Wow, it has been quite a journey, it is far from over, but we are done with a significant chunk of it. In the spirit of finishing one part, I would like to look back at the very humble beginnings of this wonderful project. I don’t want to get caught up in the very, very beginnings, as these are printed in many articles about the movie. I want to talk about the actual pre-production.
Pre-production was such an important and vital part of this movie. Pre-pro took roughly four full months, and for about 90% of that time it was myself Vin, Vikki, Zach and Brianne working on most of the planning.
For me pre-pro was a time to mentally prepare myself for what I suspected would be one of the hardest challenges of my life. I was scared shitless. It was this uncertainty and fright that pushed me to go so far and plan for so much during the pre-pro time. I knew that I was embarking on a very unique journey, a very real journey. I knew had some of the best people surrounding me as my team, however, I knew that it was up to me to lead these people, to know most of the answers, to pull everyone through the hard times, and most of all, to finish this movie with a good professional looking product, the sheer truth in all of that scared me to death… did I mention how scared I was?
Those long four months were comprised of many meetings, many brainstorming sessions, many arguments, many casting sessions, many phone calls and many rehearsals.
During the time of casting Vin, Zach and myself were still working on revisions to the script. I think we went through about 4-5 good revisions, nothing major, but little things. During that time we were casting almost every weekend. The casting situation was fairly painless, for the most part the people that we chose ended up being our first decisions, and they are all phenomenal choices, this movie would not have been possible without their dedication, especially Bobby. We did have to weed through a lot of crap, but we ultimately got our locked cast (except of course for the whole Magner situation, but you can read about that later)
During all of this I was trying to figure out exactly how I should go about directing a movie. I knew I possessed a lot of leadership skills from QFS and everything, and from directing my own movies, but this was a whole new league for me and it was very uncertain for me. One of the best resources for me was FreshDV, and their phenomenal four hour directors’ course.
http://www.freshdv.com/2008/08/freshdv-film-school-directors-course-pt1.html
Basically, it is a four hour interview with an independent director and it delves deep into the processes required by the director and 1st AD on and off set. It was such a huge help to me, it really helped me to prepare for what I would need to do when the time came on set. I also gave it to Brianne to watch and I think it really helped her as well. It really opened up my eyes as to how a director interacts with his 1st AD and how that relationship is used to keep the production more efficient. Looking back on it now, it helped both Brianne and I immensely to prepare for the movie.
In addition to FreshDV I read a wealth of online tutorials, and read many articles written by directors about directing. Everything else I did to prepared myself was mostly just that; preparation. I studied the script many times, hypothesized how I wanted to movie to look, how I wanted it to feel, I visualized character personalities. It was very hard for me to do all of this, on such a big scale. It is a pretty daunting task to look at 100+ page script and know that you have to shape the over all feel and direction of the film. Many things go through you mind, you question your own ideas, but ultimately you learn to just trust your gut. It was very hard for me to sort of take a step back and look at everything from a single perspective, with such a huge project sometimes I couldn’t be sure if everything fit, to alleviate this I did my best to break things down, analyze separate parts of the story and the characters. I did the best I could, and that’s what counts.
One particularly fun part of pre-pro was working directly with Zach. We spent many hours figuring out what our color pallet would be, how we wanted it to look visually. We spent many hours arguing over aspect ratios, was it going to be shot in 16:9 or 2:35:1? I ultimately convinced him we should shoot in cinemascope and he now agrees that was the best decision. We spent many hours doing screen tests, deciding that we wanted to use a mix of sticks, cranes and dollies, as well as hand held when it warranted it. We also made sure that we always used as much of the lens as possible going as much telephoto as we could to achieve the shallowest depth of field possible from the HVX. Workflows were made for the P2 cards; all of this stuff was planned beforehand. Coming from a cinematography and photography background really helped me to work with Zach, I think the best directors are the ones that understand the craft of the DP, because ultimately they are the one person on the crew that the director works the most closely with. It also helped that I have been working with Zach for years and we are very close friends.
