End of year films, Chapter 2: Sole Mates Shooting

The first day of the Sole Mates shoot was quite chaotic. We had scheduled all of our location moves that day so that we would have two easier days for the rest of the shoot.

We made it to Eaglesham and turned over ahead of time and everything went pretty well to begin with. And then it rained. The Eaglesham scenes were finished on RED and the decision was made to move the city scenes to another day. This wasn't the end of the world, a bit of a set back but nothing major. So we then move to the shop, so that we were shooting something.

On the way back from Eaglesham, I mentioned to Lanni that I would have to get some petrol in before heading back and we both made the decision that we probably had enough to get us there as soon as possible. As we were about to come off the motorway, the car started to stutter. I remember changing from 5th, to 4th, to 3rd, to 2nd then to 1st gear and then a total stall. All in a very comedic fashion. The worst part though, was that my passengers were Lanni, our 1st AD, Gavin, our director, Charlotte our DP and Helen, our lead actress. With us able to go nowhere, the film was going to be doing the same. My first instinct was to push which me and Lanni did but soon, I had to concede and try and phone the RAC. Everyone else was remarkably calm while I was slowly panicking. I was being told I had to sign up to a payment plan by the RAC before I would be taken off the road so I spent a good 5 or 10 minutes signing up and like a small miracle, Amey, the trunk road clearance people saved me money and the wrath of everyone on-set. They took us off the road and I ran to the petrol station while my passengers got a taxi back to set.

When we returned to the set, we were hit with some terrible news that the RED was broken. It was a shame but the crew did an amazing job of just cracking on with it. They used both Ross and Galina's 550D cameras which worked well and while not the quality of RED, were the best cameras on hand to satisfy the vision. Charlotte and the camera guys did well in working with what they had and while most of the usual on-set roles broke down, they all worked well as a team, showing that each of them can cope under such pressure. Less people needed to be near the camera and Galina was the only one who could view the action as it was happening but I don't think this affected the shoot much since it was very easy to play it all back.

The first day eventually came to an end as I sat in the shop, pleased as punch with how things were working and that we had overcome just about every obstacle...

The second day started out okay but really, it's now all a blur. Since none of the 1st years were available I ended up as a runner for the second and third days. This was a total nightmare and frustrated me no-end and yet there was absolutely nothing I could do about it. It's such a shame as well that the shoot would have been weakened had I not been able to drive. This makes me feel needed but at the same time, it concerns me about what troubles we'll run into on our grad shoots. Hopefully more of the class will have a car or the ability to drive by this time next year.

The strength of the crew went beyond the camera department who I mentioned previously. Mick is an excellent sound recordist and while everyone else seems to have their flashes of un-professionalism, Mick is a constant professional and is always there when he is needed.

Lanni was excellent as the 1st AD on both shoots and his experience was valuable to me both as a producer and as DP. I wish him the best of luck in the future and just hope that he can keep himself under control which I reckon will be easier in a more experienced environment.

Gavin was by far the strongest of anyone on-set. His perseverance to have the story told despite all the set backs was astounding and his dedication to performance is probably the best I've seen from anyone at student level. His confidence also kept the crew in a good mood, even when we ran over by a few hours. He held the set together and I have no doubt that he'll do well in the future.

I enjoyed the experience on Sole Mates and it has taught me one thing; I don't ever want to produce, I love being on-set and being close to the camera and I don't get this from production. The paperwork side doesn't annoy me and I think I've now gotten over my fear of being on the phone and I'm a little more confident when approaching people to get them to do things for nothing. I think I just felt overloaded with too many things and wasn't able to not focus on the smaller aspects of the production.

In my next blog post, I'll be talking about my DP experience on Breathing Room.

End of year films, Chapter 1: Sole Mates Pre-Production

Well, it's been a chaotic few weeks. And by chaotic I mean no time for TV, no time for film watching no time for free time kind of chaotic. Not that I'm complaining, we should be considering ourselves priveleged to be in the positions that we are and at this stage in the course it's very easy to forget. Sometimes I find it hard to remind myself where I was two years ago.

The writing of this blog has came much later than expected but in my defence, as I said earlier, I have been really busy. This means that the entire blog will be from a reflective point with many of my thoughts and feelings no doubt having changed.

When I heard that I was producing and DP-ing I was excited. Excited that I would be getting to flex my muscles in both of my chosen specialisms. The first being camera, the second in production. The reason for production as a second choice came from my general dislike of the lack of respect any sound person gets on seemingly every set and that I can't stand being stuck with a computer and someone nagging me for days and weeks on end. I also wanted to know what a producer went through so that in the future I know exactly what they have to do.

My first issue came when I saw that both films were going back to back. This meant that I would have to manage my time meticulously. As always, this is easier said than done.

I initially started out quite well. Since the producer seems to have most of their work in pre-production, I spent the majority of my time on "Sole Mates", mostly recce'ing and spending time on setting our production assistants tasks as well as taking my time with casting and the chasing up of locations. Since Gavin and Charlotte knew how heavy my workload would be with working on both films, they helped me greatly in the pre-production phase, which benefitted all of us. Gavin naturally gravitates to production so he was often thinking of things I wouldn't be which would inform me in my quest to successfully produce the film. The only problem was that for the first week or two, it didn't feel like I was producing at all, it felt like I was merely a pair of hands to do Gavin's work. I raised this to Gavin after the shoot and I meant nothing mean-spirited about it but looking back, I realise I couldn't have done it without his support. Charlotte did a great job at chasing up casting but sadly, old people are very hard to find and when agents say "they are no longer with us" it doesn't mean that they are no longer with the agency.

While I imagine that everyone will say the same about themselves, I genuinely believe that the three of us worked together better than most, mostly since we all get on very well and each of us find it easy to stay dedicated to whatever is thrown at us. Our communication was awesome and each of our experiences and interests seemed to inform the other. I'd love for us to be forced together again in the future.

As we got close to shooting, delegating became a key element of producing. Me and Graeme were trying to meet once a week and even then, it was far from enough and Sole Mates was taking over. Sometimes I felt really bad having to leave Gavin to do things he wouldn't be if I was only producing but it felt necessary to make sure that Breathing Room didn't fall apart because of me.

What I did learn more than anything when producing Sole Mates, was that you can't rely on people who aren't used to the environment. I don't want to publicly slate them but the art department didn't quite meet the expectations we had of them or get close to the early promise that was shown. Any time I spoke to them, Broken Bubbles would come up in conversation, which made me feel that they were all much more focussed on that film rather than both Sole Mates and Breathing Room. Broken Bubbles is much more art department heavy but I feel that Sole Mates especially suffered from their lack of total dedication. Matt did a great job as our art department head but soon, the cracks showed when no props were turning up on-set.

Once we secured a shop, for the reasonable £100 fee, we could then focus more on casting and matching Eaglesham as our village to the shop on Duke Street. Anyone who knows both of those locations will know how different they are in every way but I believe that our DP and director did their darndest to make them match. The cast issue was a great concern in the final week of pre-production since Gavin had to accomodate an actor into the script when there wasn't a part there for him originally, mere days before we turned over and Gavin also didn't get his first, second, third or fourth choice of actresses for his lead. If it weren't for the fact that Gavin has worked with Helen Macfarlane several times over the past year or so, the miniscule rehearsal time would have been close to pointless.

I was quite strict with the budget, some tight-fisted-ness was employed and in the end, has worked in our favour...

Since everything else I'm doing has a to-do list...

To-Do List:
1. Produce one end of year film.
2. DP the next end of year film.
3. Work part-time.
4. Blog about 1 and 2.