The Production Processes

Wow, it's so easy to lose track of the blog when you really get into filming the project.

 I'm just gonna use this particular post to show some of the actual production stages of my film Duck and Cover (thank you, Scott)!

The most difficult parts of any shoot, as I have found with every project so far like ever, is getting your hands on (reliable) actors and locations. Then you need to work these guys around a date and hope to goodness that nothing sabotages it in whatever way, shape or form.

From already personally knowing actors, it certainly made the search a fair bit easier. Getting them all free at the same time, however, is a completely different hurdle. Especially when the particular scene they're situated in is only available to us on one day at certain times for a couple of hours only. That said, it was a dream breeze getting the cafe scene, Barney's place of (voluntary) work, for us to film in (thanks, Calvin!). The main issue with that scene is picking up the hum of the fridge while recording dialogue. This, along with the exterior beach scene where it was far too windy even with a windshield as it turned out, should be overcome with a dubbing session. Just, as I said, trying to find a time when all (or, at the very least, most) of the actors are free to do this. Dubbing can be the end of it, as watching many a film on The Horror Channel has taught me.

Thankfully scenes that took place in Barney's head were readily available to us. Just as well too as we had a nifty lighting grid to work with to help us create the film noir effect that we wanted, as well as having room to move about the dolly and slider (thanks, Stephen) to give us slicker and more professional looking shots, adding so much more to the cinematic effect. Dead, dead happy with how those turned out, so a shout out and big thank you to Matt for that very productive day.

 The first of anything that we recorded were the narration segments with Barney (Chris Girvin) and Doug (Michael Warren) with Matt, our sound guy.

When brought into the edit suite along with the footage of the studio shoot, it all came together so nicely; it feels so alive and I'm very pleased with that.