Wednesday 16 August – Ken’s First Day on Set, My Last Day on Set

We were at “Packwater Gospel Hall” again today with some gorgeous weather.

One major change today was that we had a new 1st Assistant Director, Ken, working on the set. He seems like a great guy and I am sorry that I will not get to get to know him. We managed to get through about 4 3/8 pages today. We did run out of light at the end of the day as we were trying to get an exterior scene outside the church.

The field across from the church where we camped out with catering, parking, toilets, and makeup / costume facilities.

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The field was a horse pasture so the Wellingtons were popular (with the women).
[By the way Liz started this fashion trend]

I guess the most notable thing about today was that it was the last day for me on set.

Let me say here, for the record, that I was completely unprepared for the intensity of being on a movie set and I was completely unprepared for the difficulty in leaving in the middle. I kind of expected that I would go over to England, work hard, learn some new stuff, and come back home. All of those things did happen, but I also met a bunch of very passionate, artistic, quirky, kind-hearted, folks who became my friend even if it is only for a short time.

Bill, a well respected English poet, once said “Parting is such sweet sorrow.” Clearly this applies at any time, in any place, and with any persons. I, however, feel the truth of those words most acutely today, in this English countryside, and with all my new English “mates”. To be sure, I am looking forward to going home to my precious family. Still, I do feel like I am sundering bonds between myself and an amazing group of people that to a large extent had become like family to me over the past three weeks that I have been here. It is times like this that make me question the truth of another famous saying, “’Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” Of course, the rational side of me believes that whole-heartedly and I know that with time the sorrow of parting will fade and the joy of my summer 2006 experience will remain.
Still... drinks, hugs, and goodbyes at the Rising Sun this evening were, at once, sweet and sorrowful. I am going to miss everyone.

Here is the page burn-down chart for today.