Ninja vs Penguin

Penguin May 28th, 2010

What happened:
- went to Adam’s Arcade at 9:30. had breakfast, journaled. Ken was supposed come pick me up for Gwatila’s music video
- Ken shows up with Kim, the guitarist, at 11:20.
- get to Gwatila’s at 12, start setting up lights, etc for Gwatila’s music video.
- I shoot some set photographs
- by 4, we’ve only finished Kim’s shots and he has to go.
- we consider shooting some scenes with Gwatila, but we don’t really have the time and start packing stuff up at 5:40
- we sit around and chat about Filamujuani and decide to shoot a quick and dirty documentary this coming week so people can see what we’re doing and the sort of impact we’re having
- we go to Spice Roots, an Indian restaraunt for Tom and Deb’s farewell dinner. we’re supposed to get there at 8, but get there at 9. they order food, get some appetizers at 10, get the actual dinner at 11.
- we go to Havana at 12:30, a local bar/club and dance the night away
- i get home at 2

Gwatila is an actress, poet, singer and has her first published book of poetry, “Blue Mothertongue“. Ken is shooting a music video for a poem she wrote called, “Dear E”, which was put to music.

While Ken was shooting with his 5Dmk2, Gwatila was coming up with a shot list. At the end of the 4 hour shoot, we had 6 of 32 shots done for a 2:18 music video.

This is one of the reasons why planning is such a crucial part of filmmaking. In fact, planning starts in the script. The script is a series of descriptions of what is and what isn’t on screen. Pre-production takes that concept a step further and figures out, practically, how do we show what’s in the script.

Now, there are definitely instances where it takes a long time to even get 1 shot. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m also not advocating sticking so close to the plan that you don’t allow for inspiration or serendipity, nor is getting the shot THE primary task.

What planning does, is it forces you to think through everything before actually doing it. It frees your mind so those moments of inspiration and serendipity are free to happen. Since your mind is no longer thinking about what HAS to be shot, it can be freed to wonder, explore, and play. You’ve already considered the possibilities and tossed out the ones you know won’t work. All that’s left, are the ones that will.

Planning also frees up time so getting the shot isn’t what you’re doing. I hate it when I get to the end of my day and I still have a ton of shots left to get, but I can’t miss my day either. So I switch into functional mode. I get the shots I need in order to tell the story. But often times, those shots are devoid of life. They work, but they don’t have that sense of magic that really connects.

Planning, it’s your friend.

• Kenya: Day 9 (0)
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Tags: Kenya 2010, Missions, Planning, Pre-production, Trips

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Penguin July 14th, 2009

The Intern Project has quickly moved through pre-production. We spent a short afternoon location scouting and taking reference pictures which I had intended to use for storyboarding. But with this quick time table, I haven’t really been able to do that. Instead, I’ve moved straight into making my shot list.

I’ve been watching Hollywood Camera Works and I wish I took notes. There’s so many things with blocking, shot composition, and camera placement that I know I learned, but just can’t recall. One of the lessons I learned was to think in terms of camera placement and not necessarily in shots, per se. I’m also trying to stay away from “artistic” angles. Since we’re doing something along the lines of “The Office”, we’re going to be shooting a lot of handheld. That’s going to be interesting.

We did have a scare last week where one of our leads dropped out of the project. Her schedule just didn’t allow her to make our shoots. So we scrambled to find someone to take her place. Her character was too important to just cut out completely. Luckily, we secured another actress and was able to get back on track.

From this point on, all the phases of production are going to get mashed together.

We have first drafts for episodes 6 and 7, but they need to be edited and rewritten. I still have episodes 4 and 5 to edit too. Then preproduction on all those. And once we have some scenes in the can, we’re going to start editing them.

It’s going to be crazy, but fun.

-Penguin

• The Intern Project: Scene Breakdown (0)
• The Intern Project: Production Week 1 (0)
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• Kenya: Day 13 – Planning (1)

Tags: Pre-production, The Intern Project

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