Blog: An update to our film supporters
Dear Supporters of our short film, Some Things Won’t Sleep:
Well, it’s officially been two weeks since shooting, so I think it’s high time I give you all an update about the project. After the shoot, while André was busy tying up loose ends- returning equipment, rental trucks, paying bills- I got on a plane and flew to St. John’s Women’s Film Festival where my first short, Another Man was screening. After what turned into a hectic week in Newfoundland I’m only now getting a chance to take a deep breath and look back and reflect upon the whole filming process. And what a process it was!
I think I probably speak for André as well when I say it was an unforgettable experience, to say the least; A roller coaster, at times, of highs and lows. For me, most of the stress came in preproduction- finding our cast and crew, fundraising, making hard decisions about locations and budget. The actual shooting days were much less stressful than I anticipated (though I know for André it was a lot more stressful as he had to do a lot of work behind the scenes which had him going non-stop dawn til dusk). I found, from a directing standpoint, by the time I had reached set, most of my work had already been done. I had already had numerous meetings with my cinematographer and gaffer describing vividly my ideas for the shots- how they would be lit, what angles we would shoot them from, how they should ‘feel’ stylistically. As well, I had had ample time to rehearse with my actors- a rarity for film as oftentimes actors are expected to just show up on set without rehearsal and execute their parts. But knowing ahead of time what a tight shooting schedule we were on, (22 scenes in 3 days, a schedule which might easily have been extended to 4 days had we had the money), I knew we would have to work very fast on set and everyone would need a very clear idea of what they were doing if we were to get everything accomplished. So having done so much in prep, stepping onto set, a lot of the hard work of explaining things had already been done. Now it was simply about my talented cast and crew executing the vision I had already described. They knew what they were doing. I just had to guide the process, and make tiny changes to things when something was off-point.
I think the hardest part for me was having to cut shots due to time constraints, not having time to get that ‘extra take’ you wanted, and having to adapt the story in the moment to the circumstances at hand.
Maybe we shoot this whole scene from one angle instead of two, because we don’t have time to light it in the other direction?
Maybe I can combine these three shots into one if we put the camera onto a dolly?
It’s compromises like this that you have to be prepared to make on set. And having a clever crew on your side can make it easier because they will help you strategize the easiest way to get all the pieces you need to make the scene work. I got lucky with my crew, I tell you.
One of the biggest lessons I learned over the course of the three days was to ‘keep rolling’ as long as possible (a luxury only granted to directors in the digital era now that we don’t have to pay for expensive film stock). The moment you yell ‘CUT’ and try and do the scene again, it takes a minimum of 10 minutes to reset. Hair and make-up rushes in to fix up the actors, props must be reset to their starting positions, the camera has to be reset, then you have to slate again etc.etc. By the third day, I was just doing long takes. If something went wrong, I had the actor do it again as the camera kept rolling knowing I could cut around it and make it work. That was the only way I got around cutting a ton of indispensable shots I needed to make the film make sense.
I learned a lot about time management- and budgeting time is just like budgeting money in a lot of ways. Spend too much on this one thing that doesn’t matter, and you won’t have it to spend on the thing you care about later on. That was a hard lesson to learn.
At the end of the shoot, I got what I needed. (Or most of, at least. I’m already talking to my cinematographer about sneaking back at a certain point to get some of those lost shots!) I was truly blown away by the caliber of work from everyone around me. I know firsthand what it’s like to do pretty much everything yourself from my work on past projects, so having a group of people more talented than I am applying themselves to the various roles made my life SO much easier. (Note to self: stop working alone!) Not only that, everyone had a really chill and professional attitude, and amidst the stress we all managed to find moments to relax and share a few laughs. I really couldn’t have asked for a better first experience working with a crew. Everyone was a joy to work with and so professional and kind. I need to start planning another project stat just so I can hang out with these awesome people again!
I’m sharing now with you all a folder of our public behind the scenes images, taken by the talented Jeff Babineau of Babineau Photography. I’m so thrilled he came out and captured these beautiful moments from behind the scenes. The other half of these images will be released exclusively to our $100 plus donors as part of their rewards as well, so stay tuned those of you who have access, as I will be sending those to you shortly via a private link.
https://www.dropbox.com/sc/dyg56my28wcpn65/K4yGFCnvDO
Of course many of your rewards will not be released for a while now- as it’s going to be a long time til we finish and release the film to the world, and things like behind-the-scenes video take a while to edit. So please be patient as the rewards dribble out to you in small increments. Some things, like the photos, will be ready immediately, but most of the other rewards will take us some time. And no…we haven’t forgotten!
For those of you who are curious, what’s next? Well, we still have our work cut out for us!
Cutting the footage into a story that makes sense, recording additional dialogue and voice-overs, scoring the film, doing sound mix, color correction, etc etc. — it can take a long time! We are hoping to have our film cut by January or February of 2014. And after that- it’s festival time, and we will be submitting and hopefully screening at the best festivals we can possibly get into!
So stay tuned over the coming months as I’m sure lots and lots of updates will be coming out about the film and it’s progress.
xoxo
Leah