During all my work planning with Zach I also had many meetings with the wardrobe department and the art department. Claire did a phenomenal job with the wardrobe and makeup. We spent a good deal of time looking at colors and matching them to the visual style of the movie. Zach and I decided we wanted our palette to be very subtle, not bright and flashy. I had told him I wanted it to be gritty and realistic, not gritty as in grainy and intense, but more of a weathered look. Ultimately the pallet Zach and I chose highlighted a lot of earthy tones, and especially made maroon and red pop. Of course, not by accident, Claire and I chose David to wear a lot of maroon. If you look in the finished product there is a big motif with Calvin wearing bright red and David wearing maroon. While working with Claire I was also working a lot with Justin on the overall art direction. Justin’s work naturally fit right into how I wanted this movie to look. I have always admired his artistic style and during the planning process we came up with many great ideas for the art direction. One thing in particular that took a while was the designing of the pills. This was to be the staple of the movie so I knew it needed to be perfect. Justin did an amazing job and after eight revisions we had our pill, and I think it looks phenomenal, I still can’t get over how good he made it look.
Once our entire cast was set in stone, the first wave of pre-pro rehearsals started. These rehearsals were more about targeting specific characters rather then looking at whole scenes. This time was for getting to know the actors, building the relationships that would get us through the long production process. Obviously the main focus was on the actual characters, but everything has its place. I spent many weeks working with Bobby and the other actors, and we made some really good progress, each and every one of the actors, and myself started to really get used to who the characters were, now not just on paper, but in real life.
One part in particular that still stands out to me was towards the end of pre production after many weeks of rehearsals we had our cold read. This was a time for all of the main actors to get in a room and act out the whole script in its entirety. The cold read went well, and it was interesting to see it all played out in one two hour sitting. Bobby didn’t have the best cold read, and I could see he was struggling. I believe it was his first cold read and the whole experience was new to him (as it was to myself) so I think it was hard for him to jump from scene to scene and emotion to emotion so quickly. The character of David Bushell is very complex, and through the few months the story takes up the character changes a lot. So I can expect that it would be hard to capture all of that essence in just a short two hour sit down.
After the cold read Vin came up to me and voiced some concern as to Bobby’s performance. It was nothing big but he did have some concerns as to the dimension of the character during the cold read. I assured him that in rehearsals we had been making many, many strides with the character of David, and that Bobby was doing fine. I pretty much told him everything I just said in the last paragraph.
However, this incident did make me realize something very important. I had never taken a step back and gone over the whole character arch of David with Bobby. Every rehearsal we did was just small increments. It was something I had overlooked, but it was such a vital element in the structure of a complex character that we needed to go back and work on it some more.
It was literally the last day in pre-production and I had to call bobby up and tell him to come back, it was very hard for me to tell him what I had realized, and that we still needed to do work. He came back up and we worked hard on it. We talked a lot about the character of David as a whole, and I concentrated on certain scenes of importance in the script. All of the major work had been done in the past rehearsals; we just needed to tighten everything up and work on the big picture. Over the next week (the week before our first shoots in NY) I made up a four page character arch of the character of David to help Bobby visualize how David progresses though the story. I spoke with Bobby every day that week and we talked a lot about everything. We were getting down to the line and what I had realized during the cold read definitely scared both of us.
However, I had complete and utter faith in him and myself, I knew that we had nabbed that one last issue and that Bobby was utterly committed to the character of David. When the time came and we shot that first scene Bobby blew everyone away with his performance, it was at that point that I knew that all that time and work was worth every second. To this day Bobby and I have used the character arch every week, and to this day Bobby continues to impress me with his amazing acting skills.
I have of course left some stuff out, because I don’t have the time or mental capacity to write all of the many things about pre-production down. All I will say is that those four months are what made this production even remotely possible, and it was the sole dedication of everyone involved that helped prepare all of us for the ride that is The Mercury Cycle.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
The end is near… Kind of
So it has been a long time since I have written any substantial posts. Life has just been so draining; everything about this movie takes everything out of you. It is very hard sometimes to keep on going. The thing that keeps you going is the people around you, the people that have become your family. Sure most of us were good friends before this movie. However, now we are so much closer. It sounds very cheesy, but it really is the crew that has kept me going, and I am sure everyone else feels the same way.
