Barely. But barely still counts.
What a whirlwind. I got sick immediately after shooting and still sound like I’m currently-being-strangled. Andrew has a nasty limp from pacing for forty-eight hours straight, and I think Kate is still huddled in the corner of the shower, clothes on, mumbling about caterers and SAG contracts and whether or not we have enough toilet paper.
But it’s over. We somehow got all the footage we needed, and all of it looks fantastic. But it wasn’t easy. The average film shoot day lasts twelve hours, and in those twelve hours, roughly two minutes of footage make the final cut. We needed fifteen minutes from our two day shoot, so every second and every take had to matter.
And boy, did they.
I’ve mentioned it before in a previous post, but it’s well worth repeating. Our cast and crew were absolutely amazing. Our actors were simply the bee’s knees, and they bailed us out take after take. When you write a script (or at least when I do) there are lines you love, and then there are lines where you say to yourself, “I sure hope I come up with something better to give the actor on set because this is kind of butt.” But Ceci and David took even the stuff I hated and made it work. It was so nice to be standing behind the camera whispering to Andrew, “Maybe if we try…” and then tail off as you watch your problem solved on screen. After that, there wasn’t much left to do but shrug your shoulders and take complete and total credit.
But regardless of whether or not the words worked or were even English, every single shot looked absolutely gorgeous. It looked like an FX show (cough cough). My brother, Joe, a videographer for Villanova Athletics, drove up from Philly to capture some behind the scenes footage and just be another helping hand on set. It was very nice of him, and he totally believes in me and blah blah blah, but he’s also watched me do some really dumb shit. So to see the surprise on his face as he pulled me aside and said, “Wait. Chris. This looks… Really good.” That was super fun. AND YOU DOUBTED US, JOE?
But enough gushing. Here’s a quick breakdown of how each of the days went (with a little more gushing at the end, don’t @ me.)
MONDAY
Prep Day or: We’ve Got the Insurance, Right?
We arrived at the airbnb the day before the shoot and quickly set about turning what was, and miraculously still is, a chic Brooklyn apartment into a douche bro crash pad. We hauled furniture out of the house and brought in couches and chairs hand picked by our set designer, Cheyenne. (As an aside, Cheyenne is testament to hiring smarter people than you and then riding their coattails. She had two casual ideas for the script that made it exponentially better.)
We set up tents, brought in food and supplies, and lugged camera equipment worth more than my college education into the apartment. Then we all went home and tried to get some sleep. Speaking for myself, it didn’t go well.
TUESDAY
Shoot Day One or: the RECKONING
We were up bright and early (8:00am) and on set shortly after that. Crew call was at 9:30, and our first shot was to be an hour later. This, like a lot of our schedule, was ambitious. Andrew didn’t shout his first “Action” until 11:45ish. Not an idea way to start when every second matters. But it takes a while to get the lighting just so, the actors in position, audio up and running… Looking good takes time. Maybe that’s my problem.
Anyhow, in our script we had a long scene in the living room, which is what took up most of our first shoot day. It was an awkward first date encounter, our two leads warming to each other and getting in the groove, which felt like a good place for our production to start. Then there was a quick make out scene we picked up right after lunch (not awkward at all). Then we ended the day with a lovely night time balcony scene. Before the shoot, when we were planning the right time to do the outdoor set up, the weatherman said it’d be pretty mild Tuesday night. The weather man LIED. The temperature was in the forties, but it felt like Hoth in that backyard as we tried to squeeze out a feewwwww more takes before calling it. Our actors had to lean against a cold steel railing in short sleeves, their jackets and hand warmers just out of reach. But they soldiered on, and some of my favorite footage was from that scene. It was awesome. Finally, Andrew yelled “Cut” for the last time. We packed up, quickly dealt with a towed car situation, and then tried to grab a couple hours of sleep.
WEDNESDAY
Shoot Day Two or: I AM BECOME FATIGUE
Around the time my head hit the pillow my alarm went off, and we were back on set again. For the second day, the action (pun!) had moved up to the bedroom. We had two different bedroom scenes bookending the pilot, and the plan was to grab both of those. Everything went according to plan… For the first half of the day. We were still getting A+ performances, and even more shockingly, we were ahead of schedule.
This shoot was also Andrew, Kate, and my first time shooting a sex scene. I think we can all agree, ⅖ would not recommend. Despite the fact that the two actors were wonderful, despite Andrew’s expert handling of the situation, despite that everyone was clothed and the scene itself was a comedy… Yeesh. I will never forget standing in the living room while they had to capture audio upstairs. See, on a film set, when cameras are rolling you basically have to freeze. You can’t make any sound, because the audio equipment is so sharp it picks up everything. So there we were, all 20 of us, silently avoiding eye contact while the two actors screamed into a microphone for five minutes. I’m grateful to Kai and Sophie for their “gameness”, and I’m also grateful we don’t have to do that again for a while.
After that performance, we broke for lunch (at 4:30) and then it was back upstairs to get the final scene. This was a tricky one. When you have four actors moving around in a small room, and one pair can’t acknowledge the existence of the other, it becomes more about choreography than blocking. But still, we thought the five and a half hours or so we had allotted for it was enough.
It was not.
By the end of the night, we were badly losing our battle with the clock. Everyone was fighting delirium, brought on by hard work, the numbing repetition unique to a film set (you try repeating the same five words while walking the same four steps over and over again for hours), and the fact that “Wrap” seemed juuussttt out of reach. But eventually, finally, belatedly, Andrew yelled “Cut” on TG for the last time. There wasn’t much celebration. Everyone was too tired. It felt more like relief than anything.
And it still does. I’m relieved it’s over, and I’m relieved it went so well. But I’m also so very thankful: for our incredible cast and our talented crew. For two creative partners who continue to push me and put up with me. And to you – our friends and family who stepped up and helped us when there was absolutely no need to. You’re the best.
Now, we begin the post production process. We have to edit the footage together, then color it, then clean it up and add a couple tiny bitsy effects. Then we mix the sound, and then release it into the world. There's still a lot to do. But for now, I'm going back to sleep.
Goodnight.
