Murphy's Law

Everything that can go wrong is happening. I can't schedule my actors at all. I even set up a meeting that all 3 said they'd be at and only one showed up. We accomplished nothing but realizing what I already realized. 2 of my actors are in the play into the woods and will be tied up with rehearsal and the actual performances all week. My other actor won't work after midnight so I can't schedule it after they're done rehearsing and performing, either. My only hope is that Dwnadra has mecry on me and let's me get new, outside actors to play the roles. I don't know why they'd sign up for the movie if they knew they wouldn't be able to do it. It seems hard to believe that they would really think they could handle all that work, not to mention homework on top of it. Hopefully everything will work out and I'll just have to do it somehow whether it's with the actors or not. I know I've said it before but it's just been a hassle having to deal with the acting department in this class. It's been way more dificult than it has to be and most devastating of all, no fun whatsoever. That's the only thing I've ever wanted from making videos and these two movies are the first I've ever done that weren't a total blast. In fact, they've been the total opposite.

Frustrations

So... I would generally consider myself a compassionate, patient, and caring person... but scheduling 9 actors and 5 locations is stretching me to my limits. After 3 or 4 (or 5, I've really lost count) reschedulings I really don't think I can compassionately handle any more scheduling conflicts. I agree with Kelly and Jeff... It is truly so incredibly hard to be working with people who seemed to prioritize absolutely everything over what you're trying to accomplish. Unfortunately we have an incredibly talented cast, which means that they are all involved in other plays/projects and also, because of their talent, I am not willing to recast. I just hope and pray that our filming goes well and there is absolutely no need for reshoots.

Sigh.

impressed

so after watching the final cuts of all of project 1, I am impressed on how everyone's ideas came out in the end. I hope project 2 goes just as well. Al and I are running into some snags with scheduling. Some people actually celebrate Easter apparently. I'm just joking, I think we can still pull off our shoot this week, as long as no major problems occur.

So here I am sitting in class and I just realized I hadn't posted.

With 9 actors and 4 locations our scheduling has been a little insane and our main actor having tooth issues has only made things more complicated... I am still excited though about what I hope will come out of this project. It truly is an awesome script and an amazing cast so I feel like it's really going to be a film that we can all be proud of... if we're able to work out scheduling that is.

Well...SB08 obviously threw a kink in the plans (but it was quite needed and much appreciated).  Missing a couple shoots due to Michael's abcessed tooth.  I would have liked to have hit the ground running coming off of SB, but I'm not too worried about it.  Finally got the clearance for Crown Hill Cemetary (much back and forth and a $50 donation to seal the deal)...awesome.  Kathleen has been doing a lot of location work over SB, and we're doing hardcore scheduling immediately following class.  Here's hoping everything goes smooth from here on out.

New Project

Haven't started the new project yet but I totally rewrote the script and got it to the actors. Hopefully I can get the actors together to talk about it but so far i've only gotten response from one of them to tell me that he couldn't do it on the one day that could seemingly work out to have all three of them there. I don't know. Hasn't been fun using the acting department. It's much more of a project than it should be to get things scheduled. Just headaches. Ready for this class to be over with and be done with school period.

Schedules

Yes, Kelly summed up my opinion on our scheduling conflicts nicely. Bad timing has played a large part with all of this - just not enough weeks in a semester for everyone to do everything. Ironically, I think our actor would be more free next week when his show runs. On the plus side, I think I have rigged up a contraption for our "violent scenes". My aunt is a nurse and she was very helpful over Spring Break lending me some unique items. I also made a visit to a Goodwill and had some luck finding the actors wardrobe. I'm just anxious to get started filming. Should be an interesting week/weekend with many late nights. I just realized most of our shoot takes place in or around cars. Good thing gas prices are at a record low.

Project 2 starts with a fizzle

Jeff and I had planned to shoot a majority of the film yesterday. Unfortunately due to an actor's schedule we are having to rearrange our shoot. One of the biggest dilemmas is getting everyone's schedule to line up. I look forward to the day when everyone is under contract or atleast employed to be a part of the film. Personally, I don't need to be paid any money (at this time) to make a film, but using money to persuade a crew/actors to help us would be nice. Perhaps 1% of the Letterman building expenses could be moved to a CEC films budget. Just a thought. Everyone works harder when their being paid... Other developments, we casted "The Man" with a Fishers local with acting experience. I am working on getting the police involved for the final scene. I still think we will be alright for the rough cut turn in date. I hope...

P2 getting going --

I don't really have too much to say, except that I slightly behind on my production for project two. This project has come at rough time, being that most of the people involved in the production were gone for spring break. I have spent the time planning and preparing for the week to the come. The script has had several revisions and is near perfection. The biggest problem I am worried about is finding a child actor. I have a couple of different ways I can go, but neither of them are 100& definite. Hopefully I will have this problem resolved within the next couple of days. Despite these hardships, I am very excited about this movie. I've never made a horror flick before and I think I'm up for the challenge. This will be a hectic week for me, but you can expect the rough cut on Monday as assigned.

Project 2 is under way

Well, project one is now totally finished and it is on to project two. We got some supplies that we need for the video, but with all the actors being in NY over most of spring break, that was about all we managed to get accomplished. I think we are still looking fairly strong and should have a good rough cut. Our goal is to get every single shot that we need before the rough cut, that way we don't have to try and reschedule the actors. We'll see how that goes. For now, it is work hard to get a schedule together and start shooting.

...Time....Time

Things are getting pretty impossible to schedule with Project 2 on the line here. Looks like we will be shooting only next Friday and Sunday, with the cut due Monday... So long long days of editing and shooting. I really hope this all works out. I'm interested to see what others are feeling like on this subject - it seems like maybe we need another week to make things perfect, but maybe the stress is good.