There were times when we would have a week off from production, and those times are always great to catch up on sleep and schoolwork and sanity. On the other hand it is such a weird feeling, you are emotionally and physically exhausted yet you feel like you need to be on set, you need to be back with your family. You feel out of place in the real world, all of the inside jokes and experiences you have shared on set don’t have a place in your off set world. With that being said it is ironic that some weeks you dread going to set, you just don’t want to deal with the stress and the hectic nature of it.
I have said it many times and I will say it again, I am so proud of every single person who has worked on this film. I have seen so many people grow, so many people mature, including myself. We are extremely close to the end of principle photography, we only have a few pick up days left. We have experienced so many things during these past five months, we have learned so much. We have yelled and hated each other, we have hugged and loved each other. We have and are continuing to make history every day, every second.
Once that wrap party is over a new chapter in The Mercury Cycle saga begins; a whole new world of opportunities and solutions. It is going to be challenging, and it is going to be hard, but it is going to be a totally different experience for me. I have gotten through being the director during pre-production, production and now I will get a chance to see it through until that oh so gratifying picture lock. It has been totally awesome, it has completely sucked and ruined my life, but in the end it’s a chance to make history and do something no one has ever imagined.
- Cody
There were times when we would have a week off from production, and those times are always great to catch up on sleep and schoolwork and sanity. On the other hand it is such a weird feeling, you are emotionally and physically exhausted yet you feel like you need to be on set, you need to be back with your family. You feel out of place in the real world, all of the inside jokes and experiences you have shared on set don’t have a place in your off set world. With that being said it is ironic that some weeks you dread going to set, you just don’t want to deal with the stress and the hectic nature of it.
I have said it many times and I will say it again, I am so proud of every single person who has worked on this film. I have seen so many people grow, so many people mature, including myself. We are extremely close to the end of principle photography, we only have a few pick up days left. We have experienced so many things during these past five months, we have learned so much. We have yelled and hated each other, we have hugged and loved each other. We have and are continuing to make history every day, every second.
Once that wrap party is over a new chapter in The Mercury Cycle saga begins; a whole new world of opportunities and solutions. It is going to be challenging, and it is going to be hard, but it is going to be a totally different experience for me. I have gotten through being the director during pre-production, production and now I will get a chance to see it through until that oh so gratifying picture lock. It has been totally awesome, it has completely sucked and ruined my life, but in the end it’s a chance to make history and do something no one has ever imagined.
- Cody
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Sunday, March 8, 2009
It's nights like tonight.
It's nights like these that energize you after a long day on set. It is in those late hours, after everyones energy and spirits are dead that something happens. It is magical, it is the sole dedication and motivation of everyone that comes back to hold everything together in those late hours...
oh and did i mention we got some fucking amazing footage tonight...
oh and did i mention we got some fucking amazing footage tonight...
Friday, March 6, 2009
Update
So this is just a quick post since i haven't been on here for a while.
As of right now i am kind of delirious. Directing and producing this movie has taken more out of me then i could have ever imagined. My health and social life have suffered dearly. I have been very far behind on my posts to keep you guys updated because i just can't find the time. Anytime i do find time outside of the movie is spent catching up on sleep and doing school work. This past week has been extremely hard on me, everything is just starting to catch up to me.
I can't wait for this week off for spring break. I desperately need it. I need to get back in touch with reality again, I need it to keep the sanity.
With all of that said, I am so happy with all of the work we have done thus far. We are actually doing it, we are succeeding in the dream that only a few get to be a part of.
As of right now i am kind of delirious. Directing and producing this movie has taken more out of me then i could have ever imagined. My health and social life have suffered dearly. I have been very far behind on my posts to keep you guys updated because i just can't find the time. Anytime i do find time outside of the movie is spent catching up on sleep and doing school work. This past week has been extremely hard on me, everything is just starting to catch up to me.
