Challenges with the film
Posted by Ben | Filed under Film experience
Getting “the best part of my day” made was by far the largest personal achievement I’ve realized in a long time. It was a blast to conceptualize, to prepare for, to film, to edit, and to share. The response the film’s garnered from the Heartland Film Festival and limited showings has been overwhelming in a fantastic way. It’s honestly very fun right now, because cmon, when is it not fun fun going “look what I made!”, knowing you’ll elicit some form of reaction? That’s simply what any art is all about.
All that said, there were definitely some trials to this production.
I actually wanted to produce the film a year earlier (2008), however I faced two debilitating factors. One, I had no money. Truthfully, “the best part of my day” was produced more as a pitch-in production than anything – it was very “Hey I have a camera”, “Oh yeah? I have lights”, “Really, well I can act”, “Hey let’s all do this together!” So the budget was indeed low. But without any money, with absolutely no budget for food, tapes, rentals, expendables, and film festival fees, this simply couldn’t happen. Two, I simply didn’t know enough people yet. I did what networking I could, but my circle of filmmaker friends has doubled in the last year, which of course I’m endlessly thankful for. It was very hard, but I had to wait for the right time, and 2009 yielded the right time.
The biggest challenge to the production for me was the experimental nature of the story. Exactly 70% of the story is told from one camera angle, utilizing only music (essentially becoming a silent film). That’s a lot. Not only did we have to find ways to visually move the story and hold interest, but we had to simply figure out the mechanics of using one angle… questions filled us at conception, like “What happens when we have to move the camera overnight? What if we have reshoots? What if the weather doesn’t cooperate? What if we break continuity? And, heck, what’s our backup plan for all this?”
Well, to figure all that out, we had 4 test shoots. We tested completely breaking down the camera and putting it back up, and learned to measure correctly from landmarks and our own marks. We tested exposure at different settings on the camera to figure out what to do in inclement weather, so that we could color correct at least a bit in post. We found that reshoots could happen, providing we take extremely detailed notes during produciton (shoutout to Colleen Walker, Trish Holmes, and billy Fulton on that). We found that jump cuts would be our best friend in the whole world.
And we learned the most important thing you can in test shoots – this could work and be as amazing as it was in our heads. When you hit that moment, it becomes clear that there’s no turning back. It would be hard, but this had to happen, the story had to be told. The possibility of a success was too great, and the risk of a poor investment of resources was, to us, too small. Granted we’re a bunch of twenty-something never-say-die’s, but anyway…
Test Shoot with billy Fulton
From a Director’s standpoint, my biggest challenge was refining my vision for the marriage of the experimental way we told the story, and the story itself. From the beginning I had Kirk Young, Co-Producer and Assistant Director, as my right-hand man. We’ve been friends for years, and he probably knows my style and strengths better than anyone. Whenever I’m developing a story, I always remember Friedrich Nietzsche’s quote: “A good writer possesses not only his own spirit but also the spirit of his friends.” It’s always good to check yourself against someone you trust, and having Kirk on crew achieved this. It obviously goes without saying, but in filmmaking, collaboration is absolutely necessary.
The other large challenge was post-production. We took 4 too many takes for every set-up, so there were a lot of takes to go through. The performances were always stellar, so making the call on which one to use was also a challenge. Music was a nightmare, and Joe and I worked closely for two weeks straight getting it finalized. But, again, we had several “aha!” moments, and when we finalized the score, it literally gave me a lump in my throat… another “this is going to happen” moment.
I sincerely hope that whoever you are, you enjoy the film for something. That maybe you identify with Al’s failed attempts at wooing Janey, or his awkwardness, or Janey’s inability to shed the troublesome Ex. I hope that it gives you as much joy as it gave us making it.
I think that’s a swell place to end this long article.
7 Responses to “Challenges with the film”
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Alex Says:
January 25th, 2010 at 10:11 pmI’m so troublesome. mwahahaha. I’m proud to have been a part of this collaboration. Dare I say that it was…magical?
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