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Finishing the 10 minute film shoots November 29, 2007

Posted by joost in : LFA, sound , comments closed

After a well deserved wrap party for successfully completing the shoot of my 10 minute film, business went on as usual. For me this meant: boom operating! And helping with the set build of this last film. Far less glamorous but a good and humbling experience to make someone else’s film as good as possible.

The third film was the most ambitious of the three. A very full schedule including one full day of exteriors, a child actor, an experienced Emmy Award winning actress (!), a cloaked “monster”, plenty of (time consuming) tracking shots, special effects with smoke and candles, to name a few elements. This all resulted in a shoot that was unavoidably tense at times.

On Wednesday the 28th of November I was softly humming the Stones tune “This could be the last time / this could be the last time / maybe the last time / I don’t know…” The last day of shooting, possibly the last day of shooting with my fellow diploma students. An odd idea. Luckily we had to get on with it and before we knew it, the day was done, and a smashing wrap party followed. Everyone went crazy that night, not only to celebrate the end of our 10 minute films, but also to celebrate the semi-official end of our year and the imminent departure of two of our classmates. Tequila!

Directing day 5 done – it’s a wrap! November 21, 2007

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“I gotta go now yeah..” – CLUNK – BEEP. 19:35, slate 44, the last feet of the last roll of film runs out. – “Cut! That’s it, I guess we have to go as well, it’s a wrap!”

Hour by hour time ticks away on this last day. It all feels very familiar, it feels like a well oiled machine to work on the set. During the day I mainly focus on getting the right setups and on how I want to play the scene. I talk with the actor about the previous rehearsals, he talks about what he wants to try, we talk some more about the interpretation of the scene and agree on what we want to achieve. It’s been a pleasure working with Peter, he is not only a very skilled actor who is able to give a nuanced performance, but he is also very generous in trying to give me different options and keeping it fresh.

One of the mantras people tried to teach us at the LFA this year is: “All mistakes are made in pre-production.” In other words: make sure you are as prepared as you can be, this will help minimize running into trouble when you are actually shooting. On day 5 I experienced this the hard way.
We set up a computer to playback the webcam footage. Unfortunately I assumed (…) that I could copy the videofile using a burned DVD. Wrong! The pc is from the stone age and turned out to only have a CD-ROM player. We hooked up an external harddrive instead to copy the file, but this failed as well due to mysterious copying errors halfway through. Direct playback from the drive also failed after a few seconds.
Quite ironic that I left “my IT life” in the Netherlands about a year ago in order to make films, and then find yourself on a film set messing about and cursing computers yet again! Thankfully I thought of a different solution that worked like a charm. In the end we only lost half an hour, but it’s symbolic for the mantra mentioned before. Don’t assume things will work; prepare, test, verify, secure.

Apart from the usual pretty straightforward setups, I planned quite a difficult reverse tracking shot in the afternoon. When doing a tracking shot, timing is everything. The grip who moves the dolly needs to have a cue when to start and needs to find the right pacing. The focus puller needs to find and set marks at key positions so he can focus pull accordingly. The camera operator needs to find the start and end frame of the tracking move, and the right way of panning in between. The boom operator needs to find positions where he can do his job without being overrun by the dolly. The DOP needs to set the lights in such a fashion that they are out of shot throughout the tracking move. And the director… explains what he wants, sits, waits patiently, and gives feedback on what works and what needs improvement.
To make it more complicated I also wanted a cameo by George (the writer) as an extra, who also needed a cue to start moving. I think it took about two hours to set everything up and rehearse it over and over again. Quite a challenge during the last few hours of the shoot, but we pulled it off and it looked gorgeous on the monitor.

One other challenge on this last day was the amount of remaining film stock. The budget only allows for a certain amount of film rolls and lab processing costs. You try to make good use of the available stock, but of course you don’t want to run out before the last shot is done. After each of the last few setups I checked the count with the clapper loader and quickly did the math on what was left and how much I expected to need for the remaining setups. The script supervisor is useful here because he times all the rehearsals.
It worked out perfectly. The final close-up of the day and of the shoot was in the can with 64 feet left on the last magazine, so I went for another take and squeezed out an extra take until the film ran out. CLUNK.

And suddenly the moment was there. “It’s a wrap!” Applause followed by the whole crew, and my producer entered with two bottles of champagne to celebrate. People congratulate each other on a fine shoot and I am thrilled.
What an experience, what a blast! I hoped that I would do well, I hoped that things would come together, I hoped for great acting, I hoped for a pleasant vibe on set, I hoped that I would not only be focussed but that I would also be able to enjoy what I was doing while I was doing it. And I did! I can’t believe it went so well.

After packing things up and clearing the studio we went for drinks in our favorite pub. I had a big grin on my face for the rest of the evening and chatted away with cast, crew and friends. I know that a couple of days from now I will work on the next production and soon after will start with the edit, but for now I am over the moon. Whatever happens, no one can take this experience away from me!

Directing day 4 done November 20, 2007

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Initially we scheduled two days of shooting on location. Realistically we knew we would only need a day and a half, but we made sure there was some room in the schedule in case the start would be very slow on the first day, or in case unexpected things would occur that would delay the shoot (noisy neighbors, problems with electricity, faulty equipment, you don’t want to know about everything that might go wrong…)
Because day 3 went so well, we only had to shoot the remaining half a day. This went quite smoothly, except from some technical trouble with the video and audio playback on laptop. I think my computer background was quite useful here, so while the crew was adjusting the lights and the camera, the director was fixing the graphic card and Quicktime :-)
After that was sorted out, the scene itself worked beyond my expectations, kudos to the actress who nailed the timing perfectly.

