On the set
Tuesday/July/2009 10:42 PM
I could tell you all of the little tricks of the director - he had a great way of bringing out the strengths in all different types of personalities, but since I think they were his talent and it’s hard to teach talent - I’ll stick to the craft issues, but even as I say that I know I’ll probably go off on tangents that go straight back to my experience on set. Forgive me in advance.
First rule, if your schedule calls for the first shot at 11 AM make sure you start on time. This is almost impossible to accomplish, but it can be done. The producer joked that 11:07 was the best we did during the entire shoot, so don’t think that I’m saying we accomplished this perfectly, but I don’t believe we ever started more than 20 minutes late. The AD has the whip and he or she should use it to get everyone in place and working as close to on time as possible. You’ll remember those minutes if you’re going over schedule at 11PM that night. You’ll start counting those minutes over and over in your head thinking “WHY DID I START fifteen minutes late!” I’m getting a little dramatic.
Next rule: Start the schedule with the hardest scene you have to shoot. This isn’t always the longest scene, in fact often it’s a montage or a scene with lots of action that needs to be covered. The camera crew is sharpest in the morning (this is not a swipe at DPs or ACS – the energy to run a camera is a stamina play) and they usually take fewer takes to get the visuals correct. Actors are often the opposite. They warm up during the day and do their best character work on take one after lunch. That’s not to say that you can’t start with a dialog heavy, deep and moody scene at 7AM – each production and every actor is different. Our experience led to this rule. Make your own films and your own rules. We’re just here to share our understanding and maybe kick someone’s ass into gear.
Another rule: Don’t shoot a love scene right after lunch. I don’t want to go into an explanation, just don’t.
More rules: Remember that the fact that you made it this far rules. Very few productions of micro means make it this far. Remind yourself of this – don’t make it a rally cry until you’ve finished one of the films and people need to feel special just make it through the afternoon.
A fine rule: Make sure the AD is keeping track of every line spoken on camera. You should never wrap a scene until you’ve gotten the nod that every line has been shot from every storyboard angle.
Room tone, nobody gets room tone. I think you should. We always forgot. After all we were always at least seven minutes late.
Now I’d like to get into some of the challenges of shooting two films back to back. The rules were meant to knowledge up any indie film crew. Now we want to lay down some fresh tracks.
Don’t have anyone cut their hair for the second film. It makes pickups a nightmare. We wanted to see a big transformation for our lead, but then we had to actually wait two months for the exterior pickups for the first film. This was just an inconvenience, but I thought I’d pass it along.
Get someone working on editing the first film the moment it wraps. Don’t throw a party in between pictures. Use the crossover building days to start post production. We started looking for an editor, but knowing what I know now, I’d rather have started looking earlier and passed it all off the minute it was done. (as long as we still got Hove to edit, he is fantastic).
Make sure the props people from both films use the same system. It sounds like a small adaptation, until you’re looking for a poloroid camera at 11:06 and you know you’re not going to be able to beat your record because of a piece of 1940s technology.
Don’t record a thousand takes and push all of the decisions off on the editor. These actors are trained and primed. Back them up when they need it, but move on when they don’t. Throwing in an extra take after you know you’ve got the shot turns into hundreds of minutes over the course of a feature shoot. Know when to stop the camera and move on. If you’re really paranoid, add another coverage angle and get the performance there. Don’t grind on a single shot (especially a wide shot) until people are tired of the scene. It’s better to leave even the actors wanting more sometimes. (I only say this because I’ve worked as an editor and seen directors wear down their cast by thinking of “new ideas” constantly). Think of new ideas before the actors hit set. Put them into your coverage and when you get them, move on.
Make fun of the sound people. You’re missing a great opportunity for tension release if you don’t at least once play a practical joke on them. We made ours think that they missed an important scene – assaulting them with “Tell me you got that.” Just as they entered the room with burritos in hand. I also whispered secret messages to the sound board operator to see if I could get him to stop text messaging for more than ten seconds at a time. It did not work. How can you not make fun of that?
