Just out of curiosity, to all you more experienced directors out there, what was the worst thing that ever happened on set? What did you do to resolve it? Also, what do you recommend is the best way of going about handling a production crisis?
Directors, what's the worst thing that's ever happened on set?
- Thread starter Angel Park
- Start date
Didn't happen on my set but a friend of mine who is a great actress had a heart attack right after her take. Apparently she couldn't detach herself from the character she's portraying. Good thing the shoot was under a studio so they took care of her but it was hard for her to get another "heavy" role after that. Freaky.
i told my PA to hold my camera, i had it on a glidecam, then he left it at the edge of the balcony, it flipped, fell down, and broke all the top portion of the camera. (playback control, mic, xlr, ect.)
i was devastated.
and i couldn't tell him anything since he was my cousin helping out.
i was devastated.
and i couldn't tell him anything since he was my cousin helping out.
The worst thing that happened to me was it was my first official shoot, me the crew and all the actors got to the location that I had arranged and booked only to be stopped by a quite angry Muslim lady in the building. It turns out that she was the headteacher of an Islamic school which rented out that building on Saturdays and she wouldn't allow us to be in the building unsupervised with children due to non of us having specific CRB checks done. I talked with her and explained that we had also booked this building and we weren't told about the situation and that it was the owners' fault rather than mine, and thankfully she was understanding and forwarded her anger towards them rather than me. We compromised and moved to a room higher up in the building so she wouldn't have to worry and we wouldn't get the sound of kids caught on our sound equipment.
Then the main actor didn't turn up.
All good fun for a first time, aye? :')
Then the main actor didn't turn up.
All good fun for a first time, aye? :')
While in film school in Florida, a rich kid in my class paid for flights and hotels for our documentary group project to fly to California to shoot a short doc on movie flops. We went to a huge advertising agency to interview the creative director of lots of billboard and poster ads for big movies. When we got back to the car, the cam-op accidentally formatted the card when asked to pull up the footage.
I just aspirated my cup of tea out of my nose...
Not one of mine as a director but I was assisting (erm, I got a 'with thanks' on the credits) on a short shoot in London - well funded, approx $20k USD. Oscar nominated DoP, a nice Arri in the corner with a 5D for shots where you couldn't get the Arri, sound guys bitching like crazy, cast all changed, crew all ready to go. Shooting in a building where specialised access / security was required.
And then someone asked where the lenses were.
Oh well, there's always tomorrow.
My worst moment was recently, on the way to the shoot in my rented van all full of gear (expensive gear) arri 2k's and 1k's kenoflo, egripment dolly and all the camera gear, plus a $40,000 suit of armor, the road on the location was all iced up, got a bit excited, forgot what I had packed in the van, pulled a hand brake turn, dolly slid into the chest plate of the armour and dented it. And I'm still crying about it, as is the guy we borrowed the armour from!
All my fault, but I'm sure I'll laugh....someday
All my fault, but I'm sure I'll laugh....someday
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I am desperately trying to keep names out of this one! Considering the nature of the story, I don't think he, the director or the producer would thank me! As a note, the director has asked me to do some EP stuff but I gently turned that one down!
We had to film someone getting shot, and the actor was willing to actually take a bullet in the heart and die for our art... So we killed him on camera... unfortunately, the camera wasn't quite white balanced the way I wanted it (it was CLOSE, but not close enough)
We tried re-shooting, but his heart just wasn't into it for a second take...
On a related note, I now have to testify in court against the fella who shot him.
We tried re-shooting, but his heart just wasn't into it for a second take...
On a related note, I now have to testify in court against the fella who shot him.
I got a credit as a grip for a show I Best Boy'd on last year.Haha, similar thing happened to me. Was Focus Pulling on a show last year. Call time was 9:15 so I rocked up just before 9. Had a quick chat to the DP and went about building camera. Walk up to the DP 'where are the lenses?' He doesn't know. Asks the Director. Doesn't know. Turns out no-one organised to have the lenses picked up from the rental house. So someone gets sent to the rental house.
Lenses turn up at 1pm.
Good question, actually. The joys of directing. One time our production team were in the middle of a zombie film (Couple years back, totally a great learning experience, but terribly under-experienced and unprepared), and we were putting make-up on one of our actresses, and she had a full-on sezure right before our eyes. Got scary. Guess that isn't so bad, now that I think of it. Was crazy at the time.
One of our actors had a mental breakdown on time, and started losing his entire mental capacities outside of our filming location, trying to bust inside, banging on the door like a madman, trying to rip the cast to shreds. Luckily that didn't happen, but it was pretty crazy. Stupid, most-like-it.
During a scene from our film "Renegade Rat", one of the 'lead' supporting actors (definitely an important role) dropped out the day of filming, so we had to find a quick replacement. The one fellow, who I'd originally offered the role, said he still didn't want to do it, but he'd show up and be an extra. When he came to the set, he was drunk like a mad hatter, and I gave him all the lines from the supporting character, and we went over it for quite a few hours. Finally, a couple days later, I told him what I'd done. He had a change of heart, and wanted to role, so we continued doing scenes with him in the role. Couldn't believe how that one turned out. Got lucky.
