Actually this is not day fifteen. This is the week before. The treehouse location was one I didn't have to do a lot of scouting to find. Of course I didn't find it until we were a few days into shooting, so I was a little nervous until one day when Tyson said that his girlfriend had an old treehouse in her family's backyard. We went and took a look. The structure was in good shape, but the floor and sides were old pressboard, which didn't fit into the script, which called for a slatted floor and side walls. Tyson stepped up and volunteered some old lumber his family had sitting around. Thanks Tyson.
	Tyson measures out the lengths for the floorboards to see which ones will work.
	The treehouse, stripped down. Here I cut away the floor so we can lay down the 2x6 boards. The tree was great. If fanned out on top which allowed for a cool look when we turned the camera upwards for one of the final shots of the scene. In the movie this treehouse is supposed to be in the backyard of "Phil's" house. In reality the treehouse and back-porch are miles apart. "Phil" and his mom are also supposed to have a conversation, which get's put together in editing seamlessly.
	Tyson came complete with his workbench. He took this project seriously, which I appreciated. Brianna Scheubert, his girlfriend, jumps on the trampoline in the background.
	Brianna gets into the act as we start to lay down floor boards. We only had enough lumber to cover 3/4 of the floor. I decided early on which area we were going to use in the shot, and eventually we used even less for the interior treehouse angles.
	We bent a few nails that day. We even had a little contest to see who could drive nails in the fewest hits. Tyson and I tied each other at four.
	The real start of day fifteen. Stan helps to cut the sideboards. Tyson and I didn't quite know how to do them. I wanted to talk with Rick and Dana first. We decided and moved on it.
	Dana sets up the jib, which was crucial to some of the storyboarded shots of the scene. He gets some help from Brianna. Since she and Tyson were dating at the time, she appears in a lot of scenes as an extra. Look for her. And... she was the one who brought Tyson to one of the open auditions.
	I don't get it, what is this? Actually if you look close you can see this branch is attached to a C-Stand. It's an old trick Rick told me. It's called a "Branch-a-laurets" which is placed in front of the light to give some dispersion.
	Well, set up and almost ready to start shooting. The construction department still has a few things to do so Dana and Johnny stand around, Dana, his jovial self and Johnny giving us his stud look as I take a picture from the treehouse.
	Stan had to get that door right. It looked good too, but we really never really saw it. He had a lot of fun helping on this final construction phase.
	Running up through the center of the treehouse was... a tree. Rick utilized it to mount the 'lantern' light. He ended up putting a yellowish gel to simulate the color that a gas lantern puts out. In post-production I added in a slight hiss through most of the scene. Behind Rick you can see the treehouse wall where we didn't put any of the side slats.
	It's really night now, and it looks like a real movie set. Dana is making some adjustments to his Stedicam and Rick makes sure his lights are at just the right angle. We had the HMI's so high and with a slight wind blowing he tied off the stands with a couple of ropes, as seen with the foreground stand. Most everyone else stayed inside until things were ready. Part of the neighborhood can be seen in the background. Tyson and I ran around the the neighbors and told them what was going on with the bright lights and all.
	We continue to cut and work on the side slats at a breakneck pace. It's all we were waiting for at this point. One of the HMI stand tie off ropes appears to the right. We figured that deck wasn't going to go anywhere.
	Warm and safe inside. Stephanie sits as Shelbi and a few others gather around, talking about... well I don't remember what they were talking about, but they seemed to have a good time.
	A warm cup of java on a cool night always makes me smile.
	With the Stedicam brace strapped in Rick tests the smoke machine. There were several reasons we used it. One, it provided some nice depth, and second it hid the fact that it was a completely different house in the background.
	The crew poses for a snap-shot just before shooting.
	In this shot Shelbi and Chris run to the treehouse. It is one of my favorite Stedicam shots, since you really don't know that it is. They ran close to 30 feet and it is so fluid. To the left is Stan with his boom pole, looking for a place to plug in.
	Dana with the Stedicam.
	Almost ready for action!
	A meeting of the minds as Stan, myself, and Rick talk over the next shot.
	Let's light the thing and not make it look like a light!
	Same light, different angle.
	Shelbi makes her way up the ladder. Behind her is the cutoff of the old treehouse flooring made of pressboard. It was old and very unstable. We needed the new floor alone for the weight of all the equipment and personnel.
	Dana strapped on the wide angle for this one. He and Rick look over the shot.
	Tyson and Stephanie sit back in the corner to watch to going's on. When we started shooting though it was just Dana, Shelbi, Chris and I up there. It was a sensitive scene to shoot and I didn't want a lot of distraction for the actors.
	A flag keeps light off of Chris and Shelbi as Stan mounts the mic to the tree with a bungee cord.
	Before casting the actors I asked each of them if they were comfortable doing intimate kissing scenes. It's a sensitive issue for some and I didn't want to put the actors into a situation where they had to compromise their values (like they wanted to wait for their real first kiss to be on their wedding day). It wasn't easy to shoot this scene for them, but they came through again and again. One thing Shelbi said was that, although it wasn't something she would normally do, it was in important part of the story and it was important to show teens how you can get yourself into a compromising position without knowing it.
	I must say that it also helped to shoot this scene later into the production schedule. It allowed them to become friends and to trust me as a director. I learned this early on. For those of you striving to become directors, I would say that developing trust with your actors is a big key to getting good performances. If they know they can trust you, they will go the extra mile!
	With the mic in place we're about ready to shoot the treehouse scene.
	A pause in shooting. It was getting late real fast.
	Breaking down and being 'real' quiet is so hard to do, but we didn't get any complaints. Thankfully we didn't have a bunch of teenagers around. For some reason they don't know anything about volume. Wow, now I'm sounding old!
	All in all I was very pleased with how the treehouse worked. I think it really paid off. Some have said the move we did with the jib moving under the floorboards was one of the coolest shots in the movie. It was shot pretty much as we wrote it (four years earlier) and I had it in my head in how I wanted it to look (maybe that's why I went through so much trouble to get it exactly right).
	Rick, Dana & Stan. The night was getting cool. The summer nights while shooting in August were sure different than mid-September.
	Very, very late. Or very, very early... depending on how you look at it. This is the driveway in front of the house. Rick has his rig on the left, Dana of the right.