More Frightening Than Ants: That’s a wrap…

Production on the music video is wrapped!

Below is a post I left on Indieclub.com describing my music video shoot that ended yesterday.

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Well, I just finished a three day weekend directing my first music video. It was also my first project on a DVX100, first time with an official costume designer and a visual effects director (Michael J. Everret on this board).

It went fantastically! A filmmaker friend of mine told me her last short film made her so happy because she felt for the first time that she really had something special and that she really was settling into the director position. This is how I felt. I’ve worked on almost 30 projects now, but this is the first time I’ve directed something that I felt really in control of and enjoyed myself fully the entire time, knowing I was making something that was going to come out looking awesome.

My music video had several ingredients in a recipe for disaster: a 5 year-old child actor who had to wear a bear costume two days in a row, a shoot that takes place entirely outdoors (soon after daylight savings, doh!), and my first costume designer made the outfits too small for the band members.

Thankfully, my filmmaker friend (same one) helped me “let go” of the original costume person, which we replaced with a much more capable person, who solved many problems. She took the lead singer’s big bear costume, that was too small and used it to make the little bear costume for the child actor. Then she remade the big costume with new fabric. As for the other ill-fitting costume (for the lead guitarist who was dressed as a dog) she added fabric to the waist so it would fit, and somehow it was seamless. I didn’t even find out that is how she fixed it until dinner after the last day of shooting (yesterday, Sunday).

Ian, the child actor did very well. He annoyed some of the crew because he would get tired and lie down in the middle of a shot, but he’s just a little kid and he did very well for his age. We got all the shots we needed and he turned out very cute. I didn’t get upset when he’d get irritable. In general, he did a good job and we did very well with the schedule. There was no drama on the set that I can recall except when Michael and I fought about where to store the tapes, which when I look back was of course stupid.

Surprisingly, most everyone showed up promtly to our 7 am call time on Friday at Balboa Park, which one of the exec producers acquired a permit for me so yay! We finished on time, and the one shot we didn’t get with the child actor was because he and his brother (who was the key grip) got there too late ’cause they were stuck in border traffic. But we made up the shot on Sunday so we got everything in that we planned.

For the most part, food wasn’t a problem. The bassist and her friend took care of that with the money in the budget we planned and we had a little extra at the end to buy pizza for the crew when we were done with the shoot Sunday night. The video cost less than $300 and it was split four ways between me and the three band members. The lead singer spent a litle bit more, but I think he will find his extra $12 well worth it when he sees his visage on the final product.

The camera was provided by another friend, Aaron Soto, who will get exec producer credit too. The last exec producer was Teri Carson, the filmmaker friend I mentioned. She provided us with her green screen fabric, tape and she got me the makeup artist and costume designer. She was also the one who got me the permit and rented the audition space.

Back to production. Another thing that could have destroyed me was that I lost my car/house keys Friday night. Inside the car was the green screen tape, one of my batteries (see my previous thread where I was desperate to find a second battery because everything Friday and Saturday was outdoor location) AND the camera adaptor that powers it from a regular electrical outlet!!!! Despite all this we managed to survive all weekend. I got the same guy who lent me the trapped battery to lend me his power adaptor. PHEW! But then it got misplaced Saturday night!

Sunday we somehow managed to shoot all day on one battery. In between shots we’d charge it. It was a close call, but we made it.

The best part is:

WE FINISHED AHEAD OF SCHEDULE EVERY DAY! YAY!

Friday we finished about an hour ahead of schedule, Saturday 6 minutes ahead and Sunday by almost two hours! The Sunday shoot ended so early because I took a different approach with the child actor. I had allowed lots of time because it would take a while to get him to do it right and not get tired. On Sunday we made sure he had a chair at all times to sit down on once we stopped rolling and in general we didn’t do official takes, we’d just keep rolling and rushing and coaxing and whatnot. It’s hard to explain, but we finished with his shots amazingly fast. I am so pleased with how we followed the schedule so well.

This is thanks to a template I borrowed from another filmmaker friend who I helped on her shoot last weekend. I liked her shotlist/schedule so much I asked her to send me the Word file so I could adapt it to my shoot. It worked fantastically well and we really knew how we were doing on time and when we were behind schedule we could hustle to catch up.

Everything went fine and I am really happy with my footage. Now we have to try to edit 2 and a half hours of video into a 5 and a half minute music video in a week! That way Michael has time to work his magic so I can turn in the video to my class in mid-December. The final cut probably won’t be done until early next year.

The great success of this project is mostly thanks to a very knowledgeable and helpful crew who all knew and performed their tasks well. My AD, Jessica Hilt and Michael were especially amazing. Because of them I didn’t have to worry about so much stuff, and was able to concentrate on mostly producing and directing.

The costumes and makeup were also impressive. Melissa Mesa, an SD local was wonderful. I loved all her costumes and she did so much on set to do little alterations to help with our shots (i.e., tightening the head piece so we could see the eyes on a top shot, etc.). Ivy Thaide was great at makeup. Her red and black paint, in conjunction with Melissa’s costuming made our actor playing the ant look really cool looking (see old thread on my questions on how to make the ant character). The AD helped me cast him. He showed up to the audition because she took improv class with him. At 6 feet 6 inches, he made such an amazing ant, expecially with his extra set of arms.

In conclusion, this was a great experience for me. Of course, there is plenty of work that still needs to be done, but I feel relieved production went so incredibly well and feel reinvigorated about my directing skills. I think, while there is still so much to learn, this project has definitely helped me take another step in the right direction and I am definitely more prepared now to direct my 80s musical next year.

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