This week was crazy and beautiful- I already learned so much! Being on
Colin’s shoot Friday and Saturday was very inspiring- he had great
equipment, thousand lenses, dolly tracks and lots of energy. It was
also interesting how he changed the whole style of the movie during
post production, color correction…
Then on Sunday evening my actor called me and said he has another
shoot before my shoot (which was on the next day) and he doesn’t know
when they will be finished. That was great! However everything was
already organized, I had a two hour rehearsal with the actors and I
really wanted to have him in my film. At the end I risked it but I was
really nervous about it.
Tasha, Jon, Mike and me drove to SF to set up everything. I was really
worried but then on the way to SF my actor called me and said they
were already finished and he could come earlier- that was wonderful!
The shoot went really well- I had great actors and a great crew- they
were so helpful and supportive!
It is amazing how the process of film making combines the most beautiful things:
photography, music, sound, acting, writing, working together with
people…I am really happy that I already found what I want to do in
life:)!

Casting, casting, and more casting. Into the big pool of talented actors in the Bay Area, and we pulled out some great fish. The first set of auditions were for Joel’s characters. I was the handler, greeting actors at the entrance to the building, getting them the script, and helping them get warmed up. The first actor scheduled was a wonderful older actor who exuded all of the respectability and character that I knew Joel was looking for. And what an audition he had! I came into the room after his audition and asked Joel excitedly if he thought he had found his character. Joel, always cautious, admitted that he was very impressed and better, happy by the way his script came to life when read by such professional actors. And yes, this first actor through the door got the part.

On Saturday evening we had our first shoot as a class. Franco’s shoot was in Berkeley and started late at night. We started excited and focused. Franco was unhappy with his script and so wanted to do a lot of improvisation with his actors to attempt to get some interesting rewrites. One hour and some minutes of footage (mostly improv-ed) later, we all were still focused on the shoot, but less excited. Franco wanted to run long takes and at 4AM I was feeling pretty tired and distractable. We decided to can the last shot as it was not planned out properly, everyone was exhausted, and it involved a dolly movement.

On Sunday evening I rehearsed with my actors. It was really fun to work over my script in detail with them and see what underlying motivations and ideas came out through their intonation or movements: subtext!

Today, we quickly went through the process of making a shot list with Patrick. It’s a way to start seriously thinking about how to “shoot for the edit”. For this first assignment we’re clearly covering our ass regarding coverage by doing every dialogue line from about 5 camera angles… so a detailed shot list isn’t crucial. But I think that for those who feel up to it, we should definitely, on paper or at least mentally, write down a camera angle for each line before the day of the production. It would help prioritize and refine certain shots over others on the day of, and decrease the likelihood of continuity errors and wasted time.

This reminds me of Patrick’s last lecture (on Tuesday 29th), which was not about a specific task (such as the process of making a shot list), but about the art of being a producer/director: I call it “the art of balancing intuition and planning”…..:

Instinct, gut feelings, intuitions, are the heart of the filmmaker. To me, they represent the few moments we’re in tune with the quiet messages our body senses and emits. When we engage in the creative side of filmmaking, or better yet, engage in all of filmmaking with creativity on our side, we come to life. In the end, that’s what it is, directing (any activity) is simply about being alive 24/7…
Thought, plans, plan Bs, agreements, lists, and schedules are the legs of the director. All these forms of planning give us the organizational legs we need so that when things become shaky (and shit will happen, that’s one thing you can be sure of), we have the extra support to remain focused on the creative side of the production. The lights pop a breaker, there is an actor missing, the battery is out, …but you know where that breaker is, you know what the number is and you’ve got a back-up lead and an extra battery, etc, in short, you’ve planned it all.

Now, if you delegate well, the voodoo of a good balance between intuition and planning will give you a situation like this: 1. The catastrophy happens, 2. but decisions were made before it happened to control it, 3. and you’ve got the mind-set to get your crew to respond quick and right, 4. so you remain focused on what matters on the shot: your creative input.

Thursday:

Came home at 11pm for the 3rd time this week. I think this email to a friend encapsulates the mood:

“Hey Donna,
It sounds like it’s unfortunately falling smack in the middle of our production week. And believe me, it’s Production week with a capital P.
If I could, I would have liked to go shoot this video with you, everything brings some kind to experience…
But because of the way BDFI works (every class contributes to the development of one project), we all have a full production to put together every 7 weeks.
And right now, being the end of production time….it’s rush time….Plus, we work on each other’s productions, so everyone works on about 4-5 projects at the same time, with a production-project including: pitch, original script, location scouting, improvs for character development, script-rewrites, call for auditions, script-rewrites, casting auditions, script-rewrites, call-backs, editing assignments, lighting assignments, rehearsals, final drafts, and finally on location shoots…and then post…So, with my work and 5 production projects going at the same time, I can’t make it.

