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Wow.
So I finished shooting my short film, Romey & Jules. I am now completely exhausted yet cannot sleep. So those of you reading this know, the film is a 10-minute tale of the forbidden love between a clown and a mime. Here's a rundown of some thoughts/memories/musings from the shoot.
1. The shoot was scheduled from 4pm to 5am each night. Generally, film shoots run 12 hour days with a 1/2 hour lunch. We went from 4pm to 8am the first night and 4pm to 9:30am the 2nd. Luckily, no one was getting paid on this or we would have been forking out a LOT of overtime.
2. The first shot for day one was planned for 6pm. We didn't get it off until close to 6:30. In other words, we were behind schedule right from the start.
3. A lot of shoots begin this way as you have to find your groove.
4. One reason we had such long days was that we scheduled the shoot for 2 nights when the script was only 5 pages long. Between the time we scheduled it and when we shot, the script was filled and became 10 pages. We didn't have the dough to rent our location for an extra night, nor did we feel we'd be able to get our crew to work any other night than a weekend evening. So we crammed a lot into each day.
5. Doing a shoot with unpaid crew is difficult because people have priorities in their lives other than the film and may or may not be able to be around the whole time. If they're getting paid, they'll stick around.
6. We had mostly dialogue scenes the first night, which is good and bad -- quicker and easier to shoot, but more time consuming to work with the actors as it's important to really find the performances.
7. Our camera's wide angle lens was broken so I had to fork out extra dough to rent another one for the weekend. Was it worth it? Worth every penny.
8. Our prop master painted a crushed black velvet painting of a rodeo clown for the back wall. It's awesome and he gave it to me after the shoot. I'm going to hang it in my office.
9. The 2nd night, we had a lot of stunts and crazy, creative shots. It took a lot of time to set them up, but it was worth it. Possibly the most fun was the shot from within the toilet looking up at our clown's face as he tries to drown himself. It was so fun.
10. Casting is so important in a film. We cast 4 people who really embodied their roles. I couldn't have been happier.
11. I need to prepare better with my breakdowns -- what shots I want, etc. Then I need to meet further in advance with the director of photography and 1st AD to walk through everything so we can better put together our schedule. As it was, it was very creative and fun but we could've saved some time if I had things together a bit more.
12. It's not that I knew this and didn't do it -- I felt I had been very prepared for the shoot. It became clear after day one that I needed to put together better shot lists. So I did that before day two. On day two, it became very clear that I needed to talk through every shot ahead of time w/my crew so we can best determine the order of shooting.
13. The reason for this is when making a film, you have to get a lot of angles of any given scene. You don't shoot it all in order because you'd have to keep moving equipment (lights, camera, etc.) back and forth and out of backgrounds. So you try to shoot everything you can in one direction before reversing and getting the other. I had some of this but needed to be a bit more prepared.
14. There is a place that directors need to find with their actors when on a set. Not a physical place, but a mental place. It's not related to the film. It's just a place to be and enjoy each other to find a connection and common ground so you always feel comfortable and ready to work when it's time. I am still developing this habit -- I tend to focus too much on the technical side of things and let the acting slip through. I really tried working on it on this shoot but know I have a ways to go still.
15. Our location was a seedy motel in the heart of Phoenix. And boy was it seedy. We had some great stories and run-ins with tenants and lodgers throughout the weekend. Not only that, but things we kept finding in the rooms (other than lumpy pillows, stained towels and bed sheets) proved to us that when the script called for a seedy motel, we didn't realize what would actually mean when shooting in a real one. Zoinks!
16. Through it all, I met a lot of new people who I'd love to have work with me on future projects -- both actors and crew.
That's it for now. When I get all the pictures dumped into the computer and collected from cast and crew, I'll put a few up here. I'll also put notices up as to where and when it may be screening at a theatre near you.
As I have more processing time and as I get into the post-production period (editing, scoring, remixing), I'm sure I'll post more up here.
And now, I'm off to bed. Hopefully. I already tried it at 10pm with no luck. We'll see if 12:30am will work.
The Movie Monkey
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