How To Make A Movie

Yay, shooting is over!

The process of shooting (aka Production) is by far my least favorite aspect of making the film. The day before shooting, Filip, Honza, Dominic and I went to Barrandov to rent the equipment. We just barely fit it into the three small cars Filip managed to round up. We then went to the first location to unload equipment and so Honza and I could discuss shot lists. After that, Filip decided that I would get to the location at 4am and the rest of the crew would begin set ups at 3am. I was too stressed to sleep much.

Later that morning, Jesse and I took a cab and arrived on time. True to form, the lights and scene were no where close to being done. We didn't shoot anything until an hour after the actors arrived. I was impressed with Honza. Not only was he a hottie Mchottie, he knew his way around cinematography. I actually blamed him (partially) for the slow pace of the shooting, he was too obsessed with detail. As the sun began coming up, it was a race to get back on schedule. We left for the second location more than an hour later than I had anticipated. When the pit stops between locations took more than an hour, I was frantic.

Due to the amount of time we had fallen behind schedule, Honza and Filip pushed to use hand held camera for all the exterior shots. Something I had been hoping to avoid. It's not that I don't like hand held (I love it), it just wasn't the look I had wanted for the film. In a moment of panic, I begged Nitzan to join Alli and Josh to "assist" on my shoot. They actually didn't have anything to do but hang around. Once I accidentally broke the LCD screen (a small digital screen you hook up to the camera so the viewer can see what the camera operator sees), Filip flipped out and essentially pushed me to dismiss Alli, Josh and Nitzan. In retrospect, I was fairly angry with Filip once the screen broke, his demeanor completely changed.

As the shoot progressed, we managed to get most of the shots I had originally wanted and planned for. However, we also got further from my original shot list. Filip began arguing with me to wrap things up. This then led to Honza doing the same. I was most upset about this in post once I noticed a shot I felt I needed was not done. Honza and Filip had argued that the scene was not necessary, after my rough cut was viewed, turns out the shot was as necessary as I had predicted.

The shooting was eleven hours and fairly cold. By the time the shoot was over, I realized how cold I was and the fact the LCD screen broke had sunk it. I started crying. Barra gave me a hug and told me not to worry. I did my best not to. I guess what made Filip more angry about the LCD screen was my lack of reaction to it. The thing is, I have such a hard time directing, I can't experience other emotions until the shooting is wrapped. The hardest part about wrapping the shoot: I had half a roll left and another hour of daylight, this makes the director want to push on. However, Filip and Honza pushed for me to finish, so in essence, they ended the shoot.