what are some of your worst moments

I

IsraelHoudini

Well-known member
lets hear the gory details...how badly the first days shooting went, losing an actor at the last minute....utter disasters...and how you overcame them eventually.

to learn from your mistakes is human...to learn from the mistakes of others is true wisdom
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-ancient chinese proverb
 
Re: what are some of your worst moments

I once had an actor that refused to say some of the lines and of course didn't tell me until the day of the shoot. Needless to say I fired him (he wasn't that good anyway) and got his understudy. Once he saw I was serious he said he would say the lines, but I still told him he was fired. Actors can be real assholes, especially ones who think they are much better than they actually are...
 
Re: what are some of your worst moments

Once I shot an interior car scene in a garage - a relatively complicated lighting set up...
It was in the winter time, and was very cold. We shot the entire scene in a 7 hour shoot, to find out that the tape was ridden with dropouts due to the temperature.

Easily should have forseen this, but I wasn't thinking...we re-shot the whole thing the next day, taking breaks to warm up the camera :-/
 
Re: what are some of your worst moments

I would say having to run for my life from muggers, while carrying bags of crew chow from KFC at 2:00 in the morning, would qualify...
 
Re: what are some of your worst moments

[quote author=Barry_Green link=board=Directing;num=1091519877;start=0#4 date=08/03/04 at 11:03:58]I would say having to run for my life from muggers, while carrying bags of crew chow from KFC at 2:00 in the morning, would qualify...[/quote]

Haha... That must have sucked really bad.... I hope they didn't catch you...
 
Re: what are some of your worst moments

It was really stupid... we were in the worst part of town (by the Stupak Stump) and my cohort and I split up, she went to Denny's to get soup for the sick cinematographer and so I was standing outside the KFC drive-up window (they shared a parking lot) waiting for the order. So I got the bags and started walking over to where the car was parked, and this thug standing by this motor home in the parking lot says "Hey, let me ask you something". Well, I was born in this town, and I know that you don't stop and chitchat with someone named "Snake" in a parking lot near the Stupak Stump at 2:00 in the morning. So I just said "No thanks" and kept walking. And he kept coming closer and saying "hold up, I just wanna ask you something". I was all "Not interested" but he kept angling closer... My spidey-sense was tingling so I picked up a bit of speed and beelined for the car, and fortunately she saw me coming and threw the door open and I dove in and was like "go go go go" and so she slammed on the gas and said "who were all those guys chasing you?" And I was like "guyS? Plural?" And she said "yeah, a bunch of 'em came out from behind that motor home..."
 
Re: what are some of your worst moments

Man I was picturing you running down dark alley ways in NY holding two bags of chicken in each hand while a group of guys were running after you. ...
 
Re: what are some of your worst moments

Worst days of shooting all involved a project I was asked to direct for a group of New York-based actors and writers. The project was originally written to serve as a stage play, constructed from a series of loosely connected scenes that would each showcase the particular performance strengths of specific actors. The project came to me with the script 95% finished and the roles 80% cast. The writer had his own equipment, and the actors were champing at the bit, all that was needed from me was a tiny bit of rewriting and a whole lot of "actor oriented directing". They'd singled me out both for my technical and photographic experience and because of my experience with "method" acting and directing.

The first vignette was supposed to be one of the most difficult. The writer and I argued over casting, but he eventually relented and allowed me to cast the role we disagreed on. But although the writer/producer assured me that he’d nailed down a crew, none of them ever seemed to materialize with the exception of a single untrained, yet enthusiastic person who wanted to run the boom.

Even though I was forced to do all the lighting on set in addition to my directing, things were running smoothly until the writer began to interject and suggest alternate directions between scenes. While I tried to explain to him several times that I had everything in hand, he still felt compelled to take the actors aside when I wasn’t looking and stress the points in the script he was confident that I’d missed.

This happened a couple of times before both actors took me aside and told me that they were uncomfortable listening to his directions, and that they’d prefer if he left the set entirely. They then went on to apologize to me for having to deal with him.

