I've worked on quite a few film shoots during my time at Emerson and Purchase College, and I have learned a lot about how things should be on set and how things should not be. Shant, the DP, and I structured this film to be 'the way things should be'. The BC Promo shoot was the test of this ethos.
Friday we shot a scene with Mike, which will be the first half of a longer segment involving Matthew and his sister Jaime (played by our amazing actress friend Abby Austin). The crew was as follows: Myself directing, Shant DPing, Kaz ACing AND Sound Recording like a some sort of a magician, and Anna ADing/Producing. We got a bit of a late start, but that wasn't a concern--we only had 8 shots to complete. The only important thing for us to consider (as the shoot was intended to be in so many ways a learning experience) was how long it would take us to complete what would be indicative of our simplest set-ups.
I would like to say everything went perfectly, and certainly some things did. Mike gave a great performance--we got everything we wanted, and Mike and I got to work together for the first time since the NBS film that shall remain nameless. Unfortunately the sun was working against us, beating down in an ugly manner during the whole shoot. Shant and I also had a difficult time communicating. It was a combination of my fascist director tendencies clashing with Shant's 'DP quietly holding a grudge' style. One thing is certain, we both know how to annoy the shit out of one another, usually in impossible to perceive ways, the human equivalent of dueling dog whistles.
We wrapped filming around six and headed back to campus, where we arrived around eight. After dropping everyone off, Shant and I headed back to his apartment to pick up some supplies before going to Carlisle for the night. We discussed the day and what had gone wrong in terms of our workflow. After about an hour of discussion we were back on the same page.
This set the tone for day two, the Saturday shoot with Colin (who will be playing Seany) in the morning and Mike and Abby in the afternoon. We also had my brother Alex on set, which kept the bitterness low and the jokes hilarious. The brothers even shared an odd pond-soaked cameo together, which will be seen, and closely scrutinized, at a later date.
The day felt like a gift from the filmmaker gods. The light was perfect from the minute we loaded the first mag to the second we rolled out twelve hours later. Shant and I worked with great ease, setting up shots and getting exactly what we wanted in a perfect timely manner. Kaz was on his game as usual, this time focusing (no pun) on AC work as Bill Kelson took over the duties of Sound Recordist--and, by the way, hands down best soundman I have ever worked with on a set! Thorough, attentive, and highly learned in all important sound principles. Anna kept us on schedule, making sure our shots happened right on time, rather than early or late. People often forget that the goal of an AD is not to get the production ahead of the workload, its to make sure the production remains accurate to the schedule as it was designed.
Mike and Abby got a chance to share the screen for the first time, and I caught a glimpse of how the rest of the film would work with rehearsals and improvisation. We shot one scene of real dialogue between Mike and Abby, and we improvised it, so the stakes were high. But the scene felt real. The performances had an energetic honesty and a trueness that recalled all the reasons I began making films in the first place. I have never had such a feeling of weird giddy excitement on a film set.
We wrapped our day shooting at Bates Farm Ice Cream in Carlisle. Shant and Kaz wandered the grounds filming perplexed farm animals and flower beds, occasionally catching a moment as Mike and Abby ordered their desserts at the window. The patrons stared at us at first, with our ancient film camera and giant lens/mattebox, but eventually life overruled the novelty of a film crew and we became less visible for just long enough to get the shots we needed. This was a great way to end the day because everyone got what they wanted--cast and crew got ice cream, I got to pretend I was Fred Wiseman for a couple minutes.
The BC Promo shoot when from the 'how things should not be' quickly to the definition of 'how things should be'. It was fulfilling to drop a crew off, after over twelve hours of hard on-set labor, and hear people eager to join up for the next shoot. Providence, I tell you! Providence!!
So without anymore of my rambling, here are some pictures (I had no time to edit these, so levels and so forth are totally off):
until next time (which will be the announcement of the new website and the promos!)
-Ben
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