The shoot is a lonely time for the Producer. The film-set is the nucleus for all activity, everyone is waiting and working in that small space around the camera where the film is actually being shot and the Producer, the one in most cases responsible for getting them all there, is thrust out to the outskirts to watch his child grow from afar. He is not needed on-set, and indeed is not welcome there. I suppose normally this would be a less busy time for the Producer as they simply wait until the footage starts trickling in, or until a problem arises, but this was not my experience. Being my own runner I found that I was doing a lot of just that; running. I don’t know how many times I ran from that production office to the props store (where our set was built) and back again; getting updates so I could make up tomorrow’s call sheet, checking progress so I would know anything that was needed and most of all, rather amusingly, catering! A film crew marches on its stomach and the responsibility fell to me to ensure that tea/coffee, cold drinks, snacks and of course a hot meal were available and replenished each day. Next the role of DIT (the person who backs up the digital footage) needed to be filled and so I ended up doing that as well. So from a lonely Producer I went to being an equally lonely but much busier Producer/Runner/Caterer/DIT. That, I suppose, is the nature of the student film.
Whilst engaged in all these ‘behind-the-scenes’ tasks I had some time to evaluate my attitude and learn some interesting things about myself. I like to be on-set, in amongst the action, and I don’t like the feeling of being an unwanted, even dreaded, presence there. I also like working with others; it challenges me. I can work quite cheerfully on my own, and I do, but I achieve more if there are others for me to bounce off and respond to. I like acclaim, one of my flaws perhaps, and whenever I am working I like to know the fruit of my labour will be noticed and appreciated. And I like leading. I enjoy being in charge, commanding a team and having responsibility. My experience on the shoot of Broken Bubbles has proved to be a gentle illumination that these characteristics are part of my flaws as a Producer. Being mildly disorganised and over-committed is not a major problem as these things can be worked upon and sorted relatively easily, but it seems to me that a Producer is an engine; a quiet but powerful force that fuels the film and most importantly serves the production. This is where my preference of being amongst the action, working with people, wanting acclaim and wanting to lead can become counter-productive because it means I struggle to serve. Without a doubt all that I have done on this shoot; the sitting before a phone or computer, the running of errands, the tidying and clearing of the food table, the organising and labelling of VFX reference shots; all has been a humbling and much needed lesson in serving, for which I am truly thankful.
I am pleased and proud to say that as many as are my failings as a Producer there are just as many strengths of this film. I’ve caught a glimpse of the actors’ performances, I’ve sensed the atmosphere on-set and I’ve even had a peek at some of the footage and I can honestly say I think Broken Bubbles could turn out to be a powerful and special short film. I look forward to seeing it.
Saturday, 26 June 2010
Monday, 21 June 2010
Edinburgh International Film Festival 2010
Here are some reflections on my experiences in this year’s festival, the sixty-fourth of its kind.
Jackboots on Whitehall was a shock start to the weekend. Somehow I’d got it into my mind it was a documentary. How wrong I was. This was an irreverent British comedy presenting a ridiculous retelling of the ending of World War II, stop-motion animated with beautiful puppets, scenery and photography. It was genuinely funny on many occasions but just a little too often it misjudged itself and didn’t quite hit the mark. In some ways it’s a shame the film looked so good because due to the nature of some of the content it can only be enjoyed by a niche audience. That’s the danger with ‘boundary-pushing’ liberal humour; the filmmaker risks alienating his audience and it certainly spoiled the experience for me. I passed Sir Patrick Stewart, who’d been in the screening, on the way out and that made it all a bit more worth it!
Murdo and I attended an industry event called Lunch with the Producers which was lunch followed by a discussion with a panel of successful producers (including Andrea Calderwood the Producer of Last King of Scotland and Generation Kill and a good friend of Barbara one of our TV Content tutors). Unfortunately the actual lunch was fully booked but being the sly dogs that we are Murdo and I managed to snaffle some substantial snacks from the leftovers while people took their time moving into the next room. The discussion was mildly captivating, and it was interesting that the assumed main difference between the successful Producers postulating and advising from the panel and the learner ‘producers’ listening and taking notes in the audience was simply location. We in the audience were based in Scotland. They in the panel were not. I am realising more and more the international nature of the film industry and the need to start thinking outside the box of Glasgow, or Scotland, or even Britain, and start considering where I fit in this global community of film.
