Finish Line

"Juju," wrapped principle photography last night. I mean this morning. It was our second 20+ hour day this week. And I remember thinking what a killer day it was when we ran 15 hours on my set on "Charm City"!

It was quite an education and I am glad to have had the opportunity. I jumped into this business less than a year ago, and it is my fourth film credit (if you only count being writer/director/producer/etc on my own film as one credit). It was great to have done it back-to-back with my own film, as a lot of things were fresh in my mind. Making a movie is very similar to a group of people standing in a circle, every person with a gun in each hand, one of them pointed at the temple of the person to the left, one at the person to the right. We all are hostage to each other. One might think that the director or producer, whoever is writing the checks, has unlimited power, but that is really not the case. There are so many people you need on a set: the DP, PM (by now you must know these acronyms, or you just aren't paying attention), film crew, sound, make-up, props, catering, even down to the production assistants, who depending on the budget, might not even be getting paid at all. Even extras, who, as a group, pretty much screw you over every time. If twenty people swear on their respective grandmothers' graves that they will show up - count on five. On a good day.

You need ALL of these people and it is a lot of work to keep the peace and keep things moving at the same time. Coming fresh off my own film, it was still raw in my mind the people, events, and attitudes that made my life easier as a director/producer, and those that were counter-productive. "Juju" is the first feature-length project from this director and producer, and I told myself that as Production Manager, I was going to give them everything I wish people had given me, but didn't always come through on. That wasn't always easy to do, especially yesterday. I was nauseous most of the day, seemed to be fighting something flu-like, probably the result of our previous filming day which lasted from 10:00am Monday until after 6:00am Tuesday, and was all exteriors. We filmed at Wayne Shipley's field in Jessup, where the majority of his film, "One-Eyed Horse," was shot. FANTASTIC location and Wayne is the nicest guy in the world (as well as being very smart - he's got a distribution deal nearly locked up and has already sold over 1,100 DVDs). But by four a.m. it was pretty cold and my shoes were soaked from the dew in the tall grass and we were about out of bug repellant. I had arranged for a very nice tent from Absolute Party Rental and a very sanitary port-a-potty from Gotugo, but they didn't offer much in the way of warmth or shelter.

I knew from the start that yesterday was going to go just as long, and put that together with feeling crappy, I was probably a bit grumpy at the start of the production day. But we had a beautiful location at a mansion in Glen Burnie (yes! A MANSION in Glen Burnie!) and the lovely woman who owns the home allowed us to use her furnished, warm, comfortable basement for holding (anyone who is not on set) and catering. I actually found her on Craigslist! I am very wary of going into people's homes as locations, and I try to brace them for the assault. If they haven't done it before, they usually just think it is going to be cool and fun, and it is - but when they first see all that equipment and people rolling in... things can go downhill very quickly. But Mrs. Freeland has had filming at her house before and she was extremely hospitable and friendly, and it was a great place to end the shoot, ESPECIALLY because it rained off and all all day and night.

Super-long days like that can be all right, though. It seems like the first half of the day, people growl around at different stages, and then once everyone has accepted their fate to be stuck together for many, many more hours, everyone sorts of lets go of it. It happened on my set that way a couple times, which at the time made me nervous, because I felt guilty having everyone there so long, and I thought it was just the calm before the storm. But now I know. It was nice in a way to hang out with everyone yesterday. I think we were more relaxed because we could see the light at the end of the tunnel, even if it took us almost an entire rotation of the planet to get there.

Triple Threat

Week 2 of Juju under the belt. Still had our bumps and bruises, but all in all things are smoothing out. I'm still working on figuring out exactly what niche in this field I would like to end up in, but Production Manager seems to suit me pretty well. I work best when I have a variety of tasks, a lot of responsibility (and leeway), and crisis mode, as much as it seems to suck while I'm in it, is where my brain is clicking rapid-fire. I have a good feeling at the end of the day when I can say, "We really pulled that one out of the fire." On a low-budget indie movie set, that happens more days than it doesn't. It is definitely a team effort, though, and I enjoy that aspect of it, too.

Last night we shot this very cool nightmare scene in my attic. The scene called for three children, so I called my aunt and uncle to let me use my little cousin Sean (who was in "Charm City" with his brother Joey) again. Joe is a little too old for what we were looking for, so Irene (my aunt) called some of Sean's friends parents and got me two little girls from Sean's class as well. Kids and dogs can be very tricky on the set, but so far I am three for three, in a good way. Sean and Joseph did a great job in their scene in my movie, my dogs and my neighbor Philip's dogs got their scene in "Charm City" perfect on the first take, and last night went with Sean and his friends went pretty perfectly.

