Production Log: 2003

[Jake_82]

Since I finally started filming the movie I've been planning for the last couple of months, I decided to document the process. I'll be posting daily decription of how it goes on xixax and I'll probably put edited versions of it on the little web page I put together for the movie: www.oasisx.com/2003

Alright. The first day of shooting was today. I've been waiting for this day since I finished the script at the end of April, but there have been some delays in the process. After I finished the script, I decided the next step would be to get someone to help me with the production side of things. My latest endeavor really could have used that, because I ended up using my friends who didn't want to do it (since I didn't know anyone else), and the whole thing was rushed and not as good as it could have been. So this time around I approached Wyndham, a friend I didn't know back in February when I made my first short film, Repair (check out the Feature Presentation section if you're interested).

Wyndham is a very connected girl, she has many friends, including a large number of actors and actresses, which was lucky for me since I don't know any. She passed the script around, and it garnered interest with a numbe of people. Before long I had four people looking to act in it, including Colin, who was very excited about it and wanted to help out as much as possible. He helped me put up fliers around town for casting (I wanted to find as many dedicated people as I could as actors), and we got a large response from mostly university students. Unfortunately, the film is about high school students, and everyone was sort of uneasy about working with random UCD people, so we ignored everyone's responses and decided to keep it with just us, since all of us knew each other (or knew each other through Wyndham).

It was the beginning of June, and the actors had been cast. Unfortunately, nearly everyone had a busy summer schedule. I chose Colin to play the lead part, and he would be in Europe from June 16-July 10. During that time, I got together with my friends Alicia and Elizabeth, who are both into film. They're dedicated, but Elizabeth doesn't like to be told what to do too much, and they both aren't really too knowledgeable about film, but I'm really glad to have them. Through June and early July, I planned out in great detail where each location would be shot, and tried to see if I could get access to all the locations I needed. For instance, a hospital scene will probably be changed because I'm too lazy to actually get permission for a hospital, and I think it would work better in a different loaction (although that's probably just me justifying my lack of initiative).

On the technical sid of things, I had recently purchased a new camcorder, far superior than my old broken $500 D8 cam the Sony PDX10. After about a month of deliberation, I decided it was the best deal for my money (almost a grand, and my dad said he would match whatever I put in after much convincing). I got it for $1970, which is an exceptional deal in my opinion... it's a DVCAM cacmorder that comes with an external microphone, it has a resolution of .7 megapixels, which isn't the best, but the good thing about it is that it allows for true 16:9 at the same resolution as 4:3 (it can do this becaus it has an actual resolution of a little over 1 megapixel, and then crops the video. I know this doesn't make sense, but it does if I take the time to explain it, but I won't. PM me if you really want to know). My computer has 75 gig hard drive, but only about 20 gigs left, so it might cause some difficulties in editing... I might end up purchasing a new hard drive if I have to.

Shooting Day 1

When Colin finally got back from Europe, the schedule was thrown back a week or so, because his parents grounded him (for buying alcohol in greece on the last day of his trip). So yesterday was the first day he was free, and I made sure to take full advantage of it. The actors schedules are very tight now, and I don't know if I'll be able to finish shooting it by the end of the summer, which I had originally hoped for.

Luckily he and the lead actress both live only a few blocks away from me, so that worked out to our advantage. Yesterday he came over at 11:00, and we set out to film a couple scenes. I have no crew for this movie, although if I needed anyone for crew-type stuff (which I don't think I will), Alicia or Elizabeth are there to help me. The first scene we shot was part of a longer sequence that ends in James (Colin's character) going into a bathroom and looking at himself in the mirror dramatically (which sounds incredibly gay when I type it out, but it should work in the end). In the script, the bathroom is supposed to be in an art gallery, but the art gallery doesn't really have a bathroom, so I had planned to use the decrepit bathroom of a local pizzaria. However, when we got down to it, I didn't feel like walking to the back of a pizzaria with a camera and another guy at 11:30 in the morning. So we went to a semi-public but lockable bathroom instead and shot it there.