I can't wait for this week off for spring break. I desperately need it. I need to get back in touch with reality again, I need it to keep the sanity.
With all of that said, I am so happy with all of the work we have done thus far. We are actually doing it, we are succeeding in the dream that only a few get to be a part of.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Back to New York...
So a bunch of us arrived late Thursday night to NY at a sketchy motel. We had to jam about 9 people into two small rooms. We had to do this because Vinny was not with us, so we couldn’t spend the night at his house.
We got about 4 hrs of sleep and had to get up at the crack of 5am and pack up in 15min to head over to Vin’s for the sunrise.
Once we arrived at the house we started to set the tent up for the sunrise scene. Everything was all set up until we realized a key wardrobe item had not been brought up. Our wardrobe person was not on set because she was coming up later in the day. This article of clothing was not only needed to keep continuity between scenes, it was a key motif in the movie. I knew we had to have the particular hoodie for Bobby to wear in the sunrise scene for aesthetic reasons, so we all panicked.
So we thought quick on our feet and sent Brianne out to Wal-Mart. Luckily she was able to find a maroon hoodie that closely resembled the one we had been using.
We shot the scene and it looked great.
Soon after we finished the scene Greg Nutcher arrived on set to finish some of his scenes for the movie. There was a little bit of a scheduling conflict between him and Brianne, and we found out he was only available to shoot that day. So we had to change our plans around slightly to accommodate him, but in the end it worked out fine.
We shot that day and once we were done shooting everyone took a break, except of course, myself Jess and Bobby. We had to rehearse for a few hours to get ready for the next mornings shoot.
That night we also found out that we would not be allowed to shoot at the diner we had already been given permission to shoot at on Saturday. Apparently Vin had called to follow up with the manger and she told him we couldn’t (even though we had already set it in stone that we could), she said we could only shoot there on weekdays. This was a bummer for us because now we knew we would have to come back up to NY and take more time out of our schedules to shoot the diner scene… But it had to be done…
The next morning was a big one. We all got up at 5am sharp (all with about 5 hrs of sleep)
It was really a sight to behold. The previous night we all got together and I spoke to everyone about the morning shoot at the cemetery. I stressed that it was critical that we all worked as a team, we all needed to work in unison, we all needed to work together to beat the rising sun.
In the morning it was really awesome to see it all come together. We had the full crew out at the cemetery at 5:30am. We had three different groups; some were shoveling and scraping ice off of the mausoleum walkway to prevent the actors and the dolly from slipping. Others were setting up the crane, and even more people were in a different location setting up the dolly tracks so Zach and I could move from shot to shot with minimal set up time. This was an extremely important scene and we had it spread across two mornings in the schedule, but we still knew we needed to hustle to fit it all in.
While all this was going on Zach and I were down in the valley setting up the wide shot. As the sun started to rise, I took a second to take it all in. This was the first time I had seen the entire crew work in unison, work together on set so well. Sure everyone has been working hard, but it was so awesome to see it all take place at one location.
As the sun started to rise we captured some phenomenal shots. We also found out that the sun was more forgiving then we had anticipated and rose much slower. This was very good news for us because it allowed us to shoot for longer into the morning.
Shooting at sunrise is a particularly hard task because the color temperature in the sky changes so rapidly. Luckily this day was decently cloudy (this helped us with the color temperature issue and time issue)
We shot all we could and then took a big break. The whole crew went out to a local Chinese buffet, and it was amazing… we were all so tired and drained form the morning shoot that the food tasted amazing. It was really good moral booster.
Once we got back form lunch we had some down time until it got dark, which was when we where planning on shooting all of the tent night scenes.
During that time most of us took a nap, caught up on some Z’s and did some rehearsing.
That night was some of the hardest lighting Kelly and Zach have come across yet… and they pulled it off beautifully. The footage looked really great. We went long into the night and when it ended we clocked out at about a 21hr day. Although we did get all of our shots in for the day, I can hardly say 21hrs was a success.
