Day 5 of a 7 day shoot on a shortfilm called Taxy (spelling error intentional). We are on set waiting for our lead actor to show up. 60 people on set, camera up, loaded, and extras in places, and my phone starts ringing. My director is on the phone (I'm DP.)
"Hey, man. He's not in his hotel! I called the hotel and they say he checked out this morning." He sounds frantic like he's about to cry.
I call our actor to figure out what his deal is. Keep in mind we are standing in a bar that has given us exactly 7 hours to shoot over 8 pages of script.
Apparently what happened was our actor had become fed up over the shoot after we made him work outside from 6pm to 6am the previous night in -15 degrees and snowing. He told me he was at the airport, had purchased a ticket for New York, and decided to go home.
Somehow, we were able to get a body double, alter the script considerably, and finish the shoot in under 2 hours. But that day sucked something awful.
