Production!

Well, guys, I made it through another week of production. Last week, I couldn't wait to get back on set, and this week, I've only been off one day, and I equally can't wait to get back!

Friday I was gaffer, which is the person who sets up all the lights. I was really excited, because I learned a lot on set. Gaffing was something I was really afraid of, but I got the hang of it, and it was a lot of fun. 

I felt like I knew so much. I was like, "Here's a reflection, let me audition this flag for you!" I was running around like a crazy person, setting up lights and putting on gels and auditioning flags. It was pretty sweet.

Saturday I had a day off to prepare for producing, which started out really hectic but ended well. I had gotten the wrong driving directions to the location, which were pre-construction directions on Google. I sent all those directions to my crew, and people ended up being late because they didn't know how to get there! I felt awful.

In the morning, I went to the location, got it unlocked, then I had to go get the cooler from the film school which was thankfully only 1/2 a mile away. On the way there, one of our crew members called and said she couldn't get into the school to get the keys to the generator truck, so I had to go let her in with my card. Meanwhile, her passenger didn't show up until later, so we thought we'd have to find someone new. And in the mean time, another crew member called me from her car because she was completely lost at a roundabout. 

Then, the elevator was supposed to run from the 1st floor up to the 3rd floor on weekends, but only stop at floor 2, which was a security thing, which was fine. But it ended up only going to floor two, and not ever to floor 3, so we had to have someone at the 3rd floor beam us up all day. So that was hectic.

Then we had an actor who was late, and I had to pick him up, and it turned out he lived literally .1 miles away from the location, and it was right behind his apartment. And on the way back to the location I went around the roundabout in a circle. Around around the roundabout. Indeed.

But after lunch was cool, and I was struggling for something to do. So I mostly sat there and babysat equipment and carried stuff and watched the time.

Directing!

The first production cycle is officially over. And I have officially survived.

I directed my first (and possibly only) film ever on Sunday. And it was okay. It wasn't great, which was surprising. I realized that I'm a pretty terrible director, because I hate making decisions.

I also realized that directing is pretty tough. Especially if-- hypothetically speaking-- you have an Extra who decides to throw a temper tantrum on set and then you fall into a hundred little pieces. 

Which actually happened to me. The temper tantrum. Not the falling-into-little-pieces.

Anyway, that's neither here nor there.

But why I really don't think directing is my thing is because I am horrible at thinking on my feet. Seriously. After the Extra incident, I lost my notes telling me exactly what shots and angles I wanted, and my world crumbled.

Seriously.

I need to stop planning so much. As my roommate says, I'm such a "J." Which is a personality type. Meyers-Briggs and whatnot.

Anyway, it means a planner. Which I am.

So directing is over, and I heard my footage looks incredible. Dailies are Thursday, and we get to watch everything we filmed Sunday. So I'm very excited for that.

Here are some pictures of me directing. Enjoy!

I also worked as 2nd Assistant Director, which I realized is the therapy position. Everyone comes into craft services and the green room and complains about bugs and weather and hard work. And then I'm the good guy on set who brings people candy to cheer them up! So that's lovely.

One more thing, I'm not sure I mentioned it before, but one of my classmates dropped a lens on set Friday, and it was taken off of the trucks and we weren't allowed to use it, but it turns out it's not broken. So that's just awesome!

Anyway, now that directing is over, I feel a huge load lifted off of me, and now I'm super stoked for cinematography. I was terrified of it at first, but now I'm so excited! Go camera team!

Making Movies!!

Today was my first day on a movie set! Ever! I know they're only 3 minute movies, but they're real movies! With real equipment! And real scripts! And real people!

No one ever wanted to make movies with me in high school, and I'm so excited, because now there are like 30 people who want to make movies with me. And have to.

So that's pretty neat.

