4/11/2015

Months of pre-pro finally paid off because today we started shooting the Reutan Collective's web series, The Un-Supers.

Overall, it was a solid day. We were shooting in an apartment that belongs to friends of the producer, Sarah. They were cool with us being there and stayed all day to observe and help with anything necessary. I was a little worried going in because it was a tight space and we had a fair number of people. I think we worked well with what we had though. Two of the cast members provided us with a home cooked pasta dinner, which kept us going through the end of the day.

Some of the scenes got a little loud (they're fight scenes, it's to be expected) but the neighbors didn't seem too concerned. Toward the end of the night, one of them did come by to see what was going on, but was more intrigued than anything.

Working on one of the fight scenes. Figuring out the physics and logistics behind an actress playing almost-dead.

While we did have some issues with noise from the neighbors, a rather vocal dog outside and airplanes, we had no choice but to power through. We could control everything in the apartment, but when it came to the sound outside, there was nothing we could do. Sure, it was irritating, but we made it work. It's something to keep in mind for shoots down the road though. Just like renting a new apartment, knowing what's going on outside your own four walls is something to take note of.

Locations for free or cheap are great, but for any shoot, you have a choice between three factors: make it good, make it cheap or make it fast. You get to pick two. If you get all three, you've stumbled upon a miracle and should rejoice in your luck. Three factors make for three choices, for us, the budget limits us, but there can be other factors that limit the way you choose your combination of two. But that will be covered another day.