Submitted an assembly of the film to SXSW late last night. It’s currently 2 hours and 11 minutes long. Which is definitely too long. Lots of work left to do. It’s scary how rough the film actually is for the submission. Fingers crossed.
Tails
“Tails” refers to the tail slate, the clap at the end of a take when things get flipped around—and this blog is just that: a flipped-around peek behind the scenes of my second feature.
about
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Trying to figure out how to get everything back from the line producer without angering her. She can get so angry so fast. She truly scares me.
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I feel bad. We went over budget. By a lot. I’ve had to spend a lot of time running around begging for people to loan me more money. Not invest. Loan.
Our line producer went directly against many of our direct orders about how set should be run and it really added up. She could not comprehend how we could function with a small crew. She thought what we were saying we were going to do was impossible.
We had requested to keep a small crew for our first three scenes since we were filming them in our garage. I talked about the small crew with our line producer and she said she would just meet us at the second location and not be at the first.
I should’ve known everything was going to go south when she showed up at our home first thing in the morning. It felt so aggressive for her to storm into our home how she did. It’s like she was still bitter about how we went and were able to successfully film without her that one day. As though we had gone against her orders instead of the other way around.
Most importantly, we had specifically told her that she should not bring our 5 interns to set (people I already felt uncomfortable having a part of the production to begin with since I do not like the idea of having unpaid people working on the crew whom I did not approve of). The spaces we’re filming in are small and more bodies doesn’t make us move faster. And they’re more mouths to feed that we cannot afford. We even put it in bold in an email to her.
She ignored us and brought them all anyway.
It feels like such a liability to have them. Plus, such a slap in the face to ignore our direct orders like that.
Later, I broke down into tears begging her to not demand so many wrap days.
It’s such a mess.
Spouse is so mad about the financial position I’ve put us in.
I’m worried about what else this line producer is going to do. I’m worried about getting her to back away without trying to somehow sabotage the project.
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Everything went really well today. The crew was small. It was lovely. Film LA did not show up and shut down our production. And we got everything done.
Our small art department and gaffer really came through today. I hope they’re as proud of what they were able to accomplish as I am. They’re so talented and I am forever grateful.
Our patient sound mixer continues to impress me.
Wardrobe and H&MU were both amazing with how many looks they were able to pull off throughout the day.
Everyone was on their game.
I wish more days had been like this.
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Line producer heard about us wanting to film with a smaller crew at an unpermitted location. I was on set with crew setting up for a shot when she came in and started yelling at me in front of the whole crew about what I wanted to do was impossible and there was no way we would be able to do it. I had to repeatedly insist that “I am capable.” It was awful and humiliating.
She still hasn’t apologized for that.
I doubt she ever will.
It’s just insane to me how angry she is that we won’t bend creative to fit how she wants to run her production. She should be building the production around what’s best for the creative and for the film’s budget.
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With the apartment bailing, the production team found an apartment. They showed it to me and I said it looked good to book.
They then came back and told me that it was not going to be possible to film outside the front door – the location wouldn’t allow it.
But they had already booked it.
So I was just going to have to change the creative to fit.
We went home and tried to figure out how to make the creative work, but it just couldn’t. It didn’t make sense without those scenes.
We’re now talking to some other crew members about the possibility of filming at their apartments instead.
I know our line producer isn’t going to be happy about it because she’s convinced that film LA will find out, show up, and shut the production down.
I ran our potential plan by the AD and he agrees we should go forward with it even though it wouldn’t include him.
I think it just makes the most sense at this point.
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Schedule today was not ideal. Not sure whose fault that is.
Our schedule for the rest of the shoot is going to be a bit chaotic.
I’ve gotten to a place where, any time I start to worry about people quitting the project at this point, I would welcome them to leave. Anyone who would do that when we’ve gotten this far is not someone I want around anyway.
I still think we’re overloaded with crew. The extra bodies are like a bloat bogging down the production. Distracting each other with chatter when we’re rolling. Not focusing before takes in general. I’m not sure what some of the production office support does all day when I find so many mistakes in the call sheet on a daily basis. As though they’re not thinking through things logically.
I wish we had stuck to our guns more about what we did or did not need. I worry about the money we could have saved. I worry about how little budget I have left for score in post.
I worry about what kind of mess I’m going to be left with to clean up at the end. They’ve lost track of the budget so I fear the worst.
I get that working on this movie isn’t easy. Indie filmmaking is making a movie while pushing the bounds of what is acceptable. But I worry we brought a production team on that is used to working on much cushier circumstances.
I worry that I don’t worry enough about the actors. Not focusing on giving them feedback on their performance enough.
I worry.
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It was a weird day. Mostly prepping a new location at a film ranch. Plus filming one scene.
We told the location we were going to film some that day. We were mostly using them as a base camp for rigging a car and then driving on nearby roads. At least, that was the original plan. We got permission to drive around the location instead.
So we did.
Before we know if, we’re getting yelled at by the location rep for “filming there all day.” It was surprising since I thought we had their full permission for everything. Not sure where that went south. I think they got called out by a nearby music videos fire marshall. They knew we weren’t permitted to film there that whole day, even though we had ourselves setup for filming nearby.
I think we took the fall for that.
Also found out that the main house we’re filming in there has bats in it.
DP and I were talking through a scene with the production designer and the gaffer when we saw a bat in the hallway. We ducked into a nearby bedroom and closed the door. Figured it was a good idea since we had a scene there tomorrow so we could separate from the bat while we worked.
Then another bat started flying around the bedroom. But the bedroom door got jammed and we couldn’t get out. We eventually climbed out through the window.
Glad we were able to film what we did. And it was an easy day for production design to be able to work on building some things while we filmed in the car.
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Overnights are tough.
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Today was a weird skeleton crew day.
Started the day off by getting yelled at by some reps for not getting a nudity rider signed by the talent before filming with her. I had honestly lost track of actor paperwork and had been relying on the production team to see it through. First, the angry rep said they were going to call SAG and get us shut down. Then they claimed they could sue us for negligence.
The attorney took full responsibility. And also told them they had no grounds for their claims to shut us down with SAG or negligence.
I feel like I’m looking around and seeing wasteful use of money. We didn’t need this many people for a skeleton crew day. Makes me wonder how much excess we’re paying for on other days that we could’ve gone without. Maybe our production team just doesn’t get how indies work and are used to only working on bigger projects.
Producer got our money back from peerspace. Very frustrating. But she really kicked ass. So glad I have her on my team.
Tails 