Monday was a day off, which was nice. Of course there’s not really such a thing as a day off. Today we were back at the pig farm. I think this is where Deliverance originated. Deep in their property I stumbled on bones (hopefully animal) spread all over the place. And I think there was a mummified dog in their barn…but they were really hospitable!
We’re returning to the police station one last time tomorrow. We’ve already smashed a hole in the wall and made it smell like pigs after we brought some in, so I’m kind of worried to see what will top these.
One big problem Undercover has presented that I haven’t had to deal with before is finding a crew. Normally set is considered a class, so having people to show up and work isn’t a concern.
However, since this is an extra film not part of the curriculum, we’ve had to scrape together a crew. It’ll come together, but it’s just one extra thing to add to a long to-do list.
People are usually surprised at how many people it takes to make a film, especially at how specific some jobs are (”All they do is move the camera? They just turn a knob to adjust focus?”).
A lot of jobs on a film set come down to time and quality. Yes, you can do most of these jobs with a few people - you hear of a few friends making a movie all the time. But when one person covers many areas, the quality suffers. And in order to get that high production value that you see in Hollywood films, you need highly trained people in highly specialized jobs.
When it’s one person’s job to focus on just one thing, that thing will be done perfectly. And it will save time, and time is money.
Compared to a large production, our crew is extremely small, with just the basics for each department.
To break it down, here’s what our crew looks like: More »
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.
Just when I thought there would be a dry period of stories after I graduate1, Thoth gives me a goldmine. I’ve been asked by a recent graduate to co-produce a short film she just received funding for.
This film (tentatively title Undercover) will be the largest production I’ve ever worked on. 26 page script, 8 days of production, RED camera, a budget. It’s sort of the equivalent of shooting an episode of The Office (minus Steve Carell and Jenna Fischer).
In the past it’s been hard to follow the filmmaking process when I’m working on 6 different movies, doing something different each week.
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