Cuddle Buddies: A Short Film Case Study Part 3 - Production

The Third Part in a series of articles on how I made my short film Cuddle Buddies as writer, director and producer, from the writing phase all the way through post-production and beyond.

Previous Installment:

Cuddle Buddies: A Short Film Case Study Part 2 - Fundraising & Pre-Production

The Short Film

Here’s a link to the completed film, which serves as a great reference and context for all of the posts and discussions previously and to follow.

Here is a link to the second article in this series. I highly recommend checking that out along with Part 1 since it serves a logical progression and context for this third part.

What is Cuddle Buddies?

Cuddle Buddies is a narrative dramatic short film that is independently produced and character driven. The logline is as follows: Cuddle Buddies tells the story of Lucy, a single mother who works as a professional cuddler in order to support her young daughter and to alleviate the loneliness not only in her clients, but also in herself.

I wrote, directed, edited, produced & colored this film and it very much was a labor of love in the truest sense of the word.

Why a Case Study?

The process of creating this film and seeing it through from the idea phase to the physical production and completion was an extremely difficult process and journey, and there were a slew of pitfalls I only wish I had known before embarking on the making of this film.

I fully realize that filmmaking is very much an art that requires you to learn and make mistakes as you do it, and the doing of it will always be the most essential ingredient and teacher. But if I can shed some light on some things I learned along the way, even if just to function as an educational tool and save any aspiring filmmakers working on upcoming projects, especially short films, the heartache of additional stress in the pre-production and production phases, then I have achieved my goal in documenting the entire production process through this case study.

OK so with that setup, let’s get into the third part of this series, which focuses on the production and shoot for the short film.

After Pre-Production…

After all logistics for the shoot had been locked and set up in place, the final steps were finalized the last week before our first day of production. This included the equipment rental pick ups and finalizing the schedule and call sheet for the entire cast and crew.

Working With Assistant Directors

About a month prior to the shooting weekend, I had staffed up the two Assistant Directors who would be working on the short, Justin Madriaga and Henry Brower. Much like staffing up any crew position, I had met Justin on a separate production prior and he told me he did some Assistant Directing and so when everything was ready for my shoot, he was the first person I called for the job. Justin brought along Henry to fill in for him as 1st AD on the 3rd day of production, since he had booked a different gig for that last day, but would be the 1st AD on the first two days of the 3 day shoot.

On a smaller budgeted production like ours, it is not too uncommon to only have one assistant director who functions as the 1st Assistant Director and typically you don’t really have a need for a 2nd Assistant Director.

The 1st Assistant Director position is an absolutely critical and high ranking position on a production, but can also be a thankless and stressful job and so my hats off to anyone who AD’s.

A 1st Assistant Director is responsible for creating and maintaining the shooting schedule before and all throughout the actual shoot for a project. This means breaking down every scene, detail, cast, crew, location, etc and putting together the most time efficient but also cost efficient version of a schedule that you can to stay within the budget. This means taking into account how many days you might need or have an actor for and how much they cost, along with aspects of if a scene has bigger action or stunts, those are going to be harder and longer days and more expensive to shoot than standard dialogue scenes.

Their other crucial role is to “Make the Day”, or in other words; to keep the shoot on schedule or as close to it as possible for what is on the schedule for that day’s work. This sometimes can make them the “bad guy” on set since they often are making sure people move faster, limit the number of takes and get to the next setup in a timely fashion.

A 2nd Assistant Director typically is only needed on larger productions where a lot of background actors or crowd-filled scenes are being shot within a project. The 2nd AD helps check in and maintain all the paper work for every actor and their potential SAG/union status and then for the bigger crowd scenes, they often direct the background actors on where to walk, how to interact with the environment, etc.

The list of scenarios goes on and on but a good AD can create a smart shooting schedule that takes into account all of the parameters and still stays on schedule and budget and allows for the best art to be captured. This is an ever changing dialogue and scheduling is very much an art.

Building the Schedule

The week before Cuddle Buddies started shooting, Justin, Henry, myself and our cinematographer Brennan all jumped on a call and talked through the shoot and specific details. Some of those details included:

• How long we could have our young actress Lorelei on set per day, since she is a minor and could only be on set for 7 hours total before she had to legally wrap.

• The more complicated scenes that included more visual complexity or camera moves and blocking that would create more technical challenges.

• Scheduling of actors and locations that we had already booked and ideally which days we would need which actors and at which locations to save the most costs.

• Art department set dressing time and set up time for all departments for each day. (Note that we asked the Production Designer how long it would take her for setup, along with the other department heads and factored that into the scheduling.)

• Sharing the shot list of every shot in the film and getting an idea of how many setups per scene and how many scenes per day would need to be shot.

