“This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco, this ain’t no fooling around!”

So we've passed the halfway point and we're all still alive and kicking. What a trip! Here are a few lessons we've learned on the set of "Conversion" thus far:

WEEK ONE

• When you have only one chance to get a good take, you WILL get a good take.
• Throwing toilet paper at a statue in the middle of a park draws a crowd.
• Kids will offer to graffiti anything.
• Directing in a suit and tie really sucks. Running down a wet hill in 4" heels also sucks.

WEEK TWO

• Wearing big boots is a good idea when shooting in an alley full of rusty nails, broken glass and used syringes. Wearing open-toed shoes is not.
• Always feed your extras well. Of course, you may want to make sure that they stick around for the "extra" part and don't just grab food and leave.
• Getting people to dance to no music is a dodgy, albeit interesting, affair
• If you think of something cool/ interesting/ funny to do in front of the camera, think of how it will feel doing it about twenty times before committing.

WEEK THREE

• On an independent film shoot, end times are highly flexible.
• Bringing lighting equipment up three floors of spiral metal fire escape is even less fun than it sounds.
• Lights attract bugs. Big lights attract bigger bugs. And in bigger swarms.
• An adult human can sweat their own body weight under the proper circumstances.

WEEK FOUR

• Some people have an amazing sense of dedication. Others do not. It's important to concentrate on the former.
• You never notice how much traffic there is on a street until you try to film something there.
• Some actors give you not only a performance, but a wealth of DVD extras.
• Days that end with drinking beer and jumping in a pool are superior to those that end at dawn in an alley.