Cinema Extreme, a short film initiative, was next on the menu and consisted of three short films, one produced by David Smith the Executive Producer of our DFTV Grad films. Short films have a tendency to leave me annoyed and dissatisfied. These were no exception. The Pizza Miracle was slightly more entertaining than the other two but it wasn’t relentlessly funny enough – which I think a short comedy needs to be – and it didn’t quite live up to its title for me.
Having seen very little of Ben Miller’s work I am unable to call myself a fan, but who could fail to love the loyal Bough in Johnny English or wonder at the sensitively ambitious dance teacher in Razzle Dazzle both brought to life by this witty and loveable British comedian. The feature film Huge was a charming buddy comedy about stand-up comedians, the directorial debut for Ben Miller, and it was a good film – not anything amazing – but definitely an entertaining watch. In fact it was a enjoyable night altogether. Lots of the cast and crew were there and Miller had organised to start the night with a stand-up comedian, as a sort of warm-up act before the film. It was a nice idea. As it happened the stand-up comedian was pretty bad but somehow that made the film seem better, and then there was a quick Q&A with Miller himself, and a few others, which just rounded it off nicely. One thing I noted whilst watching Huge on one of the biggest screens in the Cineworld was the lack of cinematic photography. There were far too many close ups, too much dizzying hand-held camera and not enough use of that generous wide space. For a Director and Cinematographer who have done a lot of TV I suppose this is an understandable oversight, but I was grateful for the reminder that the moviemaker projecting their story in front of a cinema audience needs to remember one very important fact; that screen is pretty darn huge.
It is with some guilt that I must admit that one of the most purely entertaining films I watched at the festival was the late Friday night showing of a Greek zombie movie called Evil in the Time of Heroes. I confess I never expected it to be so funny. The highest praise I can give is that within the first few minutes I had left all my prejudices, and most of my faculties, behind and was caught up in the most ridiculous and incomprehensible mess of fake blood and comic violence imaginable. I must be quick to add at this point that this is by no means my type of film, and there are definitely bits, even whole elements, of it that I neither condone nor enjoy. Zombie movies are the lazy man’s game. Throw in enough guts and gore and perhaps the audience will be so distracted that they won’t notice the story doesn’t work, or more likely they won’t care. It’s true, and it works, but ultimately it’s a false victory and sooner or later people crave for something deeper. Nevertheless, if a film is well-made then it is worthy of commendation and Evil in the Time of Heroes certainly raised the bar as far as independent features are concerned. If nothing else it is a substantial calling card for its Director Yorgos Noussias (who was at the screening for a Q&A session) who I expect may go on to work on bigger, and hopefully more tasteful and cohesive, projects.
Obselidia was another directorial debut this time from a woman with a Masters in Mental Philosophy… and I could tell. It wasn’t so much a film, in the conventional sense, as a study of certain attitudes and philosophies. I quite liked this side of it, and I liked the overall message, although at times the writing did jar slightly coming across as somewhat unnatural, verging on ‘preachy’, and the humour was sometimes a bit stodgy, though very necessary. My main issue with it was that instead of a narrative, pushing the story onto its climax, it had a ramble. Maybe it’s just my Hollywood-influenced need for a driving plot but I do know I wasn’t the only one feeling just a tad bored. Ben Miller happened to be sitting in the row in front and I could sense him, and quite a few others around me, shifting and shuffling in their seats at various points. The director’s biggest fear; bum sore! And the last few minutes were atrocious. The endings just kept coming; it was like Return of the King but without nine hours justification! I reckon one or two test screenings with the Diane Bell (the Director) taking careful note of audience reaction could have helped this film a lot.
Vacation! wasn’t great. It all hung on the one sense that somehow we knew this holiday would not turn out well. It was doomed by the quick cut opening images of newspaper headlines mentioning ‘a body’ and cleverly this was what drew us in and made us invest in the characters for almost an hour. The problem arose then when our suspicions were confirmed and ‘something’ happened but then nothing else happened after that. What life and expectation the film had built up to that point just slowly drained away, until it was all gone, and then the film finally ended. I could see what Writer/Director/Editor Zach Clark was trying to do, and I think he made his point but maybe at the expense of making a good film. Stylishly put together, particularly well edited, this film made an impression but didn’t rank very high on my enjoyment list… and the title certainly doesn’t merit that exclamation mark.
