Our latest day of production was one of our most challenging yet for a variety of reasons, and a lot of it boils down to the complexities of making a movie at the level of budget that we're making Dot Conner for. I thought it would be helpful to break down how a typical production day goes to help illustrate:
Call Time
First, all of the crew and actors have a "Call Time" which means the time they are expected to arrive at the location. It can sometimes be different, but for us most of the time everyone is arriving at the same time.
Preparation
The first order of the day is all of the preparation that goes into the first shot of the first scene scheduled to be filmed. This involves a walkthrough of the scene with all the department heads, lighting setup by the Grip & Electric team, camera setup, and having cast go through hair, makeup, and wardrobe. Once the space is lit and the actors are ready, we will rehearse the scene to be filmed and establish our initial camera placements. Then the "First shot is up."
On our set yesterday, the preparation for the first shot up was somewhat more stressed than usual given some of the complexities of the space we were filming in. Our team isn't large and we don't have all the equipment a larger budget project might have so we had to get creative with how to light given how large our set was. But we were also working against the clock because we had a lot to shoot but not a lot of time at the location, nor all the time we could've used with all of our talent.
Filming
Once everything is place and the first shot is up we keep working through each of the subsequent shots needed. This often requires the actors running a scene over and over again to either get the lines and blocking right or simply for the camera department to capture different moments in the scene with unique camera angles. And sometimes we have to start over shooting a scene simply because of factors we can't control within the location.
Which was exactly the case yesterday given the fact that we were shooting at an airport. Not a large international airport, mind you, but a smaller private airport. Either way we had to deal with constant interference from the simple fact that it was an active airport and we just couldn't record a take due to a jet engine idling in the background (not the kind of thing you want to try and hear actors over).
Lunch
Our production days are 10 hours long from when we arrive to when the last person leaves. For that reason, we also take a 30 minute "lunch" at the first 5 hour mark. (It's always called lunch even if it happens at 3:30pm.) The 30 minutes is not included in that ten hours, so after lunch we have another 5 hours to complete all of the scheduled shooting for the day.
Yesterday's lunch was catered by Blue Coast Burrito. 10/10, highly recommend. 😋
Lights, Camera, ACTION
We had a lot of filming to do, and we were slowly losing the time to get it done. BUT the scenes we were filming yesterday are part of the third act climax which meant not only did we need to get it right there were a lot of moving parts. So while the day was hard, it ended on a sprint to the finish line filming some of the opening elements of our final action scene.
Despite our best efforts, though, we were unable to complete the scene. It wasn't a complete waste because we actually are heading back to the same location today (Day 13) and will be able to get what we need though it adds a layer of complexity to today as well. All things considered, if yesterday was the only day where we ran out of time throughout the entire production we're doing pretty well. Pray that we are able to complete all the scenes today for an exciting climax to the film!
Wrap
After calling a "wrap" on the day, there's always a bit of time to pack up equipment and then we leave for home. On the ride home, it's always a challenge to not think about all the ways in which we could've done better but without fail we have spent a lot of the car trip praising the Lord for how faithful he has been.
That being said, in the midst of a production day, underneath all the professionalism and external joy, our internal outlook is often reflected in this cameo director Andrew Huff filmed during our closed street/chase scene day:
Y'all, we're filming a pretty hilarious movie. 😂
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