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Posted by
Lazlo_ December 7, 2007 -
1,249 views
So I have been shooting another film. We were supposed to finish shooting yesterday evening. It was in a house, and we had exactly from 6pm to 8pm to shoot the scene, then we had to get out. It was depressing, because it became apparent to me as I was shooting that there was no possible way the scene could be shot well in the time alotted. Thankfully, I stuck to my principles and shot it at my normal pace, and it looks decent, but I didn't finish the scene at all, and had to beg the owner to let us shoot there again. Not good.
Worse than not scouting the location, I thought I had a clear mental image of where I was shooting, only to arrive on a different set than I had in my head. This was extremely bad, because instantly about half of my shotlist was instantly obsolete. And much of the blocking I had figured out was also useless. (oh yeah, I'm the director/cinematographer/everything except actors, composer, and editor)
It would have been a really good cinematography test to give as an exam to a class. Where you tell your student what equipment they have, but don't tell them how the location is laid out, and give them an hour to shoot something that is impossible to shoot in that time. Then, gauge how much they get done, and how good it looks. My lighting was sloppy at best. I ended up going for a gregg toland look (its in b & w), and kind of succeeded in a way... The light sources make very little sense, but it looks good. The average viewer may not care. Its a pretty stylized film, in which I tried to deal with camera movement in a conservative noir/studio way, but image control in a french new wave kind of style. It has been an incredibly taxing experience. My actors are great. I had a producer, who quit half way through without telling me, and I had to pick up the slack. And shoot incredibly quickly. We went from having like, a 4k budget, to nothing. And I was determined to shoot the film. We went from shooting HD/HDV to my AG-DVC30 camera. In a way, this was good, in that I know it so well, that I was really able to get the most out of my images. But in another way it was a horribly disappointing experience. I still have to reshoot this scene, at least continue shooting. And the premeire is next saturday. The rest of the film is edited (this is the last scene). But this is incredibly stressful.
At the same time I'm shooting another film... DPing mostly. Again, really stylized stuff. In color. Storaro would be proud, except for the not shooting univisium part... And except for not using his custom gels... But yeah, its much less pressure than this other one I'm directing.