The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer was probably the most all round enjoyable film I saw all weekend; a good British comedy laden with political satire so ahead of its time that it has now become more relevant rather than becoming dated. I must admit I was surprised, and sometimes a bit disappointed, at some of the content or nature of the jokes but overall it was a satisfyingly funny and entertaining watch. It was also a cracking story, the classic tale of a man who starts out as nothing but rises and rises until he has achieved ultimate power. For me the key to its success was the way in which it made the anti-hero Michael Rimmer (played by Peter Cook) both funny and loveable, and yet so clearly bad (he does actually murder the prime minister… and it’s funny!). Like any good comedy this gives the film a dual functionality; it’s entertaining, as films should be, and we laugh when we watch it; but it’s also truth and when the humour wears off we have something serious to think about.
Murdo and I attended another panellist discussion on The Casting Process which provided a brief but useful insight into the life of a casting director. I would have been ninety percent less interested if I had not known that Amy Hubbard (one of the panellists) was in fact casting director on The Lord of the Rings and was currently casting for The Hobbit! The actor within me quite enjoyed the advice about auditions (be prepared!) and agents but it was useful to be reminded that for a director casting is more about finding the chemistry, someone who is on the same page, than it is about working on the character. That comes after.
Nénette was a calm and relaxing finish to my weekend viewings. This was an hour-long French documentary composed of long static shots observing its subject, the eponymous forty-year-old orangutan, with a soundtrack consisting of people talking about her. Its slow and sleepy pace allowed plenty of space for personal discovery and also for, eh… sleeping, which I did a little bit of. What can I say? It was a tiring weekend!
Jackboots on Whitehall was a shock start to the weekend. Somehow I’d got it into my mind it was a documentary. How wrong I was. This was an irreverent British comedy presenting a ridiculous retelling of the ending of World War II, stop-motion animated with beautiful puppets, scenery and photography. It was genuinely funny on many occasions but just a little too often it misjudged itself and didn’t quite hit the mark. In some ways it’s a shame the film looked so good because due to the nature of some of the content it can only be enjoyed by a niche audience. That’s the danger with ‘boundary-pushing’ liberal humour; the filmmaker risks alienating his audience and it certainly spoiled the experience for me. I passed Sir Patrick Stewart, who’d been in the screening, on the way out and that made it all a bit more worth it!
Murdo and I attended an industry event called Lunch with the Producers which was lunch followed by a discussion with a panel of successful producers (including Andrea Calderwood the Producer of Last King of Scotland and Generation Kill and a good friend of Barbara one of our TV Content tutors). Unfortunately the actual lunch was fully booked but being the sly dogs that we are Murdo and I managed to snaffle some substantial snacks from the leftovers while people took their time moving into the next room. The discussion was mildly captivating, and it was interesting that the assumed main difference between the successful Producers postulating and advising from the panel and the learner ‘producers’ listening and taking notes in the audience was simply location. We in the audience were based in Scotland. They in the panel were not. I am realising more and more the international nature of the film industry and the need to start thinking outside the box of Glasgow, or Scotland, or even Britain, and start considering where I fit in this global community of film.
Cinema Extreme, a short film initiative, was next on the menu and consisted of three short films, one produced by David Smith the Executive Producer of our DFTV Grad films. Short films have a tendency to leave me annoyed and dissatisfied. These were no exception. The Pizza Miracle was slightly more entertaining than the other two but it wasn’t relentlessly funny enough – which I think a short comedy needs to be – and it didn’t quite live up to its title for me.
Having seen very little of Ben Miller’s work I am unable to call myself a fan, but who could fail to love the loyal Bough in Johnny English or wonder at the sensitively ambitious dance teacher in Razzle Dazzle both brought to life by this witty and loveable British comedian. The feature film Huge was a charming buddy comedy about stand-up comedians, the directorial debut for Ben Miller, and it was a good film – not anything amazing – but definitely an entertaining watch. In fact it was a enjoyable night altogether. Lots of the cast and crew were there and Miller had organised to start the night with a stand-up comedian, as a sort of warm-up act before the film. It was a nice idea. As it happened the stand-up comedian was pretty bad but somehow that made the film seem better, and then there was a quick Q&A with Miller himself, and a few others, which just rounded it off nicely. One thing I noted whilst watching Huge on one of the biggest screens in the Cineworld was the lack of cinematic photography. There were far too many close ups, too much dizzying hand-held camera and not enough use of that generous wide space. For a Director and Cinematographer who have done a lot of TV I suppose this is an understandable oversight, but I was grateful for the reminder that the moviemaker projecting their story in front of a cinema audience needs to remember one very important fact; that screen is pretty darn huge.
