssey dinner cruise boat, and apparently, a presidential vessel last owned by Jimmy Carter. The presidential boat began filling up with snooty private party attendees sometime early in the afternoon. The look on their faces as some of us would take occassional breaks from the interior of the ship and come out on deck... in all our get-up/maked-up gloriousness... let's just say there were alot of jaws dragging on floors across the way.
  

• Peter Eichman endured a lot of double-duty as Assistant Camera on Saturday, often having to slate his own scenes, or squeeze into tiny spaces to get the slate. Peter was our no-thought/no costume really required camera-ready cast member :) "Peter, quick, BE YOU!" "uhhh... ok" Much thanks to Mr. Eichman for working so hard and being so enthusiastic about all of these projects... and for being him, we like him just the way he is. THANK YOU PETER!
  

• Christopher Robin, Tina and I were all in a NY show recently together. This man can do and be anything you want him to be. Any accent, any character type... and he's gut-splitting hilarious and over-the-top nice to boot. He's a keeper. I knew there wouldn't be a problem leaving his final scene with Matt up to him, and didn't bother writing dialogue for it. And the man is all about putting in more and more detail even to the tiniest of roles. He also had a swanky hat. THANK YOU CHRIS.
  

• Becky's spawn-to-be has now been in two of our films. It was apparently barely a cellular glob during FELT, and now the cellular glob has taken over a much more significant square area of her body while doing HATCH. If we had gotten anything even slightly comedic as a genre, the film would have most likely been all about her (a PREGNANT WOMAN on a military ship? C'MON!) And when I pulled horror, my first thought was sadness that I probably couldn't fanagle the film story to fit her "condition" ;) Becky rocked, of course, as usual. THANK YOU BECKY! (AND STB!)
  

• Was really glad to have Patrick Bailey on our team, he was not only a great addition to the cast (and can lay still really well, heh) but equally as patient and hard-working behind-the-scenes. THANK YOU PATRICK. I hope you weren't scared off of doing one of these in the future :) I'll even let you live!
  

• Alex, in addition to staying up into the wee hours to help write the script, acted superbly, and helped out wherever he could on Saturday. His final scene, that I didn't get to witness the filming of directly, but I'm sure was hilarious getting set up for, is priceless, and has one of the few bits of intended humor in the whole thing. Thanks my man, again, couldn't have done this whole thing without you.
  

• Of special note, Alex and I also had a love/dance scene in the morning that was cut from the film, but it will go down in history as one of the all-time most bizarre outtakes ever.
  

• Ok, so I haven't really mentioned the Badtz Maru crew fully yet, because I'm having a hard time coming up with words besides THEY ROCK and SWEET and NICE and PATIENT and BEYOND OUR GREATEST DREAMS. Pete Lindbergh, Dom Journet, Eunika Norman, and of course, Captain Tom, deserve better words than that. They were really excited to have us there, and are looking forward to seeing the finished product. They had had a long 120 hour work week before we even got there, and despite that, went overboard (uh, yeah) to make sure we had everything we needed, and some things we didn't need, but were really, really happy to get. Which moves us on to:
  

• DINNER! MY GOD, THE GOODNESS. Doug Humphrey made sure they treated us to an absolute feast. Let's see: Scallops, Shrimp, Crab balls, shredded pork(beef? gah, I don't know, it was good), rolls & sandwich makings, brownies, and so on. Oh, and did I mention we had cold water, Snapple, Coke/Diet Coke, and even beer available to us all day? CHRIST.

• Sidenote: Our dinner was catered by the same company that was feeding the snooty guests on the presidential boat. WE ARE SO FUCKING SPECIAL I CAN'T STAND IT.
  

• Everyone on the cast and crew pitched in, not only to keep the boat from drowning in our trash and equipment, but to make sure we did as good of a job as we could on this film, from ideas to physical labor. I was and am in awe of what we together accomplished. THANK YOU.
  

• We wrapped at 9:45pm, and were off the boat pretty soon after, thanks to what I just said above. The suckiest part of the day was the end of it. Pouring rain outside... lugging heavy things hundreds of feet to the cars from the dock... running fx makeup... puddles that sabotage 20 hole boots and make your socks squishy. Just wanting to get home and get started on editing this thing. And to take a shower. Or three. I've had three since then, and I *still* have makeup left on my arm.

Saturday 11pm, Water Logged:
Stewing in our stink and sweat from the rest of the day and soaked from the rain, Tim and I arrive back at the house after fighting painfully slow "OHMIGODITSRAINING!!!" traffic from DC. Blessed showers ensue. Jackson arrives soon after, after grabbing a shower at his house. Tim and Jackson then get immediately down to editing business by watching all of the footage and listening to/logging all of the audio.

A final thought for Saturday: I had exactly one cup of coffee the entire day, at 8:15am, and I didn't even finish it. This despite the fact that Captain Tom and crew kept us a full pot brewed at all times during the day.

Sunday 12am - 3am, Crashing and Editing:
I honestly don't remember exactly what I did during this time period really... I think I watched some of the footage with Tim and gave some feedback, and worked on the credits. Right around 3am, I crashed.

Tim/Jackson... edit, edit, edit.

I set the alarm for 8am.

9am - 2pm, Editing:
Sidenote: I *never* wake up when my alarm goes off. It is inevitably one hour after, or recently, as much as two hours after.

