Ten cans of film have been turned in after the longest producing job I’ve had yet – six days of summer thesis kick-off. You get three days to shoot your thesis film, or you can team up and double your resources as the DP and Director did here and shoot for six days with twice the film.
I wanted to jump on this producing opportunity since this was one of two doubles that are shooting, and the other is a Producer/Director pair.
It was fun, and I love the people I worked with, but as far as producing challenges go, there were very few. The main reason was most of production was on a set in the soundstage. So that meant hanging out in the green room. For five and a half days.
There was a lot of craft service munching (I got Krispy Kreme donuts the last day as a treat). A lot of bored crew making ridiculous requests (“Make me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a glass of milk.” I got them Uncrustables). And a lot of down time.
I finally had a chance to read a good part of Michael Eisner’s Work in Progress, but more importantly, I finally got into Lost. I should probably be careful with what I say, now that I’ve learned the Dean reads my super secret and anonymous blog. But just as a disclaimer, I set everything up to be self running and I wouldn’t let Lost get in the way of my main priorities.
I had always wanted to get into Lost, but I was reluctant because what I feared would happen, happened. I became so addicted I just kept watching episode after episode. I watched all of season one in about two days (there was a one day hiatus in between).
It might sound crazy, but my favorite day was Monday because it had the most problems and challenges. In the morning, a stream of crew members brought a variety of broken equipment to my attention – TAP doesn’t work, we were never given HMI lights, no one can locate the piece of half-dolly track, the boom pole is broken, the lenses to lights are cracked. Fixing these problems allowed me to feel like I was doing something (besides watching Lost).
Monday was also the only day we were on location in Gallie Alley. I had already set everything up and gotten the proper releases, but by coincidence it couldn’t have been a more perfect day to shoot than on Memorial Day.
Downtown is very lacking, and generally runs on business days during work hours. Since everything was closed, our group of background extras could easily take over the seating in one of the outside cafes.
And by setting up craft services at the cafe, it allowed me to completely forget I set up our own craft service table down the side walk. At the end of the day, we left without it. When I went to set it up the following day for lunch, I realized what I’d done. I sped back to downtown, and found it exactly where I’d left it – in the middle of the side walk.
I still enjoy producing. My next and last producing job should have a few more challenges. It involves forests and horses. But in the meantime, it’s time to get back behind the camera and DP Murder in a Mini-Skirt.
