First, a story I forgot to tell last time: when Alex showed up in our room on the Saturday before classes, he had with him a little tupperware container labeled "FOR CLAIRE". He told me his mother wanted him to give it to me. What was inside? A piece of MARIONBERRY PIE. It was DELICIOUS. And I don't even like pie usually. I guess people actually do read/remember the contents of this blog?

Secondly: Alex and I, and our cast and crew, start shooting our movie tonight at 9. We're starting off with some relatively simple scenes that we can just film in our room in Goodhue, but they do require extras and costumes and for everyone to be on time and for our camera not to spontaneously combust and for us to finish before 2 in the morning and etc. I think once we get these scenes done I'll be more confident about the next ones, but for now I'm freaking out.

In case you've forgotten, the screenplay is a romantic comedy about college students who get married to scam financial aid (we now have the groan-worthy but sort of excellent working title Marital Aid, thanks to Jon Hughes, one of our main actors). It's set basically at Carleton, so we don't need any sets, which is very convenient. 

We held auditions this Sunday in upper Sayles (Alex reserved the room – in general, he takes care of the logistic/bureaucratic stuff and I hold up the talking-to-individual-people end). At first, they went very well – three people showed up within the first few minutes, and we found our main female lead almost immediately. Then they slowed down, and we realized we had a problem: we had no men. We'd cast all of the main female roles, but none of the main male ones. While the girls who came generally wanted to be the star, the few guys who showed up only wanted to play the smaller roles. We decided the men had commitment issues.

We were panicking – which male characters can we make female? Can we make this a lesbian love story? – when all of a sudden we were visited, as we have been telling people, by some sort of primal spirit of Carleton film. A guy neither of us had ever met strode through the door, sat down across from us, introduced himself as Mateo, and basically asked us what we needed. Based on his experience as a CAMS major, he told us what kind of equipment we'd need, how we should try to get funding, who we can ask for help, and a multitude of other bits of advice, all in a rapid-fire, businesslike stream that sort of left our heads spinning. Then he asked if we were getting all the actors we needed. We told him about our man problem, and he asked if we'd considered Tyler BoddySpargo for the male lead. We told him we had (I'd seen him in a few plays), but we didn't know how to contact him. "I can call him right now," Mateo said, and proceeded to do just that. Thanks to that phone call, we have a male lead. I would like to dedicate this post to Mateo, in testimony to our eternal gratitude.

So, who knows how tonight is going to go. We have a talented cast and a really dedicated crew; I guess I'll have to put my faith in them.

In other news, Bill North is the best professor I've ever had (the discussion he led about a saint's life that I found sort of boring when I read it was absolutely fascinating and showed me things I never would have realized about the medieval conception of God), and in social dance class last night we learned not to do the Businessman's Bounce when foxtrotting. I get more educated every day, really.