It is with some guilt that I must admit that one of the most purely entertaining films I watched at the festival was the late Friday night showing of a Greek zombie movie called Evil in the Time of Heroes. I confess I never expected it to be so funny. The highest praise I can give is that within the first few minutes I had left all my prejudices, and most of my faculties, behind and was caught up in the most ridiculous and incomprehensible mess of fake blood and comic violence imaginable. I must be quick to add at this point that this is by no means my type of film, and there are definitely bits, even whole elements, of it that I neither condone nor enjoy. Zombie movies are the lazy man’s game. Throw in enough guts and gore and perhaps the audience will be so distracted that they won’t notice the story doesn’t work, or more likely they won’t care. It’s true, and it works, but ultimately it’s a false victory and sooner or later people crave for something deeper. Nevertheless, if a film is well-made then it is worthy of commendation and Evil in the Time of Heroes certainly raised the bar as far as independent features are concerned. If nothing else it is a substantial calling card for its Director Yorgos Noussias (who was at the screening for a Q&A session) who I expect may go on to work on bigger, and hopefully more tasteful and cohesive, projects.
Obselidia was another directorial debut this time from a woman with a Masters in Mental Philosophy… and I could tell. It wasn’t so much a film, in the conventional sense, as a study of certain attitudes and philosophies. I quite liked this side of it, and I liked the overall message, although at times the writing did jar slightly coming across as somewhat unnatural, verging on ‘preachy’, and the humour was sometimes a bit stodgy, though very necessary. My main issue with it was that instead of a narrative, pushing the story onto its climax, it had a ramble. Maybe it’s just my Hollywood-influenced need for a driving plot but I do know I wasn’t the only one feeling just a tad bored. Ben Miller happened to be sitting in the row in front and I could sense him, and quite a few others around me, shifting and shuffling in their seats at various points. The director’s biggest fear; bum sore! And the last few minutes were atrocious. The endings just kept coming; it was like Return of the King but without nine hours justification! I reckon one or two test screenings with the Diane Bell (the Director) taking careful note of audience reaction could have helped this film a lot.
Vacation! wasn’t great. It all hung on the one sense that somehow we knew this holiday would not turn out well. It was doomed by the quick cut opening images of newspaper headlines mentioning ‘a body’ and cleverly this was what drew us in and made us invest in the characters for almost an hour. The problem arose then when our suspicions were confirmed and ‘something’ happened but then nothing else happened after that. What life and expectation the film had built up to that point just slowly drained away, until it was all gone, and then the film finally ended. I could see what Writer/Director/Editor Zach Clark was trying to do, and I think he made his point but maybe at the expense of making a good film. Stylishly put together, particularly well edited, this film made an impression but didn’t rank very high on my enjoyment list… and the title certainly doesn’t merit that exclamation mark.
The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer was probably the most all round enjoyable film I saw all weekend; a good British comedy laden with political satire so ahead of its time that it has now become more relevant rather than becoming dated. I must admit I was surprised, and sometimes a bit disappointed, at some of the content or nature of the jokes but overall it was a satisfyingly funny and entertaining watch. It was also a cracking story, the classic tale of a man who starts out as nothing but rises and rises until he has achieved ultimate power. For me the key to its success was the way in which it made the anti-hero Michael Rimmer (played by Peter Cook) both funny and loveable, and yet so clearly bad (he does actually murder the prime minister… and it’s funny!). Like any good comedy this gives the film a dual functionality; it’s entertaining, as films should be, and we laugh when we watch it; but it’s also truth and when the humour wears off we have something serious to think about.
