I Am Worthless

January 20, 2010

So I haven’t been updating these accounts.  It feels like every time I have a spare hour to write, I’m insane if I’m not re-writing scenes to shoot.  Features really are marathons.  And I’ve never been good at long-distance running.

But with that said, things are still going pretty well.  There has been a whole hell of a lot of luck on this project.  And some misfortune that we’re trying to plow through.  One of the biggest set backs was having to re-cast the second lead after shooting twelve good pages with him.  No usable footage from those tapes.  And a lot of missed days/weekends of shooting could’ve made it so much more footage.

So that’s a lot of re-casting for this movie.  It’s fine though.  Chris, who had been running sound on this project, stepped up—I already knew I really liked him as an actor—and has filled the shoes with massive Green Giant feet.  The footage is going great between him and Isaac.  So I’m happy about that.  And we’ve shot a couple of the four or so big scenes in the film (a lot of it takes place at my house, so that stuff doesn’t bring as much anxiety to think about.)  We’ve gone through thirteen tapes—though eight are half-hour tape—and have shot up to three cameras at once during scenes.  It turns out shooting with an XH A1 in Rock Hill is great because everyone seems to own one.

And the multiple cameras still make the shoot go at least twice the speed, so we’re able to get up to ten pages in six or seven hours.  Without really sacrificing much quality.  And it frees the actors up to throw out ideas that a lot of time feel better than the script.  The script is being used as a starting point for most scenes, and we rehearse with complete improv freedom as many times as needed until everyone feels comfortable.  And, for me at least, it’s usually a relaxing, rewarding shoot.  So that’s good.

We have a long way to go though, and we’re already pretty much coming up on the original time I thought I’d have the film wrapped.  It looks like we’ll be done the end of February rather than the end of January, but I think I can financially survive until then.  Now it’s just kind of a race to see what’ll finish first:  the film or me.  But luckily there’s way too much committed now for there to be any possibility of not finishing this film.  I’m happy with it, and I really like the footage, but I’m going to be glad when shooting is over and I can stress out over editing rather than shooting.  I only have to organize myself to make time to edit…  I don’t have to get everyone I know to sacrifice every weekend to drive to Rock Hill and give me hours of their lives with the only payment being food.

But I love no-budget filmmaking.  I wouldn’t give it up for anything (besides low-budget filmmaking or even just budget filmmaking.)