Thesis films are over. And as far as film school films go, we’ve shot our last frame. Hopefully these won’t be the last films we make.
The realization that this was the end hit me when I was walking to the final location on my set. Perhaps that’s why things dragged on and we went into [...]

I shoot my thesis in three days. I’ve been going with my “everything works out” attitude, and I know it will, but I won’t lie. I’m starting to panic.
I just need a few simple things, such as a cast and locations. Locations look a little more promising than casting. They at least can’t leave Tallahassee [...]

Yes, we got 91 set-ups1 in 3 days. That’s about 30 a day. The 6 day show had 106 set-ups. Bottom line is we got a shit-ton of shots.
And this was despite company moves, lots of extras, a tired crew, and broken/missing equipment. The odd thing is no one brought up any objections or said [...]

As I get ready to DP this Sunday by box building (for lights) and color temperature fretting, I decided to stop by one of the other sets that was filming today.
I knew they were shooting in a park near downtown. What I didn’t know was this little park had a lost forest.
As I walked in [...]

Ten cans of film have been turned in after the longest producing job I’ve had yet - six days of summer thesis kick-off. You get three days to shoot your thesis film, or you can team up and double your resources as the DP and Director did here and shoot for six days with twice [...]

Two days left on the last thesis show. This is another six day double - the Director of Photography gave up his film to DP and co-write this show. To my knowledge, this is the largest thesis production ever. It’s a sci-fi film with massive sets built on both soundstages and a giant warehouse. They [...]

I’m finally done with my two back-to-back film sets as Key Grip and Best Boy Electric. We wrapped at 12:45 am last night, pushing just about every Film School rule with overtime and wrap times to the limit.
I learned a few things during the past two sets. One, though this is more true if you’re [...]

Saturday was picture wrap for the show I Key Gripped, but there’s no time to recover as yesterday started a brand new show where I’m Best Boy Electric. Most of the crew that I worked with Thursday-Saturday is also on this show.
The sudden shift is slightly weird. You get used to people being a [...]

Some notes from the Head of Production concerning our thesis film sets:
Well, it’s halfway through Thesis and I wanted to give a few notes from experience.
The tougher part is coming up. Everyone is getting more and more tired. Please remember, you’ll want everyone on your show to be as sharp as the first show. It’s [...]

Though we’re not quite in the union, all our film sets are run using their rules (with the addition of some film school rules). This plays a very important part in how film sets are run and the day is scheduled, so I figured an overview is in order.
A typical day is 13 hours. You [...]