Saturday, October 3, 2009

End of week 9

Still going well, if exhausting. TV station stuffed up the opening of LP2. Apparently the guy on duty never turned up so it never came out at 7.30. Some body else pitched up at 9.00pm or so and put it on around 9.45  but the picture slipped up and down or something. We wrote a v strong letter to the TV asking why, given this is the only TV drama series produced across the whole Pacific we couldn’t be given a little bit of respect in our home country; after all half the region is waiting on this series. To their credit they completely agreed and so we’re trying again this weekend. Given the level of exhaustion this business causes, it was a bit depressing to see the finished product treated so shambolically.

About 6 of us down with tooth problems this week. Quite weird how it hit us all at once. Felt sorriest for Neri who had a load of love scenes to play this week. I too know that I need a rootcanal thingie. Can’t have anything touching my backtooth without wanting to scream. And I have a major acting week next week.

Missed a shot at 6 am during the week because an actor’s alarm clock failed…so he says!! You feel like some sort of demented sergeant major when you need those early morning shots before the sun gets too high. You spill out of the car at the run as you reach the set, yelling ‘Ok camera, reflectors please; Amanda, Kalo, day 1 costumes, we’ve got 20 minutes to get this shot, sound , you ready? ; Where is Amanda? Bloody hell. Production manager please ring…. What we haven’t got Kalo’s day 1 costume? Why not? My god you want to be filming on Christmas day? Come on this is ludicrous.’

Meanwhile sane people are waking up in the settlement all around you, pottering down the road to buy bread or brush teeth at the standpipe, quite used (I hope!) by now (it is series three) to this insane man yelling up and down the road for 4 months of the year. The scariest feeling about film is how you really do get everything so out of proportion and arrogantly feel that this is the most important thing that must happen NOW.

Rules of WSB films

 Golden sod’s laws of making Wan Smolbag movies:

 If you require a door to stay locked it will always open

If you require it to open, it never will.

In both the above cases the door handles will fall off at least once.

If you use a car it will:

Never start, at least not when you need it for a dramatic fast entry or exit.

At least one window will either never wind up or down: obviously it will not do the one you want it to

If you require it go down hill or stop suddenly, it will have faulty breaks.

You will be half way through filming the scenes you need it for when the owner will sell it.

The car door you need to open never will or it doesn’t have a handle.

Some major construction job will ALWAYS start near your main locations, the day before shooting is due to begin. Failing this, a church crusade will blast out the moment you yell action.

 

To be added to: my mind has gone blank but there are hundreds. 

Love Patrol

The end of week 7.

 Yes I know. 7 weeks in before a single post on Love Patrol, series 3. This is the result of one of the fundamental differences between film and theatre .To make a film I get up at 5 am and  I am on set by 6am, starting shooting  from 6.20 if we’re outdoors (and the actors are on time and we’ve got all the right costumes and props) to 8.00am if there’s a complicated lighting set up and often catching those late afternoon shots around 4.30…unless of course it’s a night shoot, which can go from 4.30 pm to anywhere between 12 and 2 am. And as this is a 10 part series we are filming for 4 months on about a tenth of the budget such a series would cost in Aus, UK etc. There are no trailers for actors, no trailers /caravans for anything. Just a small tent, hosts of costumes in carrier bags and a mini bus on hire for duration of the film. So, a series of reflections not necessarily in chronological order which I’ve thought, as we film, it would be good to go on the blog.

Overall to date: a much happier experience than series 2 . That one was beset by chaos. Continuity and costume nightmares; the worst not found till we started editing and one character was in one costume on one angle and in another on the reverse shot a week later. By the time we found it, we had struck the police station set we build in the theatre for the series; we had to rebuild some of it to re shoot. We were also beset by internal issues, maybe partly caused by tiredness (an insane number of nightshoots) but still they had to be dealt with; domestic violence issues within the company and ensuing suspensions…oh the list is endless. Whereas, we really seem to be getting on well in this one.

And the opening of series 2 a week ago was so well received that you finally understand why you do this. In fact despite tiredness Jo and I attended both public showings prior to the TV launch. Unlike theatre where the most important element, the audience give their verdict relatively quickly, with film it can take up to a year and, given that we have started the masochistic experience of series 3 before 2 was released, to see an audience be moved and laugh and say it is a big improvement on series one, suddenly made the awful tiredness and stress worthwhile.

The Wire! Both Danny Phillips, our Australian-American DOP and I have become addicted to this extraordinary TV series whilst we film. Danny lives with us for 5 months of the year when we have an LP series up. So despite our comparative collective lack of experience, money and equipment, we find ourselves saying all the time, you know that shot in The Wire when………….’ Jo too is now hooked and we watch it together on the laptop at night and weekends although Jo must spend at least 10 mins of every episode in the toilet, where she retreats whenever it looks like something grisly is going to happen!