failed shoot, it needed to happen

R

RealJasonBourne

it just needed to happen. It was an unorganized mess, I spent the whole day buying supplies and still showed up late and had to leave the location to look for last minute things and ended up making the crew wait an extra hour and a half.

1 hour into fail shooting me and my brother agreed we didnt want to be here anymore and started handing out the money and telling them we need to leave.

they were professional.

this shit needed to happen, it just shows every centimeter needs to be planned out, 8 grand down the drain.

EDIT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQiz...ature=youtu.be
 
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ChimpPhobiaFilms said:
First off, you really need to work on your pre-production skills. You shouldn't be out buying supplies and showing up late. Get the supplies you need as soon as you can possibly get them... before the day of the shoot. And show up on time, and have plenty of back up plans in case something fails. Because if there's a possibility something may fail, it probably will. Read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy's_law

Look, I recommend you start off small. Just shoot something with your brother or a friend or even by yourself. You jumped into something huge way too quick and you may have burned some bridges with possible connections. Start on a smaller scale and work your way up so that you feel comfortable in the atmosphere you're in and you're professional enough to handle it.

Also, how did you blow 8 grand on one day of shooting?
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I realize you're trying to help, but this dude is quite obviously aware that he should have bought his supplies earlier. I don't think you really need to point it out to him.

As far as the 8 grand on one day of shooting, this is the guy that pays everyone $500. Paid $500 for unknown child actor, $500 to dig a hole in the ground. And he hired a lighting guy off craigslist who quoted him $300 and then he decided to pay him $500 instead.
 
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sfoster said:
I realize you're trying to help, but this dude is quite obviously aware that he should have bought his supplies earlier. I don't think you really need to point it out to him.
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Fair enough.

As far as the 8 grand on one day of shooting, this is the guy that pays everyone $500. Paid $500 for unknown child actor, $500 to dig a hole in the ground. And he hired a lighting guy off craigslist who quoted him $300 and then he decided to pay him $500 instead.
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Wow.
 
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ChimpPhobiaFilms said:
You jumped into something huge way too quick and you may have burned some bridges with possible connections.
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Since they all, apparently, were paid $500 to stand around twiddling their fingers for a couple hours... I'd wager one or two of 'em would be willing to do that again. Hell, I'll do that kind of gig all day long for $250-500/hr. :yes: Where do I sign up?
 
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RealJasonBourne said:
it just needed to happen. It was an unorganized mess, I spent the whole day buying supplies and still showed up late and had to leave the location to look for last minute things and ended up making the crew wait an extra hour and a half.
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It happens. We were shooting in a rented cabin, on a mountain an hour's drive from town. The cabin's power couldn't handle our lighting, so I had to drive back to town, rent a generator and drive back with it. Cast/crew waited for two hours. But,.....that's what they get paid to do!


1 hour into fail shooting me and my brother agreed we didnt want to be here anymore and started handing out the money and telling them we need to leave.
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Just think, a few more hours into shooting and it wouldn't have failed, though you might have to schedule some extra time. Always have a contingency - know that your budget is not enough and you will usually need more time.


On my feature, THE BLACK CRYSTAL, we had a hitchhiker scene and car chase planned, for that opening day. We drove for an hour to the location. It started raining and the main car, a Trans am, began overheating - the radiator fluid was literally filling up the floorboard of the front passenger seat. We also had a suction mount and camera (shooting into the car) that was falling off the car door.

I wanted to pay everyone, quit and go home! 6 hours went by and we only had two shots. Eventually, the rain stopped. We broke for lunch. We pulled out the thermostat and that stopped the overheating. We tied the suction mount to the door. 12:30pm came around and everything just started clicking. Though we lost half the day, we finished those scenes.

BCLarryonhood.jpg



When we were building the backyard spaceship set for TERRARIUM, the city demanded that it be torn down, 2 weeks before shooting started. I was looking at a fine and possible jail time, but we kept talking to officials and kept building and shooting, while waiting for their answers.

I had planned for some fancy lighting and dolly shots, removable wall sections for shots of people in cryo, but then it became "Let's shoot this really fast, before they can do anything!"

cryonauts.jpg



It's pretty much a given that every project has a set of huge obstacles. You're supposed to want to give up, but you need to want it bad enough that nothing can deter you.
 