I was nervous, because of the whole video camera in a bathroom thing not looking too good to strangers, and it was the first scene and I wanted to make it great. Unfortunately I was too nervous to remember the way I had wanted to. I had wanted to do a PTA-style quick dolly in on Colin as he walked up to the mirror, but instead I just sat in one place and did it form there. When watching it later, it turned out to be nothing special, so if I have the time I might redo it at a much later point.

Next we went to the outside of an abandoned factory that features prominently in a few scenes (but we had planned to shoot in a different factory about 60 miles away, because we didn't think we could get into it... more on that later), and they turned out sub-par when I watched them later... I should have brought a tripod for one, but we were on our bikes so we had to make do, and for a couple of the takes there was no sound. The external microphone caused trouble then and also later, so I might have to redo those scenes too. Amanda, the actress playing the female lead, came over at 1:00, and we headed out to an overpass to film the first scene of the movie (not that we're shooting in order, but it just happened that it worked to do it yesterday). It's over 100 degrees here, and the scene is basically Colin and Amanda's characers walking for a long time. Then we had to do it three times, because the first two times the external microphone wasn't recording, so I finally just unplugged it and used the crappy internal mic. The scene didn't turn out too bad, I might be able to edit it to make it good enough for the final product.

Next we went to go shoot a scene that was supposed to be outside a starbucks style cafe, but we changed the location to a very different looking hippie style cafe, and it turned out differently than I expected. But I think it's pretty good. After that we headed over to the enormous UC Davis campus library and shot a scene in there. The scene itself turned out to be excellent, and I got a really good camera angle from the center of a table, but when I watched it later the audio is really really low... I think I might be able to edit it to work, or have them do voice overs and mix them in with the audio that already exists, but I don't want to re shoot it because the picture turned out so well.

The last thing we had to shoot for the day was what I thought would be a very uncomfortable scene... in the script it's a scene where the two characters get very touchy with each other in a parked railroad car, and due to the subject matter, the fact that they're both high school students, and they've known each other their whole lives, I figured it would be uncomfortable for them. We headed out to bike around looking for a parked railroad car, and it was the most exhausting bike ride of my life... The seering heat and the fact we hadn't eaten anything and it was 2:00 and we didn't have water combined to put us all on the verge of heat stroke. We got to a parked train, but all the cars had their doors shut (usually there's some open, and there's always parked trains in Davis, a town that was originally a train stop).

We took a break to get some water from a drinking fountain in a desolate parking lot that's hardly ever used. When we got down there, I realized it would be a perfect place to shoot the scene-- on this ever-expanding pavement instead of a train car, which probably wouldn't have turned out the way I had expected on video in any case. The scene wasn't very uncomfortable for the two actors after all, which was a huge relief, and the scene turned out beautifully! It's better than any scene I have ever shot, and I'm so glad I decided to shoot it where I did. In the original script the scene would have been really trippy with lots of fades and eerie music, but the way it is now, I don't think I'm going to edit it at all... it's magnificent and the sound adds to it's intrigue. Here's a picture, but it doesn't really look this crappy on video... check the 2003 web page for a higher quality version.



Well, we got 7 scenes done, and 2 of them turned out well, 1 turned out satisfactory, and 3 will probably have to be shot over again. But I'm happy that we finally accomplished something concrete! We're probably shooting again tommorow. w00t.

[Cecil]

cool. cant wait to see the film

[mutinyco]

That image isn't 16:9. Did you crop it to 2.4 or was it stretched?

[Jake_82]

That image isn't 16:9. Did you crop it to 2.4 or was it stretched?

ah no, that's not a direct capture from the video... I cropped it in photoshop for something else and changed the contrast a little, here's the original cap: http://www.oasisx.com/JL2.jpg ... it looks a lot crappier than it really is

[ono]

That's a beautiful shot.  And I've always wanted to read something like this about the ongoing filmmaking process.  Keep up the good work, and good luck!  

[mutinyco]

Just a note (nice site by the way) -- it might be more pragmatic to post you journal on the site, then simply put a daily link to what you've written on the boards here. It'll make people go to the site.

