More Words About Cities & Films

As I stated… somewhere on this blog, part of the reason for my posting is to remember the random jobs I’ve had and what I’ve learned.  So, here’s some of them:

- I shot and cut a fashion show for a non-profit organization.  The outfits were traditional garbs from around the world, and were quite spectacular, and that really enhances the final product.  When shooting a fashion show, the main problem is audience, you need to get in front of them or higher than their heads.  Ideally you set up right at the end of the catwalk, but unfortunately for this one I had to set up way in the back of the room.  Fortunately, after getting a few unaware stragglers out of the way it all worked out.

- I was a camera operator on a commercial for a belly dancing school.  It was a last minute job and a unique fun shoot.  However, they were shooting a spoof of another commercial that’s on tv, one I hadn’t seen, and at times I wasn’t really sure what they were going for.  Since it was last minute there was really no way around it, but I believe a lot is gained by having your entire crew on the same page.  It’s why directors like P.T. Anderson screen Network when shooting Magnolia.

- A while back I picked up an AC job on a commercial, nothing of note there except we used the indie-slider.  Which is a fairly efficient way to introduce a little bit of dolly-esque movement into a shot, I know a few people who own them, so I’ll have to borrow it if ever we don’t have time for a dolly.

Besides that I’ve shot a few more of those NBC/Hilton Travelskoot videos, this time in Vancouver, and picked up those other random jobs.  Overall I guess what’s really hit home over the last few months is how important pre-production is to the quality of a shoot.  Perhaps the most important part of the shoot?

I just noticed that I hadn’t updated in a while, and I apologize.  That was wrong of me.  It’s not because there were a lack of things to update, actually quite the opposite.  It’s been a crazy couple of months, not in little thanks to that short film I wrote.

Just in case you forgot that one fleeting post, I wrote a short suspense/thriller earlier in the year, and had plans to shoot it at the end of summer.  Well, end of summer has come and gone (hello fall rain) and we shot the film in late August/Early September.  I wish I would have blogged about it then, but I’ve got to say I’m really happy with what we produced.

Since I directed, dp’ed and edited the film, it pretty much consumed by life for a good two months.  Right now it’s at the colorists (got a great guy who did color on a Lion’s Gate film to handle that) and the post-audio engineers for some audio sweetening, but they’ll have their parts finished in the next two weeks and then it’s off to festivals!

Like I said, I’m very happy.  Once you have a solid story, the biggest concern is always performance.  A single performance can make, break, distort or confuse an audience’s enjoyment of a film, and it’s particularly difficult in a suspense film where the wrong delivery can give away a major plot point too early.  However, I’m pleased to say that I am happy with every performance in the film.

I think there’s a simple formula to having solid performances.  The first is to, of course, cast quality actors.  With some roles it’s important to have a certain look for a character, but it’s important to not get too caught up in preconceived notions of how a character looks.  Secondly, and I think this is often overlooked, the director has to have a clear vision of the characters, and how their performance and each line fits into the overall film.  This isn’t to say you give your actors line readings (you must always be flexible), but one of the director’s jobs is to make sure all aspects of the film mesh together to create the best overall product, and you’ve really got to know where your characters are at every moment to achieve that.  Finally, I’m a big fan of rehearsal.  Not over-rehearsal, but having several meetings spread out in the weeks before the shoot will help everyone get on the same page and save a ton of time on the day.

But anyway, you’ll hopefully be hearing more about the short film in the next year.  And I’ll certainly do my best to update it here.