Day 2 -- Tuesday December 9
Since they didn't get to our scenes yesterday, what was scheduled as a day-off became a work-day for the two officers. So the party-goers gathered again to act like they are at a mid-summer bash when, in fact, it is about 50 degrees out.
The two scenes for the cops are pulling up in the car and surveying the scene. No lines, just looking like cops about to shut the place down. The arrival of the vehicle in the driveway was simple enough and only took a few takes.
The "surveying of the party" scene took a little more choreography. There were a few beats in it. The cops get out of the car. They look over the party-goers. A couple pretty ladies pass by them. A keg comes flying off the roof and rolls past them. They enter the party. Now, when the two ladies pass us by, we do get distracted for a moment. My partner, Tony, has been pretty cool and we had spent some time chatting over the past two days. So I offered up my idea, "Why don't we do this? When they go by, I'll show some interest and you stop me from looking after them?" Now Tony, as I said, has been quite nice and enjoyable to hang out with, so his response surprised me, "Well, you're a cop, and I'm a cop, and we're each our own person, so you have your reaction and I'll have my reaction." It was almost like he was upset that I had suggested anything. So I just acquiesced immediately and even felt silly for trying to create something interesting.
Then the director, John Quinn, came over to us and said, "OK, you two guys meet here and then we'll send the ladies past you and you look after them. Or, wait, I've got an idea. How about John, you show some interest in them, and Tony, you stop him, you know, just put your hand on him as if to keep him focused on the job? That'll be funny." Tony did not offer the same objection to the director so we did it that way. On the second of the three takes, I actually added a line, bold fool that I am. After the ladies passed, I said, "I was just gonna question them." No one said anything about it except for Tony, who was not in favor of ad-libbing lines. I took it back out for the third take and I imagine that's the one they'll print. Odd that the director didn't say anything to me, though, either for or against the line in particular and ad-libbing in general.
The keg was thrown. We watched it roll. We walked toward the house. The other events of the scene proceeded without ad-libs or "clever" ideas and the cops were wrapped.