writerinside (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} writerinside) wrote,@ 2008-07-28 14:54:00 |
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The Making of Peepshow, Part 0
It's been awhile since I've blogged. So at the risk of this being more of a diary than a blog, I thought I'd document my latest adventures.
At the end of May I turned in my last tech project, on which I put the finishing strokes at the beginning of June. It posted around mid-June after getting client sign-off and I haven't looked back. Most of June and July have been devoted to making my first short film. I've been in an intense 1-man film school. Well, more than 1 man if you count the incredibly helpful people I've been meeting along the way.
So over the past 2 months, in addition to buying a frightening amount of new equipment and reading stacks of books on filmmaking, directing, lighting, storyboarding, and running my new camera, I've been in pre-production on this "little" film. It was supposed to be a quickie, something simple. When I first thought about this over a year ago I looked around our apartment and thought, "What can Tim and I shoot over the weekend that would be fun?" I came up with a simple story - a few nice turns but no big payoff other than the monster popping out at the end. We were going to shoot with his little $300 camera.
Fast forward to a year later. A lot has happened since then. For various reasons I decided to Go For It. But I realized that instead of running the camera, I wanted to direct and have someone else shoot. I've been working my way up to this point. Tim and I shot a short corporate video that ended up being sold for $10k (nice surprise after a quickie 1 day shoot). Then I shot another corp video, this time with the addition of an actress. And then a third, this time with a crew of 2 other people and a different actress, plus caterer. The last 2 sold for a combined $12.5k. So the idea was to inch along, add 1 or 2 key positions at a time, until I had a decent crew.
Surprise. 2 days after thinking to myself "I should like a DP (director of photography)", I was chatting with a director/filmmaker friend of mine who wanted to do more DP work. Things fell into place and he got involved. And suddenly my little 2-man project turned into something quite extraordinary.
Ironically, the short film is about a tiny marshmallow peep that blows up into giant proportions. That's exactly what the film has done. For the past 2 months I've felt like I'm just trying to hang on as more and more people get involved, I buy more and more Stuff, and I get deeper and deeper into the details of proper filmmaking. But wow, what a learning opportunity. Storyboards, shot lists, production meetings. On July 20 we had our first shoot day - 13 long hours. On set were the Director (Me), the DP, the AD (assistant director) slash script supervisor, an Art Director (a nice last-minute surprise), an Audio Engineer, an all-around Grip / Gaffer / PA / Tech Wizard / Godsend, and the Actor. Still a "skeleton crew" by professional standards but terrifying enough for a full-time introvert writer.
I was so nervous I didn't eat the entire weekend. That morning I got up at 6am to prep for a 7am crew call. By the time the equipment was packed away and everyone was gone and I had repaired the "set" (my partner's bedroom) and done all the dishes (I also doubled as Craft Services), it was 11pm. At that point I kicked back and watched The Two Towers and ate. Fortunately, I've been able to spend the entire last week recuperating, so I'm ready for next weekend, where we shoot 2 days in a row. Baby steps.
And my career? Who knows. Lack of income is another somewhat terrifying constant, especially piled atop the other stresses of a major life transition. But things are in motion. I have 3 promo videos in the work, which I'm doing for free to build up my portfolio. After that hopefully I'll be able to find some work with my new mad skillz. If not, I have a few tricks to fall back on, so to speak.
Incidentally, last night I had a dream. More banks collapsed, people became terrified, the economy froze, and we plunged headlong into a new Great Depression. Odd dream. I wonder if it was prophetic or merely reflective of my own anxieties.
It's been awhile since I've blogged. So at the risk of this being more of a diary than a blog, I thought I'd document my latest adventures.
At the end of May I turned in my last tech project, on which I put the finishing strokes at the beginning of June. It posted around mid-June after getting client sign-off and I haven't looked back. Most of June and July have been devoted to making my first short film. I've been in an intense 1-man film school. Well, more than 1 man if you count the incredibly helpful people I've been meeting along the way.
So over the past 2 months, in addition to buying a frightening amount of new equipment and reading stacks of books on filmmaking, directing, lighting, storyboarding, and running my new camera, I've been in pre-production on this "little" film. It was supposed to be a quickie, something simple. When I first thought about this over a year ago I looked around our apartment and thought, "What can Tim and I shoot over the weekend that would be fun?" I came up with a simple story - a few nice turns but no big payoff other than the monster popping out at the end. We were going to shoot with his little $300 camera.
Fast forward to a year later. A lot has happened since then. For various reasons I decided to Go For It. But I realized that instead of running the camera, I wanted to direct and have someone else shoot. I've been working my way up to this point. Tim and I shot a short corporate video that ended up being sold for $10k (nice surprise after a quickie 1 day shoot). Then I shot another corp video, this time with the addition of an actress. And then a third, this time with a crew of 2 other people and a different actress, plus caterer. The last 2 sold for a combined $12.5k. So the idea was to inch along, add 1 or 2 key positions at a time, until I had a decent crew.
Surprise. 2 days after thinking to myself "I should like a DP (director of photography)", I was chatting with a director/filmmaker friend of mine who wanted to do more DP work. Things fell into place and he got involved. And suddenly my little 2-man project turned into something quite extraordinary.
Ironically, the short film is about a tiny marshmallow peep that blows up into giant proportions. That's exactly what the film has done. For the past 2 months I've felt like I'm just trying to hang on as more and more people get involved, I buy more and more Stuff, and I get deeper and deeper into the details of proper filmmaking. But wow, what a learning opportunity. Storyboards, shot lists, production meetings. On July 20 we had our first shoot day - 13 long hours. On set were the Director (Me), the DP, the AD (assistant director) slash script supervisor, an Art Director (a nice last-minute surprise), an Audio Engineer, an all-around Grip / Gaffer / PA / Tech Wizard / Godsend, and the Actor. Still a "skeleton crew" by professional standards but terrifying enough for a full-time introvert writer.
I was so nervous I didn't eat the entire weekend. That morning I got up at 6am to prep for a 7am crew call. By the time the equipment was packed away and everyone was gone and I had repaired the "set" (my partner's bedroom) and done all the dishes (I also doubled as Craft Services), it was 11pm. At that point I kicked back and watched The Two Towers and ate. Fortunately, I've been able to spend the entire last week recuperating, so I'm ready for next weekend, where we shoot 2 days in a row. Baby steps.
And my career? Who knows. Lack of income is another somewhat terrifying constant, especially piled atop the other stresses of a major life transition. But things are in motion. I have 3 promo videos in the work, which I'm doing for free to build up my portfolio. After that hopefully I'll be able to find some work with my new mad skillz. If not, I have a few tricks to fall back on, so to speak.
Incidentally, last night I had a dream. More banks collapsed, people became terrified, the economy froze, and we plunged headlong into a new Great Depression. Odd dream. I wonder if it was prophetic or merely reflective of my own anxieties.