We had our first shoot in a warehouse. I was BBE, Best Boy Electric, and I was in charge of driving the generator truck (which went very smoothly!) and running power to set. It was a super easy job, because we only had three lights, and they were all tiny. So I basically did nothing all day.

The first couple of hours were tiring though, because I ran a stick of camlock to set, and then realized I needed to have the power way further back in the building than I had it, so I had to run another stick of camlock out of the truck, move the distro box, and drag all of my cords with me further into the warehouse. It was tiring and I was sweating pretty badly, because I was really trying to hurry up, so they could get the lights up before the New Deal (the first blocking/action sequence of the day, to show the crew what's going to happen). So I was hot and sweaty, but I did it.

And by the way, I'm gonna be ripped by Christmas. I hope. I think I may finally get arm muscles. With any luck, at least.

So, I left set covered in dust and dirt and feeling extremely grimy, but it was fun. I basically watched the filming all day and helped out with lights and moving stuff. And ate some candy. And free lunch. Woo hoo!

I love food. Especially free food. And we had this yummy Mediterranean food with pitas and felafel and pita fries! Yum!

Anyway, after we finished filming and were wrapping all of our gear to the truck, we realized that the garage door at our location came off the track, so all 13 of us tried to get it closed. We couldn't figure it out, so we propped a ladder in there. Later on, right as we were about to leave, we realized the door was still open, so all 13 of us, once again, tried closing it.

It took us an hour after we weren't even supposed to be there anymore to get it closed. But it was amazing! We were an awesome team, and it was actually really fun. Here's a picture:

 

I love it. Good times after a 12 hour day of filming.

I direct my movie on Sunday, and I'm super excited! We just went through a crazy rewrite after we had Director's Prep the other day. I had to work with my writer to change the ending, but it turned out really cool. I'm stoked.

Tomorrow I'm going to decorate my set, which also happens to be in a warehouse. Well, actually, an old tobacco barn that is now a warehouse. But it's cool, and large, and will be incredibly fun to decorate. This antique shop right next door is lending us a bunch of stuff.

Well, folks, that's a wrap.

For tonight.

Crew Drils are Over!

So, Crew Drills are over, and I feel like a real live filmmaker. Seriously. I do.

I'm very excited for productions, now, and I feel like I know what I'm doing. On everything except lighting, that is. That's gonna take a little time.

Yesterday I got to act, do production design, and be a script supe. Acting was fun, because I got to be the bad guy. Well, kind of a bad guy. My character was torturing this guy who raped her three years before. It was really cool and fun to be able to play that character. 

Production design was a little boring, but I heard that on set it's gonna be really busy. I get to create a science lab, so I'm super excited about that. I'm researching how to make foam for my red-colored potion in test tubes. Yes.

Script Supe was really fun. It's all about watching each take and taking notes to ensure continuity and coverage. I really liked it. I also got to draw a Photo of the Day, which was a very 2-Dimensional man in front of fireworks who was happy about crew drills being over. 

They were tiring, but they were incredibly fun, and I can honestly say the only job I didn't like was Key Grip. 

Productions start in one week! Well, less than a week! Ahh!

Driving test Monday. Yikes.

Thursday!

Today was another crazy day in Crew Drills.

First, I was DP, which was incredibly fun. Well, the camera operation part was fun. The lighting part was so confusing and I was entirely overwhelmed and wanted to cry. But it worked out. And I had a blast. 

Second, I was First AC, which is a focus-puller for the DP. That was also very, very fun. Rack focusing, where you go from one person or thing, really fast to another person or thing, is great. We had to get the camera really low, so I ended up having to sit on the floor to get focus. So that was fun.

My job also included changing lenses. $5,000 lenses. Cool.

My third job was grip, which I hated. It was a bunch of heavy lifting, which is fine, except for the fact that I'm too weak to do half the stuff, and that annoys me. Also, I got to push the dolly, which was cool, but I was too weak to turn the wheels. Lame. And frustrating. And also, 15 different people were telling me to do 15 different things. 

