The stress of filming..does it wear you down?

The movie is 90% complete and the pacing is off, Color Correction is way harder than I thought, The Audio fixes prove a tough task, and Now a whole set of stressors have come into play. But I would rather be a little stressed out about not getting my color right, then be really stressed out about not doing anything at all. Not trying in fear of failure is much harder for me than trying and failing.
 
Shooting my first feature right now, I'm not sure if I've ever been this stressed. I've lost 15lbs since we started shooting a few weeks ago, I haven't really lost weight and kept it off for a good 5+ years. The night shoot we did was a stress fest. I had to lay down for a moment b/c I kept getting dizzy first, then wanting to throw up, then I would be totally covered in sweat about 20 seconds later.

Yep it wears me down. lol
 
Sounds like we're more or less in the same spot with our movies, at that critical 80-90% mark. I read an article in Creative Cow Magazine a couple of years ago that describes the "80/20 rule"...your last 20% will be as hard or harder than the first 80. I reckon that there are a lot of movies that make it to the 80% point and never get finished.

I would never discourage you on whatever shooting schedule you choose to set. Everyone works out what works for them. I know in my own case, I'm not going to do many weeknight shoots, because you can only work for about 4-5 hours a night, and less if you have to wait for it to get dark. In the future, I plan on using longer shoot dates and less of them. A longer shoot date has the benefit of lessening your exposure to the wasted first hour and a half that comes waiting for people to show up.

Ultimately, you get what you pay for, and you shouldn't expect too much from the people who work with you at these prices. I found some great people who did a good job at following instructions, but I needed people to read my mind and figure out ways to keep busy when I wasn't telling them what to do. Experience often showed me that it was easier to do things myself than to explain to others how to do it, and I often felt like if I didn't do it, it didn't get done.

Very little of this is easy, and most of it is an endurance test. And it often feels as though 10% of your time is spent engaged in creative stuff, the rest is spent listening to excuses and putting out fires. I would have loved to have had a great AD, but that position was cursed....anyone I gave the AD title to had a tendency to walk in less than a week. Typically before I even gave them a chance to do anything.

Keep your chin up....none of this is easy, but you're not the only one this sort of thing happens to. Good luck!
 
Look on the bright side, you shot on tape. Imagine shooting like Robert Rodriquez did EL MARIACHI or Shane Carruth did PRIMER on 16mm - 1 or 2 shots per take...max! THAT'S stress!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
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