CASTING WEEK FLASH-BACK
Ok…the first wave of productions is over…I can breathe a little…I even thought I would swim to the shore and paint you a little picture of what being at sea was like…but we’re already diving into the next project….pitch, story, structure, characters….I guess I’ll have to let you know what’s been happening while I’m still soaking in the water…let’s see….gloup…
Two weeks ago, we had a full week of casting auditions, and given the high number of responses most of us got from actors, it was essential to put together casting teams to greet, handle, film, and of course assess the actors that came in. It was really good to see the slowly forming bonds between all of us (first semester students) finally coming together in a real way as we helped make each other’s casting auditions run surprisingly smoothly for both the actors and ourselves…My auditions, pooled together with Jodie’s and Valérie’s, went by really well, with “only” ¼ of all actors failing to show up. I was left with the luxury of having a hard time choosing between three different actors for one of my roles, and 2 actors for the other…we then all had call-backs…more decisions… plus pre-production planning…and here we go…we were all propelled into production week for this first project.
OFF-SHORE REFLEXIONS
Following some advice I received from a second semester student during my first week at BDFI (“don’t spread yourself too thin”), I chose no more than 5 projects outside mine in which to get involved. And I’m happy I didn’t do more…it was plennnnty. Working on 6 shoots each averaging 8hr is probably nothing unusual time-wise for a production week in the industry, but when everything you do is a learning experience, and you’ve got not one single project unfolding, but 6 different ones to work on…it can get a little complicated. I’m thankful to the students who entrusted me with a piece of their project by having me on their set. A lot of the theory came into play and into place. Some of the details covered in class became major issues once on location, and that was good…since the lighting and sound problems we encountered helped me think about how to work with/around them for my own shoot, which came around on Sunday.
All in all, I feel that none of the shoots I was on had to endure any major catastrophes.
But I still have at least one “if only” for every shoot…so, let’s see:
MONDAY
On Nikko’s shoot on Monday, working as a gaffer in a relatively small space, I was satisfied with the comedic tone we were able to give Nikko’s piece by using appropriate light textures and balance. But the shadows our lights casted on the backwall made it hard for the boom operator to get close to the talents with the mic without casting a shadow on our background. Even though I kept an eye on the boom-pole shadow through the first half of the shoot, several takes ended up having a moving shadow in the right corner of the background…I hope none of these takes ends up being the “money shot” Nikko needs once in the edit room.
Lesson 1: if you know something is not right, say it BEFORE the take.
TUESDAY
On Jodie’s shot the next night, I worked as DP. The location –Serendipity Books- provided amazing instantaneous art direction for our set, but for some reason, I just could not get the lighting right. It took almost 2 hours of moving lights around and tweaking before Jodie finally got what she wanted and the whole process probably through her off the creative state of mind she should’ve been in. She still managed to radically change the tone of her script to make it work with her actors (and the location) by asking them to whisper the whole dialog. This simple direction for the delivery of their lines completely transformed the mood of her piece and I can’t wait to see the whole thing in post.
Lesson 2: When it comes to lights, keep it simple at first, tweak afterwards.
WEDNESDAY
On Wednesday, I was only able to come in at the end of Joel’s shoot at the Berkeley Marina (bar area of the Berkeley Yacht Club). The set was much bigger that the two previous ones, and Jodie (who was DP) really had a chance to move back to the proper distances to shoot the dialog in MCU and CU. What Joel was missing was not space but time. The not-very-cooperative manager of the location became a constant pressure for Joel who still managed to get all (but one?) of the shoots we needed before getting out.
Lesson 3: Time is of the essence.
FRIDAY
Shy’s shoot on Friday took place at the Berkeley Artworks Foundry gallery. It was easy setting the lights for the different angles, being in a large space with room to work with.
And I was glad to have 2nd semester student Charles Steadham around. He gave me some input on the lights, and I think that with Joel’s help (DP), we really got the lighting down.
Lesson 4: Setting ground-rules and expectations is essential
SATURDAY
Marlenée’s shoot was stressful to think about in the pre-production phase, but it was a pleasure to be on once we actually started production. Marlenée’s been preparing and thinking about her set for so long that I was worried we might witness some break-down on set if anything went wrong…instead, we had a really smooth production with great actors, a great producer, a great director, and a great crew. For me (DP), The shoot ran smoothly thanks to Marlenée who had taken me to the location a week earlier + we had gone through the whole shot list, etc…in short, she had done the necessary planning. The only thing I have my doubts about is the last part of her piece where we got ambitious and had an extra 4 camera set-ups moving from inside to outside the house…let’s wait and see how this all cuts once in a FCP sequence…
Lesson 5: Planning planning…
SUNDAY
This was finally my own project’s shoot…conclusion you ask?…I’m not sure what to think. I should log and capture all my footage from this Sunday shoot to get a clearer picture of whether I’m satisfied with it. From a logistical point of view, I think things when well: the location being in the heart of SF, in a small café, I think we handled parking and space management once inside the place well. I also had a great, focused crew to work with. Thank you all! Let’s give it up to my producer Joel, to my gaffer Chuck, my sound (and actor: waitress) Marlenée, to my PA Shy, and to Jodie, my DP. Jodie did an impressive job, especially on the dynamic close-ups I asked of her. Kudos. I just feel I got tangled up into the technical elements of the shoot and lost track of the performance. We had some really light changes over the course of the shoot and spent a lot of time adjusting to these changes as the sun poured into the room around 3pm. My actors being relatively inexperienced, and being new as a film director myself, I struggled at times to bring them in the direction I needed them to go….cutting up the screenplay into short takes ended up confusing them …I had worked with them doing a lot of improvs around the relationship between the two characters…but I should have worked the script directly too…