[Ghostboy]

Yeah, it's always nice to have more content to attract people to your site, and since personal journals are kind of addictive to read (especially when they're about film production), you might be able to pick up a small following of readers...at least from this site!

Your first day of shooting read like deja vu to me. The first day of shooting on my first film was exhausting, and then when I looked at the footage I was sort of disappointed because I'd forgotten to do all the things I'd planned, and I was too nervous to think through various problems we encountered during the day. We ended up reshooting 90% of the stuff we shot that day, and it was well worth it.

Be sure to let us know as soon as you've got some footage up...you should cut a trailer ASAP and get it online!

[Pubrick]

that chick is nice.

more please.

[Jake_82]

cool. cant wait to see the film

That's a beautiful shot.  And I've always wanted to read something like this about the ongoing filmmaking process.  Keep up the good work, and good luck!  

Thanks for the encouragement! It's really helpful when I'm feeling stressed about the project. I'm glad to be able to detail the proccess, too, because it's something I've always been interested to read something like this, and now I get to write it!

Just a note (nice site by the way) -- it might be more pragmatic to post you journal on the site, then simply put a daily link to what you've written on the boards here. It'll make people go to the site.

Yeah, it's always nice to have more content to attract people to your site, and since personal journals are kind of addictive to read (especially when they're about film production), you might be able to pick up a small following of readers...at least from this site!

What I was thinking of doing was first writing it for the board here, since you guys would probably be more interested in it, and post a slightly different version on the other site. Hearing feedback here is an advantage too.

Your first day of shooting read like deja vu to me. The first day of shooting on my first film was exhausting, and then when I looked at the footage I was sort of disappointed because I'd forgotten to do all the things I'd planned, and I was too nervous to think through various problems we encountered during the day. We ended up reshooting 90% of the stuff we shot that day, and it was well worth it.

Be sure to let us know as soon as you've got some footage up...you should cut a trailer ASAP and get it online!

Glad to know it's a first day thing, and hopefully the shooting will go better in the future. I intend to cut a trailer as soon as possible, because trailers are just so fun! But I'm going to wait until I have shot a few more days because right now I have hardly anything coherent enough for a trailer.

that chick is nice.

more please.

she's also 15, but whatever floats your boat   http://www.oasisx.com/2003/cast.jpg

[Jake_82]

Shooting Day 2

We didn't do anything on Saturday, but on Sunday we got a lot done. Amanda came over at around noon to shoot a scene with Colin and we ended up waiting around for him for a while, so I tried to strike up some conversation with Amanda, who is a very shy girl. I'm not much of a conversationalist so it turned out somewhat awkward, but Colin showed up and we started filming. We shot three scenes in a sequence where Amanda's character (Lisa) shows up at Colin's character's (James) house. Then they share an awkward kiss. The day after I made them shoot the most awkward scene in the film, I make them shoot the second most awkward. Luckily they were cool with it, and it only took three takes (which are interesting to watch... the first time she nevously kisses him, the second time she grabs his neck confidently, and the third time he practically instigates it).

The only other scene I had to shoot involving Amanda was of Lisa and James walking on railroad tracks. I had planned to shoot this from above the railroad tracks off a pedestrian overpass, but it didn't work out too well. The fence on the side of the overpass was too noticable in the shot, and the only way I could get past it was to take the camera off the tripod (which I had originally intended to use for that scene) and hold it right up to the wire fence to see past it. But it turned out all shaky, so I came down to the railroad tracks and shot it right from there, which turned out a lot better than the attempt from the overpass, even though it was at a different angle than I wanted.

Amanda left so Colin and I went back to my house to film another scene, and then once we were done that, I was about to let him go because I didn't want to make him do too much work, but he was like "hey lets go reshoot those scenes that didn't turn out to well!" and he even got his mom to give us a ride so we didn't have to bike. I'm lucky to have someone as enthusiastic as him working on the movie... I haven't been so lucky in the past. Anyway we went back to the outside of that factory and I brought my makeshift steadicam dealy (that I constructed by following the plans on http://scs.student.virginia.edu/~fms-uva/ ) and the scenes there turned out great. I even got a really good shot I decided to do from a completely different place and it worked out really well.

