Movie Madness Weekend

Well, this past weekend I shot my final project for Production II, a short film entitled Calculus. First off, a special thanks go out to my cast (Jeff Lee, Anthony Brenneman, and Ariana Hodes) and crew (Claire Darby, Dustin Harrison-Atlas, and JP Eason) for their help in making it all happen. Also, shout-outs should go to Larry Engel, the AU MPC Equipment Room, the Center for Teaching Excellence, and Laura Murray for their guidance and assistance.

Wow, what a process this was. The other night I compared the experience to that of a cross-country national meet. You spend so much time thinking about and preparing for this one day or moment, then when it comes it's like , "wow, I can't believe this is actually happening." This feeling overtook me about five times within the first hour of shooting on Saturday. I was both excited and nervous; because in the end my name is attached the final product.

I have working on this project since the beginning of the semester but more recently put a lot of time and thought into the final logistics of the production. You'd be surprised how many pieces there are to a seven minute short film. To make a long story short, it isn't as simple as showing up with a few actors, a camera, and some microphones. It starts with an idea, then moves to a script, then a better a version of the script, then a final version of the script, location scouting and approval, finding actors beats, creating shot lists, attending casting sessions (props to Claire and Dan for their organization of this), production schedules, finalizing a crew, script rehearsal, equipment reservations, and finally shooting the actual film. What's great is that I did all of these things, and for the most part did them well. However, I am not striving for a job "well" done. I seek higher standards of organization, planning, and production that I will only achieve after multiple attempts in the film/video world. So on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being my highest possible standards, I give my performance a 6.5. Ultimately I think it will turn out awesome, but I still have a lot to learn. Below is a recap of my production weekend. Reader will find some of things I learned, in what was the most educational experience of my second semester.

Friday Pre-Production Wrap-Up
After having script read-through with my cast on Tuesday I was able to finalize some of the final changes to my script. This allowed me to finalize a shot list and move towards the final details for production. These final details included equipment, materials, and location preparation. I started my day off early by arriving at school shortly after 9am. This allowed me to pickup my equipment early (20 total items!!) from the AU Media Production Center, guaranteeing the use of a DVX-100 for my production. Of the camera's available to me at this point, the DVX-100 is pretty decent and allowed my DP (Director of Photography) and I to shoot in 24P. In addition to that I got everything else under the sun including three microphones and various other toys.

After equipment pick-up I made trips to Trader Joe's and Staples for a few materials. Trader Joe's helped supply a few snacks for the cast and crew (primarly Cats Chocolate Cookies), while Staples provided me with batteries and Summerbridge favorite, blue-tape. After running around Bethesda I was able to go home and do a final edit on a script due in one of my other classes. Just before my afternoon class I typed a quick e-mail to my cast and crew, assuring them that the weather forecast (thunderstorms) would not deter my current plan. Fast-forward three hours later, I was done class and still finalizing little details for Saturday. Somehow I squeezed in an eight mile run, watched a little NBA playoffs, cooked dinner, finished making my shot lists an bulletin board materials, and did a final equipment check. Oh, but wait. The final equipment check wasn't so simple. Of the 20 items I took from the equipment room, not one was a lighting kit. This was an awful feeling. I needed a lighting kit and the rumor was that the equipment room had a waiting list. Luckily after a few calls to classmates, one of my crew members (Yay Claire!) had one for the weekend. This saved me from an early death. I was able to get to bed around 1:30am, looking forward to my 7:45am alarm.

Shoot Recap 4.26
On Saturday I scheduled four scenes to be shot. Three were outdoors, the last in an academic building hallway. The weather prediction was scatter t-storms, I got a bright sunny day. As Grady Little would say, "Who knew?" Things started off pretty slow. Everyone told me to budget more time for setup, and I thought I had added enough. It turns out I was wrong. The first scene, budgeted for 2 hours, lasted just under four hours. By 12:30 we were running a full scene behind schedule. Issues with sound equipment and the need for more time with my actors contributed to a stressful beginning. However, I pulled it together and tried to proceed as planned. After lunch I attempted to get back on schedule and did just that. I shifted the missed scene to the end of the day and went on to the third location. After re-focusing things went a lot smoother, and we subsequently finished the day on time. (Special thanks should go out to Genna Duberstein for her help on the bulletin board, as I had zero time to prepare it for the shoot.) My first full day of shooting ended at approximately 6:40pm, with all four scenes shot. After getting home around 7:15 I was flat out exhausted and still had a lot of prep-work for the following day. As a result I took the day off from running (GASP!) and focused on my project. I had to be in bed earlier than the last few nights, as I planned to race a 10k at 8am the next morning. This was of course prior to a noon start time for day two of my production. Yeah, I know what you're thinking, I'm pretty brilliant.

Race/Shoot Recap 4.27
Sunday started off at 6:15am with a quick bowl of cereal and a commute to Gaithersburg MD. Only about 30 minutes away, I was able to get to the race in plenty of time for packet pickup and a solid warm-up. I had figured this race would be pretty dead in terms of a talent pool, as there was another big race in DC at the same time. While doing striders at the line it seemed the competition was a little weak until five minutes before the gun. Then, all of a sudden the entire nation of Kenya showed up at the line. Pardon my political incorrectness, but seriously, nine runners of African-descent came out of nowhere. Fantastic. Westchester Track Club decided to crash this cash party, and all of a sudden my guaranteed payday was in serious jeopardy. With money going out to the top 10 ($200 for 10th place, which was pretty awesome), I knew this was going to be a little tough. The gun goes off and I find myself in a pack of nine Africans and Michael Wardian. The race went out quick, because the 10k was down-hill at many points during the race. I opened with a 4:47 and was within striking distance of the Westchester guys, but then they decided to run 29 minutes. So, about eight of them ran away from me like I was a freshman and they were the seniors, leaving me with one guy the size of Bekele and of course Wardian. I managed to drop Wardian and ran the next three miles with Tariku Aboset. At about five miles he decided he wanted no part of my long legs down the stretch of this race and ghosted me for about 400m. At six miles I was in 10th place and had comfortable lead on Wardian. With the last 400m being downhill I ran a 56 and somehow managed to break 31. Here were my splits for the race (4:47, 4:52, 5:03, 5:03, 5:04, 5:06, 56) for a total time of 30:54. It was a pretty good effort considering a huge lack of sleep and a recent upswing on my my training. I figure with some more freshness and I might have been able to run about 20-30 seconds faster, but I am not going to play the woulda, coulda, shoulda game. I ran what I ran. Overall a good race and I scored $200.

I got home with plenty of time to prep for the shoot, as I left before the awards ceremony. It was a little strange rushing out of there so quick, but I had to do it. The night before I had set up all of the lights and gear in an attempt to make things easier on the crew. With the shoot being at my apartment life was going to be much easier on day two. Everyone showed up on time and we got to work right away. However, we still managed to start running behind schedule. Most of the time was spent lining up a good "master shot"and working with my actors. Jeff, my lead actor, was huge. I learned so much from his preparation for the role and his attention to detail. I'll have more later on my improvements in my next post, but overall I wish could have directed him better and with more focus. I guess it comes down to me filling multiple rolls. Ideally I would be just the director, and my only job would be to work with my actors. After massive amounts of prep time, we finally got rolling. We knocked out the three remaining scenes and finished at 7:00pm. After cleaning up and a Chinese food feast our day came to a close. Again, I was pretty exhausted and ready for bed.

So that was my weekend. I'll try to write some more about my final thoughts on the process. Oh yeah, and maybe I'll actually tell people what the film is about.