DAY 7 (Wednesday, November 13)

Today we begin to work at the lagoon, our Louisiana swamp set, about a quarter mile up the road from the Radisson hotel where we are staying.

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We are breaking in a new trailer, which the makeup and hair team instantly doesn’t like; despite it being squeaky clean, it’s cramped, the electrical outlets poorly positioned, the chairs too close together and the row behind too narrow, but they vow to make the best of it. Other than those little wrinkles, everyone is cheerful and friendly.

The main issue today is the mud. It rained heavily this morning and the golden Maltese dirt became a fine Maltese gravy. We carry it with us on our shoes everywhere we go, and print the bottom of our shoes on every interior surface in beige.

Today we spend shooting scenes that deliver us, eventually, to the little skiff that capsizes in later scenes, plunging us into the swamp, and into hippopotamus peril.

I’m slowly getting to know my cast mates. I’m number 7 on the call sheet, and there are only eight of us in the film. Another actor arrives later to play the important role of a hunter.

Director James Nunn runs a very calm and orderly set, which I identify as a symptom of somebody who knows how to keep a film shoot in control.

My pitch to have a running gag of my fireman character trying to get in a cigarette break at various points in the script was not shot down, and props have even supplied me with a phony, non-branded pack with the unlikely name of “Freddie’s Cigarettes”.  I think this would actually be a good name for a cigarette company.

The final beat of the smoking gag will be my character, Tim, hauling out the soaked pack from a pocket after the attack, pouring the water out and tossing them away in dismay. Comedy gold, or at least aluminum.

I’m happy I got to add a little more to define the character and add a bit of humor.

After we wrapped today I take a nice long walk up from the beach along a road well illuminated by a nearly full moon. I take some photos of it, poised above a stone building that featured a round center window exactly the same size of the rising moon.

It’s a very comfortable feeling place, this Malta, and I feel in no kind of danger walking around, even at night.

Tomorrow, we get closer to the water, and the beast within…