I feel like I'm on the edge of a cliff with an untested hang glider, and with one step I could be soaring high - or I could fall to my death on the jagged rocks below.
I had to make a big call today - a vital cog in the system failed and left me with little choice but to postpone my shoot to a later date. Strictly speaking, it wouldn't have impossible to shoot, but it threatened to make the rest of the shoot a thousand times harder because of the ripple through the schedule. More importantly, the sacrifice in quality was something I couldn't bring myself to accept. Ultimately, it was too big a risk and the last thing I want is to be boxed in to bad decisions, and have a potentially good film fall flat on it's face.
But that's life in film, and life in general. Now, having literally bought myself some more time (having hired my DOP for an extra week) I have to make the most of it. I certainly won't turn down a little more time in pre-production. It will probably mean a few days less in post, but if it means I'll capture better raw footage, that's a long term trade-off I'm willing to accept.
I have been on a few other different shoots over the break. I was doing sound for Aman's film,
Delicious cakes. Few tricky things going on with the mixer meaning I could only record through one mic - that was frustrating but hopefully it's all good. Also did a day of boom op on Sarah's shoot, but luckily Kyle is back from Byron Bay and took over as mixer to give me a bit more time to prep for my film.
Here are a few sneaky snaps I took on
Delicious Cakes
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| Ol' Steve CakeBeard |
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| Josh getting to grips with C-stands |
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| A bit of blocking action with the director and actors. Vince is proud of has job with the C-stand. |
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| Aman blocking with Nicola and Taylor |
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| Aman and Taylor. |
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| Nicola reading through the script for the next scene |
Any observations or reflections on your time doing "Delicious Cakes"?
ReplyDeleteI think Aman knew the story he wanted to tell so I hope that he got everything he needed. One thing I did take from Aman's shoot going into my own shoot was not to allow other crew members to dictate too much. At times I heard other crew members saying things like "great, yep we've got that take, let's move on" or commenting on an actors performance. It should always be the director's call on whether he has what he or she needs before moving on, and no one should comment on a performance except the director (even if it's a great performance, it might not have what the director is specifically looking for. Comments from the crew might throw the actors off their game or guide them into performance the director doesn't want).
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