KILLER RACK Day Ten: Double D Collections
The shooting schedule for a feature film is as important to a production as the screenplay. It effects every decision that must be made during filming. No department head can do his job without knowing the schedule. Two thirds of the way through the shoot for KILLER RACK, we haven't juggled any days (but we did move some scenes we didn't get one day to a future day). From the first day I made our schedule I knew two things: 1) that this would be Michael Thurber Weekend; and 2) that today would be one of our biggest days.
I first met Michael Thurber on MODEL HUNGER, and quickly learned why Debbie Rochon considered him a "must have" for her directorial debut. Michael is immensely talented - ridiculously talented - and equally gracious. When Paul McGinnis and I formed our partnership for this project, Michael was one of the actors Paul wanted in the film. I didn't think we could afford to bring him out from Providence, Rhode Island, but things worked out in our favor, and he's here now.
Today was the day for which I'd scheduled the work place scenes for Betty (Jessica Zwolak), our heroine. The minute I saw the training room at Pierce Arrow Film Arts Center, I knew this was the ideal location for the Double D Collections Agency (named by our production designer, Joel Resnikoff). First of all, the spacious room had central AC, unlike the other rooms we're shooting in. It's deep and wide, with eight small office cubicles with their own monitors and keyboard. I knew it would be so much easier to shoot in there than in any actual office anyone could offer or donate. For our previous shoots in Pierce Arrow, the room served as our holding area, ie the place we stored food and equipment and ate our meas, where cast and crew could relax and cool off. For today, we moved holding into the less comfortable area where we've been shooting, and we transformed the room into our workplace.
Designing the space entailed separating the cubicles and moving them out from their customary wall, rearranging the cubicles, art directing each cubicle, creating a banner with the company logo, and other tasks. Earlier this week, several members of our team assembled to do a first rate job creating the set. It occurred to me it would look stupid if every worker's monitor had a dark screen, and locating computers and cables to make the monitors functional struck me as an insane waste of man power. I didn't want to green screen them and add images in post either, for the same reason. So on Thursday night I asked Chris Cosgrave to create Double D Collections images to print out on paper and fit onto each monitor. He did a great job as usual, and printed the "screens" on card stock which he fitted on Friday. On Saturday, most people thought the monitors were live.
This is the way most weeks go for Rod Durick, Paul and myself. I plan and troubleshoot all day long on weekdays, and Rod and Paul take on chores when they get home from their jobs, essentially working two full time jobs. We worry about sets, props, art direction and costumes. It eats up all our free time, and by the time the weekend arrives we've barely managed to keep up with the train that has left the station. It's grueling, but it's worth it. And when the weekend arrives, we spend as much time trouble shooting as creating. As a producer, you just have to treat problem solving as part of the creative process. We're lucky to have some great people helping us, many of them volunteers.
Today's challenges came fast and hard. Chris Rados, our talented and hard working Director of Photography, "tweaked" his back and was in pain the entire day. If it slowed him down, I didn't notice; I only noticed the occasional grimace. One o our actresses, Tia Maurice, is a family friend from Canada, who agreed to take a small part and help us out. Two weekends ago, she got stuck at the border, then got shut out of the return bus she wanted and had to leave late. This weekend, she got shut out of at least two buses that sold ot, spent the night in a McDonalds in Toronto, and arrived in Buffalo late. We shifted our schedule, and she was able to be in the scenes for which he wanted her. And then another actress didn't show up at all after countless communications, so we promoted Sherri Lyn Litz, who had kindly agreed to come in and help us as an extra, to a speaking role. And then the clock ran out, and I didn't even know it was ticking.
Regardless, we made our day. And it was a glorious one! So nice to be indoors where we could control our environment, instead of battling wind and rain outside. We did one massive sequence, two small scenes, then a series of medium length scenes. Michael was as amazing as Paul and I expected him to be, and a joy to have around; Paul, Jess and Brittani Hare (that's a wrap!), did excellent work, and Tia, Erika Frase and Sherri devoted time and energy to their small parts. There were so many actors on set, so many roles to cover, and we just burned through the setups despite Chris's back. We used the dolly in almost every scene, sometimes more than once, and I know this was the best looking footage we've shot, with the most creative coverage. To me, it reeks of production value, and that's never bad. The only corners I had to cut were for our last scene, because I felt pressured to get out of the location. I abandoned the five shots I had in mind (all mapped out), and designed a master with pans and tilts that covered the entire scene, and the actors were brilliant. That's a wrap!
I like to shoot for twelve hours and spend one hour wrapping. Today we shot for twelve and a half and wrapped in half an hour. The pace was exhausting, but the material is stellar. Quite a few people chipped in, and they all made a difference. Tomorrow is another Michael Thurber day; it's also a Paul and Jessica. We have the same number of pages to shoot as we did today, but far simpler setups, with no dolly. I don't just want t make our day, I want to finish early so we can get a head start on wrapping out of the location. We'll be back at Pierce Arrow to shoot our climax as an exterior location, and may be back for some green screen work, but we're now a nomadic tribe.
