directing journal 6
Oct. 7th, 2009 10:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
holeinthegroundwrapped filming up last night at around midnight. it was pretty good, despite standing around in the cold and the wet, it was fun. it makes a huge difference when the director you're working with is in a good mood, since this shot of hours in the wet cold, was way way easier than sunday's hours in the wet cold.
i messed up on the scheduling again though. not that it was entirely my fault, but with my experience this summer, i really really should have argued for not trying to cram almost everything into one 16 hour day. seriously. i attempted a little bit to try and convince people to move some shots around, but i really should have stuck to my guns more about that, because i think the film suffered because of it.
i know personally i wasn't able to get quite a bit of the shots i wanted to get, and i left the lighting not entirely the way i wanted, plus i forgot a few things that i wanted to have the actors try. it wasn't a huge disaster, and the scene will work and make sense, and i think we also got some good performances.... but. it could have been much better, and 1) if i wasn't pressed for time so much. i generally work pretty quickly, but still, it would have been best if i had gone first and wasn't crunched 2) i wish my mood was better.
i was originally gonna start right away in the morning, was excited for that, but my D.P. overslept (he had been on another 12 hour shoot until 6am before that), so we decided Brad should shoot his scene first. he didn't get rolling until about 11am. eventually at that point, i realized i wasn't going to make it to work at all, so i had to call in. i probably should have lied and said i was sick, but i didn't, i told the truth that i was on a film shoot and it was going longer than expected, and ended up getting a really bitchy response from my boss on the phone, the sort of response designed to make you feel like a shitty person (not so much what he said, but tone of voice.) so, i was kind of stressed about that. plus, spending hours waiting for Brad to get done, and not really being able to do anything myself, except for just continually cut shots that wouldn't be able to be gotten. i don't mind being somewhere for hours if i'm occupied, but i really hate the sitting around not doing anything.
then.... there was also some tension within the group on the set. which, makes it hard. it wasn't horrible, but there was definitely some unpleasentness. i got really frustrated personally when i was attempting to A.D. it was hour 15th hour or so, it was cold and wet, and the entire crew was complaining. i told the director this, and tried to say "hey, we need to hurry up or reschedule otherwise the crew is probably going to revolt" and just got the reply "i don't care! i had to wait around for 2 hours! i'm refusing to cut any of my shots!"
yeah. eventually he listened. and eventually, i heard a few quiet assides from his D.P. such as "i don't really care how it looks, i'm tired and wanna go home" not exactly, but that was the gist of it. some things were cut, but it was unpleasant.
so.... scheduling. NEVER DO THAT AGAIN.
second.... try to maintain a much better mood. i think i'm a good enough actor where nobody noticed when i was upset, but still... i felt it, and i gotta work on not letting shit get to me on set. i'm getting better at relaxing overall (i've noticed this since quitting smoking, weirdly) but i need to not let myself freak out as much mentally when things don't go right. it happens, you gotta roll with it, and understand that it'll never be exactly how you want it, but it'll still be good.
the actors, however, were pretty amazing. Dennis was great at keeping up morale, especially by starting to sing "The Safety Dance" during rehersal, and just generally being fun to be around. Stephan was able to just jump into the role right away, and didn't require much direction once we established his character. Also, he was awesome at helping me with Mo, who was not a proffessional or experienced actor at all. Mo was having trouble getting the emotion of being about to be shot, and so Stephan helped me working with him and rehearsing and gave him a bunch of advice. it was great and really appreciated, and i think it made Mo a lot more comfortable and he gave a stronger performance because of it. Nate is also a pretty fun guy to be around. he was getting pretty loopy and weird by the end of the day, but we just ran like 6 or so takes of his shots, and by the end he was back into character and did pretty good. he was also a good sport though, and when we finished, offered to stay around and help load equipment.
so, overall, it was hard, but good. i also really like the whole bonding experience you get in a film shoot. there are a few people i don't want to work with again, but overall, i think almost everyone on the crew and everything were a lot of fun to work with, and are pretty good people too.
i messed up on the scheduling again though. not that it was entirely my fault, but with my experience this summer, i really really should have argued for not trying to cram almost everything into one 16 hour day. seriously. i attempted a little bit to try and convince people to move some shots around, but i really should have stuck to my guns more about that, because i think the film suffered because of it.
i know personally i wasn't able to get quite a bit of the shots i wanted to get, and i left the lighting not entirely the way i wanted, plus i forgot a few things that i wanted to have the actors try. it wasn't a huge disaster, and the scene will work and make sense, and i think we also got some good performances.... but. it could have been much better, and 1) if i wasn't pressed for time so much. i generally work pretty quickly, but still, it would have been best if i had gone first and wasn't crunched 2) i wish my mood was better.
i was originally gonna start right away in the morning, was excited for that, but my D.P. overslept (he had been on another 12 hour shoot until 6am before that), so we decided Brad should shoot his scene first. he didn't get rolling until about 11am. eventually at that point, i realized i wasn't going to make it to work at all, so i had to call in. i probably should have lied and said i was sick, but i didn't, i told the truth that i was on a film shoot and it was going longer than expected, and ended up getting a really bitchy response from my boss on the phone, the sort of response designed to make you feel like a shitty person (not so much what he said, but tone of voice.) so, i was kind of stressed about that. plus, spending hours waiting for Brad to get done, and not really being able to do anything myself, except for just continually cut shots that wouldn't be able to be gotten. i don't mind being somewhere for hours if i'm occupied, but i really hate the sitting around not doing anything.
then.... there was also some tension within the group on the set. which, makes it hard. it wasn't horrible, but there was definitely some unpleasentness. i got really frustrated personally when i was attempting to A.D. it was hour 15th hour or so, it was cold and wet, and the entire crew was complaining. i told the director this, and tried to say "hey, we need to hurry up or reschedule otherwise the crew is probably going to revolt" and just got the reply "i don't care! i had to wait around for 2 hours! i'm refusing to cut any of my shots!"
yeah. eventually he listened. and eventually, i heard a few quiet assides from his D.P. such as "i don't really care how it looks, i'm tired and wanna go home" not exactly, but that was the gist of it. some things were cut, but it was unpleasant.
so.... scheduling. NEVER DO THAT AGAIN.
second.... try to maintain a much better mood. i think i'm a good enough actor where nobody noticed when i was upset, but still... i felt it, and i gotta work on not letting shit get to me on set. i'm getting better at relaxing overall (i've noticed this since quitting smoking, weirdly) but i need to not let myself freak out as much mentally when things don't go right. it happens, you gotta roll with it, and understand that it'll never be exactly how you want it, but it'll still be good.
the actors, however, were pretty amazing. Dennis was great at keeping up morale, especially by starting to sing "The Safety Dance" during rehersal, and just generally being fun to be around. Stephan was able to just jump into the role right away, and didn't require much direction once we established his character. Also, he was awesome at helping me with Mo, who was not a proffessional or experienced actor at all. Mo was having trouble getting the emotion of being about to be shot, and so Stephan helped me working with him and rehearsing and gave him a bunch of advice. it was great and really appreciated, and i think it made Mo a lot more comfortable and he gave a stronger performance because of it. Nate is also a pretty fun guy to be around. he was getting pretty loopy and weird by the end of the day, but we just ran like 6 or so takes of his shots, and by the end he was back into character and did pretty good. he was also a good sport though, and when we finished, offered to stay around and help load equipment.
so, overall, it was hard, but good. i also really like the whole bonding experience you get in a film shoot. there are a few people i don't want to work with again, but overall, i think almost everyone on the crew and everything were a lot of fun to work with, and are pretty good people too.
