Hello from the other side…of shooting my thesis! When I tell yall i have been THRU it in these few weeks since I last posted that dramatic reading of the Zola story, whew it has been rough. But out of trials and tribulations come a really awesome thing, like a movie. I want to walk you all through the past few weeks with some details on the production.
(Pre-Production) Tale of Woe
So as many of you know, movies are expensive to make. There’s so much to take into account with films from paying actors and crew to little things (that become big things) like food for the crew and parking. Films can really add up to be significant costs. At LMU, we have the wonderful thing of being able to own our films 100% (something I think makes LMU tower over other films schools) but as students we have to finance our own films.
I was originally going to use two standings sets at a studio in the area. When me and my friend Elsie called they gave us a quote for about $2000 for the use of one set and the building and use of another. This is “pricey” (to regular humans, for filmmakers that’s a steal) but it was reasonable for what I needed (a bar and a motel room/hall). However, when I received the invoice the total had jumped to above $4000, which of course set yours truly into a tailspin. There was much back and forth about the cost with the owner, knocking $300 off for not having a whole day of prep and then when I want to just use one set, tried to charge a non-negotiable $750 cancellation fee for something I hadn’t signed an invoice for. I ended up having to cancel this place in totality.
Now to add onto this, all of this foolery happened after I had a schedule mostly set and somehow managed to produce the thing by myself after a friend had to drop out from producing. So having to cancel this left me in the rough position of trying to be a director AND producer when I thought the project was on smooth footing. Not having time to wallow, I moved on to another studio who wanted a $7500 cashier’s check to cover the $2500 rental of the space and $5000 for refundable deposit. Probably the lowest I ever got in this project was having to phone home and ask for money and contemplated taking out another loan. Whether by terrible fate or coincidence, that location didn’t return my calls or emails, despite the ridiculous timetable they put me on. THANKFULLY, I 1) had the foresight to book our school’s film stage and 2) had the best Production Designer EVER on my set (#jakesheetsisamaster).
So let’s recap what happened the week of my shoot:
-had a producer drop
-Lost two locations 3 days before the shoot
-Didn’t properly budget in October so I had less money to shoot
-had an actor drop before the 1st day of shooting
-Has to live, pay rent and other bills, eat, etc.
AND
I had to turn in a 15-17 page paper for my American Film class due the Wednesday in between my two shooting weekends. If my spirit level had a picture it would be this
Luckily, I had the best crew i’ve ever had on a film there to help me realize the film and understand the limitations I was placed under. This project truly tested me in so many ways and I’m grateful that production went better.
Production
The issues with locations didn’t end with the above. We shot the first day in a loading dock on campus by the library and got yelled at by several library people about using the dock, but were never told to stop shooting. We also got kicked out of the boardroom because the faculty were having a meeting, meaning we had to move that scene to the next day.
But it wasn’t all mess. Some movie magic happened. Unbeknownst to me, my DP and I managed to do a Spielberg oner. For those unfamiliar with this, it basically is covering an entire scenes worth of action in one take while also including all the various types of shots (CU, MS, WS). It only happened because I went in with a shot list and my DP suggested covering the master with a slider move. So the shot basically went from a closeup of my character’s hand to a medium shot of them talking to a wide of them fighting to a medium shot of my protag and antag together. In.San.Ity. I was overjoyed when I found out that we had done this because it’s one of those things about movie making that’s so special and can’t really be replicated. You can go in with all kinds of plans and then they get thrown out of the window and you just enter a zone where wonderful things can happen.
Also, I had amazing actors who delivered. During that Spielberg oner we did, these two stood in perfect alignment as captured below.
LOOK AT ALL THIS SUBTEXT! They did this just by digging in the material and combined with good blocking and shooting = awesome moment. The production hummed along, and even tho we had some long days, we got everything we needed.
Circling back around to my production designer and how he was a master, let me tell yall how great Jake is. Despite being told he had one day each week to building multiple sets he came through and built three different locations: a hotel hallway, a motel room and a Japanese house. It was bonkers and I honestly don’t know what I’d do without him on this project.
My philosophy as a director/producer is to surround myself with people who are extremely talented, communicate with them effectively, and then allow them to do their jobs. In turn, they help elevate me as an artist. I have never felt so challenged as a director as I did on The Debt Must Be Paid, but I’ve never felt so energized and so sure of my choice to become a filmmaker.
*Comic View voice* The moral of the story is, this was a tough project, but nothing is as rewarding as overcoming adversity. In the coming months, I will be doing an indiegogo campaign to raise money for post production and film festivals. I believe I have something really special with this film and want to give you all a chance to feel a part of the community. But for now enjoy some more pictures from the shoot.
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Almost all of the amazing crew who helped me shoot my thesis film. Couldn’t have asked for a better group of people to help me realize The Debt Must Be Paid! A photo posted by Terence Johnson (@lenoirauteur) on Nov 22, 2015 at 11:08pm PST