We Are the Light(50)

“Hey, species traitor,” Betty the cop says, while pointing her fake gun at my face. “Come on over here so we can make it look like suicide.”

Just like the script called for, Eli’s character says, “Nooooooo!” and begins running toward Betty, who reflexively takes aim at the monster and fires her pretend gun, only my character steps in front of the feathered boy, taking a bullet right in the chest. I actually dive through the air, spreading my arms and legs wide, which—in postproduction—Eli and Tony will depict in very hip slow motion. We cut here, so that the makeup-and-special-effects team Mark and Tony had hired could get me into the bloody bullet-pierced version of my costume and make me look like I’m about to die from a gunshot to the chest.

At our read throughs, several Survivors brought up the triggering effect of having a gunshot wound in our film, given all that we had experienced during the Majestic Theater tragedy. I had argued in favor of keeping the pivotal scene, saying, “How can we transcend something we won’t even face in fiction?” I championed artistic freedom and the medicinal power of story. “Medicine tastes bad,” I said, “but it heals!”

With my character all bloody in the grass by the riverbank, the police—with their fake guns still trained on the monster—begin to close in around us.

“Remember,” Bobby yells, “the scientists need the monster alive for their experiments. Do not shoot to kill! And try not to shoot at all.”

At this point the monster screams at the top of his lungs, tapping into a deep reservoir of strength and talents he didn’t even know he had, and thrusts his hands out in front of him, which sends the cops flying backward into the trees.

Our special-effects team had put camouflaged ropes around the waists of the cops. Teams of people yanked on these ropes, sending the cops flying back onto mattresses hidden under piles of forest debris.

Then the monster lifts me to my feet and says, “Hold on, Father. I’m going to get you help.”

“But you aren’t strong enough to fly with me in your arms,” my character says.

“I am now,” he answers.

Then Eli and I both jump into the air, but the rest of our flight will be recorded later in front of a green screen.

The monster flies my character all the way to Mayor Sara’s house, which in real life is Mark and Tony’s house. As I mentioned before, Jill plays the mayor, who is horrified to learn that the CIA has illegally coopted our local police force. She quickly secures medical treatment for my character, who almost dies on the operating table, but is ultimately saved by the trauma surgeon who is expertly played by Survivor Julia Wilco. Eli says—in postproduction—we’ll insert some stock footage of open chest surgery, cutting from “the glistening internal organs” to my sleeping face with oxygen tubes up my nostrils.

The next day, we filmed the remaining hospital scenes, in which Isaiah and I have our big emotional post-operation bedside scene. He plays your role, my Jungian analyst—Carl with a C—who, when I wake up from surgery, says, “I really thought we were going to lose you,” before going on to say he’s proud of me “for making friends with the shadowy monsters of the world,” because, “like Jung says, ‘There’s gold in our shadows.’?” When you see the film, you will immediately spot all the Jungian references peppered throughout. I hope it makes you smile proudly.

That aforementioned scene where the monster and my character receive medals from Jill’s mayor character, Sara—kind of like the end of Star Wars—was in the bag by day three of filming, which happened a few days ago. Today was actually the sixth day of shooting already.

With the notable exceptions of you and Sandra, all of The Survivors—regardless of whether they are in the day’s scenes or not—have been hanging around our movie set, encouraging whomever is acting that scene and also helping with the setup and breakdown of each set, as well as all the other lighting and sound and wardrobe and camera requirements. People are even using their work vacation days to be there.

It’s funny because winged Darcy was the one who pointed me in this direction, saying, “The boy is the way forward,” so many times, but I haven’t seen her flying in the sky even once during filming. I’m making this film for her, which it will say right at the beginning: Dedicated to Darcy Goodgame. There will also be an in-memoriam section listing the names of all eighteen people who were killed at the Majestic Theater, including Jacob Hansen. I got a lot of pushback for wanting to include Jacob’s name, but when I threatened to shut down the entire production and then started screaming again in the library conference room—even knocking over the podium at one point—The Survivors acquiesced. And maybe it was good that Sandra Coyle had decided not to participate in the film, because there’s no way I could have gotten Jacob’s name on the in-memoriam list if Sandra had a voice.

Everything for a reason, maybe.

Eli has been living with Mark and Tony lately, because that’s where all the editing equipment is located and the boy wants total control over the final cut, which I understand. I asked Eli if my not being involved with the editing was okay, saying starring in the film was maybe as much as I could handle these days. He immediately agreed to take over my end of all that, saying, “Tony’s been incredible. I’m learning so much. I can’t even believe it.”