Don’t be fake. This is a real project. Your actors are often really connected to their characters. A couple of camera tricks are OK (shoot rehearsal, shoot an ad lib) but don’t tailor your comments on a scene to what you think they want to hear. Say what you feel and they will feel more free to be real themselves. I’m not telling you to brutalize your worst actor’s worst take, keep that in check. But what I am saying is that a cast that trusts the creative team around them, is a cast that will feel more comfortable taking risks knowing that only the best of their work will make it to the final cut. Helping out an actor in the moment by encouragement is fine, but showing indiscriminate encouragement throughout the shoot is draining and unrealistic. Sometimes just call for another take and don’t engage in on-site movie reviewing. (One of the best takes in Café Coexistence came from an actor who begged to reshoot the scene afterwards. The director wouldn’t budge and told the actor he was crackers and that scene is now on the actor’s reel, and is central to the film.)
Be ready to be homeless. The 34 day schedule leaves very little time to do anything but sleep and occasionally put together bunk beds (that’s what our director did on the crossover days between the films). It’s probably the most that everyone on your set has ever worked in the arts and there’s really nothing you can do to prepare them for the added weight in yours and their lives. Mock it. Insult it to its face and demean it with words and actions. Don’t let it become something that drags people down. There were days when I didn’t want to report to set. I’d say once every two weeks I would question my willingness to get into a car and fight traffic to volunteer my time with a bunch of people who used to be cool but for that day only SUCKED. This is natural. This is actually good. If you don’t have a life, you’re not interesting enough to hold the attention of others. I took it as a sign of great distinction that the actors and crew did not complain about their work, but I know that they must have felt like I did at least once. The secret of a day like that is to do a new job. Learn a new skill, find something new to pick up on set that fulfills you. I know it’s all about the collaboration, but in those selfish times, pick a monologue that you’d like to memorize for your next audition or choose a skill you’d like to learn for your next crew job. It’s not a spa day, but it can be a day that you look back on and feel good about the positive way you handled it.
First rule, if your schedule calls for the first shot at 11 AM make sure you start on time. This is almost impossible to accomplish, but it can be done. The producer joked that 11:07 was the best we did during the entire shoot, so don’t think that I’m saying we accomplished this perfectly, but I don’t believe we ever started more than 20 minutes late. The AD has the whip and he or she should use it to get everyone in place and working as close to on time as possible. You’ll remember those minutes if you’re going over schedule at 11PM that night. You’ll start counting those minutes over and over in your head thinking “WHY DID I START fifteen minutes late!” I’m getting a little dramatic.
Next rule: Start the schedule with the hardest scene you have to shoot. This isn’t always the longest scene, in fact often it’s a montage or a scene with lots of action that needs to be covered. The camera crew is sharpest in the morning (this is not a swipe at DPs or ACS – the energy to run a camera is a stamina play) and they usually take fewer takes to get the visuals correct. Actors are often the opposite. They warm up during the day and do their best character work on take one after lunch. That’s not to say that you can’t start with a dialog heavy, deep and moody scene at 7AM – each production and every actor is different. Our experience led to this rule. Make your own films and your own rules. We’re just here to share our understanding and maybe kick someone’s ass into gear.
Another rule: Don’t shoot a love scene right after lunch. I don’t want to go into an explanation, just don’t.
More rules: Remember that the fact that you made it this far rules. Very few productions of micro means make it this far. Remind yourself of this – don’t make it a rally cry until you’ve finished one of the films and people need to feel special just make it through the afternoon.
A fine rule: Make sure the AD is keeping track of every line spoken on camera. You should never wrap a scene until you’ve gotten the nod that every line has been shot from every storyboard angle.
Room tone, nobody gets room tone. I think you should. We always forgot. After all we were always at least seven minutes late.
