Today is Director’s Prep for my film, and the last for the F3 cycle. Between Production Design and Directing, these past two weeks have been the busiest yet.
I feel slightly unprepared, mainly because I have no cast. But I do have locations, and they’re great, so that’s something. We’ll see how this goes.
Close this [...]

Producing is like being the Chief Happiness Officer on set. It’s all about keeping the crew happy and the set flowing smoothly. After producing two films, my view is the 1AD works on a micro level, creating a detailed set-up schedule and working shot to shot, while the producer does the macro tasks of getting [...]

It’s been a busy morning, but the action on my part has finally calmed down, leaving time for a little on-set reporting.
Today is day one of ‘The Groom is Becoming a Tree,’ which, as you might have guessed, is about a groom becoming a tree.
Since this takes place before a wedding, the actors needed tuxedos [...]

The footage I shot as DP has returned. If we play by the rules, we are supposed to wait until this Wednesday for dailies when the entire crew gathers and we watch the footage, synced with the sound in script order.
I was going to go along with this until I had to digitize audition footage [...]

It’s 4 AM and I’m about to shoot a movie in two hours, but I can’t seem to go back to sleep. So I’ll write!
It seems that Director of Photography is the most nerve wracking position. It’s a blend of using your technical knowledge to create artistic images, while managing a bunch of people and [...]

On Monday, my Producer and I finally got around to doing some pre-production work for my F3. The two main locations I need is an open cubicle area and a really nice corner office, one that is soul-worthy.
Most of the downtown area is either government buildings or law offices, with a minimal one [...]

It’s been a while since the last Coffee Break, so I’ve got a nice little stash built up for some New Years reading.
200 Documentaries You Must See Before You Die eBook

True Films sister site, Cool Tools, has released a free eBook with the the top 200 films True Films has reviewed. This is a great [...]

With one producing job down, I’ve already picked up a few tricks to make things go easier for time two. Below are a few free web apps that help keep things organized (a lot were also used during documentary making). Most have a mobile option, which makes them very powerful for some on-set action.
Google [...]