Production Diary: Stockholm Santa

Dreadylocks

Dreadylocks

It's very exciting times, folks! Stockholm Santa is marching steadily toward production! In this thread
I'm going to document our journey from pre-through-post-production. As tempting as it is to just talk
up the project and make myself sound all super-professional, I'm gong to be as honest as I can here
about how this film is actually getting made.

At best it will be a place for some people to learn something, even if it's what not to do. At worst, well,
there will be a record so that the world will know how and when we died, and what we died fighting for.

Let's start with the basics, for those of you who aren't familiar with the project.

StockholmSanta.png


Download and read the full 8-page script here: http://www.sammigirl.com/santa/StockholmSanta.pdf

Brief Synopsis:
After briefly encountering and falling in love with a mysterious girl, young Brady goes on a mission to
find out who she is and where she came from. His yearning to find her leads him to do something he
never thought he would do: kidnap Santa Claus.

Who's on Board so far?

Sammi Stephans - Director and de-facto Producer

Ernest Worthing (yes, THAT Ernest Worthing!) - Director of Photography
http://http://www.ernestworthing.com/

Mike Farnham - Assistant Director

Joseph Weindl (aka CrackerFunk) - Editor

Dan Scott (aka Wheatgrinder) - Special Effects

Catering and Kraft Services - My Mom

What's have we got done?

The budget has been made, not met, and slashed. All props are either already bought or will be borrowed/donated.
My parents have agreed (to my wonderful surprise) to kick in a little cash plus pay for the food. Everyone
listed above is a volunteer, and the actors will be, too. Most of the meager budget I've got is going to pay
a sound person $50/day.

The script has been broken down and scheduled for a two-day shoot. However since the lead and one of the
other three actors are children, we're going to have a crew call for the day before to get the shots planned.
This way (fingers crossed) we can keep the hours for the kids to a reasonable amount.

schedule.JPG

Day One of shooting we've got 3 5/8 pages; Day Two we've got 4 7/8

[more to follow...]
 
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Congratulations on finishing up the shoot! Seems ages ago that I first read the script, so it's cool to know that the footage has now been shot :)

The lost scene is obviously going to be tricky and the solution is really up to you. Obviously another $100 is quite a bit but is that going to be the difference between a good enough short and an award winning short? It's been a lot of work to not get the finished product that you really want.

If you do plan to reshoot I can always fish around in the bottom of my wallet and see if there's any loose change... ;)
 
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Sucks about the missing footage, but IMO I wouldn't compromise your vision for the film. $100 might be a lot these days, but in the long run I think it would be totally worth finding a way to make it happen and get the shots you need to tell the story you want. Even if it takes a few weeks to pull it together. You're investing money in yourself and your work which is totally worth it.

Glad to hear the shoot went well otherwise!
 
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Congrats on the successful shoot! I once lost an entire day's worth of footage, on the transfer. I'd be inclined to say reshoot, and I got ten on it. :)

Also since it's just a few shots, if I were producing, I probably would just use whatever camera is available, so long as it's HD, and skip on paying a rental fee.
 
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What about this?

Use any HD camera you can get your hands on.

Don't bother with the sound guy. Have the kid rehearse his lines, in-time with the best audio take. Shoot it with him doing his best to match his performance. You could even experiment with having him lip-sync his performance, with audio playing loudly through speakers.

Get a stand-in for Santa, and shoot everything TIGHT.

Cost: $0
 
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Okay. I talked to my parentals and they're willing to chip in some moolah to get it reshot. So that's what I'll be doing. So now I've just got to coordinate with the actors and sound guy to see when we can all get together again.

C-Man, I hear what you're saying. I had thought about that, too. And while the the kid playing Brady was a great actor, syncing to a previous audio recording I think would be very hard to pull off with him. Things like hitting his marks and such were his weak point. Which is fine, he's still learning and he'll get better at that with experience and practice, but I think trying to have him lip-sync would be a nightmare. However, if for some reason we can't get Santa back, I will keep the shots tight and on Brady with possibly a stand-in.

As for the camera, I do have my trusty HF200, but there's just no way the image quality would match up, this is a night scene and the camera just doesn't cut it in low light.

Thanks again for all the advice! Wish me luck with the reshoot, and if anyone would like to chip in, you can donate through this link and I will love you forever :D

Re-shoot Fund
 
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Thanks, Gonzo!

So I'm just waiting to hear back from my sound guy but it looks like we'll probably be reshooting next Wednesday evening.

Quick question, have any of you used borrowlenses.com? When it says that the return date is 'X,' that is the date that it needs to be postmarked by, right? Not the day it actually needs to get back to them?
 
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I get to Chicago on thursday, im fine. I wake up friday, i feel twinges here and there in my back. I get to dready's and we have a meeting for four hours during which she watches me decompose before her eyes. By the time i leave, i can barely walk. By evening i can not get off the floor...

Ive been to an orthopedic doc since ive been back and it turns out i have a herniated disc.

My apologies to Dready once again for the awful timing. Im glad she says the footage is looking good because i felt i did not do anywhere near my best work. 70% of my mind was concentrated on the constant pain i was experiencing and i think her film may have suffered because of it :(

Thanks, Flicker, CF... and i suppose, Ray... for the get well wishes. Im on the way but apparently it's going to be a slow recovery.

A big thanks to Dready for being so nice and helpful while i was falling all over the place. She did a wonderful job of managing the whole production and getting all the shots in the can with the time we had. Amazing.

As for the missing footage... was that from the first or second day? I still have the shots from the second day if you need them, Dreads.
 
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Nice to see you're at least well enough again for IndieTalk! Herniated disc though... man that seriously blows. I hope your recovery is miraculously faster than expected. :) On the bright side now you'll have time to do another director article for Nick :P

As for the footage, it was day one. :( At least I learned a valuable lesson to check every file after the transfer and not just a few.

I rented a t3i and the same 10-22mm we were using for that scene. Luckily, I have some recent experience with canon DSLRs ;)

Rest up and feel better, dude! And I'll be in touch before the reshoot to see if you've got any pointers :)
 
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Yep. Just got a full rough cut from C-Funk. I'm so happy about the way this is turning out!

So what's left to do is basically, finish with final tweaks on the editing; find a composer; a little composite work; color correction/grading; and sound design.

If everything goes smoothly, I'm hoping we can get a final product by the end of the month!

Thanks again to everyone for their encouragement and support! From writing to filming and on through editing, your help has been invaluable. :D

More to come soon as we near completion!
 
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