BY SHAWN WHITNEY
It’s been well over a year since I started writing the script and longer since Kathryn and I developed the idea. It’s been through God knows how many drafts – with the extremely able help of Larisa Gutmanis as our story editor. We’ve got all our crew, we’re fully cast and we have a lab in our livingroom.
Of course there have been hiccups but given how small is our budget and how few paid crew there are (i.e. none) we have done remarkably well, imho.
Yesterday, as Dagny (our PM) did a bunch of last minute organizing and e-mails in my dining room, I worked on final revisions to the locked script (I reserve the right to change the final script several more times during shooting – though I’d prefer not to). I finished this draft somewhere between midnight and 1am as I sat on the Roma Restaurant, around the corner from my house, and drank red wine. If you have to work on revisions for 14 hours straight, I highly recommend introducing red wine after the 9th hour or so. But now it’s done! And I feel good about the changes made to the script based upon two readings with actors and feedback on the last draft from Reece Crothers (an amazing writer and one of our camera operators) and my director friend Boris Rodriguez (whose art house horror film, Eddie, just screened as part of the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival).
I’ve also gotten some wonderful last minute advice to prepare us for the shoot. Isabel Gomez-Moriana, who is in charge of project development & marketplace at the Canadian Film Centre, made the important point: make sure you get variety in your performances so that you don’t discover in the editing room that it’s all one note. And make sure to leave time for camera coverage of important emotional/story beats. Another director friend of mine, Adrian Wills, also had some excellent advice about prioritizing and knowing what can be cut if you have to cut scenes because time is tight. Boris has pushed me again and again to focus on the creative, on the story, on the look and to let others do the organizational, producerly work (well, that didn’t work out so well since we are, shall we say, tight in the labour department).
Today, after making copies of the new draft and picking up Alex, our DP’s, camera gear, it will be off to have an art department meeting and decorate our first set a few blocks away from here (Thanks, Toby! We won’t wreck your place, we promise). Then there is a meeting with the assistant directors (who keep the set sane and organized) and production manager & co-ordinator. That meeting will also be about the paperwork that has to be filled in. Lots of paperwork. Each film that is made produces its own forest of paperwork. Finally, there will be a key crew meeting at 4:30 today. Unfortunately, Kathryn the co-director, had two shoots this weekend, booked long in advance and can’t make that meeting. But she and I are totally in synch and we’ve been in regular contact over Skype and phone this weekend.
It will be fine. I expect the first few days to have some more hiccups (have the actors received their sides, have the contracts gone out, where’s the toilet paper…etc) but soon we will into the groove and setting a pace to run this marathon. I’m hoping to take a few moments to share the highlights of each day. But it could get crazy. No promises!
Wish us “Merde!”.
A Brand New You 