When I was on set of The Good Lord Bird, the Director Michael Nankin told me that when you wake up before the sun, your days will always be better. To be fair, he was referring to set days, as one of my lessons as a Director’s Shadow was to always get to set before anyone else, which meant dragging myself out of bed at 5am to meet him on the dusty trails of our set in rural Virginia. He explained that doing this will help facilitate some sort of magic to help you know what the scene needs. I met him on set as the extras were floating around, and all of us together marveled at the beauty of the golden orb rising above the mountains. Shivering from the cold and the sleep still in my eyes, holding a warm coffee, I was filled with an inexplicable amount of joy, faith and magic. And my days were always better.
This morning I woke up before the sun. I did so much as look at my script, much less make many edits, but somehow even that small gesture of dragging my body out of bed, putting it in front of me and looking at it, gave me the kind of magic Michael was talking about.
This morning, 6:56am
Sunrise on The Good Lord Bird