His mom drove us home (parents of my friends often freak me out, but although some alarming points of discussion came up she was pretty nice). And Colin left until later. At around 5:00, one of the actresses that was working on the movie and I hadn't heard anything from for a while finally called me and we decided to go shoot a scene right then. So Colin met us in front of the same library from yesterday and we stealthily went to the third floor without anyone noticing my camera and tripod. We spent around 45 minutes filming a scene in between two bookshelves from a bunch of different angles. This scene, I think, turned out really well... I might even be able to incorporate some nifty split screens with the footage I got.



Colin had to go off to eat dinner with his parents before shooting a scene at dusk. We met at around 8:15, and we had to run to get to where we needed to be before the sun went down. The two shots I needed turned out exceptionally, except for a little bit of dirt that was on the lens that I didn't have time to wipe off... hopefully no one will notice, though. When I got home I didn't look at the footage for a while, but when I finally did I realized I had done the most idiotic thing in the world... I had rewinded to just before the scene I reeeeaaally liked yesterday and forgot to fast forward before starting taping. Luckily I had the scene on my computer, but I lost a couple of takes from another scene and two alternate takes that weren't as good from the scene I really liked. But everything should work out fine... you live and learn I guess, luckily I didn't lose too much this time.

[ono]

I've got some questions about your script, just 'cause I'm curious.  Might be beneficial for all of us.  How long did it take you to write it, from conception (when'd you first think of the idea?) to completion?  How long is the script?  How did you edit the script?  Who did you give it to to proof and make changes to?  How confident are you in the script itself?  What is the premise?  Got a summary of the plot?  How long did you all rehearse (if at all) before actually going to the locations and shooting?  Maybe there's more I was curious about, but that's enough for now.

[Jake_82]

I've got some questions about your script, just 'cause I'm curious.  Might be beneficial for all of us.  How long did it take you to write it, from conception (when'd you first think of the idea?) to completion?  How long is the script?  How did you edit the script?  Who did you give it to to proof and make changes to?  How confident are you in the script itself?  What is the premise?  Got a summary of the plot?  How long did you all rehearse (if at all) before actually going to the locations and shooting?  Maybe there's more I was curious about, but that's enough for now.

I thought of the idea around March 8th, and mulled it over in my mind until around April 15th. What I did was I got this tiny (3"x2.5" or something) notebook and started writing down a history of events and backgrounds on character's lives. I started it out writing back story about what happened in the months before the screenplay shows, and then I got up to where the screenplay starts. I wrote it like it was a journal or something "Then James went over there, but lisa did this" or whatnot... sometimes I wrote down scenes of dialouge or camera directions that stood out when thinking about this stuff. Then once I was done with the events that take place in the script, I went back and wrote the life history of the two main characters. Once that was done, I sat down and wrote the first draft of the script in 10 days, but I changed a lot of what happened from my little outline notebook.

So I planned it for a month and wrote it down in about a week. A couple weeks later I went back and changed the ending and some other things, and right now it's at 35 pages. I didn't really give it to anyone with the specific intention of having them review it, but I got a few suggestions from people and took them into account.

How confident am I in the script? Hardly at all! It really makes almost no sense if you read it. It basically tells a story that doesn't get resolved and it's not very clear at all what the point of it is. I think I went way overboard on trying to make lots of things symbolic and never thuroughly explaining what the symbols mean. I should have tried to make things more concrete-- maybe I still have a chance... it's really pretentious for me not to explain anything. I saw Lucia Y El Sexo after writing this script and there are many similarities between my script and that movie, stylistically, except my script makes a lot less sense (and deals with a different subject matter)

The script is basically about this teenager James, who's a selfish ass. He moves from San Francisco to Davis (something never quite fully explained in the script, oy...) after a bad relationship with a girl there. He doesn't really care about anything, but he sort of tries to succeed in school. He also does urban exploration, exploring abandoned building and the such. He meets a girl named Lisa and he's an ass to her, but they form a fucked-up relationship. Then Annie, the girl from San Francisco, comes to Davis and we see the contrast between his relationship with Annie and his relationship with Lisa. Then there's some dream sequences and other bullshit.

