Starting Production

Long time no babble. The reason is because I'm knee-deep in work. It's been a crazy week, and I don't think it will let up for at least another week.

I'm still working on cutting my documentary, which is supposed to be an observational 5 minute character portrait, using no 'talking head' interviews. I shot about 8 hours of footage, which I cut down to 15 minutes. That took me a couple of weeks. The hardest part would be to cut it further down to 5 minutes, since I actually like my 15 minute version. That has to be done by Thursday for evaluations. It will get done, it just needs some time.

We also started casting my next narrative film, which will be shooting in about 3 weeks. I'm pretty close to locking down the script, so all I need now is just to find the right two people to lead it. I put a posting on Craigslist last week, and got about 300 responses within a couple of days. It's so strange the amount of people willing to work for free on your productions. I mean, it's mutually beneficial, but still, it's just awesome that people are willing to trust you and get aboard your ship.

My producer and I cut down the applicants to about 30 (honestly, it becomes really boring and tedious), and invited them for auditions this past weekend. As usual, there was a range of quality: from the laughably awful to the incredible. I'm going to have call-backs really soon for a selected few, and then decide from that.

Once I nail down actors, I'll be able to work with them to really get the film going. Then all of the work with my director of photography. I think it's going to be a challenging shoot in that respect, as I plan to use a lot of natural light and simple sources like candles and flashlights.

The hardest part in this whole film game, is getting the movie you have in your head on the screen. Usually it's not possible, and you have to compromise and be willing to change your vision. I think I need to be more of a control freak to be a better director.