Production Diary: Week 1
17 June 2007 in Blog | Comments enabled

Week 1 is over.  Starting Week 2 tomorrow.  We’ve both learned so much this past week.  Here are some random thoughts and lessons learned after the first week.

I’m sure rattlesnakes are dangerous, but it sure takes a lot of work to get them to strike.  Many thanks to the guys at Southern Reptile Education did a great job.  They’re crazy, but in that Crocodile Hunter sort of way.  We had a blast shooting the snake stuff and got some great footage.

Always schedule a day for your big action scenes.  Never under any circumstances schedule to start shooting it at 3pm on a day that started at 7am.  Sure it may only be a page, but a page of action is equivalent to 10 pages of dialogue.

If at all possible, cast actors that are available for most of the shoot.  Especially if the role is an important one.

If you have several scenes that take place in the kitchen.  Shoot them all back to back.  Tweaking a lighting setup takes a lot less time than lighting from scratch.  This isn’t possible if your actor isn’t available on consecutive days (see above.)

People that crew films are the hardest working people alive.  At least the ones on our set.  It’s a joy to work with them.  They are all committed to making the best possible movie we can.  After a long day (12-16 hrs) they are still just as concerned with achieving the perfect shot as they were at the beginning of the day.  Wow.  Something to be said for that.

Schedule more time.

If you’re shooting a scene that involves someone getting beaten with a stick… and the actor who is being beaten has a back pad on… and you take the pad off to shoot a close up…  Make sure you tell the person doing the beating that the pad was taken off and that they shouldn’t really hit the person this time.  Sorry Brandon.

Action scenes take a long time.

You always need more time.

Guitar Hero is important to have on set.

The place you’re staying and the place you’re shooting should never be the same place.

More time!

If your producer says to you, “Do you need me on set that day?”  the answer is always, YES!

Walmart walkies are crap.

No matter how out of control you feel, no one else can tell, so act like you know what you’re doing.

Making a feature film is hard work.  It’s also rewarding.  This weekend we edited some of the footage together and it looks great.  Makes you forget how miserable you were trying to get it.

There’s so much more, but I need to get ready for week 2.  I wish we had more time.