FEATURE: "Flowers for Fannie" - "Southern" film shot with the AF100

mainstreetprod

mainstreetprod

Veteran
I'm in pre production on "Flowers for Fannie", my second "serious" film (I've done four features but the last one, "Class of '91", was the first intended for distribution- which it did achieve, along with a 5 year satellite deal). "Class" was shot for 15k and a lot of that expense was equipment purchases which won't be necessary this time.

The movie is about an elderly woman who spends most of her time worrying about who will keep flowers on her grave when she dies. It's a "Southern" film, in the style of "Driving Miss Daisy", that touches on the relationship between Fannie and Louise, a young legal secretary who befriends her.

We live in an 1899 victorian house that will serve as the primary location (Fannie's home). There won't be a lot of set design required as it already looks like an "old lady" home (my wife and I aren't quite elderly yet and she was slightly distressed at that realization!). Other locations include a funeral home, cemetery, creek, and a junky home or trailer owned by redneck nephew Harold and his wife Maybelle, who hope to inherit Fannie's fortune when she dies.

Most of my free time lately has been spent deciding how to set up my AF100 for this. I also have an HVX but will need the ability for some scenes for shallow DOF, so will be using the AF for most of the film. Lenses I've acquired include a Nikkor 50mm F1.8, Nikkor 35mm F1.8, Lumix 20mm F1.7 pancake, and lumix 14-140. I would also like a wide, fast lens and am leaning toward an SLR Magic Hyperprime 12mm F 1.6. I plan to shoot a lot of the movie wide as a stylistic theme. I've set the camera up with a Redrock baseplate, some 15mm rods, a Jag D Focus follow focus, and a 7" Ruige monitor that has a remote controlled zoom focus assist. I've found that more useful to me than any of the built in AF100 focusing helps.

Lighting equipment (already owned) includes two umbrella type fluorescent soft boxes with 70w daylight bulbs, three 24" fluorescent soft boxes with 150W daylight bulbs, two CoolLights 150w CDM Fresnels (equiv. to 650 tungsten) and a 70w version of the same light, equiv. to a 300w tungsten. I've been accumulating needed scrims, flags, etc. as needed.

(to be continued...)
 
....We are doing a lot of "out of the box" thinking on this one. One example is that we will conduct three seminars for the actors before shooting begins. Two have already been done, a two hour read through and a 3 hour acting for film workshop. Another workshop will be done a couple of weeks from now, with the last hour a makeup seminar conducted by a professional makeup artist. Since the budget doesn't allow for a makeup artist on set most of the time, we thought the seminar would help the actors learn how to apply their own makeup effectively.

Another example is how we will feed our cast crew. Catering is a budget buster form most all productions, but this is one line item we have under control. Out solution is low cost, slow cooked meals. My wife is a great cook, so the night before a shoot she puts some ingredients in a crock pot and it's ready whenever we are the next day. Some entrees we've done include taco salad (meat slow cooked in the cooker), chili, spagetti, lasagna, chicken and dumplings, etc. When lunch time rolls around the cast and crew get a great home cooked meal instead of pizza or sandwiches and it costs us under $3 per person. All days wrap by dinnertime thereby saving the cost of serving dinner.

I realize that 10-12 hour or longer days are normal for film shoots but for us they just don't work. Actors and crew get tired and are less efficient. For us, shooting days of 4-7 hours, spread over a longer period of time, work great. Most of the actors work regular jobs and need to work weekends, so we accommodate by scheduling them on Saturday and Sunday , with an additional day during the week for those who can work then.

You would assume on an ultra low budget movie that no one gets paid, or just gets "points", but we have been able to work some pay for crew and actors into the budget. Rule of thumb for actors is that extras and those who put in less than a day's work are unpaid "meals and credit", while those who commit to more than that (lead parts) are paid similar to union low budget rates. All crew get paid similar rates except for an intern or two. The crew consists of myself as DP/cam op, boom operator, gaffer and an intern as grip.
 
LOCATION HUNTING


We spent most of the day looking at prospective locations. Needed sets include a "sales room" at a funeral home, where Fannie picks out a casket, an outside location where legal secretary Louise marries love interest Trevor, a junky residence where Fannie's scheming hillbilly nephew Harold lives, and a creek where Louise and Trevor go fishing. Here's what we found:

IMG_9223.jpgIMG_9235.jpgIMG_9252.jpgIMG_9238.jpg
We now have signed location releases for all but the junky cabin, which is owned by a friend, shouldn't be a problem getting it.
 
GETTING THE 1899 HOUSE READY FOR FILMING

Our house will be Fannie's house, a huge asset in that we can easily prepare for shooting anytime we want. The ceilings are 11 feet high, making it easy to mount lighting semi permanently out of camera view. Here is how I set up one room where several scenes will be shot:

IMG_9262.jpgIMG_9263.jpgIMG_9264.jpg
The lights are mounted to large bolts that are screwed into a short piece of wood. A couple of wood screws hold it to the door trim. The lighting setup consists of two umbrella softboxes with 85w and 150W daylight CFL's, and one Coollights CDM "HMI" hardlight with a full scrim. wWe will be using a lot of wide shots in the film, so the ceiling mounted lights eliminate light stands and allow for wider shots. The power usage is minimal and the lights are nice and cool on the talent.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_9252.jpg
    IMG_9252.jpg
    168.2 KB · Views: 0
  • IMG_9254.jpg
    IMG_9254.jpg
    201.2 KB · Views: 0
Last edited:
Test shots, made using the AF100, of dining room using lighting setup, small town ambience, and cemetery shot.
test jpeg 1.jpgtest jpeg 3.jpgtest.jpg
 
Last edited:
Got that fixed other than a couple of images in the wrong place that won't go away. Website for the last movie is in the process of being replaced.
 
Looks great, just be careful with that arri mounted so close to the wall... I've burned more than my share of things lol.
 
It's not actually an Arri, looks like one, but is a Cool Lights CDM (mini HMI) that doesn't generate a lot of heat by comparison. I will be double checking the wall temp though. Houses this age are a tinderbox!
 
fannie bts still 4.jpgFirst day of shooting (First and second are screen grabs from AF100 with Nikkor 50mm F 1.8):

Meet Fannie Fairchild
fannie still.jpg
fannie bts still 2.jpg
Shooting at the cemetary
 
Last edited:
"Rebel without a crew"

Since some of our scenes are scheduled to be shot in an hour or two, as in what we shot today at a doctor's office, we decided to do without a crew those days. We (director and I) got there at 12:45, let the actors in and were set up in 20 minutes. A large boom stand was set up (the largest made by On Stage) to capture audio. Mics are AT 4053a and 4073, carefully pointed at the actors. This is not something I would try if there were movement in the scene but this is in a small examining room with Dr and patient, easy to position the mics. Existing ceiling lighting was used and looked great but wasn't quite bright enough, so I added a flo softbox bouncing off the ceiling. Some magenta highlights to contend with, otherwise OK.

fannie and dr.jpg
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top