Archive for April, 2006
So Alan W. Porter over at State School Productions and myself have started to put together a sitcom. The general premise of the production centers around a cable access news show and the intertwining lives of the people who run it. The idea came together as a way to gain experience working on a timeline, with actors, editing and the whole bit running like a TV production; shooting a twenty minute segment over a weekend or two and creating a complete show each month. Our actual shooting schedule has been relaxed a little bit to accomodate peoples schedules, but it looks like it’s coming together rather quickly now.
We’re shooting most of the scenes over at MTN in Minneapolis. At the end of the shoot there will be five produced episodes and a documentary. Hopefully, with a little luck and skill, it will make a nice showcase for our talented actors, directors, and DP’s.
Check out the photos of our first meeting with cast and crew:
First Cast Meeting Photos
Shooting starts next month. Should be fun!
April 24th, 2006
I borrowed my best friend’s house for a Saturday afternoon and rented myself a light and a mic from the one of the local equiptment places around town. The place is called Cinequipt in either Minneapolis or Des Moines. They are pretty cool and give great rates to indy and low budget filmakers. Check them out if you get the chance.
We set up shop in the house at about 11:30 am. Jeff and I had most of the gear up and running by noon, and the rest of the crew trickled in. We swapped out some of the pictures and set up the scene. Mary Beth is a graphic designer and handled a lot of the set design, but we all had a hand in the final product.
The first actor to show up was Ray. I staggered their walk in times so that we wouldn’t have everyone there all at once…besides, why waste all their time if we don’t have to; acting tends to be a lot of sitting around anyway, so I made the choice to limit that as much as possible. Once we got Ray into wardrobe, we talked about how we wanted to set up the shot…and what Ray should be doing during the shot. We ended up giving him a remote control and a glass of grapefruit juice…since Ray is allergic to milk we opted not to use it…though in hind site, Ray ended up drinking the whole glass of grapefruit juice when we weren’t looking, so maybe milk was the better way to go…you the man Ray!
From there, Ray kind of did his thing. We changed camera angles, tried it a few different ways. Ray was always a pro, and looks great on camera. Check it out yourself when it comes up on Firefoxflicks in the next couple of weeks. I’m not sure I’ve ever had a shoot go this smoothly, but then Halle showed up, and then it got interesting…
I couldn’t have cast a better little girl. She was perfect! She had energy to spare and threw herself with reckless abandon all over my scene! She was great! …of course those are the same qualities that make it difficult to work with kids. At one point she finished her scene and immidiately ran down the hall and dissappeared. We didn’t see her again for ten whole minutes…I’m going to have to put up bloopers clips now…but anyway, she was at times difficult to rein in, but she looks great on camera. It’s funny with kids, especially young ones, because they never really do the same thing twice. I recommend, that if you ever try shooting something where there is a kid involved that you don’t bother turning the camera off, because they will probably give you more while you are trying to coach them on the scene then when you actually turn the camera on and let them go. I’m glad we had Mary Beth there to calm her down between takes, and her father was a big help as well.
Steve did a great job considering it was his first time acting. He had the perfect look for the commercial and was a big help in coaching his daughter. The one thing that I’d mention is that it’s easy to get distracted and spend more time as a director working with your child stars than working with your adult actors; especially on these indy shoots where you have limited crew and you’re doing a number of jobs. He did a great job despite everything that was going on, but next time I’m getting a cameraman and doing it right. Thanks Steve…couldn’t have done this without you.
If you want to see some pictures of the shoot, Jeff took a bunch; check them out in the photos section. That’s Alan with the sound equiptment…he’s also a writer of many things…including future projects that will be posted on this site. Stay tuned for info on our cable access sitcom as well as other short films. Jeff is the one holding the boom. Mary Beth is the only other girl in the pictures besides Halle.
Cast and Crew Photos
April 17th, 2006
Finding actors is almost always an ordeal. You can use your friends, they’re almost guarateed to show up…but promptness isn’t necessarily your primary need when looking for an actor. You could try a casting call if you have the time…not to mention the patience…I didn’t. Of course, there’s always the third choice, you could hit up your co-workers for a weekends worth of fun and excitement. Hey guys, would you like to come over to some guys house and shoot a commercial for me??? I’ll give you Teddy Grahms and water! …Please…
…It never hurts to ask…and as it turns out, I work with some pretty talented people.
Ray, is the financial analyst that sits kitty corner and down the hall from me. He already has a few acting credits to his name…a bit part in The Last Castle with Robert Redford and several commercials around town. I think maybe Culvers and Home Depot to name a few. He also says that he turned down the opportunity to be an extra on Pirates of the Carribean 2 because, in his words, it didn’t pay the bills. Jeese Ray, I mean, who wouldn’t give an arm and a leg to hang out with Johnny Depp on a sunny tropical island for three months while shooting the sequel to one of the coolest action adventure movies of all time…I’d do it for free…seriously…I may have even paid money for it… Some days I think I should have been an actor…but then I wake up and realize why I’m not…I couldn’t memorize my lines well enough to act my way out of a wet paper bag, and I’m not pretty enough that no one would notice. Yeah, who am I kidding…but anyway, I’m glad Ray came on board. You the man Ray!
The other two actors, Steve and Halle, were the husband and the daughter of another co-worker of mine. Neither had any previous acting experience but I figured they would do fairly well, since they essencially were the characters I was trying to portray. …ever thought of yourself as an every-man Steve???
As it stands, I always tell myself that I won’t work with child actors, but in the end I always seem to keep trying it again. -Go figure.
April 12th, 2006
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