We didn't rehearse it at all. None of the actors memorized their lines, which is fine, they just quickly memorize them before we shoot each scene, which is easy because I didn't write extensive dialogue (because I suck at it). The girl in the picture above hadn't even read the full script for a long time before shooting that scene and didn't know what was really going on, but it still worked.

[Ghostboy]

This sounds awesome...I hope it works out!

[Jake_82]

Shooting Day (well, night/morning) 3

Monday I didn't really feel like doing anything, since I'm lazy and stupid, but luckily Colin is for some reason more motivated than I am, so he decided we should shoot scenes tonight and tommorow morning. And I mean morning... the scene calls for a sunrise time lapse while James and Annie are sleeping (on a roof). Anyway, Colin came over and did three or four scenes that were just him in his house at night. A couple of the scenes involved him talking on the phone, so I took his cell phone and he called it and talked to me for one scene, and I called him from his cell phone for the other scene. Then we had to shoot a scene where he was asleep in front of the TV without any light other than the TV. The only problem was that my camera isn't great for low-light conditions, so it was impossible to do that without professional lighting, which I know nothing about and don't feel like figuring out at the time. The scene turned out alright though, I think...

Colin went home, and on the way home he fell off his bike, ripped his chin open, and got 5 stitches in his chin. He was alright, and I think it won't be a big deal on video... it shouldn't be too noticable. I woke up at 4:30 am and madly threw a bunch of crap in my camera bag, which I placed with my tripod in my backpack and waited for Amanda to arrive. She got there at 4:52, and her mom was there with her. I think Amanda mentioned that we were shooting near the train tracks, because her mom appeared all frazzled and jokingly but also seriously said "just don't go near the train tracks!" Now her parents want to read the script, which isn't too desirable, seeing as how there are more dangerous locations in it than the train tracks. Hopefully Amanda will be able to convince her parents to still allow her to work on the movie.

We reached downtown ("downtown" is hardly that, it's just the area where all the stores are in this small town) around 5:00 and I took Colin and Amanda down a dark alley where we had to evade several drunken hobos to reach our a ladder that we used to climb to the roof of a building. Once there, I experienced another lighting problem... hardly anything was showing up on the screen. I put the camera on a tripod and started filming a time lapse scene of the sun rising while they sleep. This is part of a sequence where Lisa and James explore a building and then its roof. I'll shoot the building part on a different night, in a different location (hope no one notices!) The time lapse thing hardly worked out, because although I couldn't see it in the dark, the portion of the frame where colin and Amanda are throughout the whole thing is covered by a pipe that hardly shows them at all...  :x Oh well, it's not such a big deal I guess, but it was something that could have been really cool if it had worked.

Once there was enough light, I took the camera handheld and ran around the roof, exhilarated by the beauty of the scene. I haven't felt as good as when I was shooting that scene in a very long time. It's such a fantastic feeling to be doing what you love, and also to see something you've imagined for a long time come to life on the screen. After that, I was in such a state of post-filmmaking petting that I stupidly forgot my tripod on the roof, so I had to race back to go get it, being eyed suspiciously by a worker in the alleyway. Amanda went home and Colin went to that bathroom we the bathroom scene in to change costumes (I've been paying great attention to costumes, the film's timeline spreads like at least 25 different days.) We went off to film some scenes where James is jogging in the early morning with no one else around, but I realized I had forgotten the thing that connects the camcorder and the tripod on that roof, but I didn't want to go back to get it, so I just rested the camera on top of the tripod... I guess I'll go back to get it in a few days or maybe I'll just buy a new one.

The last shot we did today was of James jogging and then another jogger appears, and James stops jogging. We didn't have anyone to play the other jogger, so I made a little director's cameo, except I look like an idiot. Oh well...

Sorry if this post makes no sense at all, I've been up since 4:30, so I'm not in the clearest state of mind. Here's a picture I took with my digital (still) camera from the roof scene:

http://www.oasisx.com/JLbw.jpg">

[Cecil]

your shots look really good