I first met Michael Thurber on MODEL HUNGER, and quickly learned why Debbie Rochon considered him a "must have" for her directorial debut. Michael is immensely talented - ridiculously talented - and equally gracious. When Paul McGinnis and I formed our partnership for this project, Michael was one of the actors Paul wanted in the film. I didn't think we could afford to bring him out from Providence, Rhode Island, but things worked out in our favor, and he's here now.
Today was the day for which I'd scheduled the work place scenes for Betty (Jessica Zwolak), our heroine. The minute I saw the training room at Pierce Arrow Film Arts Center, I knew this was the ideal location for the Double D Collections Agency (named by our production designer, Joel Resnikoff). First of all, the spacious room had central AC, unlike the other rooms we're shooting in. It's deep and wide, with eight small office cubicles with their own monitors and keyboard. I knew it would be so much easier to shoot in there than in any actual office anyone could offer or donate. For our previous shoots in Pierce Arrow, the room served as our holding area, ie the place we stored food and equipment and ate our meas, where cast and crew could relax and cool off. For today, we moved holding into the less comfortable area where we've been shooting, and we transformed the room into our workplace.
Designing the space entailed separating the cubicles and moving them out from their customary wall, rearranging the cubicles, art directing each cubicle, creating a banner with the company logo, and other tasks. Earlier this week, several members of our team assembled to do a first rate job creating the set. It occurred to me it would look stupid if every worker's monitor had a dark screen, and locating computers and cables to make the monitors functional struck me as an insane waste of man power. I didn't want to green screen them and add images in post either, for the same reason. So on Thursday night I asked Chris Cosgrave to create Double D Collections images to print out on paper and fit onto each monitor. He did a great job as usual, and printed the "screens" on card stock which he fitted on Friday. On Saturday, most people thought the monitors were live.
This is the way most weeks go for Rod Durick, Paul and myself. I plan and troubleshoot all day long on weekdays, and Rod and Paul take on chores when they get home from their jobs, essentially working two full time jobs. We worry about sets, props, art direction and costumes. It eats up all our free time, and by the time the weekend arrives we've barely managed to keep up with the train that has left the station. It's grueling, but it's worth it. And when the weekend arrives, we spend as much time trouble shooting as creating. As a producer, you just have to treat problem solving as part of the creative process. We're lucky to have some great people helping us, many of them volunteers.
Today's challenges came fast and hard. Chris Rados, our talented and hard working Director of Photography, "tweaked" his back and was in pain the entire day. If it slowed him down, I didn't notice; I only noticed the occasional grimace. One o our actresses, Tia Maurice, is a family friend from Canada, who agreed to take a small part and help us out. Two weekends ago, she got stuck at the border, then got shut out of the return bus she wanted and had to leave late. This weekend, she got shut out of at least two buses that sold ot, spent the night in a McDonalds in Toronto, and arrived in Buffalo late. We shifted our schedule, and she was able to be in the scenes for which he wanted her. And then another actress didn't show up at all after countless communications, so we promoted Sherri Lyn Litz, who had kindly agreed to come in and help us as an extra, to a speaking role. And then the clock ran out, and I didn't even know it was ticking.
Regardless, we made our day. And it was a glorious one! So nice to be indoors where we could control our environment, instead of battling wind and rain outside. We did one massive sequence, two small scenes, then a series of medium length scenes. Michael was as amazing as Paul and I expected him to be, and a joy to have around; Paul, Jess and Brittani Hare (that's a wrap!), did excellent work, and Tia, Erika Frase and Sherri devoted time and energy to their small parts. There were so many actors on set, so many roles to cover, and we just burned through the setups despite Chris's back. We used the dolly in almost every scene, sometimes more than once, and I know this was the best looking footage we've shot, with the most creative coverage. To me, it reeks of production value, and that's never bad. The only corners I had to cut were for our last scene, because I felt pressured to get out of the location. I abandoned the five shots I had in mind (all mapped out), and designed a master with pans and tilts that covered the entire scene, and the actors were brilliant. That's a wrap!
I like to shoot for twelve hours and spend one hour wrapping. Today we shot for twelve and a half and wrapped in half an hour. The pace was exhausting, but the material is stellar. Quite a few people chipped in, and they all made a difference. Tomorrow is another Michael Thurber day; it's also a Paul and Jessica. We have the same number of pages to shoot as we did today, but far simpler setups, with no dolly. I don't just want t make our day, I want to finish early so we can get a head start on wrapping out of the location. We'll be back at Pierce Arrow to shoot our climax as an exterior location, and may be back for some green screen work, but we're now a nomadic tribe.
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