How loyal is that?!!

I had a talk with the writer, and although he assured me that he wasn’t intending to step on my toes, he proceeded to do just that for the duration of the shoot.

The second vignette had me walking on set in the midst of a severe flu. Still no crew, but I managed to direct for eleven hours straight with a 102 degree fever and finish the scene. I’d repeatedly argued against using SAG actors, as the producers didn’t want to go through the hassle of becoming signatories, but the producers insisted that I take certain actors as part of the project, and I was unable to recast. The one SAG actor had difficulties on set and wound up getting severely upstaged by an actor with only three months of experience.

The SAG actor was severely miscast, and although the producers insisted on using him, he ended up looking really undisciplined because the role was a bad fit for him.

The third vignette was scheduled to shoot the next weekend, but because of rolling schedule problems, we had to drop that scene in favor of another where both actors were available. Assured that everyone could be there this time, we secured the equipment and locations. Just as we were doing equipment checks, one of the two actresses called to cancel because of a herpes outbreak.

As this was a “make-out” scene, there was little that we could do to force her to shoot.

As for how we overcame these hurdles eventually…We didn’t.

A well-meaning friend of the writer managed to tape over half the footage from the second shoot, ruining any chance of salvaging that day. Several of our actors ended up leaving the country because of unexpected visa problems, and our main location (a posh mid-town bar) was lost because the bartender who got us permission ended up getting fired for being slightly overweight!

The rest of the script was scrapped and the first scene sat on the back of my hard drive for a year before I finally even bothered to review the footage. While all I remembered was the awful experience of everything and the terrible writing that I was unable to change, I was surprised to find some very delicate performances captured on the footage.

Inspired by the acting, I spent three weeks in the editing room, polishing that turd until it gleamed. I gave a DVD to each of the two lead performers and they both responded with the same reaction.

“Wow, that wasn’t entirely terrible!”

Most of the people from that project proved to be flakey, unreliable, and untalented, but those two actors will forever be at the top of my list of people to work with.

Oh, and the moral to the story is:

Never have the writer on the set, even if the writer is you.

And ALWAYS do your own casting.
 
Re: what are some of your worst moments

Not my shoot, I was just helping out. But we needed to shoot on a beach. The nearest beach was 100 miles away.
Everyone got up super early. and travelled the 100 miles in 3 seperate cars.
We setup and and within 10 minutes discovered that there was sand in the camera and it no longer functioned.
12 people. Six actors in costumes and we all went home.
 
Re: what are some of your worst moments

Cinema University.
Almost starting to shoot...
Misunderstood between photographer and sound guy...
FIGHT!!!
All the crew watching that scene... Free actors from other town...
The sound guy left the stage... With all his friends (producer, 2nd director, camera assistent, one actor)

So...
I needed to CANCEL the film...
Actually I made the film one month later!!!
 
Re: what are some of your worst moments

[quote author=Arcburn link=board=Directing;num=1091519877;start=0#14 date=08/03/04 at 14:13:45]You should have filmed the fight.[/quote]

Agreed.
 
Re: what are some of your worst moments

[quote author=TylerGred link=board=Directing;num=1091519877;start=15#15 date=08/03/04 at 14:53:49]

Agreed.[/quote]

It was in 16mm...
Kind of expensive to spend on 2 assholes who almost ruined my film!!!
And I didn't know how to load the camera...

At least today I know...
I had to learn on the difficult way!!!
;D
 
Re: what are some of your worst moments

I lost a tape once... had to reshoot a classroom scene with 20+ people... wasn't fun to have to get this number of people twice...
 
Re: what are some of your worst moments

I had an actor flake out the day before the shoot.

I rewrote the script overnight eliminating the character.
 
Re: what are some of your worst moments

[quote author=David Jimerson link=board=Directing;num=1091519877;start=15#18 date=08/09/04 at 09:56:01]I rewrote the script overnight eliminating the character.[/quote]

That's brutal, did the script turn out alright?
 
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