I haven't done a post in two weeks. Wow.
Anyway, hopefully should know within this week if the film will meet the deadline for SXSW.
In the meantime I've been working to pay off my editor and earn a meager existance with what's left over.
Should have some bigger news this week, trailer date and poster. So look out.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
Blah
Still editing. Finishing the movie poster. I'll post it soon.
Ready to finish this project like a mug. Trailer at the end of December.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
After the movie
With nothing left for me in Warren Arkansas I moved to Orlando Florida to find an editor. But my DP ended up being a better editor than anyone I could find so we decided to have him edit the film and I'm glad I made that choice.
He's done an awesome job so far. We're halfway through the first edit right now and the pacing is phenomenal. All I do now is go over the editing with my...editor, make money to pay him with, work on marketing(i.e. this blog), and all other facets of post production.
For now on posts will be short and frequent.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Last Day of Filming
Hey, been busy getting the movie edited among other things. But I'm back for some more story telling.
So now I've got to film a scene where I've got eight people playing football. How do you choreograph something as complex as that?
It was actually pretty easy. We went to the football field, made plays, recorded it, the end. Everyone knew what to do, and everyone went automatically went into the state of really playing the game. So it all came off organic.
There were a few problems such as when a player RAN INTO THE CAMERAMAN.
Sometimes the camera couldn't keep up with the action and things such as that but no real problems.
We had to film during the day which I didn't like. I wanted magic hour but time did not permit so we filmed then. Hot as hell and brighter than I wanted, but besides that it was great.
Another scene was shot at the basketball court but with all the dialogue in the scene we weren't able to get as many master shots as I wanted. It was getting dark soon, the curse of magic hour, so we concentrated on getting all the close-ups we needed and with the time left we got what masters we could. Enough to make it work in editing.
This was the day the photographer showed up, so all we got were photos of us playing basketball. So when I post photos of the movie people think it's an entire movie about basketball. Lesson learned, always have someone with a camera on set and make sure the photographer shows up the day they were supposed to.
That's it for the filming of the movie. Any other questions, just ask.
Next I'll move on to what to do after filming the movie.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Controlling Chaos
I'm back! So now is the conclusion to the cliffhanger of yesterweek. Me not have no place to film the movie, where me go? New house didn't want us to shoot there because the woman of the house determined her place too messy.
We were shooting our opening scene and another big scene. Luckily the actor who was going to shoot his one and only scene had his own place and his 3 day late pregnant wife gave him the okay to let us shoot there.
It was really a blessing in disguise, we wouldn't have been able pull off what we were planning on doing in the house we were shooting in. Too loud, too raunchy, too much liability for breaking things. This house was perfect with it's open spaces and being my friends house we could get away with a lot more.
Plus as I mentioned last time, it added another location to the movie.
So this first scene is action packed as all first scenes should be. We set up all the actors hoping with the limited given instructions they could coordinate themselves without looking stupid or rehearsed.
It was a night scene but we were shooting during the day, since it was an interior scene we were able to take care of that. We taped trash bags to the outside of all the windows and we were done.
The DP used the wheelchair as a dolly and we taped it. It turned out being the best first take through out the entire shooting! The ceiling fan got hit a little bit but that was it.
The shot after that was even better, non-pro's can be the best actor's imaginable if you know how to use them. The shot and acting was unbelievable. It didn't require a lot of skill for the acting but it was undeniably authentic as much of the acting throughout the entire filming was.
Some of the scenes were so crazy I couldn't believe my actors were so ready to do them. But a problem that had been eating at me was one of my actors had just got off work and we needed to get him here now, or we wouldn't be able to film the scene. I was finally able to get ahold of him and had another actor who had finished his scenes pick him up while we finished up other scenes.
Now as good as we were doing, the actors still had problems remember lines. Which made it difficult when trying to get your master shots. We got a decent amount of master shots, wish I could've got more but for the sake of time, and the DP's sanity we moved on to the next scene.
My two actors were now here just in time, we filmed an even crazier scene, and we were done.
My friends/actors were always able to help with crew jobs such as holding lights and such, helped out a lot. One friend blames me for ruining movies for him, the magic is gone for him now. He thinks about what's going on behind the camera every time he see's a movie now.
Wish my non-pro's had a little more time to rehearse so they would've known their lines better for more master shots in the big scenes. But if you look at all the things that you didn't get then you're fucking yourself up. Just learn from it for you next project and think of all the things that went right that could've easily went wrong.
Two scenes left! They're outdoor and require a lot of coordination.
We were shooting our opening scene and another big scene. Luckily the actor who was going to shoot his one and only scene had his own place and his 3 day late pregnant wife gave him the okay to let us shoot there.
It was really a blessing in disguise, we wouldn't have been able pull off what we were planning on doing in the house we were shooting in. Too loud, too raunchy, too much liability for breaking things. This house was perfect with it's open spaces and being my friends house we could get away with a lot more.