Murdo and I attended another panellist discussion on The Casting Process which provided a brief but useful insight into the life of a casting director. I would have been ninety percent less interested if I had not known that Amy Hubbard (one of the panellists) was in fact casting director on The Lord of the Rings and was currently casting for The Hobbit! The actor within me quite enjoyed the advice about auditions (be prepared!) and agents but it was useful to be reminded that for a director casting is more about finding the chemistry, someone who is on the same page, than it is about working on the character. That comes after.
Nénette was a calm and relaxing finish to my weekend viewings. This was an hour-long French documentary composed of long static shots observing its subject, the eponymous forty-year-old orangutan, with a soundtrack consisting of people talking about her. Its slow and sleepy pace allowed plenty of space for personal discovery and also for, eh… sleeping, which I did a little bit of. What can I say? It was a tiring weekend!
Thursday, 17 June 2010
Producing - Week Four
A rather lonely week. Everyone from my class has been either preparing to leave for the U.S. or on the shoot for Breathing Room. I am now the only one in the class who hasn’t been on set for one of our end-of-year films... boohoo. Never mind, I have my turn next week. As it happens it was rather pleasant to have a quiet and peaceful few days in which to hack away at the production tasks still to be done. For this was indeed the last full week of prep for Broken Bubbles. This coming Wednesday, we shoot!
A rather stunted week also. Only four days, since this Friday and Saturday we will be savouring the delights of the Edinburgh International Film Festival. I’m sure I’ll have plenty to say about that later. Something I have rediscovered over these past few days has been the pure joy of filmmaking. It is something far too easily forgotten or trivialised in the competitive chaos of the student filmmaker’s slog to success. I, personally, put so much pressure on myself to learn, improve, develop, succeed, that I can almost forget why I do it. Then a day comes along like this Thursday, where I’m tearing about like a ball in a pinball machine; chairing a full crew meeting, supervising a green screen test, watching a make-up test, passing a costume fitting, or spotting Murdo in an in-depth ‘character’ discussion with an actor; while of course trying to get back to the production office to organise the countless other things that have yet to be done. This is what producing is all about. And I love it. Imagine I was doing all this and I didn’t enjoy it. If I wasn’t excited by the bustle and chaos, if I didn’t get a warm glow inside when I see a beautifully painted prop, if I didn’t just love it when everything is going wrong and everyone is turning to me for answers. Imagine I didn’t enjoy it. It would be just like any other job then, where I just can’t wait until the weekend or the next holiday.
François Truffaut, the great director of the French New Wave, said:
A rather stunted week also. Only four days, since this Friday and Saturday we will be savouring the delights of the Edinburgh International Film Festival. I’m sure I’ll have plenty to say about that later. Something I have rediscovered over these past few days has been the pure joy of filmmaking. It is something far too easily forgotten or trivialised in the competitive chaos of the student filmmaker’s slog to success. I, personally, put so much pressure on myself to learn, improve, develop, succeed, that I can almost forget why I do it. Then a day comes along like this Thursday, where I’m tearing about like a ball in a pinball machine; chairing a full crew meeting, supervising a green screen test, watching a make-up test, passing a costume fitting, or spotting Murdo in an in-depth ‘character’ discussion with an actor; while of course trying to get back to the production office to organise the countless other things that have yet to be done. This is what producing is all about. And I love it. Imagine I was doing all this and I didn’t enjoy it. If I wasn’t excited by the bustle and chaos, if I didn’t get a warm glow inside when I see a beautifully painted prop, if I didn’t just love it when everything is going wrong and everyone is turning to me for answers. Imagine I didn’t enjoy it. It would be just like any other job then, where I just can’t wait until the weekend or the next holiday.
François Truffaut, the great director of the French New Wave, said:
“I demand that a film express either the joy of making cinema or the agony of making cinema. I am not at all interested in anything in between.”I take his point. All good art comes from passion. I want to be a good filmmaker. I’m passionate about filmmaking. But am I a passionate filmmaker? It’s a challenge. Something to strive for.
Friday, 11 June 2010
Producing – Week Three
Time. A strange phenomenon. Sometimes it can seem like such a welcome thing and then the next moment like a hateful arch enemy. Sometimes it stretches to the horizon like a highway in the desert and then next moment is consumed like coal shovelled into the furnace of an ever accelerating steam train. Sometimes it is treasured like a precious stone and then next moment carelessly discarded like worthless waste. And sometimes we think we own it, that it is ours, and then next moment we feel that someone else has ownership and our time is not our own.
