Pre-production Diary: The Locations
25 April 2007 in Blog | Comments enabled

I’ve never made a big-budget Hollywood feature before (I’ve never made a feature before) but I think I know a little about how it works. When you write a scene set in a place, most of the time, you build that place… or SCOUR the countryside to find THAT place. We began writing our film based on locations we’ve been to or lived near at some point in our lives and that we knew we could use. But, the memory is a funny thing. It’s never quite as accurate as you would like.

Yesterday, Josh and I went to visit all of the locations and meet with the owners. We’re shooting in Ellijay and Rome, Georgia. Both are about an hour and a half drive from us and each other. So, we spent a large portion of the day driving. When we arrived at these locations, we realized that what we have written doesn’t fit exactly what we were imagining. So, we’re having to do a minor rewrite.

But one day, I’d love to sit down and write a script and be able to build a set to match what I wrote. Though I’m sure even with all the money in the world, compromises have to be made. Yesterday was the first of MANY compromises that we’ll have to make in order to get this movie made. But I think Robert Zemeckis says something about filmmaking being a series of compromises. I guess the trick is that when you get to the end of the filmmaking process, still have a movie that somewhat resembles the film you wrote.

For those of you who haven’t made a feature, let me tell you, it is an exciting and terrifying thing all at the same time. I can only imagine it’s like sky-diving, though I’ve never been. (But I want to.) There is great potential to do something amazing, but also great potential to splatter all over the pavement. Sometimes I think, “why are we doing this?” But in the end, there is nothing I’d rather do with my life.

So if I have to live in a constant state of terror for a few months out of the year in order to be a filmmaker, so be it. The fun of it all overshadows the anxiety. I hope.