Ready... Action.

Being on set is my favorite part of the film making process.  Seeing everyone work together for a common goal is just amazing.

The filming of my Capstone went great.  We were in and out in no time.  We started by shooting Greg's scene and getting him out.  That was followed up by the morning scene with the kids.  With those in the can we broke until the evening.

When we returned is was a race to get the kids finished off, so that they weren't up late.  Then a scene were Dan returns home after work.  Everything was sailing along, and it was a good thing because the next scene was the most intense.

Melanie and Dan's practice was put to the test when we started the argument scene.  There was a lot of emotion in their performances and everyone in the room could feel it.  But we got all of the coverage needed and called it a wrap for the first day of shooting.

On the second day we started early to get the opening of Dan waking up and getting ready.  It was quick and painless, except getting the alarm to go off at the right moment.

The second location was an ally where Dan's character has a mental breakdown.  We put a bunch of trash and debris around a dumpster and let Dan freak out.  This is where we had our first significant issue.

Dan was supposed to tear up a resume, but I for got to make copies.  That was only the beginning, no one had any paper in their vehicles.  The only option we had was have him tear up the shooting script and save the one copy of the resume for the close up.

It worked out and we moved on.  I used the joys of a smartphone to pull the shooting script up and we shot out the final scene of the day.  I have some great bloopers from this one.  My friend and crew member, Nagy, played a small part as a man turning down Dan's character for a job.

Nagy jumped out of the office he was in while Dan was staring at the floor in character.  This scared Dan, and I have video evidence showing Dan almost jump out of his chair.

That was it for day two and day three was an hour and a half of lack luster filming.  So I'm done filming right?  I thought so.

Practice Makes Perfect

One thing that I think filmmakers should be doing is read throughs/rehearsal.  It gives the director and actors a chance to see if the dialog sounds off.  It helps actors understand what tone and emotions the director is wanting from them.

That being said, I got Dan and Melanie together to go over a scene where they have a emotional argument.  We ran through the dialog a couple of times and found it was clunky in places.  After a little rewording I asked them to start acting, not just reading the lines.

They read it around a dozen times.  Each time we bumped the emotion up.  By the end there was yelling and tears.

It was something I had never done before, and I'm glad I did.  Not only did it make the shooting smoother, it helped bring the performances to another level.

Location, location, location.

Finding locations in the small town of Saint George is a mixed bag.  On one hand most business will let you film at their location for a simple credit in the movie, but it's hard to find certain type of places.  In my case it was finding an alley.  Not just any alley, something old and dirty.

In Saint George there are a few allies, but they are commonly used as parking for the business they're located behind.  But I kept searching for the one.

As for the house, where most of my Capstone takes place.  I needed something that showed this family isn't poor, but didn't scream "we're rich."

My house was out of the question do to the wall paper from the '70s and the commercial carpet.  I talked to Dan about his house, but his wife was already mad I was having him kiss another women, so that was not a possibility.

Dan did,  however know someone that deals with vacation homes and sent me the link for her listings.

One day while in search of an alley I went behind a strip of businesses and noticed there was an actual ally way apart from the parking lot.  I snapped a few pictures and saw that there was also a window looking down on it.  It was perfect for the scene.

I was never able to get inside to shoot down from the window, but it wasn't a shot that drove the plot.

After I spent a a few hours looking through the website I found two houses that I liked and we set up a time to look at them with the agent.

The first one we looked at was a little to flashy.  I want the audience to feel bad for these characters, not think that they were rich snobs.

The second house was perfect.  The way the kitchen flowed into the dining area.  The space in the master bedroom would allow me to put more distance between characters, helping the emotion of the scene.

So now with actors and locations locked in,  it's time to shot a movie.