The Director's Prep was a lot shorter and painless than people had made it out to be (maybe because this is a fairly simple film). On the administrative side, the Head of Production, Cinematography, Screenwriting, and Editing teachers attended. Crew wise, it was the...
Film School
Tech Scout
Continuing with the Art Directing pre-production for my first thesis film, I went with some of the main crew members the other night to check out a location we were shooting at to see what kind of props we would need to get. Luckily, not that many. The Director wants...
Film School History is Made
For thesis films we get three days of shooting. The original plan for the thesis I was working on was to shoot the final scene today, but it would have only been half a day since the actors had to leave by noon. Instead, we finished early last night so the decision...
19 Hours at the Film School
I left for the Film School Thursday night at 11 and didn't come home until 6pm this afternoon, thus surviving my first Film School sleep over. It wasn't that I had procrastinated working on Cubicles, I just got into the editing zone and wanted to get as much done as...
Getting the Greenlight
I had another Director's Prep today and discovered a formality that I never knew existed. This prep was considerably longer than the last one I attended being that it's a double show, and a quite unique double show at that. It's being co-directed, co-written, co-shot,...
How To Get 50 Zombies
One of the main producing responsibilities is casting. The upcoming film I'm Unit Production Manager on (let's call it Bush Zombie) has an epic battle scene where we need as many zombies as possible. Getting extras to show up can sometimes be a challenge. People might...
Who Produces What?
Since thesis films have started, there's been some confusion as to what the difference is between the Unit Production Manager (UPM) and Second Assistant Director (Second AD), both first year jobs. On F3s, there was only a Second AD and everything seemed to work out...
Make a UPM Kit
During my first semester in the Film School we had a Production Management class. In it we were required to create a UPM kit. Shopping for these items brought back grade school memories. Here's what we had to pickup: One portable file box or satchel - the UPM kit One...
So Long XL1…
A few hours ago (3pm) I got a phone call from Keith, head of the Equipment Room. Keith: "I need the camera back." Me: "Today?" Keith: "Yeah, by four. No, like a quarter to four, I have to do some paperwork with it. If I don't get it back today I have to file a police...