krestofre
Knight of the Holy Order
So yesterday was the first day of principle photography of the feature film that I'm currently working on. We began filming at the major location of the film. To secure this location I had to beg, borrow, and steal (figuratively speaking of course).
See, this location is actually the living room of a friend's house. He was a little stand offish about allow me to film there, but we finally arrived at an agreement. So my friend (let's call him "Jorge" to protect the innocent) agreed that I could film starting Thursday. So Thursday, being yesterday as I'm writing this, myself, the actors, the crew, and the equipment all arrived at Jorge's house at the appointed time. We all get out of our vehicles and ... no Jorge. "Ok," I think. "Maybe he got caught at work. We'll just do a little rehersal while we wait for him." Fifteen minutes later Jorge shows up and enters his house without so much as a "hello" or even an acknowledging wave. I glance over at my crew, a little confused, and give an encouraging smile. We then took the actors and gear inside.
Jorge had again disappeared to some other room of the house, but the living room has been cleared and was open so we began setting up the camera, running the wires for the mics, and setting up the lights.
Then two other people walk through the door. I didn't recognize these people so I just kind of froze for a second. They also froze, probably expecting to see Jorge instead of a movie crew. So after a few seconds which felt like eternities, Jorge came into the room, looked right at me and said, "See! This is what you get when you come over unexpected."
I replied "Unexpected? What are you talking about?"
Jorge: "You said that you were coming over on Thursday."
I exasperatedly answered, "Jorge, it *is* Thursday!" To which he didn't reply and instead left the house with these two strange people whom I don't know. So myself and everyone else just kind of look at each other. Now this situation was helped by the fact that everyone knows everyone else, so we were ultimatly able to laugh at this, but it was certainly a strange exchange. Deciding that we didn't need the instability of Jorge (given that his living room is used for about 75% of the film) my main actor called his wife and she agreed to let us move the entire production to their house. We packed up and drove over there. I expressed my unending gratitude to my actor's wife and offered her my first-born child, or any other payment that she required.
As we were setting up at this new location my actor's wife came out and offered to rearrange furniture, change the wall decorations, vaccume, etc. all in an effort to change her living room to be a better set. I was floored by her kindness and understanding to this group of people invading her home. And then I realized: Jorge's living room was completely wrong for the picture! This was the set that the film was crying out for and I couldn't hear it because I was too focused on appeasing Jorge and making his living room work for the material. I'm not the most experienced director, but I sure thought I was past a blaring mistake like that!
So it all worked out in the end.
What's the moral to the story? I'm sure there are many. If a set isn't working out, it's probably not meant to be. Film will always find a way. The show must go on. Like I said, there are many. But when we finally got set up and I could finally sit down and concentrate on the monitor and call "Action!" Then the magic started and I was reminded once again that everything that we go through to bring these little pieces of ourselves to the screen is completely worth it. There's nothing better in the world!
Chris
See, this location is actually the living room of a friend's house. He was a little stand offish about allow me to film there, but we finally arrived at an agreement. So my friend (let's call him "Jorge" to protect the innocent) agreed that I could film starting Thursday. So Thursday, being yesterday as I'm writing this, myself, the actors, the crew, and the equipment all arrived at Jorge's house at the appointed time. We all get out of our vehicles and ... no Jorge. "Ok," I think. "Maybe he got caught at work. We'll just do a little rehersal while we wait for him." Fifteen minutes later Jorge shows up and enters his house without so much as a "hello" or even an acknowledging wave. I glance over at my crew, a little confused, and give an encouraging smile. We then took the actors and gear inside.
Jorge had again disappeared to some other room of the house, but the living room has been cleared and was open so we began setting up the camera, running the wires for the mics, and setting up the lights.
Then two other people walk through the door. I didn't recognize these people so I just kind of froze for a second. They also froze, probably expecting to see Jorge instead of a movie crew. So after a few seconds which felt like eternities, Jorge came into the room, looked right at me and said, "See! This is what you get when you come over unexpected."
I replied "Unexpected? What are you talking about?"
Jorge: "You said that you were coming over on Thursday."
I exasperatedly answered, "Jorge, it *is* Thursday!" To which he didn't reply and instead left the house with these two strange people whom I don't know. So myself and everyone else just kind of look at each other. Now this situation was helped by the fact that everyone knows everyone else, so we were ultimatly able to laugh at this, but it was certainly a strange exchange. Deciding that we didn't need the instability of Jorge (given that his living room is used for about 75% of the film) my main actor called his wife and she agreed to let us move the entire production to their house. We packed up and drove over there. I expressed my unending gratitude to my actor's wife and offered her my first-born child, or any other payment that she required.
As we were setting up at this new location my actor's wife came out and offered to rearrange furniture, change the wall decorations, vaccume, etc. all in an effort to change her living room to be a better set. I was floored by her kindness and understanding to this group of people invading her home. And then I realized: Jorge's living room was completely wrong for the picture! This was the set that the film was crying out for and I couldn't hear it because I was too focused on appeasing Jorge and making his living room work for the material. I'm not the most experienced director, but I sure thought I was past a blaring mistake like that!
So it all worked out in the end.
What's the moral to the story? I'm sure there are many. If a set isn't working out, it's probably not meant to be. Film will always find a way. The show must go on. Like I said, there are many. But when we finally got set up and I could finally sit down and concentrate on the monitor and call "Action!" Then the magic started and I was reminded once again that everything that we go through to bring these little pieces of ourselves to the screen is completely worth it. There's nothing better in the world!
Chris