Later in the week we went over some concerns during e-board and we realized that we could cut down on our setup times if I rehearsed with the actors while Zach and Kelly were setting up. This would eliminate the time they need to re-adjust lights to the actors specific physical traits.
Anyway… With feet soaking wet, those of us who stayed outside all night for the shoots went to sleep.
We woke up the next morning only to have to rush back out to the cemetery to shoot the remainder of the mausoleum scene. When we got there we shot a few pick ups and then proceeded to get the remainder of an important monologue we had not been able to shoot the day prior. As we started to shoot it was going well. Then out of nowhere in a split second it started to downpour on all of us. We all quickly hustled and grabbed all of the equipment and brought it under shelter.
We then all went back to Vin’s and were about to call it a day until, you guessed it… the sun came out! So we ate lunch and ran back over to the set and proceeded to shoot the rest of the scene. Only this time the sun was out (which is actually bad, because you get harsher highlights on your subjects) and it was extremely windy. We shot what was left in the scene and got the hell out of there.
Needless to say it was a very cold, tiring and exhausting weekend. However, we did get a lot of amazing footage!
We got about 4 hrs of sleep and had to get up at the crack of 5am and pack up in 15min to head over to Vin’s for the sunrise.
Once we arrived at the house we started to set the tent up for the sunrise scene. Everything was all set up until we realized a key wardrobe item had not been brought up. Our wardrobe person was not on set because she was coming up later in the day. This article of clothing was not only needed to keep continuity between scenes, it was a key motif in the movie. I knew we had to have the particular hoodie for Bobby to wear in the sunrise scene for aesthetic reasons, so we all panicked.
So we thought quick on our feet and sent Brianne out to Wal-Mart. Luckily she was able to find a maroon hoodie that closely resembled the one we had been using.
We shot the scene and it looked great.
Soon after we finished the scene Greg Nutcher arrived on set to finish some of his scenes for the movie. There was a little bit of a scheduling conflict between him and Brianne, and we found out he was only available to shoot that day. So we had to change our plans around slightly to accommodate him, but in the end it worked out fine.
We shot that day and once we were done shooting everyone took a break, except of course, myself Jess and Bobby. We had to rehearse for a few hours to get ready for the next mornings shoot.
That night we also found out that we would not be allowed to shoot at the diner we had already been given permission to shoot at on Saturday. Apparently Vin had called to follow up with the manger and she told him we couldn’t (even though we had already set it in stone that we could), she said we could only shoot there on weekdays. This was a bummer for us because now we knew we would have to come back up to NY and take more time out of our schedules to shoot the diner scene… But it had to be done…
The next morning was a big one. We all got up at 5am sharp (all with about 5 hrs of sleep)
It was really a sight to behold. The previous night we all got together and I spoke to everyone about the morning shoot at the cemetery. I stressed that it was critical that we all worked as a team, we all needed to work in unison, we all needed to work together to beat the rising sun.
In the morning it was really awesome to see it all come together. We had the full crew out at the cemetery at 5:30am. We had three different groups; some were shoveling and scraping ice off of the mausoleum walkway to prevent the actors and the dolly from slipping. Others were setting up the crane, and even more people were in a different location setting up the dolly tracks so Zach and I could move from shot to shot with minimal set up time. This was an extremely important scene and we had it spread across two mornings in the schedule, but we still knew we needed to hustle to fit it all in.
While all this was going on Zach and I were down in the valley setting up the wide shot. As the sun started to rise, I took a second to take it all in. This was the first time I had seen the entire crew work in unison, work together on set so well. Sure everyone has been working hard, but it was so awesome to see it all take place at one location.
As the sun started to rise we captured some phenomenal shots. We also found out that the sun was more forgiving then we had anticipated and rose much slower. This was very good news for us because it allowed us to shoot for longer into the morning.