Once we had discussed those initial details, I shared the shot list document and an initial strip board of scenes that Brennan and I had created with Justin and Henry to use to put together the 1st draft of a shooting schedule for the 3 days of production.

After they completed the first draft of the schedule, they sent it to Brennan and I to look over and give any notes on or to approve. We also used a “Day out of Days” document to help us orient which actors to schedule on which days. This also helped us calculate the rates as they corresponded to our running budget number.

I recall Brennan and I each gave a few small suggestions for changes based off lighting setup and cinematography preferences to preserve efficiency and some directorial preferences for optimal time for actors to nail the performances.

Henry and Justin made those few updates and within the next draft of the schedule, we both approved it for shooting.

The Shot List and Strip Board

A few weeks prior to shooting, Brennan and I had created a color coordinated strip board of scenes that we used as our initial plan for shooting and used colors on a Google spreadsheet to reflect what type of lighting and time frame within the story it was supposed to be for each shot and scene listed on there. This acted in some ways like a very preliminary schedule and shot sheet to reference on the shooting days to match the visual look we needed. Here is the strip board we used.

For the shot list process, I had spent the few weeks before assembling a detailed spreadsheet listing every shot for every scene including the potential angle and focal length and equipment needed to pull off the shot. I also included a reference photo in another column to showcase an example of the shot size and camera placement for added clarity.

As I prefer to do, I went through this first pass on my own and then I shared it with Brennan our DP, who suggested some additions or nixing of certain angles. Together we refined the final shot list after a few rounds and then had a few meetings of talking over the angles in person for mutual agreement. We printed and brought the shot list to set to reference on the shoot. This became one of the crucial documents I used on set while directing. You can see our final shot list HERE.

Wardrobe

For Wardrobe, I worked with all of the actors to pick out different options of their own clothing that worked with the character and that also saved a lot of budget for wardrobe purchases and a designated crew rate for that.

Since the story moved through various time periods of past and present, the complicated part was remembering what time period and wardrobe matched which scene, especially shooting the montage section, which spanned various time periods and outfits in quick succession.

To achieve this I had extensive conversations with all of the actors and especially with Kaitlyn, who appeared in every scene, and we created our own “Character Outfit By Scene” document that you can find HERE.

Equipment Rental Pickups

Roughly a week before our shoot I called U-Haul and arranged a rental for a 15 foot van, which would act as our main production truck for all equipment supplies and pickups.

On a massive production, it’s standard for every department to have their own box truck or 15 ton grip truck, but alas, on indie shoots, you simplify and spare every cost you can. So the van was our de-facto truck for every department.

The morning before the first day of shooting, which was a Thursday, I took an Uber to grab the van and followed a route all over town that started with a stop by JL Fisher to grab our camera jib and some dolly track and a skateboard dolly that we put into the van first. The jib essentially functions like a mini camera crane.

I next made a stop to grab some art department supplies and furniture from an apartment in the deep valley from our production designer’s friend and she also helped me load and pack some of the van.

The next stop was Panavision Hollywood to grab our camera package and accessories. The major perk of having someone on the crew who worked there at the time meant that our entire camera package was free of charge as an employee perk of working there.

The last stop I made was to grab some more wood panels for the dolly to go over from Home Depot. I finished up all the runs by late afternoon and parked the van outside my apartment that night before.

Strategically I tried to arrange the van pick ups so that the most essential gear that needed to come out first would be toward the doors as soon as you opened the van.

One last thing I’ll also note is that as director and producer, I definitely would not recommend doing the pickups by yourself the day before the shoot. It certainly adds an element of stress and chaos, but again, sometimes the budget has its limitations.

Call Sheets

The evening before our first day, the assistant directors sent me drafts of the call sheet for the first shoot day. I looked it over and then we all jumped on one more call to discuss the next day and then I approved the call sheet and the AD’s emailed them out to the entire cast and crew to specify the location address, directions, individual call times and nearby hospital info and a brief description of that day’s planned schedule.

I always find it good practice to send it out earlier in the day/evening if at all possible and also requesting an email reply back to confirm that it was received. You aren’t always going to get it but I find it helpful to try. Most likely you will still get questions for information that is specified on the call sheet, but hey what can you do?

With the call sheets emailed out, you are now ready for the shoot! Check out our call sheets for the shoot HERE.

I try my best to get to sleep early and get as much of it as I can, but I’ll admit the night before the 1st day of any shoot still give me some jitters. This is normal and shows you care!

The Shoot: Day 1

Our first shoot day consisted of all of the cuddling client scenes in the film, and for the sake of efficiency and budget reasons, we chose a one story house in Van Nuys, CA to act as our location for both bedrooms. The good news was there was plenty of space for loading and staging gear and the two bedrooms within the house looked different enough to feel like different spaces.

