Shooting This Weekend

Nathan shooting me as I walk carrying tons of stuff

This weekend was incredibly busy for me. I was preparing for my film shoot to create a pitch video for my Kickstarter campaign I’ll be posting soon. Writing and re-writing the little script, tracking down props, tracking down crew and talent, finding workable locations, finding parking, finding food, coordinating the schedule, etc. Whew!

Saturday I spent much of the day shopping, picking up props and scouring around for last-minute items. Saturday night I packed and repacked, wrote a couple of lists, double checked the lists and so on. Sunday morning I woke up after not hardly sleeping a wink anyway because I was so excited (I’m always like this before film projects) and worried I’d forget something. Sure enough, I get up early, go over my lists again, discovered that I forgot to add some paperwork to the lists, was printing that out, and checking over everything.

Finally, I get to the location. Once there, I can’t find the little camp stove that I borrowed that I know I never took out of the trunk of my car so I know it’s in there SOMEWHERE (of course I found it the minute I got home after the shoot was over and I was unloading the trunk, grr). I also realized that the potato chips and paper plates that know for sure were in one of the bags have somehow leaped out of the bag and made a sneaky getaway (I still haven’t found them!). Fortunately, one of our actors actually happened to have some paper plates in his car, so it worked out. Which was good, because feeding your crew and talent is very important and without the plates they wouldn’t have been able to eat the food I brought.

Because of the missing prop and one crew/talent member’s not being able to come because she got called in to work at the last minute (darn!) we had to adjust some things and change a few little scenes. One lesson in independent filmmaking I’ve learned is that flexibility and creative problem solving can often save the day. And it did!

I got everything done except my voice over lines and we’ll record those Wednesday. After that, it won’t be long before my little vid is up and the campaign is running!

I would like to give a special thanks to Nathan Isaacs, who is putting together this little video for me. Thanks to Phil Anderson and Jon Jonas for loaning me their equipment and props. Thank you very much to Phoenix, D. Stephen Raymond and to Micah (my hubby) and my little girl, Willow, for playing your parts with gusto. Thanks also go to Mac O’Monty, for helping out with the lighting!

My favorite thing about filmmaking, even short videos like this, is that it is such a collaborative effort that brings together a bunch of people for a common goal, working together as team, and we still manage to have fun while we do it!