Directing is always so entertaining (along with so many other things), and there are lists of things I could go on about, but I won't be self-indulgent and pretend my situations have been any worse than anyone else's. I've enjoyed reading through this thread, though.
Cheers,
-Jesse
One of our actors had a mental breakdown on time, and started losing his entire mental capacities outside of our filming location, trying to bust inside, banging on the door like a madman, trying to rip the cast to shreds. Luckily that didn't happen, but it was pretty crazy. Stupid, most-like-it.
During a scene from our film "Renegade Rat", one of the 'lead' supporting actors (definitely an important role) dropped out the day of filming, so we had to find a quick replacement. The one fellow, who I'd originally offered the role, said he still didn't want to do it, but he'd show up and be an extra. When he came to the set, he was drunk like a mad hatter, and I gave him all the lines from the supporting character, and we went over it for quite a few hours. Finally, a couple days later, I told him what I'd done. He had a change of heart, and wanted to role, so we continued doing scenes with him in the role. Couldn't believe how that one turned out. Got lucky.
Directing is always so entertaining (along with so many other things), and there are lists of things I could go on about, but I won't be self-indulgent and pretend my situations have been any worse than anyone else's. I've enjoyed reading through this thread, though.
Cheers,
-Jesse
The worst thing that has happened to me so far is arriving on a set that I had semi-permission to be there (it was a private school) only to be commondeered by the gate guard and asked to leave.
Fortunately one of our crew knew the guy and he let us stay for an hour before pushing us on our way.
Embarrassing but fortunately no mishaps since, well not that I'd class as 'worst thing ever'. But yet to have more one day I bet!
Fortunately one of our crew knew the guy and he let us stay for an hour before pushing us on our way.
Embarrassing but fortunately no mishaps since, well not that I'd class as 'worst thing ever'. But yet to have more one day I bet!
I had an actress not show up for the first day on my first feature. She quit without telling me. So I had to get on craigslist and recast the part in six hours. Fortunately it was a b-movie and acting wasn't too important.
I wasn't directing, but I was part of the crew? So I guess it counts....
We were running power to our lunch boxes and when everything was set up the best boy called out power going hot. Meanwhile a girl was connecting two 100 amp whips together and didn't yell out "No". She was connecting the whips for a 10k and must have been distracted. She didn't even know if her breaker was on or not.
Thankfully the breaker to the whip wasn't turned on and she was not electrocuted. It was a scare for everyone though when we heard the bull switch flip and saw this girl was still connecting whips lol.
We were running power to our lunch boxes and when everything was set up the best boy called out power going hot. Meanwhile a girl was connecting two 100 amp whips together and didn't yell out "No". She was connecting the whips for a 10k and must have been distracted. She didn't even know if her breaker was on or not.
Thankfully the breaker to the whip wasn't turned on and she was not electrocuted. It was a scare for everyone though when we heard the bull switch flip and saw this girl was still connecting whips lol.
a music artist I was doing a video for pissed me off before we even done the first shot, refusing to do anything i said and her bf said I was weird...
1 month later i discover she is a pornstar who has a video of pouring custard on her privates..
im weird...
1 month later i discover she is a pornstar who has a video of pouring custard on her privates..
im weird...
Not much of a bad thing, but on my first directing gig, the assigned First AD was completely clueless to what he was supposed to do.
At the end of day 3 we have our usual meeting to see what we've learned from the day and talk over the next day. He decides that he'll turn up to this one (first time). We're going through and he starts complaining how things are running slow and no one's on top of it. The producer pipes up, "That's the first AD's job." ...about 20 seconds later the penny drops as he realizes that it's his job and everyone's been doing their best to cover his ass as well as wearing many hats. The next day he turned up about 10 hours late (the final day of shooting). It went much smoother.
I learned valuable lessons from that production.
At the end of day 3 we have our usual meeting to see what we've learned from the day and talk over the next day. He decides that he'll turn up to this one (first time). We're going through and he starts complaining how things are running slow and no one's on top of it. The producer pipes up, "That's the first AD's job." ...about 20 seconds later the penny drops as he realizes that it's his job and everyone's been doing their best to cover his ass as well as wearing many hats. The next day he turned up about 10 hours late (the final day of shooting). It went much smoother.
I learned valuable lessons from that production.
Had a production have a similar thing. We were due to shoot at 3pm. A 12 page day on green screen - all talking heads). At 9am one of the actors pull out. His offsider character pulls out at about 10am. We recast both roles by about 1pm. It's not a horror ending, they were both great. They almost had their entire lines memorized by the time we were shooting. The 12 pages went without a hitch. We wrapped early that day.
shooting outdoors on the Minnesota/Canada border in January. I think the forecast was for -30 with wind chills for much much worse. Sound guy from Cali shows up in his "warm gear:" lined jeans and a hoodie. I just laughed. Had to go out and buy him everything from bunny boots to mittens. He had the newest, warmest clothes of all of us, and guess who complained about the cold the most?
fun thread!
fun thread!