This week has been a bit like that. In my over-committed busy life, ‘time’ has been a distant rainbow that I have painfully pursued longing to grasp even just a small portion to claim as my own, but in vain. I am forced to bow to my ‘to do lists’, to submit to my predetermined schedule, to be enslaved by the fact that my time is not my own... But it is a lie! No human being has ownership of my time, it belongs to me, and the privelege of using every minute is mine, and so must the responsibility be. I choose how to spend my allowance of this priceless commerce and, as I explored last week, it is I who must face the consequences of those decisions. We are all given the same allowance and so I have no grounds to either boast or complain. There are twenty four hours in the day, and it is the same for everyone.
I try and cheat. I try to squeeze more and more time out of the day until tiredness and an unsymphatic clock face displaying two o’clock in the morning convince me of my foolishness. This method can work on occasion but as soon as it becomes the routine it begins to be counter-productive. Sleep is necessary. I have a responsibility to allocate a substantial chunk of my budget of time to sleeping, and if I don’t... again I must face the consequences. So often I think I have lost control, that my life is careening down a path I have no choice about, that my time is not my own. This is an illusion. Time is a gift, free-will is a gift, life is a gift. Gifts are free, often undeserved, and they have true value when the giver gives with a certain intention, from a knowledge of the receiver’s wants and needs. I, the receiver, want more time to do all the things I want to do but I need to do less things. What do I get? The same as anyone else; twenty four hours per day. So, eventually, I’ll learn.
What has all this got to do with producing? This week there seemed to be a slight lull in the production department of Broken Bubbles, a sort of simmering as we tried to control the heat without losing all impetus. In the breathing space this afforded I was able to examine how I use my time and how I view my time. As a Producer it is my job to see Broken Bubbles through to successful completion. Although not an easy task I have been given all the raw materials I need. I have life and creativity, I have the ability to make choices, and – no matter how helpless and out-of-control I may feel on occasion – I have what mankind has always had; I have time.
This week has been a bit like that. In my over-committed busy life, ‘time’ has been a distant rainbow that I have painfully pursued longing to grasp even just a small portion to claim as my own, but in vain. I am forced to bow to my ‘to do lists’, to submit to my predetermined schedule, to be enslaved by the fact that my time is not my own... But it is a lie! No human being has ownership of my time, it belongs to me, and the privelege of using every minute is mine, and so must the responsibility be. I choose how to spend my allowance of this priceless commerce and, as I explored last week, it is I who must face the consequences of those decisions. We are all given the same allowance and so I have no grounds to either boast or complain. There are twenty four hours in the day, and it is the same for everyone.
I try and cheat. I try to squeeze more and more time out of the day until tiredness and an unsymphatic clock face displaying two o’clock in the morning convince me of my foolishness. This method can work on occasion but as soon as it becomes the routine it begins to be counter-productive. Sleep is necessary. I have a responsibility to allocate a substantial chunk of my budget of time to sleeping, and if I don’t... again I must face the consequences. So often I think I have lost control, that my life is careening down a path I have no choice about, that my time is not my own. This is an illusion. Time is a gift, free-will is a gift, life is a gift. Gifts are free, often undeserved, and they have true value when the giver gives with a certain intention, from a knowledge of the receiver’s wants and needs. I, the receiver, want more time to do all the things I want to do but I need to do less things. What do I get? The same as anyone else; twenty four hours per day. So, eventually, I’ll learn.
What has all this got to do with producing? This week there seemed to be a slight lull in the production department of Broken Bubbles, a sort of simmering as we tried to control the heat without losing all impetus. In the breathing space this afforded I was able to examine how I use my time and how I view my time. As a Producer it is my job to see Broken Bubbles through to successful completion. Although not an easy task I have been given all the raw materials I need. I have life and creativity, I have the ability to make choices, and – no matter how helpless and out-of-control I may feel on occasion – I have what mankind has always had; I have time.
