Well production week. What can one say. I’m glad it’s over and I already miss it. The Wonderful intensity of being on a set. All the planning and energy suddenly paying off in a day/hours on set. All one has to show for it is on two little tapes, digital images on magnetic tape. But that tape is magical, it’s a story, a scene, it’s art, it’s life, all that on these ephemeral little tapes.

Production Week- began with Franco’s shoot, it was a late night shoot, that from all I can tell ruined me for the week to come, on set I felt like a dynamo, ready to go on and on, but I could feel that many of the others on the set were plenty tired by the end of the shoot. I was DP, and felt that the lighting was good, working well with Jodie as Grip/Gaffer, we came up with lighting that used the location to the best effect. However I struggled with the tripod head and found out later that some of the footage was not as sharp focused as I would have liked, —use that monitor, the view finder only gives so much info.

My next shoot was Jodie’s on Tuesday, we hurried after school to get the equipment to the location, which was this wonderful bookstore. Jodie and Emmanuel struggled to get the lights the way she wanted, which delayed the start of the shoot a bit. Jodie also made a bold choice of having her actors whisper, which I think if it turns out will really add to her piece. As Producer on her shoot I tried to deal with the practicalities of the location and food for cast and crew. However after Franco’s shoot I got pretty sick, coughing a lot and having a low grade fever on both monday and tuesday and beyond, I have yet to recover, and the rigors of production week didn’t help. I wished I had been more present and able to try to help more in solving some of the creative problems on set.

My Shoot followed on Wednesday, yes still under the weather, and frankly dreading some location issues, that I knew I would run into. Because of the time of day I was to shoot, it was and afternoon to evening shoot, the room was large with lots of windows. I reached the location to find that my actors had already arrived, which inched up the pressure on me, not feeling that the location was prepared, with many problems to deal with. In one of Patrick’s classes he talked about having enough Bandwidth to deal with problems on the day of the shoot, and that was exactly what I did not have. So I made the best of the situation, luckily I had casted two pro actors, and I felt for what my script was it was pretty locked in. This helped when with little more than half the shoot done, the manager of the location entered and told me that I had half an hour to finish shooting. Well this meant losing the background lighting and pushing everything to go much faster. All in all I was pleased with how it turned out, especially with my crew Nick, Margaux, Franco, Marlenee, Marcy, and Jodie, Dick Martin one of my actors mentioned, that he was pleased by how professional we all were. Notes for next time: Have more Bandwidth, allow that space for creative energy and time with actors, get a location that will be film friendly.

Friday was Shy’s shoot, once again DP, and now a little more than tired and still sick. No time to work out a shot list with Shy resulted in some miscommunication on the set, and difficulties. But focus was much better this time, and we had time to do a dolly shot which was fun. But with a different seating arrangement it made it difficult to get matching pairs, hopefully Shy will be able to work with the footage I shot for her.
Saturday was Marlenee’s shoot and she was on top of it, maybe a little stressed at the beginning, but once things got going she handle it well, and with extras and a larger cast, very impressive, and her knack for production design and the time to work the location helped alot.

Sunday was Emmanuel’s shoot, as producer I did my best, being tired from the week, and still sick, as with Jodie’s shoot, I felt there was more I could have done to solve problems, and be a creative assist. Emmanuels told me he wanted me to push the crew for time, and I did that I think it was a help to making things move on the set.

Well one shoot to go still, and many lessons learned, many things I will take into the next round of shoots, including a little more boldness to be even more creative.

Aaahhh. Casting week, what a mixture of tears, joy, and utter absurdity. I began the week, with one day to fill out an audition schedule, that at that point only had three actors auditioning for two roles. To say the least I was a little freaked out, I mean for one of the roles I only had one actor, so if I didn’t get anyone else to come, he was going to be the guy. So I spent Monday, calling a tone of actors to come in for either role, and by the end of the day I had five each for my two roles, it would have been nice to have more but I was relieved. Well, here comes the Auditions themselves, and I’m nervous, I don’t know what I am planning to say, but I had a great team of classmates to back me up. My first audition shows up at 5:50, he walked in and totally blew me away. Suddenly my screenplay came to life, and words and actions that I had only weakly imagined became real, and better than what I thought I had written. over the next 3 and half hours, I felt like in many ways, I became a director, for the first time I was making adjustments to performances, and deciding what worked for the script and what didn’t, and how some one could fill the role. Also at the end of the auditions I knew I had four good actors, two for each role, one near lock, and now its time for callbacks, and my nervousness and trepidation starting all over again, but now I know “it can be done.”

Well week three adds another layer to the onion that is BDFI, suddenly and urgently only 3 weeks in we find that much is due for our first project, locations, casting notices need to be prepared, scheduling of 10 shoots in a 9 day period. All this and more needs to be figured out yesterday. So the pressure is on but the BDFI faculty is helping out every step of the way. That mix of fear excitement and support, is allowing me along with other students to feel that our first projects will be successes. Still much is yet to be done.

Week 2 at BDFI was like adding the second layer to the cake. While the first layer was light and fluffy- “hey lets get to know each other.” This second layer was more dense, and really a sign of things to come. First assignments were due, and first full class lectures happened, no “getting to know you” stuff, it was the first raw dose of what I anticipate will be the BDFI experience. I am sure that as the weeks progress things will get more and more intense with each passing week. But at the same time everyone is very agreeable and seem ready to get down to the business of making movies. I also appreciate that all of the faculty seem to want to impart the fullness of what they have learned in their years in the The Business. No secrets seem to be withheld, and no questions are avoided.

First week at BDFI was very exciting, meeting classmates and upper-level students that I will be working with over the course of the next 16 months. I was very pleased to find that most if not all of the people I met were very serious about the prospect of making films, and yet they were very relaxed and not uptight or fearful of the process. Though I anticipate struggles and much hard work it is good to know going in that I will be surrounded by peers and faculty who want the best of what I can give and yet seem knowing enough that I will do things differently than they would, and that acceptance of difference is key. Another thing that I am finding key to the BDFI experience is the general lack of competitiveness at the school, Patrick and the other faculty seem to want the best out of everyone, and not just a select few.