La Roche, France (near the Swiss border and the Alps)
Seven and a half hour shoot yesterday. I feel like we're really shooting a movie.
I went completely into producing mode for the preceding day and morning before the shoot. I was worried about the story, but realized that the only way to juggle these hats (writer, producer, director, DP, actor) is to wear one hat at a time and trust the decisions of the others. I needed to trust my writer and just produce it.
So even if the writing sucks, the producer will make sure it gets shot. The director will make sure the actors know what to do. The DP will make it look good. The actor will play the part. This is why the writing is so key. It all comes back to that in the final product.
Which makes it crazy that I haven't nailed down the script or story fully. But if I wait for perfection, I'll never start shooting since nothing is ever perfect.
I just keep telling myself that this is a learning experience for me as a director, so what's most important is to shoot and since we're doing voice over as an end-to-end monologue, I can smooth over plot holes that way.
Nicole is in an acting group and I asked her to invite some of her acting crew to be part of the cast. She immediately knew the people to cast for Mary and Odessa, plus thought she might be able to get some extras (in addition to acting herself).
Silvére was immediately interested in both playing Mary and helping us find a bar or cafe to shoot in. He quickly found a few and we scouted them together with Fred (Nicole's husband) the night before the shoot. We settled on a bar, Silvére got the owner to agree to let us shoot and so we were set to shoot the next evening. I asked to stop in an see Silvére's apartment, since I figured his place would look more realistic as the location where Mary wakes up than Nicole and Fred's nest of married bliss.
It couldn't be more perfect. Turns out Silvére is a BIG TIME film geek. He literally has a wall of VHS tapes and DVDs, plus a ton of intellectual left-leaning books all in french (actually belonging to his obviously well-read girlfriend Lucie). The bathroom even had a wall of movie postcards (we had to shoot that -- everyone loves a good bathroom scene).
I spent the rest of the evening and much of the next day in pre-production. After all, I didn't have a script and needed to map out the scenes, plus get Silvére a character bio page. I had forgotten Mary's name (well, it was a new name that I had just come up with a few days before leaving on the trip and in the madness I had forgotten it; prior to that I had just referred to him as "M.C." for Main Character which is what I do until I name the M.C.), so I went looking through my story notes for it.
Good thing too, since I rediscovered both Mary's name and the whole bio I had also written at the time. I refined it a bit as I typed it in, but it was basically as I had written it over a month ago, before I forgot about it.
Silvére showed up exactly on time and we started shooting. The crew consisted of me as DP/Director/Producer and occasional actor, Jen (my girlfriend) as AD and occasional DP (when I was in the scene), and Nicole as interpreter. Out of the blue, Fred had decided to feed everyone (he's a great cook), so we had a fabulous meal of fresh cooked pizza, quiche and chocolate cake (plus wine of course).
Fred's amazing home-cooked spread and wine far surpassed my own plan of store-bought snacks and bottled water. How could I forget that great food is key, no matter how low the production budget? I always remind other aspiring filmmakers about this. Luckily Fred knew it instinctively.
Between the two of them, Fred and Nicole really made the whole shoot possible.
It was raining a bit, but we worked with it. We got wet for the outdoor scenes, but protected the camera and ended up with some great bleak footage that definitely helped reflect Mary's inner landscape.
The scenes at Silvére's place went great and people started showing up at Fred/Nicole's place as the roundevouz (sp) point prior to the bar scene. We ate, signed paperwork (Jen was 100% on it) and reviewed wardrobe. I was thrilled that everything was going so well and felt momentum was on our side. People were excited, well-fed and ready to make a movie. We were a bit late (8pm instead of 7pm), but the bar owner the night before had said they would be open until 11pm, so it should be fine.
Thus, we all went to the bar to shoot the scenes.
Unfortunately, when we arrived en masse (sp?), it was closed.
Totally locked up. Windows shuttered. No one home.
And it was cold, dark and raining.
Silvére and Fred took charge and we went to the other bars we looked at -- all were closed too. We found another one -- but it was more of a seedy dive and the owner wasn't there. The bartender said she'd call to ask. We could make it work if necessary, but it wasn't ideal. She couldn't reach her boss, but called another bar nearby who said they could do it.
Flexibility is the key with indie filmmaking. Don't fall in love with a location. Just make sure to hit all the main plot points and get the shot while the cast and crew (and sunlight or night-time) is available. The new bar was perfect -- better than the original one in fact (bigger, better atmosphere).
It was somewhat crazy and hectic at the bar. The owner was a bit wary and so we were sure to order a ton of drinks (I bought a round for the cast/crew due to the location problems and to keep spirits up). We were a couple hours behind, so we jumped into it.
The scenes went fine, except that (as one of the only open bars in the area) the place started to fill up. We originally had the two back rooms and the pool table to ourselves. As we continued to shoot, our area got invaded by groups coming to have a good time. We worked with it. The vibe was perfect though, since it was clearly a real bar.
We watched the footage afterwards at 1am..Usually I wouldn't do that, but the actors asked for it as we chilled at the informal wrap party and they deserved it.
In fact, the footage turned out great -- amazing. I finally feel like a real filmmaker. It was the best directing experience I've ever had (granted, the others were over 12 years ago in college). It kind of changed my life. I realized that I *can* do this. It might not be genius work and it might at best be mediocre footage, but it definitely can play.
I feel like I CAN be a filmmaker. Wow.
And to think that I almost threw in the towel a couple days ago.
Comments