Tails

Filmed the opening scene of the film today. I think we covered it well. But we ended up having to push a scene from today to tomorrow. Now tomorrow looks a bit insane. Not sure how we’re going to get through it.

I think the lead of the film trusts me. But I’m not sure about the others yet. I’ve also had more time with her, so I feel like the others could still come around.

I think I’m in a good groove with everyone on the crew except for my spouse. That bad day last week felt like just a stressful day for everyone, but we’re all in a better flow now.

We’re filming some late nights for the rest of the week. It’s going to be pretty rough. I’m just hoping we can all stay focused.

Cast still isn’t all locked. It’s super distracting to have to be casting so much during filming. I can’t do this to myself again.

Lots of requests coming in from people to change our shooting schedule for various reasons. I’m trying to be reasonable and accommodating. I’m only going to be able to do so much. But I think it’s important to let people be humans if you want to have a long term working relationship with them. Not every producer feels the same way as me about having a flexible schedule. It doesn’t help that some of the “bad cops” I’ve hired on the film seem to be spending a lot of time just fighting with each other. I don’t love being caught in the middle.

I rewrote a scene today that’s shooting tomorrow. Still haven’t dealt with the ripple effects of it fully yet throughout the rest of the script / schedule. But it’ll at least make tomorrow a little easier.

Hopefully.

Today went really well. We were able to pick up a shot we hand missed before for another scene and we ended our day a few minutes early.

We have a big scene to shoot tomorrow but I’ve storyboarded it with my DP (with the help of Artemis) in the space, so I’m feeling crazy confident in it.

One of my actors has been training with my producer back in LA and it sounds like things have been going really well. We started working on rearranging our schedule to make sure our choreographer can be there for all of our scenes on Monday. In the process, we realized someone on our team had gone through and done some crazy things with our schedule for next week. Like – they made a 15 hour day. WTF? Now we have to redo that schedule tomorrow in addition to rewriting a scene we have scheduled for Wednesday.

Good thing we have a late call time tomorrow because I have my morning cut out for me.

It’s going to be a long one tomorrow.

Got to FaceTime with my daughter today. That helped a lot.

Miss my daughter like crazy.

Filmed an insanely darkly funny scene tonight.

Ended the night feeling so pumped about the scene we got. But also so sad about the time apart from my daughter.

We captured some amazing scenes today.

Somehow ended the day feeling like a couple of crew hate me.

Stressed about the budget.

I think today went well. We didn’t quite get everything we need.

It does feel like we’re tiptoeing around the school to not anger them further. And people in different buildings seem confused and surprised when we show up to film even though we’ve been told that everyone has been notified. It’s not fun to not feel welcome when you’re paying a place money to be there.

My crew continues to kick ass. It’s insane how many people are running around trying to fulfill my weird wishes and crazy ideas. It feels like playing God sometimes. No wonder a lot of directors are entitled assholes.

Still need to cast a major role. I thought I knew who I wanted but then I had a long and amazing zoom call with another actor and now I’m not sure what I want.

There are a few other big supporting roles I thought I had cast but I haven’t seen their deals close yet.

I always feel like I’m forgetting something. And sometimes I am.

I think I messed up the days in my countdown timer. But I can’t really go back now.

I’ve been thinking – I don’t really have the ego that is normally required of people who are directors. I worry that is setting me up to fail. But I’m not sure what else I would do. Nothing else holds my attention.

When I first picked up a camera, I would film my family and my friends. I was always just capturing moments and then trying to do those moments justice in the edit later.

My family and friends were patient and not judgy. I wasn’t paying them to show up. They were just happy to be there with me. They were excited to see what I was going to do with the footage.

My crew is definitely underpaid, and it makes me even more nervous about how quickly they’re going to become annoyed with me. Impatient with me. Assume that my ego being different than other directors means I’m not capable and they’ll try to walk all over me.

It really doesn’t help that our first gaffer bailed so close to shooting. I think that really messed with me. He wasn’t just a gaffer. He was giving notes on the script while we were writing it. It felt like he was going to be a key collaborator. Someone I could turn to on set for ideas I trusted and knew would fit my goals for the movie. Even though we weren’t that close as friends (he was more friends with my spouse), it felt like I had been dumped.

Who else is going to bail on me?

Realized that we arranged the furniture in our set in a way that doesn’t make sense for blocking our inciting incident. Now we have to call Art in early to try and fix it. I have no idea how we could rearrange the furniture to fix that. I hate starting our shoot off with fixing a major problem. But at least we realized it before any furniture was established.

What else have I messed up?

What other mistakes are hiding?

Still haven’t finished making my notes in the script. The more I make, the more ideas and clarity I have. So I know it’s important to finish.

Most of the crew is here. One person had a flight cancel and they’re now driving up the whole way. I’m worried about them driving so far so late.

The next 24 hours is going to be insane.