Just finished preparing for the Production Design aspect of the Thesis film this weekend. I'm a NY Times Sunday subscriber, so basically I've been saving all the NY Times Magazines knowing down the line they'll come in handy for reasons like this. So preparing was...
Film School
Director’s Prep
The Director's Prep was a lot shorter and painless than people had made it out to be (maybe because this is a fairly simple film). On the administrative side, the Head of Production, Cinematography, Screenwriting, and Editing teachers attended. Crew wise, it was the...
Tech Scout
Continuing with the Art Directing pre-production for my first thesis film, I went with some of the main crew members the other night to check out a location we were shooting at to see what kind of props we would need to get. Luckily, not that many. The Director wants...
Getting the Greenlight
I had another Director's Prep today and discovered a formality that I never knew existed. This prep was considerably longer than the last one I attended being that it's a double show, and a quite unique double show at that. It's being co-directed, co-written, co-shot,...
How To Get 50 Zombies
One of the main producing responsibilities is casting. The upcoming film I'm Unit Production Manager on (let's call it Bush Zombie) has an epic battle scene where we need as many zombies as possible. Getting extras to show up can sometimes be a challenge. People might...
Who Produces What?
Since thesis films have started, there's been some confusion as to what the difference is between the Unit Production Manager (UPM) and Second Assistant Director (Second AD), both first year jobs. On F3s, there was only a Second AD and everything seemed to work out...
Make a UPM Kit
During my first semester in the Film School we had a Production Management class. In it we were required to create a UPM kit. Shopping for these items brought back grade school memories. Here's what we had to pickup: One portable file box or satchel - the UPM kit One...
A Truck Full of Equipment
Each production gets a certain amount of equipment that I suppose someone deemed was enough to make a film. This is a standard package that has the camera, big and little sticks, dolly, dolly track, assortment of lights, sandbags, apple boxes, c-stands, light stands,...
No Communication is a Bad Thing
I'm Second Assistant Director (2AD) right now. This is my last ATL job and second to last thesis show. I wouldn't call this show a disaster...yet. The main problem is lack of communication. The UPM and I have been kept in the dark about what's going on from the...