We wrapped around lunchtime, packed up, transported everything back to the LFA again, and rebuilt the military tent set we had built and deconstructed on the first day. In the evening me and my roommate created the last webcam scene, based on the footage we shot on Monday and needed for the last day of shooting.

Only one more day to go. Exciting and scary, because until now everything went so well. Let’s see what the last day will bring.

Directing day 3 done November 19, 2007

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The past productions we did on location usually struggled on the first day. Logistically it is challenging to get the equipment there (on time and with all necessary gear), to get the cast and crew there on time, to change the interior of the location in order to suit the film (set dressing and creating room to put the camera and lights) and to find space to temporarily store all equipment. This all tends to lead to a late first turnover – I remember one shoot where we had a call time of 8am, and the first take done by 12:30!

Knowing this, it was not a surprise that the first hour of day 3 was a bit tense. Transporting all the equipment on a rainy early Monday morning, fitting 15 people into a small apartment in Fulham, the knowledge that two tutors would be on set from 0930 onwards (and not every day has tutors to support us), that made some people edgy. Thankfully things kicked into gear after a short while and the crew was focussed on getting things in place.

Beforehand I considered this day the most difficult. Not only because of the things I have described above, but also because I had no exact shooting plan for the day. Normally you know what shots you want / need, you know the location, you know what the action will be (because the actors have rehearsed on set / location). In this case I knew what I wanted from each scene, but had no precise knowledge of the exact layout of the location redressed as the set, and the corresponding actions of the actors.
Of course you play the scenes in your head and imagine camera angles and possible coverage, but one of the many things I have learned this year is that you only know how you will shoot until you see the action take place there and then.

Shortly after the actors / actresses arrive on location, the crew is asked to leave the set. The director then rehearses the scene with the cast. During this time you are looking at the action and moving around in order to see from what angles you want to cover the action. When the director is happy, the first A.D. gets all the crew back in again to watch a runthrough of the scene. Then the director tells what setups he intends to do to cover the scene.

Every setup starts with watching (part of) the scene from the director’s viewfinder. Usually this is a zoom lens fitted on an eyepiece, enabling the director to see exactly what the camera will see. The director frames the shot as he sees fit and lines it up in such a way that key moments in the scene are covered from that angle and framesize. The camera assistants then note the lense size, the height of the viewfinder and mark the position. They then setup the camera, while the lighting department starts doing their thing based on the action they have seen and the location of the camera.

This routine is repeated for every setup until the scene is covered. The drill then starts from the top, first a short rehearsal to block the action, then the runthrough, etc etc.

For me the period between moving the equipment to the location and the first setup was the part that I was worried about, mainly because it involves everything that has nothing to do with my job at hand – directing. As soon as I rehearsed the scene with the cast, looked at the action, explained how I intended to shoot the scene, I felt relaxed again. I could focus on what was important to me and by then I knew what we planned to do the next few hours.

The rest of day three went great. The atmosphere was good, the shooting schedule was realistic with regards to the available time, the two actresses were marvelous – both funny and heartbreaking, and we successfully shot the technically cumbersome shots with the video playback on the laptop (footage we shot digitally two days before, now incorporated in a webcam mockup playing on the computer).
I shot everything that I wanted to shoot and did not have to compromise or drop any shots. At the end of the day I felt relieved and went to the pub with a handful of people to enjoy a good day on location! :-)

Directing day 2 done November 18, 2007

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We shot the remaining three of the four scenes in the projection room set today. It went really well, we got started early (call time 8am, first turnover around 0930 I think) and kept the pace going all day. In the afternoon we did the final scene with a more elaborate lighting setup and a practical effect. I don’t want to spoil too much so I leave it a bit vague on purpose.

While filming the last few shots we tried to get the maximum amount of shots out of the available stock. In the end we have used nearly all of the three rolls, just a few feet short of 1200 feet. This amounts to about 32 minutes of raw footage shot in the projection room.

I am quite pleased with the scenes and the acting performance in the final scene in particular. Now I keep my fingers crossed that it will cut together nicely. Crucial here is if the timing of the dialogue in the different setups of the same scene will match the image on display at that moment in time (hmm, without having read the script or hearing me talk about it
I am probably the only one who understands why this is tricky).

Tomorrow and on Tuesday we shoot two days on location in an apartment in the Fulham area. My gut feeling tells me that Monday will be the most difficult day of all five. Fingers crossed!

Directing day 1 done November 17, 2007

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Just a quick message. First day of shooting & directing is done, and it went great! We covered all the shots that we planned and managed to pull off a tricky set changeover halfway through the day. More importantly I am really happy with the performance by Peter (“Dave” in the film) and the crew who seemed to enjoy themselves and the shoot. Yay! Pictures and more impressions will follow in a few days.

One week to go November 10, 2007

Posted by joost in : LFA, directing, producing , comments closed

Seven days from now and the first day of shooting will be underway. Production things that happened last week:

To do – too much to mention!

And this is only what I have to do, my producer is busy with all the other logistics to get this film off the ground.

Pre-production update on Rule Two November 4, 2007

Posted by joost in : LFA, directing, producing , comments closed

Quick update on the status of our production “Rule Two”:

Thirteen days to go!