My wanderings brought me to the sitting room with its dainty furniture and pale pink striped wallpaper. I moved on and was pleased to see the grand ballroom completely transformed. Columns had been brought in, and the ceiling was painted black, giving the room more height.
In the next room, I found a small group of actors going over their lines. They were quiet and subdued one moment, then explosive and loud the next.
Moving on, I found Susie Sweets and Ricky Stone, flew into England this morning, already settled into Moon Manor and thoroughly immersed in a scene with only the two.
In the dining hall, the very room we’d met in the previous night, I was stunned to see all the Christmas decorations gone. The bottom third of the walls were now painted dark red with a red, gold and black floral wallpaper above that. Three large paintings – a forest landscape, a bowl of fruit and the portrait of an important looking man – all framed in ornate gold, adorned the walls.
“Like it?”Ayra said as she came up behind me.
“When in the world did you guys do this? Did you people not sleep last night?”
She laughed. “Jai and a few guys were up very early this morning. It only took them a few hours to get the room ready.”
“Well, thank them. This is amazing.”
“I don’t want to rush you, Keely, but if you’re ready, Mr.Henry Crawford and his sister, Miss Mary Crawford are prepared to do a small scene.”
“Now?”
She nodded. “Just say the word. Cameras are already set up, lighting...the whole thing.”
For the first time in my movie making career, I wasn’t prepared. “Um. Okay. Great. Let’s go.”
While I hadn’t expected to get to work so soon, I was more than happy to get a few scenes done.
“We bought you a new director’s chair,” Abbie said as we arrived in the larger drawing room.
The chair, lower to the ground than the one I’d previously used, also had wheels.
“Honey,” I said, not wanting to appear ungrateful, but nonetheless wanting to make myself clear. “I’m pregnant, not invalid.”
She smiled. “I knew you’d be displeased, but the moment the crew learned of your condition, they went out of their way to find and purchase the chair.” She leaned in close and whispered, “They all pitched in to buy it for you.”
Somehow, I doubted her story. This was most certainly her delicate way of bringing me around to accepting the wheeled director’s chair.
“Fine,” I relented. “Please be sure to thank them all for me.”
“Already done.”
I settled into the chair, much more comfortable than my old one and Abbie handed me the script. Already opened to the pertinent page, she pointed to the specific start of the scene.
I nodded, Henry and Mary Crawford took their places, and we were on our way.
By the end of that first day, we’d filmed four short scenes: another one with Henry and Mary Crawford, two with Fanny and Edmund, and one with Fanny and Mary.We were off to a brilliant start.
*****
IAWOKE THE NEXT MORNINGto a light drizzle falling on Moon Manor and knew that it would mean another day of filming interiors. It was just as well. I was hoping to get a particularly difficult group scene over and done with.
“Get the necessary cast ready for the family scene where Fanny’s coming out ball is announced by Mr.Bertram,” I told Abbie on meeting her in the hall.
“I don’t want to contradict you, Keely, but with the rain falling and threats of it falling harder still, I thought we might take advantage of the weather and shoot interiors looking out through the windows at the falling rain.”
I looked at her and considered her suggestion. After a long moment, I nodded. “Okay, tell you what. I would still like to shoot this family scene, but could you handle a small crew to shoot some of those interiors looking outward. Maybe talk to Cliff about the best way to go about it.”
“But...you won’t be there to direct it,” Abbie said.
Putting a hand to her shoulder, I smiled. “I think you know my style enough to know what I would want. I trust you, Abbie. I don’t mean to lay any additional responsibilities on you, but...”