I think it'll be better on set. This was the only job I really didn't like. But I guess loving 12 jobs out of 13 is pretty good odds.

Middle of Crew Drills!

We're officially half-way through Crew Drills (which have now become known, once again, by their normal, actual name, of Crew Drills), and they are incredible. Tiring, yes. Foot-hurting, absolutely. But incredible, nonetheless. 

Yesterday I didn't blog, because I was exhausted. I was out like a light by 11:00, and I couldn't be bothered to type anything. I didn't even open my computer. 

Anyway, to fill you in, yesterday I got to act in a scene about a woman who was in love with a giant cigarette. So, that was cool. If your definition of cool is "extremely weird" and "incredibly ridiculous." 

I had fun, though. I got to act like I was in a soap opera, which is actually one of my favorite things and lifelong dreams. 

Not really.

But it was really fun. I had to say, "Get out. I don't need you anymore!" in a very dramatic, daytime soap way. And that was very, very fun. All of my lines were like that. So dramatic. Unfortunately, there was no fake face-slapping. That was the only thing off about the scene.

That, and the presence of a man dressed up as a cigarette. 

Yesterday I was also a gaffer (the light person), which I was actually dreading and terrified to do. It turned out to be really fun, though. I felt hardcore, carrying all kinds of lights and flags and stands. We had a massive light, a 2.5k HMI that mimics sunlight that we had to put up, and I had to stand on a ladder just to aim it. And then, we wrapped the scene late, so we had to wrap to the Grip Truck really quickly. Me and the grip, Nia, rocked it, and wrapped up so fast. We were sweating so badly by the time it was over. People were impressed. Go us.

I was also producer on set yesterday, which consisted of me sitting at craft and eating and talking to a second year from Minnesota. Go north!

Today was really fun. I started off the day as First Assistant Director, which is the person who runs the set. As 1st AD, my job was to make sure we were on schedule and to get everyone to get the shots off in time. It was really fun. Once again, it made me feel like I was in NAE, which is always nice. It's nice to know that something I had a lot of fun with for four years helped a lot in my future endeavors. For real, though. I'm not being sarcastic.

Anyway, it was super cool, cause you get to say things like: "Lock it up, we're going for sound!" and "How long til you can strike those lights?" and the Gaffer will say, "10 minutes," and you'll say, "can you try for five? I need them on in five." And they do. Or they don't. But they try.

And it's really great. And you get to talk in the walkie a lot, and just talk, period. So that's always fun.

My second job today was second assistant camera, the person who gets to make up the slate and do other stuff, like wear rolls of cool neon tape around your belt loop and tape camera focus marks and actor marks. But the most exciting thing is making the slate and slating it. I felt like an actual movie maker. Screw the Red Epic camera. Give me a slate, and I'm good to go. Yay, film school.

Finally, I got to do sound today. Booming! Yes! And I still love it. I just feel so cool. And I am obsessed with the fact that the boom mic makes things so much louder. It's really fun to stand there and eavesdrop with your cool headphones on. For real.

I was very happy today, because at all of my positions I was told I did very well, which is always nice to hear. It's weird, because I always feel like I don't know what I'm doing. So it's nice to know that maybe I do.

Our mentors are second year students, and they're really great. They're so helpful and they know so much, and I'm just so excited to know that by December, we'll know as much as they do. Well, ok, like a third of what they do. But still. We'll sound smarter.

Crew Drizzles Day 1

Today we had our first day of Crew Drills. It went really well. It was pretty fun, and very tiring.

From 8 a.m. to noon, I did BBE, which is running power to the entire set, and then sitting around for a while. I really enjoyed it, though, and I never thought I would.

Next, I directed, which was truly terrifying and amazing at the same time. I loved working with the actors, and I got my actor to act amazingly well by comparing the stuff in the scene to Lord of the Rings. Which was incredibly incredible.

