Filmmaking 101 is a series of articles following film newbie Sarah Gignac as she produces her first short film, Curtains.
I haven’t written a new blog post in so long because nothing has happened. Or nothing good, anyway. Why write a post describing all the false starts and retracted promises that have been plaguing Curtains? It just sounds so depressing.
Depressing or no, it’s been my reality for the last few months. And I can’t very well skip over all that stuff and just tell you about the good things that are happening, now can I? (Spoiler! There is good stuff! Happening!)
When working on a creative project like this, I become so emotionally invested that it’s hard to be objective. Good news flies me to the stars. Bad news sinks me to the bottom of the ocean. To spare you from the boring details on how each of these events warmed or broke my heart, I’ve decided to make a list. Just the facts, nice and tidy.
Rest assured, each “fact” came with either suppressed tears and sleepless nights (and wine!), or embarrassing happy dances and fist pumps (and wine!).
December
- I raised $2000 from family and friends to go towards Curtains.
- My director stepped down.
- I found a new director.
- I nervously approached my dream cast. They all said yes!
- (Martha Irving, Mauralea Austin, Mary-Colin Chisholm and Sherry Smith. All current or former members of LunaSea Theatre.)
- I applied for a creation grant from the Government of Nova Scotia.
- I found this wizard named Sylvia Bell to be my production manager.
- She helps me with preproduction stuff that I know nothing about, like proper formats for script breakdowns and scheduling and important things like that. She also actually does the things she says she will. And so far I haven’t scared her off.
- I applied for a mentorship grant through AFCOOP.
January
- My new director stepped down.
- With much reluctance and trepidation, I decided to direct Curtains myself. Clearly the role of director is cursed. If I’m going to curse anyone, it might as well be me. (For those following along at home, this means I’m now writer/producer/director. Three very different hats that ideally are worn by three different people are now all perched precariously atop my head.)
- I found a Director of Photography (DOP).
- This means different things for different films. In my case the DOP helps design the look of the film and actually shoots it as well.
- My DOP and I started to work on storyboards and figure out how the film would look shot-by-shot.
- I read a lot of books on making short films for cheap.
- I nailed down our shoot days with the cast and crew (DOP and Sylvia). April 10th and 14th. These became pretty much set in stone as my lovely cast works a lot and all have other work.
February
- I found out I got the mentorship grant from AFCOOP.
- I found out I didn’t get the creation grant.
- Neptune Theatre agreed to donate use of their props and costumes. Live savers!
- I lost my DOP.
- He realized that the day we are filming all of the main stuff happens to be the day of his cousin’s wedding. And he’s in the wedding party.
- I found my locations.
- I need two. One to film some flashbacks, and one to film the main story. I decided to film the main stuff in my apartment. I rented a local rehearsal space for the background stuff.
- I met my mentor, local filmmaker Chris Turner, who gave me a ton of stuff to think about and do (like, figure out how I want the film to look and important stuff like that.)
- I lost my locations.
- The local rehearsal space decided to retract my contract with them in exchange for a better, longer rental.
- My mentor looked at my apartment and told me it would be a crap place to shoot (he said it nicer than that).
- Sylvia found us a lovely gal named Holly to help design our costume and make-up needs.
So far, March stands for Maybe. I may have a new DOP, new locations, and a new idea to work into the script. Maybe.
Maybe not.
Image Credit
Comedy & Tragedy Masks on Flickr
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