Jackson is waking up, Tim is awake downstairs and editing. He apparently slept for about three hours I believe between 5am and 8am. Jackson went to sleep from 3am to 5am on the couch editing downstairs with Tim, then woke up, went upstairs and passed out again til 9.

I go out and grab the boys and myself breakfast. Get back, work on credits, team slate, opening sequence, hover over Tim/Jackson.

2pm, Paperwork:
A tired Kim arrives at the house with mountain of paperwork in tow. Talent/location/music releases, certification statements, SAG paperwork, crew list, wrap-up form... it's kind of insane how much you need to fill out and turn in for these things. Kim, being the pro she is, has it all completely organized and ready for me to review and sign.

But first, we go to Jerry's Subs to grab lunch for the boys. Return with palatable grease for them, then do all the paperwork. Review the credits. Make sure we didn't forget anybody. (Of course, due to cutting and pasting back and forth while sleepy,I realized this past Tuesday I somehow axed Nguyet from the thank you list. She'll be put back in for the online version.)

Maybe 3:30ish? 4? Kim takes off. If I haven't said this in one of these other wrap-up entries, I couldn't have gotten through HATCH or FELT without her and her guidance and hard work. Kim is a rare mix of stoic professional, gobs of talent, charm, and wit. THANK YOU AGAIN KIM!

4ishpm, More Editing:
Meanwhile, Tim and Jackson are still busily editing. I now begin to get the first flutters of true antsiness about getting this one in on time. Try to control urge to inquire with the boys about their progress. Somewhat successful. Tell them ideally I want our cut done at the latest by 6pm to get it to DC by 7:30pm, because you never know how the traffic will be in this area, even on a Sunday.

Sidenote: We ended up using HypoFixx's music exclusively in this film. Friday night I called him to tell him what we pulled, and Carlos came through by Saturday afternoon with a ton of sufficiently creepy and spooky music put online for us to pick through. Once again, you did it my man. THANK YOU CARLOS!

6:20pm, First Cut:
First cut done and dumped to tape. It is almost perfect. Tim and Jackson feel we need to tweak the sound levels throughout it, and and in one key part punch the sound up. I am a nervous wreck, but they go on to make the adjustments.

6:45pm, Error:
Second cut with fixes dumping to tape. Just a little bit in, they get an error. They tell me to take the first cut and run. Grab that and the paperwork, hop in the bug.

6:45 - 7:20pm, Breaking Many, Many Traffic Laws:
Slow traffic on Rt. 1 out of Laurel. Finally get to the B/W Parkway ramp. Get on to find a FUCKING PARKING LOT.

I cannot tell you the obscenties that came streaming out of my mouth for the next 15 minutes. I'm sure if you were a passenger in another car next to me that was also stuck on the parkway, you would have been afraid. Very afraid.

The jam breaks up somewhere around Hyattsville I think. I now take the bug at NINETY-FIVE miles an hour through traffic, until I hit New York Avenue.

Parking lot.

In between the lights and heavy volume of cars I violate many, many traffic laws. Two blocks away from the drop-off location, I am stopped at a red light, foot hovering over gas pedal waiting for it to change. Green. Hit gas. Truck pulls in front of me running a left turn red light. Full on brakes, I avoid hitting him by a couple of inches. Pull up in front of the Warehouse Theatre at 7th and New York Avenue. Grab film/papers, run up to the entrance.

7:21pm - 9:00pm, Finale:
I wait in a fucking line. Yes, I'm there, so I know I'm not late, no matter how long I've got to wait in that line. It was just overly jarring to go from rush rush rush to stand stand stand.

Turn in film, and immediately my internal adrenalin pump shuts down. I feel like I've been run-over by an SUV. A very big SUV. We're talking Hummer limo. Hang out a bit to see if anyone I know shows up to turn in their film. Nada.

Head out to car and down to the Gangplank Marina to drop off a copy of FELT for Captain Tom and the crew, where again they tell us how much they loved having us there. Run into the man himself, Doug Humphrey, on the boat, who I haven't seen all weekend. Get a big hug and congrads from him. I thank him first for the dinner, and then for the boat :) Head out and arrive back in Laurel.

9:30pm, The First Screening:
Tim, Jackson, Peter, Alex, Constantia, Sean, and I gather to watch HATCH. Our pre-show is the excellent short film FLIP. Then HATCH. Everyone is really happy with the final product, and I am relieved.

A few more people left to thank for last weekend:

• Chris Ellison - In addition to inspiring a key part of the film, donated us our second camera, again, along with his collection of black BDUs and t-shirts :) THANKS AGAIN CHRIS!

• Mike Donovan - Hosted and managed our group mailing list. THANK YOU MIKE!

• Eric Manchester - For being willing to do graphics for us, but who had to unfortunately bow out at the last minute due to some personal goings-on. Will hopefully help us when we go to put HATCH on DVD. THANK YOU ERIC!

• Finally, thanks again to Doug H. and Lisa Losito for, as always, completely supporting what we do, from providing outstanding locations, items from the warehouse, costuming, feeding us, and to being so enthusiastic about the whole process. THANK YOU DOUG AND LISA!

If I've forgotten anyone, or forgot to note something key, please forgive me, and please let me know. I think I will catch up on the missed sleep from this past weekend sometime in September.