Plus as I mentioned last time, it added another location to the movie.
So this first scene is action packed as all first scenes should be. We set up all the actors hoping with the limited given instructions they could coordinate themselves without looking stupid or rehearsed.
It was a night scene but we were shooting during the day, since it was an interior scene we were able to take care of that. We taped trash bags to the outside of all the windows and we were done.
The DP used the wheelchair as a dolly and we taped it. It turned out being the best first take through out the entire shooting! The ceiling fan got hit a little bit but that was it.
The shot after that was even better, non-pro's can be the best actor's imaginable if you know how to use them. The shot and acting was unbelievable. It didn't require a lot of skill for the acting but it was undeniably authentic as much of the acting throughout the entire filming was.
Some of the scenes were so crazy I couldn't believe my actors were so ready to do them. But a problem that had been eating at me was one of my actors had just got off work and we needed to get him here now, or we wouldn't be able to film the scene. I was finally able to get ahold of him and had another actor who had finished his scenes pick him up while we finished up other scenes.
Now as good as we were doing, the actors still had problems remember lines. Which made it difficult when trying to get your master shots. We got a decent amount of master shots, wish I could've got more but for the sake of time, and the DP's sanity we moved on to the next scene.
My two actors were now here just in time, we filmed an even crazier scene, and we were done.
My friends/actors were always able to help with crew jobs such as holding lights and such, helped out a lot. One friend blames me for ruining movies for him, the magic is gone for him now. He thinks about what's going on behind the camera every time he see's a movie now.
Wish my non-pro's had a little more time to rehearse so they would've known their lines better for more master shots in the big scenes. But if you look at all the things that you didn't get then you're fucking yourself up. Just learn from it for you next project and think of all the things that went right that could've easily went wrong.
Two scenes left! They're outdoor and require a lot of coordination.
Friday, September 25, 2009
The Saw Mill
Usually by this time the cast and crew would be ready to leave or kill you. But since less footage was necessary to shoot and we actually had time to eat and sleep now, it wasn't a problem.
Now we were able to shoot each scene multiple times, with lots of coverage. With all the time I was now able to dedicate to each scene now, I wonder how the hell I was ever able to shoot the huge amount I was doing before when Yvonne was around.
So even though less needed to be done each day, we were still spending the same amount of time doing it. And there were some complicated scenes with lots of characters in them that were coming up. Two of which could only be done during magic hour in order to do them right.
The saw mill scene was one of them. I had a choice, either shoot the scenes during the afternoon which I knew would be hard with the schedule at hand or get four hours of sleep and shoot at around 5:30 am. As much as I hate waking up early I chose the latter.
We got there in morning and it further showcased why acting and filmmaking are not as glamorous as people make it out to be. We drove out to the saw mill on a saturday knowing no one would be there, and shot some exteriors while the sun was rising. Then started filming with Jacob(co-star) and I working, just like we once did years ago in real life. We grabbed two shovels and went to work, we threw some sawdust on ourselves to look dirty like we would and with all the filming and non-sleep we were getting it gave us the tired look we needed.
Then a problem happened, one of the actors had to perform a number two. But we didn't have access to the buildings that supplied the bathrooms. We had some pages from the script that had already been filmed so....yeah.
So we went back to filming, then an optimal member of the crew also had the same problem, so with the other pages of the script that had already been filmed he...yeah.
I've read scripts I wouldn't wipe my ass with, so I took this event as a good sign.
Acting like we were at work was just as hard as when we used to actually work there. When you're toting a huge log across the mill and having to drop it at just right angle, over and over and over. You get pretty damn tired.
We got there in morning and it further showcased why acting and filmmaking are not as glamorous as people make it out to be. We drove out to the saw mill on a saturday knowing no one would be there, and shot some exteriors while the sun was rising. Then started filming with Jacob(co-star) and I working, just like we once did years ago in real life. We grabbed two shovels and went to work, we threw some sawdust on ourselves to look dirty like we would and with all the filming and non-sleep we were getting it gave us the tired look we needed.
Then a problem happened, one of the actors had to perform a number two. But we didn't have access to the buildings that supplied the bathrooms. We had some pages from the script that had already been filmed so....yeah.
So we went back to filming, then an optimal member of the crew also had the same problem, so with the other pages of the script that had already been filmed he...yeah.
I've read scripts I wouldn't wipe my ass with, so I took this event as a good sign.
Acting like we were at work was just as hard as when we used to actually work there. When you're toting a huge log across the mill and having to drop it at just right angle, over and over and over. You get pretty damn tired.
We were done just before it was too bright and hot to be there. Now we had to shoot three more scenes. Thing is the house we had been shooting in was not about us shooting there on this saturday, we had understandably overstayed our welcome. Which was okay because these scenes could be shot in another location without a problem, just a small rewrite and we were good. It actually made it better and added another location to the film.
