Pro. Gress.

I'm nearing the end of the writing phase of my short which means I am entering the ever so important phase of pre-production. During pre-pro I will need to assemble cast & crew, scout & secure a location, storyboard, rehearse, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. One of my biggest lessons in film school was, "Pre-Production is insanely important." It can truly make or break your days on set.

I've already worked ahead a bit with assembling my cast and crew. Here is my line-up thus far:

Cast/Talent

Jessica Sapick & Jonathon Musser

Crew

D.P. Sean Sullivan

A.D. Jackie Gross

Capture Tech: Nitin Veludandi

Some notes on the crew. A D.P. is a Director of Photography and/or Cinematographer. I will work with Sean to accomplish the look of the film. He will decide what camera and lenses to use along with the camera angles/movements and lighting of the scene. The Assistant Director or A.D. is essentially the foreman on the set and keeps everything running smoothly so the director can direct. We will shoot this film digitally and this is where the Capture Tech comes into play. When shooting digitally, all of your footage is captured onto cards in the camera. When said card is full, it is taken out and handed to the Capture Tech who will transfer all the data to a hard drive or multiple hard drives and then he/she will hand the empty card back to the D.P. It may sound easy but it's an insanely important job as the footage that you've worked so hard to get is in their hands. You always want at least one empty card available because if you don't the entire production will come to a screeching halt waiting for the information to be transferred onto the hard drives.

Of course, these oh-so-brief job descriptions are for a small crew indie set and are vastly different on a big budget set. I still have some other spots to fill and hope to wrap that up in the next week or two. Really excited about filming. It's getting closer...

-b

The first cast is stoned... or something like that.

I just finished writing a short film that happens to fall into the genre of the romantic comedy. I set out to write a story that involved two characters, one being a woman, and limiting myself to one setting/location. It's not completely finished and I'm sure there will be a couple more re-writes between now and shooting... and during shooting. However, I'm far enough along that I need to move on to the next phase of pre-production which includes location scouting and casting. Lucky for me, the lovely and talented Miss Jessica Sapick (see above) has agreed to jump aboard this lil' project of mine as the female lead. A bit about Jessica... she just got signed to an acting and modeling contract at Stars Agency (Congrats Jessica!!) and like myself is also from the Midwest. This will be my first time working with Jessica and probably her last time working with me! haha

From here I will begin looking at male actors to play opposite Jessica and start scouting video stores for a shooting location. There is a third role that needs to be filled but it is for a non-speaking part and worst comes to worst, I can just pull a Hitchcock and cast myself in the role. Not out of vanity reasons of course, but just pure necessity. Actually it's totally for vanity reasons. The only reason I am doing any of this is for fame, fortune, and glory... and world domination.

-b

The Sounds of Science...

Super short week for class as we are starting production on our next short. In fact we only had one night of lecture and that was devoted to sound. We spent time discussing booms, lavs, mixers, etc. Then we went out in the field and captured dialog in a few different settings. That was it. The rest of my time I was supposed to fill working on pre-production but I didn't as I always procrastinate. Like an idiot. Production on my next short is just a few days away...

Pre-Production, Pre-Production, Pre-Production.

Can you guess what we continued with in this weeks of class? Getting in to Film Festivals! Nah, it was pre-production which meant working with actors, team logistics, storyboarding, labs both writing and pre-production (which is now officially the word of the day), and intro to sound. 

Intro to sound was a great day. We worked with the day class and essentially had a dry run for our shoots. The class entailed us dragging out the equipment, setting up a set with lights and audio writing and filming a scene. From start to finish in the span of a few hours. I worked with Jimmy and Chris who are two funny dudes from the day class and we made a short about an asshole (me) who wouldn't get off the phone in the computer lab. Milena ran class to day and she is another one of instructors who does a lot of focus on editing. She is a great and easy going presence in the studio. 

As I mentioned earlier, we had a lecture entitled Working With Actors which James ran point on. Another great lesson. One director and two actors. The director hands the actors a script that  they've never seen before and the work it over... and over... and over. From one dry line read to almost where it is filmable. This is where the director really lets the actors know what he or she wants out of a scene and this is where the actors bring their ideas about their characters to the big dance. Give and take and communication . Creating trust and an avenue of communication that will continue up until filming. 

In regards to my film... Death Rattle!!  (ominous ain't it?) I spent time this week rewriting and casting. Both the actors I sent my script to and that I asked to be in my film accepted!! Heather Parsons and Edward McCloud will play Josephine and the Intruder respectively. I couldn't be happier to have these two in this project with me. 

I've been drawing inspiration/straight-ganking ideas from these films while writing & setting up shots: High Tension (Haute Tension) and bit o' The Shining. Peep 'em if you haven't seen 'em.