The clearest visual guide for our shooting schedule is HERE and illustrates what scenes we shot on which day. This is an extremely helpful reference to consult for the rest of the discussion regarding the shoot.

Call time for vast majority of the crew was 7AM and I arrived with my trusty script supervisor Isis Sinclair, who was a life saver on the shoot, especially for keeping me calm and focused.

When we first showed up, we started unloading the gear van and once Brennan and his camera department showed up, they started setting up all of the camera gear including the JL Fisher jib and dolly setup for our first shot, which we had discussed the day before.

AJ and the craft service rep Sean, set up coffee and breakfast in the kitchen as everyone started showing up and getting everything in place, while I also helped set up and load in some of the equipment from the production van. Additional elements of set up included our production designer Jess Rock and her set dresser Alex Torres setting up and dressing the first bedroom we were going to shoot in.

We set up for probably an hour before everyone, including the two cast members Kaitlyn Clare (playing Lucy) and Neiko Neal (playing Jeffrey) arrived on set and checked in to our hair and makeup person Tffy for makeup and wardrobe. We utilized a house bathroom for the hair and makeup station so that Tffy could utilize the mirror and sink for any rinsing.

Shortly after that Justin our 1st AD called everyone together for an introduction and a safety meeting to run through all rules and safety measures for the shoot. Justin outlined specific house rules as dictated by our location hosts and also discussed a basic idea of what we would be shooting for that day’s work.

As I find customary on all of my shoots, I then gave a short speech to introduce myself and express my gratitude and reason for making the short in the first place. I’m a firm believer that a good leader needs to set the tone with approachability, passion, collaboration and a collective team spirit to start off the first shoot day with. It’s essential to let everyone know that we are in this together, making the same film together and are a team.

After the introductions everyone got back to work, getting their departments ready to capture the first shot of the film. At this time I spent time discussing the first scene with Kaitlyn and Neiko and Jean Franzblau, our resident cuddler and on set intimacy coordinator. I very much spend a lot of time on set discussing character and directions with the actors in between setups and during downtime between shots. I find it invaluable to connect with my actors and make them feel comfortable and supported to do their best work with trust in me and without judgement for themselves as performers.

Jean was instrumental in instructing Kaitlyn and Neiko on some of the cuddle positions and technique that they would be displaying within the blocking and choreography of the cuddle session, and this genuinely helped ease some nerves but also helped each actor understand the art form behind cuddling and running a professional session properly.

Once all equipment and departments were set, it was officially time to capture our first shot! Our first entailed Lucy knocking on the door and Jeffrey walking across the living room to let her in.

We rehearsed the camera dolly move to be in timing with Jeffrey walking and then clearing the frame and landing on an object in the middle of the room at the end of the shot. We then ran the first take and I called “Action!” which was quite a thrilling feeling.

We ran the shot at least 7 or 8 times until we got the timing right and then moved on to our 2nd setup. It’s very often that clearing the first setup is the hardest setup of the day, especially on the first shoot day.

For the remainder of the first half of our shoot day, we worked our way through the living room coverage and then eventually moved into the bedroom to capture the client cuddle session scene between Lucy and Jeffrey.

PRODUCTION DESIGN TIP: It is also worth noting that while we were shooting the first scene in one bedroom, Jess and Alex were set dressing the other bedroom in the house for our 2nd cuddle scene so that after lunch we could go straight into shooting our second scene and then they could wrap the first bedroom while we shot the second one. You always have to be thinking about where to minimize time and strategically get ahead of the day’s work.

We moved through covering multiple angles of each character’s coverage throughout the first scene, which was admittedly a very long dialogue scene between both characters. Neiko and Kaitlyn were unbelievably prepared and were on top of their lines the entire day, it was truly a dream to watch their performances unfold behind the monitor. It helped to constantly have the script handy to be able to let them know where we would be starting and stopping sub-sections of the scene when not running the entire scene.

Very often what the actors did early on helped inform some of the notes I’d give them and often that helped me refine or even change the blocking to be a more compelling or naturalistic way of it playing out as if in real life. It is so essential to stay open and receptive to the real performances on the day, as sometimes it leads to changing the plan when it is necessary and better to do so from the pre-conceived ideas you locked in your mind.

KEY TAKEAWAY 1: I learned shooting this scene, and in particular this entire film, was that often times you don’t have to run the entire scene from start to finish, when you are tight on time and know that you only plan to display a specific section of that scene in the respective angle of coverage you are grabbing in the edit eventually. This can save you loads of time throughout your shooting day to squeeze in a few more takes per setup and help your actors nail a smaller section of the scene’s dialogue.

