Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: actors, cinema, directing, fates, film, film project, moirae, narrative
After a week of preparation, our crew of 4 people spent Saturday filming our semi-narrative film. Though it has no dialogue, I do think we were able to develop it enough that the visuals will tell a story. And we could not have such great visuals without our phenomenal actors who, I believe, really enjoyed themselves, took the script and made it their own. Everything about the personalities of our two actors were perfect. Both were willing to do anything, and they didn’t get frustrated when it took us longer to set up a scene or when it took longer to finish a scene. In particular, we had Sean, our main actor, sit at a desk in small room in front of three hot lights for probably three hours. He never complained, and, though we made sure to ask if he needed anything, he was always OK. I also thought that he was cast perfectly. Liv really did a terrific job because I was worried about Sean because I’ve only ever seen him do comedy, but it just made him a fun person to interact with and a great personality to have on set. He gladly accepted putting on Liv’s bathrobe and he was happy to repeatedly lay down on a street in Burlington.
I also learned that it really is important for your actors to have a back story for their character. Knowing about the character allowed Sean to develop the character more with his facial expressions and a fantastic improvised scene in the office where he just starts crying (that we, unfortunately, had to cut). I did also learn that it is important to keep the momentum going throughout the day. And to make sure people get breaks. We had Sean arrive on our first set at 9:30, but because our Rifa light was shooting sparks, we probably didn’t start filming til 10:15. Then we filmed straight til 3 and gave Sean a break til 4:30, which is when we logged some of our footage. Then we got him back and filmed until 10:00pm. The shoot ran way later than expected, but both Ally and Sean were troopers.
Ally, our actress, I had known both from theater make-up class and Liv’s experimental film. I was afraid of using the same actress from Liv’s other film, but I knew she would be perfect, and she was. She filmed from 11:00 to 3:00, also without complaint, always willing and eager to please. She even tried to help us when we, back and forth, picked up the Indie Dolly and tracks into and out of the road to film one shot. I remember Liv saying to her “you are responsible for this man’s life, how does that make you feel?” and Ally made an expression and we loved it. I have no idea how actors can bring about these emotions, but it’s awesome. And, when you see a director get it out of them, or, better, when they do it on their own, it’s exciting to witness. I loved everything about being on set with our actors.
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