Shooting at sunrise is a particularly hard task because the color temperature in the sky changes so rapidly. Luckily this day was decently cloudy (this helped us with the color temperature issue and time issue)
We shot all we could and then took a big break. The whole crew went out to a local Chinese buffet, and it was amazing… we were all so tired and drained form the morning shoot that the food tasted amazing. It was really good moral booster.
Once we got back form lunch we had some down time until it got dark, which was when we where planning on shooting all of the tent night scenes.
During that time most of us took a nap, caught up on some Z’s and did some rehearsing.
That night was some of the hardest lighting Kelly and Zach have come across yet… and they pulled it off beautifully. The footage looked really great. We went long into the night and when it ended we clocked out at about a 21hr day. Although we did get all of our shots in for the day, I can hardly say 21hrs was a success.
Later in the week we went over some concerns during e-board and we realized that we could cut down on our setup times if I rehearsed with the actors while Zach and Kelly were setting up. This would eliminate the time they need to re-adjust lights to the actors specific physical traits.
Anyway… With feet soaking wet, those of us who stayed outside all night for the shoots went to sleep.
We woke up the next morning only to have to rush back out to the cemetery to shoot the remainder of the mausoleum scene. When we got there we shot a few pick ups and then proceeded to get the remainder of an important monologue we had not been able to shoot the day prior. As we started to shoot it was going well. Then out of nowhere in a split second it started to downpour on all of us. We all quickly hustled and grabbed all of the equipment and brought it under shelter.
We then all went back to Vin’s and were about to call it a day until, you guessed it… the sun came out! So we ate lunch and ran back over to the set and proceeded to shoot the rest of the scene. Only this time the sun was out (which is actually bad, because you get harsher highlights on your subjects) and it was extremely windy. We shot what was left in the scene and got the hell out of there.
Needless to say it was a very cold, tiring and exhausting weekend. However, we did get a lot of amazing footage!
Catchin' on up
So, as usual I am playing catch up (Because it seems once I get a break form TMC the last thing on my mind is writing about it) So please forgive me if I am a little hazy on what happened 2 weeks ago, so much has happened since then! After this post I will try and find time to blog as events happen.
So on with the show….
So the weekend came and we shot a whole lot on Saturday at Greg’s apartment. This was the first really intense day of shooting we had that was not in NY. All of the shots that were planned were night shots in the script and we started shooting at 12 noon. Because of this Kelly and Zach tented the windows and we made it appear as if it were nighttime. They did an amazing job, because mid shoot I went outside and was blinded by the light. The whole day was very disorienting, because it felt like it was dark out the whole day.
The whole shoot went well. Of course it was not without its share of opportunities, but we did get a lot of great footage.
This was my first weekend shooting with the very talented David McLaine (Shamus). He really nailed his stuff, and boy was he creepy! Its always fun to have him on set because he makes everyone laugh. Bobby was hitting his marks as usual, so that was awesome. I also had Jess come down for a few hours to be on set, get used to everything, so on Sunday (he first scene) she wouldn’t be so nervous. I think having her come and be on set helped her a lot
People not being prepared for the shoot caused the majority of opportunities on Saturday. We started about an hour late because some departments had to go out and get props in the morning. By the 13th hour we were all getting pretty cranky and tired. It was especially hard for me because I was drained, yet I had to keep everything up-beat so every 10 min or so I would get up and try and cheer everyone else up, let everyone know they were doing great. I think it helped a little.
In hindsight the main problem was we did not have any breaks scheduled besides lunch, and on a 15 hr day that just isn’t going to cut it. So after the shoot when we all sat down for a meeting we realized that we need 10 min breaks every so often on long shoots. These breaks are essential to keep moral up and energy and sanity up.
After finishing at 2am we all went home, only to sleep a few hours for the next mornings 8am call.
The next day went relatively well. It was Jess’s first few scenes and after a few warm ups she really nailed it. When we broke for lunch was when we ran into a huge opportunity. It was just poor organization, no one knew what time lunch was, people were split up, people were out of contact, it was just a mess. We ended up losing about an hour of shooting time, just trying to get everything organized again. It was hard because a lot of it derived from the 4hrs of sleep everyone got.
