Re-shoots, Deadlines & Miracles

Life has been one big adventure as of late, filled with being creative, working under pressure & being a part of miraculous answers to BIG production problems. I won't go into all the gory details, but I did want to share one quick story...

If I haven't said it before, I work with a film production company called, The Initiative. We are a fairly new little company run out of Youth With A Mission & last year we made our first feature film called, The Umbrella. Check out our website if you want to know more.

 

The Umbrella is in it's last stages of reshoots, we just sent off the final cut to our colorist & also to our composer. Times are very exciting. This last week we ran around like crazy, trying to get everything ready for the re-shoots & the following is just one little story from our ventures... 

 

It was Thursday night & Friday was our biggest re-shoots yet. Only, problem. Our actress cut all her hair off! When we shot with her last year, she had flowing, shoulder length, golden hair & now, she looked like Tinker Bell, cute as ever, but a big problem for the continuity of our film. Solution? Go to the nearest mall & search all the hair related stores for hair extensions or one of those clips with a fake bun. Not the greatest idea, but hey, it would work... right?

5:30PM, stores are already closing & the director is talking seriously about cancelling Friday's shoot. I ran to the mall, not willing to give up yet. -There's no excuses in filmmaking.- It HAD to work. At the first store I talk to one of the ladies working there & she cringes, saying nothing will work. She says our actresses hair is way too short to support any extensions. I suppress the knot growing in my throat, thank her kindly & head to another store. By this time my partner in crime, fellow crew member Proby & I realize this venture is going to be pretty costly. Most hair extensions are about $150 & we only have about $10 to work with. YIKES! We enter another store & find something similar it's also cheaper, but still way too expensive for us. And still the question tumbles through our brains- Will it even work? We head to the dollar store hoping against hope that we will find something there. Once there our hopes are dashed. Our hair is frazzled from worry & I'm begging God for help. 

 

We're desperate now, more stores are closing for the night & we are running out of options.

In a last ditch effort we decide to try the salons. Time is short so we split up. I head to the nearest salon, Proby heads to one down the way. When I arrive at the salon, no one is at the counter & I tell myself to remain calm, life as I know it is not over yet (me dramatic? Never) A kind lady approaches the counter & asks if she can help me. I smile. "I have a really bizarre question for you."

"Oh good, I love those." She says.

I sigh in relief and then launch into my story. The lady smiles as I continue to babble incoherently, then she excuses herself & says she may have a solution. Leaving the counter she heads to the back of the salon, by this time Proby has come back from the other salon with no luck.

I silently plead with God for some kind of miracle. We are out of time.

The lady comes back to the counter with a box overflowing with wigs of red, black, gold & brown. "I have no use for these." she says, "Maybe they could help."

I take one & look at it. She gets out a plastic bag & begins piling as many wigs as she can inside. All the while telling me how happy she is someone can get some use out of them. She digs in the box for all the blonde wigs & once satisfied that she has given me all of them she throws a few more red, black & brown wigs into the bag before handing it to me- free of charge.

WHAT?!

I'm speechless.

Do we really have a golden strand of hope to hang on to? (See what I did there?)

I thank the lady profusely before making a mad dash back to the office where I gather my unsuspecting co-worker, Zakk, to be my model as I fiddle with the wigs. We're all on the edges of our seat now, wondering, hoping, holding our breath to see if it's going to work.

Answer? It does.

It's a Christmas miracle! OK, it's not Christmas, but it's still a miracle. Thank you, God.

Lesson learned? God cares about the details of our lives. Not just the big important stuff, but the nitty gritty stuff too. He's pretty awesome like that :)