Now I’d like to get into some of the challenges of shooting two films back to back. The rules were meant to knowledge up any indie film crew. Now we want to lay down some fresh tracks.
Don’t have anyone cut their hair for the second film. It makes pickups a nightmare. We wanted to see a big transformation for our lead, but then we had to actually wait two months for the exterior pickups for the first film. This was just an inconvenience, but I thought I’d pass it along.
Get someone working on editing the first film the moment it wraps. Don’t throw a party in between pictures. Use the crossover building days to start post production. We started looking for an editor, but knowing what I know now, I’d rather have started looking earlier and passed it all off the minute it was done. (as long as we still got Hove to edit, he is fantastic).
Make sure the props people from both films use the same system. It sounds like a small adaptation, until you’re looking for a poloroid camera at 11:06 and you know you’re not going to be able to beat your record because of a piece of 1940s technology.
Don’t record a thousand takes and push all of the decisions off on the editor. These actors are trained and primed. Back them up when they need it, but move on when they don’t. Throwing in an extra take after you know you’ve got the shot turns into hundreds of minutes over the course of a feature shoot. Know when to stop the camera and move on. If you’re really paranoid, add another coverage angle and get the performance there. Don’t grind on a single shot (especially a wide shot) until people are tired of the scene. It’s better to leave even the actors wanting more sometimes. (I only say this because I’ve worked as an editor and seen directors wear down their cast by thinking of “new ideas” constantly). Think of new ideas before the actors hit set. Put them into your coverage and when you get them, move on.
Make fun of the sound people. You’re missing a great opportunity for tension release if you don’t at least once play a practical joke on them. We made ours think that they missed an important scene – assaulting them with “Tell me you got that.” Just as they entered the room with burritos in hand. I also whispered secret messages to the sound board operator to see if I could get him to stop text messaging for more than ten seconds at a time. It did not work. How can you not make fun of that?
Don’t be fake. This is a real project. Your actors are often really connected to their characters. A couple of camera tricks are OK (shoot rehearsal, shoot an ad lib) but don’t tailor your comments on a scene to what you think they want to hear. Say what you feel and they will feel more free to be real themselves. I’m not telling you to brutalize your worst actor’s worst take, keep that in check. But what I am saying is that a cast that trusts the creative team around them, is a cast that will feel more comfortable taking risks knowing that only the best of their work will make it to the final cut. Helping out an actor in the moment by encouragement is fine, but showing indiscriminate encouragement throughout the shoot is draining and unrealistic. Sometimes just call for another take and don’t engage in on-site movie reviewing. (One of the best takes in Café Coexistence came from an actor who begged to reshoot the scene afterwards. The director wouldn’t budge and told the actor he was crackers and that scene is now on the actor’s reel, and is central to the film.)
Be ready to be homeless. The 34 day schedule leaves very little time to do anything but sleep and occasionally put together bunk beds (that’s what our director did on the crossover days between the films). It’s probably the most that everyone on your set has ever worked in the arts and there’s really nothing you can do to prepare them for the added weight in yours and their lives. Mock it. Insult it to its face and demean it with words and actions. Don’t let it become something that drags people down. There were days when I didn’t want to report to set. I’d say once every two weeks I would question my willingness to get into a car and fight traffic to volunteer my time with a bunch of people who used to be cool but for that day only SUCKED. This is natural. This is actually good. If you don’t have a life, you’re not interesting enough to hold the attention of others. I took it as a sign of great distinction that the actors and crew did not complain about their work, but I know that they must have felt like I did at least once. The secret of a day like that is to do a new job. Learn a new skill, find something new to pick up on set that fulfills you. I know it’s all about the collaboration, but in those selfish times, pick a monologue that you’d like to memorize for your next audition or choose a skill you’d like to learn for your next crew job. It’s not a spa day, but it can be a day that you look back on and feel good about the positive way you handled it.