“January” Production Diary #6
This is literally the first time I’ve opened my laptop since Friday night.
We were scheduled to begin filming Saturday, the 14th, but when the snow hit Muncie, and rain was in the forecast for today, we were concerned about continuity. After all, Indiana hasn’t looked very Winter-like for pretty much all of Winter. Seeing as our film is set in the month of January, we decided it’d be a good idea to get all outdoor filming out of the way this weekend. This bumped our shooting schedule up a day to Friday, because one of our actresses would be gone for all of the MLK weekend. (Thanks again Steph for being flexible with your departure so we could get the footage we needed!)
The only thing concerning me about our shoot outdoors—besides the fact that it was like 12 degrees and all of our feet went numb and we kept having to take breaks in order to warm up—was that we were starting with, arguably, the hardest scene (emotionally). I wasn’t super pumped with having to make Evan and Steph get to that place so quickly, especially considering that we only had around two hours of daylight to film in, but both of them did excellently with each take—even when people from surrounding doors were yelling out their windows at us things like “What are you doing?” and “Your movie sucks!”—and we were able to finish in time with some very powerful performances. Steph, especially, knocked this scene out of the park, bringing tears to the eyes of Dan (our cinematographer) and myself. Day 1 of shooting was phenomenal, and in a scene where the performances were paramount, I got exactly what I wanted.
A quick aside. The two pervading thoughts in my head regarding filmmaking and the filmmaking process as we continue to work on “January” are as follows:
I. In the making-of featurette of Black Swan, a woman working on the film remarks that she loves working with Darren Aronofsky because “he’s not just a director; he’s a filmmaker.” There is a difference between directors and filmmakers.
II. PBS’ American Masters documentary on Woody Allen depicts Allen commenting that when he gets the take he likes, he doesn’t want to do it over because it isn’t necessary. Be economical in your time when working on a film. If you know you like what you got, there’s no reason to do it again.
Day 2 of shooting started off to a late start. There was some confusion over where we were filming, and that, on top of forgetting equipment we needed, required us to begin filming about a half hour later then we needed to. A shopping trip for gear was made before this shoot, which contributed partially to the lateness. Although everything that was bought was necessary to the scenes we were shooting that day, I was a little unhappy that we spent $100 of our budget on the first trip, considering that 30% of it was on a step-stool, which we probably could’ve gotten cheaper or even borrowed. Unfortunately, hindsight is 20/20 in these sorts of situations, but cest la vie. It just means we’ll be smarter about our budget in the future. Shooting went quite well, if not a bit slowly, due to our cinematographer’s meticulousness in composing shots, and the freezing cold temperatures. The way that I prefer to work is at a break-neck pace, running and gunning through scenes, probably a result of most of my work being for things like the 48 Hour Film Project. This certainly does not gel with Dan’s methodical, triple-checking, asking-for-clarification process, but he gets results, so I suppose that’s what matters. The composition of one of the first scenes I am totally in love with. A super strong shot.
We’re filming on two different cameras for this project. A Canon T3i (a DSLR camera, our primary choice, due to Dan’s familiarity with it) and a Canon XHA1 (which is recording all of our audio, in addition to some scenes—apparently it’s important for video cameras to have XLR input for microphones, unlike the T3i, which, while providing a “filmic” look, is built for still photography).
Evan, who is playing the lead role of David, is incredibly committed. His conversational approach to the character is brimming with genuineness and he has a natural air of charisma about him. In addition to his portrayal, he let us dump water on him in fourteen degree weather and continued the take with no trace of uncomfortableness until he was off camera (when he sprinted to the warm car we had waiting to drive him back to his dorm to change).
Day 3 of shooting was super slow. Basically, we filmed our two most complicated shots—one in which Evan writes on the lens of the camera and a shot where he gets onto an elevator and rides it up several flights, with the camera following him up. The first shot took a ton of planning and reworking, because we were initially filming outside and the sun was reflecting the camera into the glass. Then, we moved the shot inside, hoping to counteract the lighting issues. After cannibalizing the slider that we built, we were able to construct an apparatus to hold the glass in place in a sort-of frame. It took about two hours to get the entire shot done, mainly due to my stubbornness about doing the effect practically. After several more takes, I was confident that we’d have something to work with, and we moved on to the elevator scene. Graham, our Visual Effects guy, ran us through how to film it—we put duct tape track points on the wall, so that he could track it on the computer when adding the effects to make sure the motions match with the camera’s movements. The most aggravating thing about filming in the resident halls is that they are, believe it or not, resident halls. Apparently that means that people live in them. So many people stopped, or entered and saw everything and got spooked. We had to wait to get the take, and sometimes in the middle of the take people would come into the scene, and we’d have to restart.
Day 4. This day was a relatively short scene, but it still took a long time to shoot. We started 50 minutes late, and then it took two and a half hours to film, when I was hoping it’d only take an hour and a half. Even though it took much longer then I’d hoped, by the end of the shot, Dan and I were in a “groove.” We had met in the middle as far as the paces at which we both work, and so I’m confident that we’ll be able to move forward working quickly and efficiently. Although some of the past few days have been tense between us—because of my emphasis on using time effectively—I do value the fact that Dan puts time and effort into the composition of his shots. You don’t get awards like Best Cinematography, Best Original Screenplay, or Best Original Soundtrack without putting in time and effort. Yes, we’re doing this because the creative process is something which we all enjoy. But there needs to be a level of seriousness and commitment to the process in order to get a product that we are all proud of and that meets our artistic vision. I’m reminded of a phrase from a statement we were required to sign when auditioning for plays or musicals back in high school:
“I understand that being in a play is both fun and hard work.”
To me, that’s how it is with any artistic process, be it film, painting, writing, etc.
One of the strangest things about making this film is the questions onlookers seem to have. “What is this for?” “Why are you doing this?” These questions, especially, bother me, because it assumes that for every thing that anybody does, there has to be a purpose. Our short answer to these random passers-by was that it is for the Frog Baby Film Festival, but that wasn’t why this project was started—I was writing this screenplay before I found out about Frog Baby. Plus, we’re submitting it to other film festivals in addition to Frog Baby. The point, for me at least, is/was to make something real. To create. As a form of art. As a form of expression. One of the last memories I have of the Summer before I came to college was with my friend Eli. We were standing on top of a parking garage, and he said to me:
“I know that you aren’t going to major in film in college, but I think it’s important that you keep doing it. As an expression thing, ya know? ‘Cuz it’s important that people have a way to express themselves, and making movies is something you enjoy. You should keep doing this, even though you aren’t majoring in it.”
That’s what I intend on doing. That’s what I am doing.
LOVE,
BRENT
