DP2 film project - entry two - On set

These 3 days of filming were fast but, i must say, quite stressful. Not because of the crew or the equipment, but mostly because I felt that I'm failing to achieve the amount of quality I assumed I can achieve, and the lack of control over the situation drove me crazy. However, believe me, I think we did great.
First, the things that were redone, improved and had a result on, or just before the filming:

New storyboard:

 

Costume match:

Drawings by Jasmine Leung, Top picture -
http://tvlistings.zap2it.com/tv/dexters-laboratory/photo-gallery-detail/EP00176555/296553

Character Bios:

Karen – a young housewife with her husband Brian and three children. Karen is the only one who works in their family as Brian struggles to get some money now and then. Even thought she has not the best payed job in the world they seem to have everything they need. It is due to Karens parents who generously donate maney to their family. Karen was in a relationship with a character named Tommy but left him for Brian because, even thought she sometimes thinks he is useless, she likes him, and care for him. And they have got kids. Although sometimes Karen is a bit tricky to understand as she sees no crime in having an affair.

 Brian – an unsuccessful, weak willed actor, father of three in a young age. Back in high school he had a friend called Tommy and both fancied a girl called  Karen. Later Brian and Karen became a couple but after a month he found her in Tommy’s arms. Friendship ended, rivalry began. Karen switched sides a few more times as she liked Tommy’s confidence but at the same time Brian always cared for her… At least till she became pregnant when they were in the college. And then the wedding.

Tommy – a self-employed actor for kids parties. Cocky, does not care about anything or anyone. Likes to show that he is a powerful person, but when in an actual fight tends look for a compromise, because is afraid of being beat up.

The Policeman – smart looking guy. Maybe not going to be a high rank officer, but sure knows his way around women. He is sarcastic, into fun and one night stands are his specialty. Also very confident and wears a uniform – exactly what Karen was looking for. Just for a bit. While Brian gets his things together.

And now to filming days:

These days were fun, interesting and educating. As our tutors warned us many things were changed on the set, many shots were removed and lines added. We also required an extra day for our shoot but expecting that we had already booked the equipment for an extra day and our location was given to us for whole four days of testing and filming.

 

  I got up early every morning and went to sleep late the following night as I was planning the next day. As a director I learned a lot on my mistakes, as I wasn’t prepared properly for the second shooting day without a proper shooting schedule and so that day turned out to be a stressful nightmare for my whole crew. However day three was fast and smooth as I had a whole schedule prepared the night before and even the fact that my assistant Phagun Shah and our “Sound guy” Nima Hedayati had to be late for the shoot we had no trouble shooting the scenes.

In terms of having an assistant director in such a small group there were a few things we had to overcome. We have managed to get two actors out of four but unfortunately our contact, who we got in touch with in order to get actor for our film had left us with no response after a few interactions. He also had other people who agreed to participate in the filming process but they were forced to quit at the last moment due to person issues. We had to improvise and I was chosen to play Brian - the main male character. I thought directing on its own would be a challenge and this seemed a bit unreal, but nevertheless, I decided to give it a go as we had no other options.

 

I had to split my focus in two so that I would not lose control of the situation and also keep the character I was playing as believable as I could get him. I kept on top of most of the things - the crew, actors, location. Assistant director kept control of breaks and sometimes I the shooting process, and saying “it’s a rap” in the end of every shooting day. In fact Phagun took over the filming of the second day as it was a bit of a mess and I had to keep my focus on the actors and my own acting as my assistant took care of the camera, silence on set and the schedule. Off course every time she had a hard time with the misbehaving crew or her own nerves (yes, day two was a nightmare) I took full control of the situation.

The most important things I learned on those days as a Director were that keep your management up-to-date, keep your crew happy and warm (as long as you are not paying them :D) and It is always better to stop, think, and, even if everyone else around you are whining, be The Director, say - “ok, now everyone is going home and we are reshooting this tomorrow” – because there is no need to have bad footage and unhappy crew. 

This is the end of the second part of our filming of "Clowning Around". Next thing - editing.

Thanks for reading this far,

Ed