But after lunch we truly had mother earth on our side. We shot a scene in the woods and the lighting was just beautiful, it was truly a sight to behold. We went out to the woods with minimal crew, while everyone else was over at the next location setting up. Once we were done we moved over to the next location and shot one last scene before the sun went down.
All in all it was a good weekend. Technically we only missed our day by 1 scene, however given that we only had a turn around of 4hrs it wasn’t as successful as we would have hoped. But we certainly learned a lot, and we captured some great footage.
After the weekend we had a big crew meeting to discuss the opportunities we had run into. We spoke about too many people being on set distracting those who were working, and a multitude of other things we had to work on. The meeting was very productive. I like how we are all getting to the point were we can just air our problems to each other and fix what we need too. We are at the point where any problems we have with each other can be spoken about in a group setting without anyone getting personally offended. We all know that we need to let our concerns be heard so we can improve upon them and become more efficient.
With that said we moved on to the next week of shooting… in NY.
So on with the show….
So the weekend came and we shot a whole lot on Saturday at Greg’s apartment. This was the first really intense day of shooting we had that was not in NY. All of the shots that were planned were night shots in the script and we started shooting at 12 noon. Because of this Kelly and Zach tented the windows and we made it appear as if it were nighttime. They did an amazing job, because mid shoot I went outside and was blinded by the light. The whole day was very disorienting, because it felt like it was dark out the whole day.
The whole shoot went well. Of course it was not without its share of opportunities, but we did get a lot of great footage.
This was my first weekend shooting with the very talented David McLaine (Shamus). He really nailed his stuff, and boy was he creepy! Its always fun to have him on set because he makes everyone laugh. Bobby was hitting his marks as usual, so that was awesome. I also had Jess come down for a few hours to be on set, get used to everything, so on Sunday (he first scene) she wouldn’t be so nervous. I think having her come and be on set helped her a lot
People not being prepared for the shoot caused the majority of opportunities on Saturday. We started about an hour late because some departments had to go out and get props in the morning. By the 13th hour we were all getting pretty cranky and tired. It was especially hard for me because I was drained, yet I had to keep everything up-beat so every 10 min or so I would get up and try and cheer everyone else up, let everyone know they were doing great. I think it helped a little.
In hindsight the main problem was we did not have any breaks scheduled besides lunch, and on a 15 hr day that just isn’t going to cut it. So after the shoot when we all sat down for a meeting we realized that we need 10 min breaks every so often on long shoots. These breaks are essential to keep moral up and energy and sanity up.
After finishing at 2am we all went home, only to sleep a few hours for the next mornings 8am call.
The next day went relatively well. It was Jess’s first few scenes and after a few warm ups she really nailed it. When we broke for lunch was when we ran into a huge opportunity. It was just poor organization, no one knew what time lunch was, people were split up, people were out of contact, it was just a mess. We ended up losing about an hour of shooting time, just trying to get everything organized again. It was hard because a lot of it derived from the 4hrs of sleep everyone got.
But after lunch we truly had mother earth on our side. We shot a scene in the woods and the lighting was just beautiful, it was truly a sight to behold. We went out to the woods with minimal crew, while everyone else was over at the next location setting up. Once we were done we moved over to the next location and shot one last scene before the sun went down.
All in all it was a good weekend. Technically we only missed our day by 1 scene, however given that we only had a turn around of 4hrs it wasn’t as successful as we would have hoped. But we certainly learned a lot, and we captured some great footage.
After the weekend we had a big crew meeting to discuss the opportunities we had run into. We spoke about too many people being on set distracting those who were working, and a multitude of other things we had to work on. The meeting was very productive. I like how we are all getting to the point were we can just air our problems to each other and fix what we need too. We are at the point where any problems we have with each other can be spoken about in a group setting without anyone getting personally offended. We all know that we need to let our concerns be heard so we can improve upon them and become more efficient.
With that said we moved on to the next week of shooting… in NY.
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