Artistic Therapy Pestilence, Part 2

They made a movie about a killer snowman so...

Recapping the failed launching of my cinematic career.

Here's what happened last week;

-I talked about pre-production, of losing Mel and getting 'Lester'.
- we held auditions and casted.

Here are my players so far, using pseudonyms to protect all concerned, although many I have lost track of.

Winnie - Producer and gf
Mel - my ex DoP
Lester - The New DoP
Ned the Assistant Director
Boris the Assistant Camera Guy

The cast with names changed even from the script

Herb, the American Manly Man
Ash, the Budding Hero
Tim, the Comic Relief Guy
Demi, the Native Girl
Rachel, the Trophy Girlfriend
Toni, the Strong and Angry Woman


Let's move on to Production.

It's winter, early March if I recall. I solved that one problem of the DoP, which I thought was due to 'schedule conflicts' but turned out to be drugs. I've booked a month off to leave work and go shoot this horror flick in a winter setting.

Usually, the weather during this time is around 0 to -10. Nothing too bad, snow is melting. I come back to town, storyboards in hand. I've arranged cheap flights for those that needed them. Herb has offered his place as a crash pad for those out-of-towners.

I am pretty excited to meet my cast and crew altogether for the first time. Winnie and I run out to the film set, talk about glorious things and feel somewhat nervous but good. We're about to shoot a movie!

Foreshadowing...

I meet the cast for one last read through. It is there I find out that the assistant director and Ash have rewritten some of the script.

um....

Okay, so this doesn't usually happen. Or should ever, to be honest. Yes, there are rewrites involved and I'm all for input but it doesn't tend to happen without some discussion with the director. Writers get screwed like this all the time; if you ever see a multiple credit  in the 'Written by' segment, that is usually because someone else has come in and re-worked it. It is the whole 'it takes a committee to make a camel out of a horse' mentality.

Filming is collaboration and I recognize that but in this situation I felt ambushed. Keep in mind, even if the changes were better, my prep is done with my shooting script. While it might not read like it, I have had a 'vision' in my head and on paper for months of how this was going to look.

So, I had to quickly assert myself in that situation and say 'Yeah, that ain't happening.' To be clear, I was more annoyed than mad at Ned and Ash. Maybe if they had talked with me before this, told me where they had problems with the script. Also, in hindsight I should have done some table readings with them together, to find out what they did and didn't like.

We gave a small amount of money to a woman in my Mom's neighbourhood, who was into fashion. She became our wardrobe lady and she went out with the cast and they collaborated on what they would wear with Winnie. That was the only time I saw her. I think we spent about $300 on wardrobe. we took the cast shopping for make-up and other necessities.

Winnie's aunt did our craft services, which was a real blessing. I never met her but I think receiving fried chicken, lasagna and other warm meals on a winter's set was amazing. We had a table of snacks and every day Winnie would drive in from town to drop off our lunch and get an update. I will talk later of the whole should they/shouldn't they have producers on set argument...

That weekend we went to our first location; about a half kilometer deep in the woods, with my Dad's house providing the warmth and comfort beforehand. We hiked out in a beautiful blue sky but cold day. The temperature was -19 Celsius. I still remember that for some reason. Ned, the AD had a friend, whom I will call Boris, who offered to be camera assistant to Lester; Awesome! The more the merrier.

The first scene was of them being lost in the woods, trying to find their way to 'the cabin' with a poorly drawn map. DoP did his own camera and I asked for the shots but didn't review the takes from his angle, more only eyeballing it from what I'd seen. We didn't spend much time on rehearsing or blocking out in the woods. It was pretty cold.

We shot as much as we could, then called it. It was way too cold and Lester was worried about his camera freezing up. We went back to my Dad's house, warmed up and felt pretty good about it, all things considered. The cast and crew went off to Herb's basement suite, the unofficial clubhouse where Lester and Tim were couch-surfing for the shoot. From the sounds of it, lots of laughs happened there. I wouldn't know, I was never there. Insert sad emoji face.

Instead I was at my mother's watching my first dailies and doing production meetings and relationship things with Winnie.

During those dailies I saw a pretty big problem immediately in the casting. Ash, who was meant to be the 'weak one' was already too cool for the movie. He looked more like an American hero than someone who would go from filler in the background to fighting the Evil Dead (tm). Wardrobe decided his character would wear a straw cowboy hat, jean jacket, and Elvis glasses. I believe he also had mutton chops. It was difficult to not focus on him in the scenes. He was a cross between Keanu Reeves in the Matrix and Brad Pitt in his 'cool guy' movies.

Something like this guy but whiter. 

So this, coupled with the script coup, made me decide to recast Ash. I didn't know the guy on a personal level. I told Winnie the problem and I left that unenviable job of firing him up to her. I still feel bad about that. I've since learned more about him; he married an old co-worker of mine and he's quite funny in his own way. Perhaps in another life, we would have worked on something else together or shared more laughs.

But at that time, all I saw was someone who tried to take over the script and was taking over the focus, just by his presence. I could have taken him aside, explained to him what I envisioned better... you know, director things. Instead I told Tim, aka my best friend, the problem and he knew someone else who he thought would be perfect. And again, with limited input from Winnie, I said, Bring him in.

Again, I didn't want to tell her that I felt I was in over my head. I had this all under control, believe me. Yes, I saw the pattern here but felt I needed be the rock and not ask for help, something I still have difficulty with.

And luckily, Ash 2 did work out. He wasn't imposing, wasn't intimidating. He's a pretty good-natured guy in reality and that played well with his character. So instead of a weak to strong character arc, we'd do the easy-going guy to serious arc.

I think we waited two extra days for the cold snap to pass. During that time, I don't recall much of what I did. Hung out with Winnie, kept going over the shooting script. Met and talked over some scenes with Ash 2 and the others. Winnie informed me she had a friend who would donate time on his helicopter if we wanted any air shots.

Now, as an indie, low budget filmmaker, that is a huge added value to your shoots. Ask any wannabe filmmaker if they want a helicopter, you bet your ass they will say yes. The better able you can give your shots a professional, big budget look, you do it.

My big problem was now to figure out what would be the best way to use a free helicopter.