Friday, 4 June 2010
Producing – Week Two
Decisions, decisions, decisions… Oh, the pain and privilege of the Producer under pressure. It is our lot as human beings – in fact it defines us – to be submerged in a sea of choices every minute of our lives. Most of the time the decisions are quickly and easily made. Sometimes, they’re not. All too often it falls to the Producer to simply be the one that ‘decides’, whatever the significance or size of the choice, and then communicate that decision to all those it effects, and to be well-prepared for the consequences of that decision further down the line. So a Producer needs to be good at making decisions. I’m not sure if I’m good at making decisions or not… I am sometimes, but it depends... Thus speaks my indecisive self. I can’t even decide if I’m decisive or not!
This week we had a few big decisions to make as part of the pre-production for Broken Bubbles. Who to cast in each part? I feel we’ve made good decisions here, since Murdo has mostly got the people he had in mind when actually writing the parts! I had to make a decision about where to get a Green Screen, having searched out a pretty good deal but then discovering a possibly even better one at the last minute. Again, I think I’ve gone for the right choice. A big one this week, which caused a bit of ‘Executive concern’ (!), was whether to do a model for the exterior of the main character’s workshop/home. I’ve never done proper model-work before, there is plenty potential for it to turn out as a complete waste of time and effort, and needless to say I was somewhat reluctant to go for it. Yet, I really did feel the story required an exterior shot and, after much discussion with Murdo and John (our Director of Photography), we decided that the model would be the best way to go.
Decisions… It’s the same in life. Sometimes it feels rather like I reach a crossroads and neither path looks ideal, but I can’t stop. Or worse, both paths look equally appealing. It’s in these circumstances that I just wish a bright flashing neon sign would appear from heaven and just point me in the right direction but God, though I’m sure perfectly capable of such a ‘prompting’, prefers to employ other methods! The good thing about choices is that once they’re made that’s it. They’re done, finished, and even if the consequences rise up to haunt you, at least the agony of the initial choice is gone for good.
Also this week we had some training on the RED workflow for post-production and specifically AVID, the tasks of the DIT (or in our case the Data Loader) and how media is managed in this new digital age. It’s so exciting, and a tad frustrating, that these processes are still changing even as we learn them but it is exhilarating to think that we are on the front-line as the whole filmmaking industry undergoes a dramatic wave of change. Thankfully I’d been on set for one of the Grad films as a DIT Trainee so I have a bit more of a working knowledge of the processes, but there is still so much to learn…
I’ve decided something! That I don’t have to be the most decisive person in the world. I’m still learning, and hopefully improving… and I’m not going to stop.
This week we had a few big decisions to make as part of the pre-production for Broken Bubbles. Who to cast in each part? I feel we’ve made good decisions here, since Murdo has mostly got the people he had in mind when actually writing the parts! I had to make a decision about where to get a Green Screen, having searched out a pretty good deal but then discovering a possibly even better one at the last minute. Again, I think I’ve gone for the right choice. A big one this week, which caused a bit of ‘Executive concern’ (!), was whether to do a model for the exterior of the main character’s workshop/home. I’ve never done proper model-work before, there is plenty potential for it to turn out as a complete waste of time and effort, and needless to say I was somewhat reluctant to go for it. Yet, I really did feel the story required an exterior shot and, after much discussion with Murdo and John (our Director of Photography), we decided that the model would be the best way to go.
Decisions… It’s the same in life. Sometimes it feels rather like I reach a crossroads and neither path looks ideal, but I can’t stop. Or worse, both paths look equally appealing. It’s in these circumstances that I just wish a bright flashing neon sign would appear from heaven and just point me in the right direction but God, though I’m sure perfectly capable of such a ‘prompting’, prefers to employ other methods! The good thing about choices is that once they’re made that’s it. They’re done, finished, and even if the consequences rise up to haunt you, at least the agony of the initial choice is gone for good.
Also this week we had some training on the RED workflow for post-production and specifically AVID, the tasks of the DIT (or in our case the Data Loader) and how media is managed in this new digital age. It’s so exciting, and a tad frustrating, that these processes are still changing even as we learn them but it is exhilarating to think that we are on the front-line as the whole filmmaking industry undergoes a dramatic wave of change. Thankfully I’d been on set for one of the Grad films as a DIT Trainee so I have a bit more of a working knowledge of the processes, but there is still so much to learn…
I’ve decided something! That I don’t have to be the most decisive person in the world. I’m still learning, and hopefully improving… and I’m not going to stop.
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