It is very hard for little ones, if you can get them relaxed enough to not be scared or embarrassed, to do certain things like not look at the camera or not smile if it is a serious moment, but all three kids did very well. They are at an age where they are scared of ghosts and when they first got here they were afraid of the attic before they even saw it. But we let them play pool and eat lots of junk food for awhile first and then they were fine and bored and wanted to shoot the damn thing already. Sean had to move these large white pillar candles around very slowly from behind a shelf. He was backlit so it looked very cool and creepy, but because there was so much going on, lots of lights, and about a dozen other people standing in the room, he wasn't scared. Kyleigh, one of the girls, had to rock a (fake) baby while sitting in a dilapidated rocking chair, and silently and without smiling offer the baby to the lead character, Jake. She is such a sweetie, it was hard for her to do without smiling, but we got it. Also, the baby is actually a rubber model of a full-term fetus and it weighs at least 7 pounds. That is pretty heavy for a little girl, but she was a trooper. She would hold the baby out to Jake, and sometimes no one yelled, "cut," so she would just keep holding it until her little arms were shaking from the weight and I would tell her to put it down. The other little girl, Colleen, is a cutie with long red pigtails. She was a champ. When the other two got the giggles, she managed a straight face and took direction from Michelle, whom she had never met before, perfectly. She had to stare down Jake and be the creepiest of them all. It is amazing what lighting can do, change a sweet little girl with freckles into something from a terrifying nightmare! But it also took a lot of concentration on her part and it looked SO COOL. It is definitely my favorite scene that we have shot of this movie so far.

So in the last two months a lot has happened in my attic. A crazy woman of the Victorian era has chopped off a man's head with an axe, a greedy narcissist is visited in his nightmares by demonic children, and in between, a sassy middle-aged artist rediscovers her creative side and rebuilds her studio. Similar scenes have played out all over this building. When these three movies are completed, I want to watch them as a triple-feature. That will be a great lesson in the versatility of a location like this, and how lighting, acting, and the script can totally change the mood of the same room.

But today is Sunday, our day off, and I get to watch FOOTBALL!!!! I am so excited. Except I fear that I am not going to be able to see the Steelers game (die-hard Pittsburgh girl here, that is the "Steel" in "Steel Corset Productions") since they are playing at the same time as the Ravens, and I only have regular cable. At this point I'll take anything that can distract me from anything movie-related for a couple hours. Cuz then I gotta get back to work this afternoon/evening and map out our last week and a half of production, as there are several locations in flux. It will all work out, though, it always does. One more week and I'll have all these people out of my house! Then we move to the studio in Beltsville for a few days. Like my film, we had to add another three days of filming onto this one. So next time I plot and plan out a feature length production down to the minute and think I have it perfectly, reasonably scheduled, I will then scrap the whole thing and add three days to whatever I came up with at my first pass.

Gotta go spend some snuggle-time with my dogs before starting the day. Haven't had nearly enough of that in the last three months!

The Boring Bits

Now comes the not-so-sexy stuff. I have so much to learn, it is overwhelming. But it is also incredibly exciting. I can't remember the last time I felt this way. Maybe I never have.

Now I have to read, read, read, learn the lingo, the equipment, and the process from soup to nuts. I also have to cut about 20 pages out of the script, which is going to be difficult. "Be prepared to let go of your children," my friends who have been through this already keep telling me. It is not so easy. I am rather attached to some scenes that I know I am going to have to drop. But it doesn't matter how funny or poignant or visually stunning a scene is - if it doesn't move the story along, it has got to go.

The good news is, I may not be ahead of the game, but I am further along than I originally thought myself to be. The script is not finished, as I have a lot of cutting and tweaking to do, but it is completed and I feel it is solid. That is more than half the process in and of itself. The initial teaser is shot and the people who have seen it responded very positively. The casting process has begun. I know almost all the locations that I want to shoot and I think I can get most of them with little difficulty or expense.

But now I have to get into things like contracts and releases and insurance and accounting. I have a love/hate relationship with paper. This is the part that I really hate. But, it must be done. Back to the books!