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My current project which we shot 2 weeks ago, I woke up that thursday at 8am. Worked on some film stuff then went to work. Got off work and worked on more pre pro (btw, I am very much a procrastinator), did not get sleep and went back to work. Got off work, packed my expensive equip and drove out of state about 4 hours. Had to buy blood ingredients as my cousin did not have a clue on that. Met them on first location and shot 1/2 day there then to second location. Finished filming, slept 3 hours went to 3rd location. Bunch of extras did not show up as planned. Reset scene and shot anyways. Went back to locaton 2 to get more footage for other scenes. Left and got back home about 10pm which is when I went to bed. Out of about 86 hours I got a combined total of about 6 hours of sleep (2 on the way back when I ran off the road at 85mph and decided I needed a nap). If you have a dream you have to do what the f.. it takes sometimes. I love being on sets, mine or others, me directing an shooting or moving lights around as a gaffer or grip like I will be doing this weekend. Sometimes you have to take risks, like Mike. Hell he has taken some Francis Ford Coppala risks. You've already paid them, prehaps you can con some of them to come back to the set for a redo. Just a thought.
 
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While we're missing big chunks of information here, I'd at least shoot all the actors in front of black background (or green screen) one by one and film them reading all their lines before paying them off.

A smart director armed with a truly clever film editor might salvage it somehow.
 
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I had to set up my fucking slider on the grass and the crew was already waiting like 1 - 2 hours for me. I knew back when I practiced this first shot I would need to find a solution to easily balancing the slider on grass but I never did.

The grass over here was longer, I knew there was no way this shot was going to be balanced or straight since some of the tripod feet were hanging off the ground.

When I looked into the small display I thought.. great... this just looks like your typical low budget night lighting.

Then the 2 kid actors weren't really doing it the way I thought was. We never rehearsed it before because I thought it would be a pain in the ass to meet up with the parents all the time. They did decent but I didnt want to accept half assed work so we closed up shop after the 3rd and final take of the 1st shot.
 
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RealJasonBourne said:
I had to set up my fucking slider on the grass and the crew was already waiting like 1 - 2 hours for me. I knew back when I practiced this first shot I would need to find a solution to easily balancing the slider on grass but I never did.
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Put two stakes in the ground on either side, push one down further than the other to level
I am assuming you mean level instead of balance
 
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That scene looks good. You should have continued; moved in to
shoot coverage. I agree with Anon, a "half assed" finished short
film is MUCH better than a 50 second shot. You would have learned
so much by completing a short film. Even one you think isn't up
to pro standards.

Did you honestly, deep down, think that your first short would be
top of the line professional? Or that you had the skill and talent to
get EXACTLY what you saw in your head?
 
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directorik said:
That scene looks good. You should have continued; moved in to
shoot coverage. I agree with Anon, a "half assed" finished short
film is MUCH better than a 50 second shot. You would have learned
so much by completing a short film. Even one you think isn't up
to pro standards.

Did you honestly, deep down, think that your first short would be
top of the line professional? Or that you had the skill and talent to
get EXACTLY what you saw in your head?
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+1

It looks like you have talent.
Now you need to do something with it to make it a real skill.

Learn patience.
Learn improvising AND sticking to a plan.

It's maybe the most given advice to beginners: you're first short will not be perfect, but that's alright: you will learn a lot by making it.
 
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In the display finder, I was thinking, look at this shitty lighting. That threw me off and made me want to give up on low budget night shooting but when I got home I was saying to my brother "..... uh oh.... " because the lighting looked better on my computer screen. I also thought there was no way this slider shot was going to be close to good looking but I agree it doesn't look that bad.

It was just a bad situation.

I made everyone wait so long and one of my lead bully actors was sitting alone in the dark not talking to anyone with a book over his face. We knew he wanted to leave and I thought he won't be in the mood to give a good performance anymore.

One of the kids dad's was just standing near the generator (there was 1 shitty light beside the generator) in the dark. I felt bad for the guy. The other kid's dad was waiting in the car.

There was no good resting area. I should have made one.

I had to cancel because it wasn't a good experience for anyone and thats my fault for not planning ahead.

I might still do this same script in the future but I'm thinking of just switching to guerilla shooting.
 
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