When I had to talk about what lenses I was using and what the coverage was, though, I was completely lost at sea. But everything else was great. And I decided to set up the most complicated dolly shot ever in the history of the universe. And I had an 8:1 contrast ratio and a ton of lights. But when we got it right, it looked amazing.

Thirdly, I did 2nd AD which was a lot of sitting around and way too much snacking at Craft.

Overall, though, the day was great. I'm going to try to get my hands on the footage I filmed today in class, because it looked so cool!! Real movies!!! Whoa!

Classroom Classes Are Over!

Yesterday was our last day of actual classroom classes for the semester. Monday we'll be starting Crew Drills. Here's how they work (I think!): 

Each day, Monday through Friday next week, corresponds to one full weekend on the actual shooting schedule. So each day we'll be shooting 6 films- 3 in Stage A and 3 in Stage B. We'll be doing every position we're going to do for real on everybody's show, but this is like dress rehearsal. That's what I'm calling it. Production Dress Rehearsal. 

And this will from here-on be referred to as such.

Anyway, Production Dress Rehearsal runs from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day, so we end up working on 3 shows a day. I'm actually really excited for this, because I think it's going to help so much in terms of me knowing what I'm doing. And we get free lunch and snacks. So that's pretty neat.

More about that later. And it might be really later, like Friday, if I'm too tired to update during the week. We'll see.

Yesterday we had a directing class where we practiced making a movie and learned all kinds of protocol stuff, which was very interesting and helpful. I was BBE, which will be my first job in Dress Rehearsal and, therefore, my first job on set. So it was nice to get a little practice in, even though I only had to run one cord.

Anyway, we did this Production Meeting, which reminded me so incredibly much of NAE meetings. I'm so glad I was in NAE for so many reasons, but yesterday I was so glad because I kept thinking, "I totally know how to do this!" Only this is a movie instead of a concert. But still. It was pretty great. 

Hmm, what else?

I have no drawn about 4 different storyboards for my movie, but I think I finally decided on one. I may need to cut it down, because right now I have, like, 23 setups, and I really don't want that many. So I'll probably end up doing 5 storyboards. Oh, and these are practice storyboards. Our storyboards for Director's Prep have to be huge, like one picture per 8x11 inch piece of paper. So that'll be fun. I'll get to put my excellent drawing skills to the test.

Anyway, more on that later, too.

Oh! And I'm officially registered for London!!! Which will, I'm sure, be here before I even know it.

Location, Location, Location

Today we had classroom classes, which doesn't make for a very good blog post. But we started getting all of the paperwork that will need to be done on our D1 films, and that's exciting to me. I love paperwork and lists and things. And it reminds me of when we did concerts for NAE way back when.

On another note, a more exciting one, my screenwriting professor really liked my script! We had to do a 5 page story, and mine was 9 pages when I finished. I spent all day Saturday-- no, literally, all day-- sitting in a chair, cutting it down to 5 pages. It took me like 6 hours. No joke. And I'm very proud of it.

So, needless to say, I was pretty excited when he said he liked it and that it was good. There were only a couple of things he wanted me to fix. And he said I really know what I'm doing, and that the writing was very strong. So that was pretty incredible. And now I don't have screenwriting until January. In London. 

Today I started planning out my shots for my film. I drew storyboards yesterday and today I started trying to set up the shots I need. I also searched for locations online that people have shot at in the past, and found about 6 that I can check out. My dream location, The Other Side vintage store, has actually been used for a film in the past, so I have my fingers crossed that they'll let me shoot there. 

Tomorrow I meet with my ATL crew, and we can talk about the movie. I have to shoot in, like, 2 weeks. Yikes. 

Tomorrow we have a test on driving the trucks...double yikes. And next week is Crew Drills! We do 3 mock shows a day, and we're at school from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. til 9 p.m. or 10 p.m. all week. But it should be fun. And intense. And crazy. All the things film school is about.