Coffee and Celluloid

Location, Location, Location

Posted November 12th, 2008 at 12:11 pm by C47

It’s funny how much I take film slang for granted.

So to start from the beginning, there are six stages in making and releasing a movie: Development, Pre-Production, Production, Post-Production, Distribution, Exhibition.

Usually Development can take the longest - that’s when you’re writing the script, trying to get funding, trying to get Greenlit. When you hear it took a movie 7 years to get made, this is the name for the first 6 years.

Fortunately, the script is just getting tweaked and we have funding. So onto Pre-Production.

There are two main things that need to get done in pre-production: locations and casting.

Location Scouting is when you¹ drive around to potential locations and check them out to see if they would work for the film.

Location scouting is my favorite part. I feel like the authenticity of a film depends on the locations, along with how much work the Production Designer will have to do. A great location can add so much value and production quality to a film.

Scouting is important because it’s obviously necessary to make a sure a location works both aesthetically and logistically instead of having 20 people show up to find out the location doesn’t work.

It all comes down to good planning. The more time you spend planning, the better the production will go (ex: 91 Set-Ups in 3 Days).

So the script has two main locations: a police station and pig farm. The pig farm is proving hard to find and is a story for a future post. For the police station, Iman, the director, just needed an open-office type area.

Since my last film involved cubicles, I’ve seen most of the large office spaces in Tallahassee, and our local newspaper has some of the finest selections. Plus I’ve filmed there twice before, so I know they’re film friendly.

Iman and I went to check it out. The only problem is the side all past film shoots have been on is the Advertising side. This time we were checking out the News Room side, which was a little more high strung.

When you are location scouting, it’s a good idea to take pictures to refer back to when decision making. Every past time I’ve gone scouting I’ve asked if I could take pictures, and everyone has always said yes. So for some reason I took a leap of faith here, plus I had this weird logic that since this is a news room, they must be used to photographers, so no one would mind.

Well, I snapped off one pic before I got asked what I was doing.

“Oh, I’m just taking a picture for reference. We’re location scouting.”

“Location scouting, what is that? I thought you guys were coming in December.”

Yes, I had briefly mentioned some potential dates over the phone, and I guess she thought we were there to film because I had my little digital camera out.

It’s funny, this isn’t the first time someone thought when we showed up to check out a location we were there to film the movie. It also makes me wonder if that means they would be totally fine with a crew just showing up with just a vague, “Hey, we might be stopping by to shoot a film in a few weeks.”

Now that’s a camera

But I think it was this misunderstanding, thinking that we were there to film a movie, that led to the hesitation about taking pictures, because staff was in them and they hadn’t been notified.

So lesson learned, always, always ask before taking pictures. But the location was exactly what Iman wanted, and I think things have smoothed over enough where we can film there. Well, smoothed over enough where I can give them a call back.

This post is part of the Moviccino, taking you through the production of a movie from start to finish.

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’You’ being the Producer and Director and possibly Director of Photography and Production Designer ↩

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Thoughts on Directing After Directing

Posted September 1st, 2008 at 10:41 pm by C47

Pensive Directing

I’ve only briefly mentioned the production of my thesis (the fictional one), and after having about a month to think it over, and finally seeing the dailies four weeks after filming (monthlies?), I have an idea of where I stand with the outcome.

Mainly, as directing goes, I had a blast. I know, it’s a cliche, film school was supposed to make me realize I truly love cinematography or editing, but sorry, directing still does it for me.

This film spent months in my head, whether actively thinking about it or just letting it sit in the back. So when it finally came to shoot it it brought a strange high seeing something that had been in my head so long transfer to reality.

Of all the films I’ve done, I knew what I wanted the end result to be the most with this film, which I think is very important.

My impression with directing is you have this vision of what you want the film to be - edited, scored, and all - and the challenge is to dissect it and figure out what you need, frame by frame.

Quick cuts? It’s not going to be quick on set. Suspenseful scene? It’ll probably feel so weird the actors will laugh.

In the midst of all the chaos on set, and an AD telling you you’re behind schedule and need to go, you have to keep referring back to that vision and checking. “Am I getting what I need? Will this work?” I think I got 90% there.

Of course it wasn’t all euphoric play time. There were a few hiccups. Minor things, you know, such as numerous locations falling through and having to rewrite a third of the script.

Or breaking one of the cardinal rules (no kids or animals) and getting a chihuahua for the gold-digging mom. Somehow we managed to find the chihuahua from hell. Little re-write to dog-less, gold-digging mom - problem solved.

After spending an entire day shooting the rewritten third and watching it, it now seems like the final scene was always supposed to take place in the school, where we shot, instead of the original living room.

The night before, when the suburban community banded together to keep me out of their living rooms, I said when the film is done and screening, we’ll say, “remember when the end was supposed to be in a living room.” And we’d all erupt into laughter. At least in my mind.

I think it’ll still happen. It’ll just be me who says the line.

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How I Used My DVR to Set My Career Goals

Posted July 8th, 2008 at 9:15 am by C47

With graduation looming closer and more people asking me what I want to do, I need to come up with a more concrete answer. Director or produce? Fiction or documentary?

With the way the summer’s been going, I’m leaning towards producing. As for fiction and documentary, I feel a certain loyalty towards fiction. It was the classics, such as Raiders of the Lost Ark and Pulp Fiction, that got me into filmmaking, not Bowling for Columbine or Super Size Me.

I thought what better way to figure out what I want to make than to analyze what I watch. So I turned to my DVR, to see what programs I enjoy so much I can’t stand to miss an episode.

I went through my series recording list and wrote down all 42 shows. I put them in a Google Spreadsheet, along with their genre and subject matter, trying to keep the categories to as few as possible.

First, genre. Here’s a pie chart that gives a general idea of the types of shows I watch.

A lot of these could basically be grouped into two broader categories: fiction and non-fiction (documentary). Here it is:

This blew me away. I knew I liked reality shows, but to see it so visually really put a lot of doubts to rest.

As for subject matter, this wasn’t as mind blowing nor as important. I feel like subjects could change project to project.

But just to see out of curiosity, here’s the chart:

About half the shows I watch have to do with photography and modeling, design, or science. Not much of a surprise with the photography or design.

In the end, this little exploration into the box below my TV has helped me focus what I want to do, and therefore make concrete goals.

I want to executive produce a docu-reality series.

If you were curious, here’s my list of (semi-embarrassing) shows I can’t miss:

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91 Set-Ups in 3 Days

Posted June 12th, 2008 at 10:31 pm by C47

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 we were crazy when we submitted the shot list, unlike my 60 set-up F3 that made my Director of Photography think I had lost it (we got the shots and wrapped early).

I think the main weapon that allowed the Director and I to get the shots was preparation. We storyboarded everything together in Frame Forge and had print outs of the boards on set. This way we could easily refer to a shot and communicate visually what we wanted to the crew and with each other.

I also used minimal lighting and kept the camera on the dolly when possible for easy repositioning.

It doesn’t seem like another show will pass the 91 (the other 6 day show has 80 planned), unless I manage to think of a few more for my movie. Apparently I just have a thing for lots of set-ups

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