I hope you can find someone to work with you.”

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, that was a busy week and it is not over yet since my audition
will be on Friday. City College and BDFI is a lot of work- I have to get a
Green Card! I love this school very much and I wished I could stick
around longer to work together with my classmates. Even though the
“History of modern art” class in SF is related to cinematography and
somehow useful, it requires a lot of homework and time, that I don’t
have, especially when we are working on our projects.
It is amazing how Patrick established this great warm atmosphere at
BDFI. Everyone is very kind and helpful, people from the advanced
group work together with us younger people and the other way around.
This week I liked cinematography a lot- we were working together with
our instructor on a scene. It is still hard for me to remember all
these things but I guess that’s what I am here for- to learn and to
become confident in what I am doing.
Well, I am curious how the audition will turn out!
We’ll see!

Yesterday we held auditions. It was so much fun! The actor’s even helped me to develope my script. I just wanted to thank everyone for supporting each other. You all have made this week fun and easy. Joel thank you for making us laugh so hard we cried, and to the rest of the crew who put in tons of effort to help there fellow classmates.
I’m sure everyone wants to thank Peter for all of his help. Yeah, we talked about you behind your back! Your great!! If anyone needs help with there auditions or shoots please let me know! Thanks for being so awesome!

So yesterday was like the mother of all casting calls for those of us in Semester 1. On Wednesday we were able to formulate a pretty solid process on handling the actors, so yesterday we had somewhat of a game plan. Once we took over the BDFI producer bullpen we were locked down for the day. We started at 2:00pm and went until 9:30pm. It felt great to get a chance to direct professional actors. After Joel gave me some pointers I was able to really get the response that I was looking for them. I really enjoyed working with my fellow classmates yesterday. By the end of the night we were all laughs. This casting experience has really quelled my fears of working with semi/pro actors. I know that I’ll be able to do my job on set with confidence. We still have more casting auditions this week and then our first shoot on Saturday!

Wow. What a day. Auditions, after auditions…. After scheduling 10 auditions with the help of Nicholas, my casting coordinator, only 2 actors showed up. Some were sick (kidney stones, yikes!), some forgot, some didn’t call…My assumptions: 1. Very bad luck or 2. Scheduled too far in advance. Joel, who scheduled the bulk of his auditions in the two days leading up to the casting date had almost perfect attendance. So back to the drawing board for me. Although I have a great female lead, even with only one audition for the part.

Joel was resident improver and reader today, alternating between the roles of racist old African American man, peppy 19 year old teenybopper girl, and 35 year old male librarian. He had some really great lines, but after a full day of auditions, his best tries at improv often lead to stifled laughter from the audience. He did such a great job.

Monday, January 28, 2008 – Friday, February 1, 2008

The race is on. As a class, we are roller coasting from pre-production to production with increasing momentum. Last week’s calm of ‘oh-the-shoot-is-week’s-away’ was replaced with “WHAT-DO-YOU-MEAN-WE-NEED-TO-CAST-NEXT-WEEK!” The scramble began with a bit of a panic on Monday, but by Friday it seemed that we had begun the process of settling into our new roles as directors, casting coordinators, producers, locations scouts, and artistic directors. Some have emerged and really stepped up to the various responsibility plates. Nicholas, for example, is the god of casting, using his Skype account to field casting calls for at least five of the projects in the works. “Production!” he answers his phone when it rings now.

I’ve revamped the characters in my script. Their names have changed and everything about their original conception has been replaced by more contrived quirkiness, and strangely they are feeling more natural to me because of it. They are now charming, but bookish, awkward and adorable. This makes more sense for my plot. However, it also heightens the challenge of directing my piece. Will the audience buy the bizarre ticks the characters will have? Can I find actors to pull it off? Will I be able to keep my vision forefront amidst all of the craziness that will be my first narrative shoot? It is all a learning experience, I am sure.

I suspect that for the next three weeks my classmates and I will be entirely immersed in the world of these first films. I will hopefully be able to let the other responsibilities in my life to my other work, my documentary video that I am editing…slide off the table for now and focus entirely on this little three-minute gem I hope to pull together. The rainy weather we have been having non-stop in Berkeley will I’m sure make it easier to stay in the mood of my film: dark, dreamy, and deliberate.

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.