Onward and upward

At 4:00 AM this morning I wrapped up filming on my first short film at Scottsdale Community College, Pantomiming. To say it was arduous would be saying it in the least. It was a very difficult film to make and it was very trying because I'm still struggling to learn the roles of the director and the roles of the other crew members. For example: when confronted with a technical problem in the look of the film, the various department heads would come to me and ask me what the shot had to look like and what the visual elements were. Instead of telling them about the vision I saw in my head I started telling them how to fix the problems they were experiencing. "Well, take it down a stop, increase the focal length" and so on. It was an interesting shoot because I got to experience for the first time what a director does in the traditional Hollywood studio sense. Which is work with the actors. A director telling the lighting crew how to solve a problem doesn't work apparently, even if the director knows how to fix the problem. That's a hard lesson to learn because I feel like if I know how to fix the problem, then I should be able to speak freely. There were a few clashes here and there. A few times I could see a problem coming down the pipeline and I would bring it to teacher’s attention, and she would merely say "Brock don't worry about it". When the problem finally manifested itself I was stuck telling her "when I see a problem, regardless of where it is, I'm going to point it out, because now it's screwing me up." Still, it all came together quite well. It was a learning experience for me on many different levels. I had to learn what people expect from a director, and I got to learn what the director should expect from himself. Namely, if you can control things within your field of vision and within what's happening on the set, do it. Don't listen to the traditional "Hollywood" roles. That method of working is fine within a certain extent, but when problems start to arise it becomes very difficult to solve problems unless you've got your own method worked out.

So now I've begun thinking about post-production; the editing of the film, the various color corrections and the DVD. Oh yes, the DVD. I want to mention that before I end this post because I think this DVD (and the one I'll devise for my second student film) is going to be really great.
For Pantomiming, I had a member of my crew on the set with a video camera taping the entire filming of the short. I don't know how much footage he ended up with, but I think it'd be safe to say we've got 30 minutes of documentary style "behind the scenes" coverage. 30 minutes...for a 3-minute film. If that weren't enough, I had a photographer there documenting the entire process. So when I finish the DVD, there will be a plethora of special features.

Here's what I'm planning:

Audio Commentaries

The Director's Team Commentary:

Commentary with,

-Brock Brown, Director
-Jon Paullin, Assistant Director
-Chad Einwalter, Director of Photography

The Gaffer's Team Commentary:

Commentary with,

-Leon Cowan, Gaffer
-Cory Barnes, Lighting Crew 1
-James Petersma, Lighting Crew 2
-Marty Murawski, Lighting Crew 3
-Tom Robinson, Lighting Crew 4

30 Minute Documentary

Behind the Scenes Production Stills

Outtakes

Original Actor Audition Tapes

If it all works out in post-production, I should be able to have all of those things on the DVD.

So, I'm glad it's done. Now I move on to the next short. I'm not gonna talk about that one though, because I think I talked the process to death with this one. But hey, guess what? Gabe will be playing the starring role in the next film. Crazy, huh? This will be some more experience for him to test out his budding actor skills. Here's to that flick.

-Brock