Flashes of Chaos

My long-time girlfriend and partner in life recently took a new position that is pretty much her dream job. I couldn't be happier for her, and she deserves it, especially after all of the digging she did to find it. Finally she will be able to break free from her current routine of setting up global contracts for companies already in turmoil, while those in her office become increasingly stressed and irritable. I could see this routine taking its toll on her attitude and her health, and it was very disconcerting. Even scarier, though, was the realization that there are thousands of people in the Bay Area who tirelessly devote 10-plus hours a day to a firm that could give them the axe next week and not think twice about it, and they have little to show for it other than a living wage and stomach ulcers. And where is this dream job, you may ask? It's high in the hills of Saint Helena, CA. 2 hours north of Santa Clara. Looks like we're moving! ...and it couldn't come at a b…

Yesterday I shot a scene that involved two people on a balcony which faced west. Our start time was 5pm. We also needed a shot of person #2 entering the room behind the balcony, with person #1, already sitting outside and in direct sunlight, in the foreground of the same shot.
Initially my instinct was to cut down the direct sun by putting a flag over person #1 and bounce more light into the dark room behind him for person #2's entry, to equalize the two, and I fought to keep #1 sitting the whole time (we weren't equipped to fly a large silk or flag up over the second floor, but I could flag him in close-ups).
That's what I did.
Then I was hoping to shoot a master shot from the reverse angle, looking west from inside the room, and had to push again for #2 to cross the camera's axis, because even I try to use proper screen grammar when I can. Then I found out that #2 had just received the lines that day, and a long-take master shot was simply not possible without frequent …