Since the grant for High Heels and Hoodoo is much smaller than the one for Saying Goodbye, it means everything is even more ‘do it yourself’ than before, which includes the shopping. For Saying Goodbye, we spent a good chunk of time perusing the Walmart shelves for craft services, but meals and props were handled by other people. This time we are all on our own. And since neither one of us likes to shop, the past few days have been . . . not fun.
The set design is pretty simple, so the majority of the items on our props list are interesting looking implements for Madame Josephine’s hoodoo table. Much of our shopping has consisted of going from store to store (to store!) deciding which glass container will look coolest when filled with blood or which mortar and pestle looks the most magical. Thank goodness it’s right before Halloween – finding the fake blood was the easiest thing on our list.
The biggest buying challenge has been the ring that gets passed between characters. While it’s not a main plot device, it is in every scene, and all three actresses wear it at some point. The ring needs to be big and flashy enough for the viewer to notice it’s the same one, and it also needs to look expensive (without actually being expensive). That’s a fine line, since the bigger they are, the cheaper they usually look. After scouring practically every shop in our area that carries rings, we finally found a “pink diamond” we liked from our favorite film shopping 
place – Walmart.
And since Brian was busy when it was time for the major food shopping, Jocelyn batted her pitiful, puppy eyes and pleaded with her parents to come help push the buggies during an evening expedition (less crowded) to Walmart to load up on snacks and food for the meals. Our parents have been life savers through all of this!
All this shopping has nearly worn us out before we’ve even started filming, and it will definitely be a while before either one of us feels like entering another store.