Uh oh. The new location that was good with us filming there had a change of heart and now we've got nowhere to film!
If it's not shot on that day than it's going to be very hard to find time to shoot it. And I've only got my actors and crew for a few more days!
Find out next time.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Shooting with a deadline
Hey, hey, hey now, it be me with another one of these. I could take you through everyday individually but this all took place in June and I was too distracted to write in my journal(not a diary) to be exact so I'll give you a good culmination of the things that took place and the lessons you can learn from them. So get ready to get educated.
My main goal for right then besides learning everything as I go, was to get all of Yvonne's(actress) scenes shot before she had to back on tour in her musical, Spelling Bee.
So the next day, with the little sleep I had, I gathered up my non pro's and pro, got them breakfast despite the fact that I would be late meeting my DP at the location, got there and got chewed out for being late. Which I deserved.
It was supposed to be a simple scene that day since we were shooting a pool scene, makeup was not necessary and there were not many lines, but the thing was it was about to start raining so we had to rush to get the scene done.
Good thing about rain is it doesn't pick up on camera too well, so unless it's really fat rain you can shoot without it picking it up at all. The bad thing about rain is...it's rain. And worse was the fact that this rain would be on the heavy side.
The rain came and left, so we would periodically go out and film then go back inside and start over again.
With such a tight schedule we changed the following scene to an indoor scene without really sacrificing anything.
We filmed till about midnight. The next day we started all over again.
We filmed and filmed from early in the morning till about midnight. I barely even had time to feed my cast and crew, due to how much footage we had to get shot with the deadline we had.
I could also tell that my host house that we were shooting in was beginning to get a little annoyed. It's fun at first, but once you've got fifteen people walking all around your house with equipment on top of forcing you to stay in one room as quietly as possible, it takes a toll on hospitality.
One of my main duties as a director was to make sure that everyone was having a good time. When you're not handing out six figure checks to each employee you have to be resourceful and charismatic in order to keep things running smoothly.
Those two attributes come in hand with everything, from me obtaining my cast and crew, to securing the locations.
Which brings me to the final night of shooting with my actress. We shot at the movie theatre in the next town over, luckily I had gone to high school with the manager so he had no problem helping me out. It was actually a late matinee that night so it wasn't a problem staying there past 2 AM.
My DP had shot in movie theatre's before so it came out looking awesome. We had Wolverine play without sound on the projector so it would give us the authentic movie theatre lighting in addition to giving our actors something to work off of.
After a 15 hour day of shooting I drove Yvonne to the Little Rock airport two hours out of town, drove home and crashed, knowing that the toughest part was out of the way...or was it.
My main goal for right then besides learning everything as I go, was to get all of Yvonne's(actress) scenes shot before she had to back on tour in her musical, Spelling Bee.
So the next day, with the little sleep I had, I gathered up my non pro's and pro, got them breakfast despite the fact that I would be late meeting my DP at the location, got there and got chewed out for being late. Which I deserved.
It was supposed to be a simple scene that day since we were shooting a pool scene, makeup was not necessary and there were not many lines, but the thing was it was about to start raining so we had to rush to get the scene done.
Good thing about rain is it doesn't pick up on camera too well, so unless it's really fat rain you can shoot without it picking it up at all. The bad thing about rain is...it's rain. And worse was the fact that this rain would be on the heavy side.
The rain came and left, so we would periodically go out and film then go back inside and start over again.
With such a tight schedule we changed the following scene to an indoor scene without really sacrificing anything.
We filmed till about midnight. The next day we started all over again.
We filmed and filmed from early in the morning till about midnight. I barely even had time to feed my cast and crew, due to how much footage we had to get shot with the deadline we had.
I could also tell that my host house that we were shooting in was beginning to get a little annoyed. It's fun at first, but once you've got fifteen people walking all around your house with equipment on top of forcing you to stay in one room as quietly as possible, it takes a toll on hospitality.
One of my main duties as a director was to make sure that everyone was having a good time. When you're not handing out six figure checks to each employee you have to be resourceful and charismatic in order to keep things running smoothly.
Those two attributes come in hand with everything, from me obtaining my cast and crew, to securing the locations.
Which brings me to the final night of shooting with my actress. We shot at the movie theatre in the next town over, luckily I had gone to high school with the manager so he had no problem helping me out. It was actually a late matinee that night so it wasn't a problem staying there past 2 AM.
My DP had shot in movie theatre's before so it came out looking awesome. We had Wolverine play without sound on the projector so it would give us the authentic movie theatre lighting in addition to giving our actors something to work off of.
After a 15 hour day of shooting I drove Yvonne to the Little Rock airport two hours out of town, drove home and crashed, knowing that the toughest part was out of the way...or was it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
