Talkies
Very good, but exhausting weekend.
On Saturday I participated in a filmmaking master class led by David Burton Morris. I would've liked to be a sound operator, but I was shanghaied into gaffing. For all of you non-movieish people, "gaffing" entails setting up lights; a complex and time-consuming aspect of motion picture production.
This was the largest set I've ever worked on (18-person crew on set), so there was an entire electrical department devoted to preparing the lights. Being the gaffer, I had command over three other students, and the task of setting up a decent-looking layout of lights in three different scenes as fast as possible.
I've had plenty of practice gaffing before, but it was simple stuff, and I was always on my own. Also, it was never done under the watchful eye of a professional director.
Of course, I got the same amount of sleep that I've had every day this week (5 hours), and of course I spent the night prior drinking a little with Matt, Hilary and Andrew - Brian's hometown friend who stayed with us for a few days to audition for the School of Music's graduate program. I was a little bit tired all day.
The shoot went well. We kept to our schedule (amazingly), and the final product looked pretty decent.
I think I did a pretty good job. The first and third scenes were tricky to light- the first being complicated, and the third being in close quarters, with only a short window of time for setup. I spent most of my time discussing configurations with Matt, and dishing out instructions to my team (which included two grad students- nice!).
It was all pretty cool, but I still had management problems with the three guys under my command. I dunno what my problem is, but I get too wrapped up trying to figure out what to do, how to do it, and what I'm going to have to do next- when I'm in the thick of it and under pressure, I can't step back and break down the work. It made the shoot a stressful scramble, which is normal. I just don't like it when it's my fault.
I'm probably being too hard on myself, but I'm worried about a developing pattern. Looking back at this shoot, The Book and the Worm, and even the 2006 student production of Airplane!, it seems that every time I'm given authority, I don't handle it very well.
I want to be an authoritative figure in my career, but if I can't manage three people now, where can I possibly go?
Regardless, two graduates (one that was working with me, and one working on editing the project) were impressed enough to try and recruit me to gaff their thesis productions, which were shooting the second and fourth weekends in March. Even though one of my "before-graduating" goals was to crew at least two grad films, I declined their offers for two reasons:
1.) From what I gather, the graduate motion pictures program is actually pretty lousy- the quality of grad films is no better than our films, they just have more hoopla.
2.) I'm already committed to films shooting on those weekends: I'm mixing sound for Steve Levy's 452 (The Gift) and co-producing Oscar Ruso's Independent Study (Our Mermaid Flew Away). I'm not about to ditch my friends for a little more glitz.
Besides, if a director is still looking for a gaffer two weeks before shooting begins, maybe I don't want to be a part of his set. They probably asked me out of necessity, not out of awe.
Today was better.
optimismisbad and I spent the afternoon/evening editing The Book and the Worm.
As I've explained before, The Book and the Worm has been an awful experience. Production was a nightmarish shitstorm of setbacks and stress. Not to mention the fact that I had terrible problems with my directorial authority, as explained above.
After seeing the rough cut back in December, I felt like I had failed completely. Up until today, my goal in postproduction has been to tweak this film to a point where I will not be embarrassed to see it screen alongside other 451s in the Canes Film Festival this upcoming May.
But today changed things. After five hours of work in a stuffy, non-air-conditioned room, we have a 99% complete picture lock. All that needs to be done is the soundtrack, sound editing, color correction and titles, and we're home free.
This was a huge leap forward in productivity, but more importantly (for me), this was a huge leap forward in quality. For the first time, I feel good about my own work. I feel really, really good.
Maybe even proud.
Based on this weekend, I feel more accomplished about these two days than I've felt about any two-month period in years.
I guess I should pat myself on the back, but I don't feel like dislocating my shoulder right now.
On Saturday I participated in a filmmaking master class led by David Burton Morris. I would've liked to be a sound operator, but I was shanghaied into gaffing. For all of you non-movieish people, "gaffing" entails setting up lights; a complex and time-consuming aspect of motion picture production.
This was the largest set I've ever worked on (18-person crew on set), so there was an entire electrical department devoted to preparing the lights. Being the gaffer, I had command over three other students, and the task of setting up a decent-looking layout of lights in three different scenes as fast as possible.
I've had plenty of practice gaffing before, but it was simple stuff, and I was always on my own. Also, it was never done under the watchful eye of a professional director.
Of course, I got the same amount of sleep that I've had every day this week (5 hours), and of course I spent the night prior drinking a little with Matt, Hilary and Andrew - Brian's hometown friend who stayed with us for a few days to audition for the School of Music's graduate program. I was a little bit tired all day.
The shoot went well. We kept to our schedule (amazingly), and the final product looked pretty decent.
I think I did a pretty good job. The first and third scenes were tricky to light- the first being complicated, and the third being in close quarters, with only a short window of time for setup. I spent most of my time discussing configurations with Matt, and dishing out instructions to my team (which included two grad students- nice!).
It was all pretty cool, but I still had management problems with the three guys under my command. I dunno what my problem is, but I get too wrapped up trying to figure out what to do, how to do it, and what I'm going to have to do next- when I'm in the thick of it and under pressure, I can't step back and break down the work. It made the shoot a stressful scramble, which is normal. I just don't like it when it's my fault.
I'm probably being too hard on myself, but I'm worried about a developing pattern. Looking back at this shoot, The Book and the Worm, and even the 2006 student production of Airplane!, it seems that every time I'm given authority, I don't handle it very well.
I want to be an authoritative figure in my career, but if I can't manage three people now, where can I possibly go?
Regardless, two graduates (one that was working with me, and one working on editing the project) were impressed enough to try and recruit me to gaff their thesis productions, which were shooting the second and fourth weekends in March. Even though one of my "before-graduating" goals was to crew at least two grad films, I declined their offers for two reasons:
1.) From what I gather, the graduate motion pictures program is actually pretty lousy- the quality of grad films is no better than our films, they just have more hoopla.
2.) I'm already committed to films shooting on those weekends: I'm mixing sound for Steve Levy's 452 (The Gift) and co-producing Oscar Ruso's Independent Study (Our Mermaid Flew Away). I'm not about to ditch my friends for a little more glitz.
Besides, if a director is still looking for a gaffer two weeks before shooting begins, maybe I don't want to be a part of his set. They probably asked me out of necessity, not out of awe.
Today was better.
optimismisbad and I spent the afternoon/evening editing The Book and the Worm.
As I've explained before, The Book and the Worm has been an awful experience. Production was a nightmarish shitstorm of setbacks and stress. Not to mention the fact that I had terrible problems with my directorial authority, as explained above.
After seeing the rough cut back in December, I felt like I had failed completely. Up until today, my goal in postproduction has been to tweak this film to a point where I will not be embarrassed to see it screen alongside other 451s in the Canes Film Festival this upcoming May.
But today changed things. After five hours of work in a stuffy, non-air-conditioned room, we have a 99% complete picture lock. All that needs to be done is the soundtrack, sound editing, color correction and titles, and we're home free.
This was a huge leap forward in productivity, but more importantly (for me), this was a huge leap forward in quality. For the first time, I feel good about my own work. I feel really, really good.
Maybe even proud.
Based on this weekend, I feel more accomplished about these two days than I've felt about any two-month period in years.
I guess I should pat myself on the back, but I don't feel like dislocating my shoulder right now.