Day five was one of the more challenging days. As per the usual, the sheer volume of pages that we had to get out as quickly as possible was looming over our heads. But we also had the issue of limited space in the apartment that we were shooting.
It's incredibly gracious of the folks whose apartments we're using to let us invade their spaces for a day. It's a lot to ask and anyone that's willing to let 20 strangers come into their home and move their stuff around is a saint. However, it's also frustrating. Photography was my bridge into film and so explains a lot of how I think about the shots I'm getting. I want things to be cinematic, but with the space, time and budget constraints, the first thing to go is shot composition.
You can probably tell that 1.) the room we were in was very small and 2.) I'm a Rangers fan
On Day 5, we were shooting in a room that was at best 8'X15'. The camera was set up in the door way, we had crew crammed in the corners out of sight and there were 4 characters that we had to capture. We we had to use an 18mm out of necessity. This bothered me for a myriad reasons, but one in particular is because I love using long lenses. I love the depth of field, I love that long lenses make for gorgeous portraits. I love lenses that are longer than 50's. My favorite is the 85, but there was no way we were going to make that fly. We were going to have to use this 50 for close ups, MCU's, everything. The problem was exacerbated by the fact that we were using a Black Magic camera and it crops the picture.
The other reason that it bothered me is because you want to use your focal length creative purposes and not by necessity. You want to use a lens by virtue of the look it has. Yes, the size is important for a close up or a mid-close up, but you don't want to use it just because it's the only way you can get everything into a shot that you need. Unfortunately, c'est la vie.
There were other logistical issues to deal with too, like the lighting (and the space for the equipment) and the sound (taped to the wall). But again, you do what you gotta to make it work. In this case, we were able to get 8 shots banged out before we broke for lunch -- an hour early at that -- and then waited for the sun to go down to get some more shots done in the alley behind our location. What's crazy though was that some of my favorite shots and the ones that soothed my soul the most as far as all of this has gone were the ones that we shot guerilla style in the alley. We got some real emotional hits between two of the actors and it really made me feel like I was doing my job as a director and doing it well.
Shooting in the alley
In the end, we managed to finish the day early, which is a blessing and a curse in and of itself, and welcomed but frustrating. It's a weird feeling. We almost need to end the days early to keep morale up and the more we crank through things and get em out fast, the better we're able to do that. But grip and rip has never been my style. It doesn't allow me adequate time to really direct the talent or rehearse or block as much as I'd like. And given the limitations that we've already encountered as far as preproduction and rehearsal that we were able to do before filming, that lack of on set direction could cost us in the end. But that's a story for another post. It's good to know that I can grip and rip, but in the end, I'd rather not.