KEY TAKEAWAY 2: I also found it extremely helpful to really hone in on the actor body position, movement and timing and sometimes cut a take early on to reset without cutting the camera, so that you can run it again with everything going the way you need it to and fitting in another take before you are told to move on. That is a little tip I always use that my 1st AD’s don’t particularly love, since once the camera is rolling, it is almost a sacred ritual where only the Director can say the word “Cut”, unless otherwise granted permission and to violate that rule can really be a set etiquette taboo.

KEY TAKEAWAY 3: I learned that when you have an over-scheduled shoot (more setups than time in the day allows), it’s prudent to start combining setups and opt for less takes per setup and nix the extra “Close Up Cut-Ins” or bonus shots that you can do without on your shot list.

As is fairly typical on day 1 of a shoot, we were running a little bit behind finishing up the first scene and slightly pushed our lunch to start just a little bit later, while still granting the full hour for lunch.

LUNCH BREAK

Some directors work through the full lunch break to prep for the second half of the day. I did a little prep with our DP Brennan to confirm the next setup and first shots we would do for our second scene post lunch but then I really tried to enjoy lunch and sit with the crew and actors to chat and get to know them even better. It certainly makes for a more enjoyable shoot and a stronger unit.

Day 1: Scene 2

After lunch we were able to wrap Neiko playing Jeffrey and then staggered the call time of Kristina Pesic (playing Fiona) to arrive right around Lunch time to enjoy lunch and then shoot out her scene with Kaitlyn for the second half of the day.

Our bedroom was predominantly set as we came in from lunch and Brennan and I spent a little time finessing the overall look of the lighting and settled on something a little darker and contrast-filled then the initial plan. It never hurts to stay open to a better plan on the actual day. You’ll thank yourself later in the editing room for any additional inconvenience needed on the set.

We ran an initial rehearsal the first time through with Jean, Kristina and Kaitlyn and one thing I have to admit is that the initial energy and freshness of this rehearsal is something in hindsight I think we absolutely should have captured on camera.

KEY TAKEAWAY 4: It never hurts to shoot the “rehearsal”. Worst case scenario, you have to go back and re-block and re-work the scene, and best case scenario, you have captured the irreplaceable freshness in real time and the first time encounter on camera that sometimes can never be recreated. Much like a first impression with another person, sometimes that initial encounter ends up being the most memorable.

Once we got the camera and crew set, we went in for our first take and then systematically covered the rest of the scene with a wide shot, two close ups (one for each actor) and an additional profile shot for safety in the edit. We kept our crew inside the bedroom to a minimum to respect the emotional component of the scene for the actors, since it covered some very heavy topics within the narrative.

After working through the second scene and some very heavy emotional performance work, we had effectively wrapped our first shoot day on time to avoid any additional charges from the location.

We broke down all our gear and loaded out as quickly as we could, and because a lot of the break down was able to happen while we were shooting the last scene, it made for a more efficient wrap up and exiting of the location on time.

Wrapping the first day signaled a major victory in my mind and also gave me the confidence and the momentum to be able to move into the next few days with faith in my directing abilities but also the benefit of having the full crew in the swing of things and with momentum on our side.

SHOOT DAY 2

Our second and third days were both going to happen in a large industrial studio style loft with exposed brick on the walls.

Since this was a different location than the first day, we had to load all gear and equipment in again and utilize a freight elevator from the ground level, since the loft was on the second story of the building, which resembled a warehouse that was outside of downtown Los Angeles.

We staggered our call time to be around 10AM for general crew call, with a few of the crews call times to be earlier for set dressing, breakfast set up etc. The later call time complied with a minimum 12 hour turnaround time from our night before for talent, since we were a SAG production.

The industrial loft location was our main location in the script since it was Lucy’s apartment in the story, and it had always been this type of brick loft I pictured, even as I was writing the short.

Since the open floor plan was pretty massive, our production designer Jess was able to create artificial partitions to section off the space to feel closer to a traditional one bedroom apartment. We utilized the space much like you would use a sound stage to build and shape the space to your will for the shooting needs.

We also sectioned off a corner of the loft and added a bed and a white hanging canopy that draped over it to create the character Kylie’s bedroom and sell it as a completely different bedroom onscreen, since that was the first scene in the film and our first scene we planned to shoot on Day 2.

For Jess’s initial concept sketches and plans for all of the character rooms, you can take a look at those here for Jeffrey, Fiona and Kylie’s Rooms and for Lucy’s Apartment for the production design plans for each.

The first part of the morning entailed all of the camera, art, hair and makeup setup for Kylie’s scene with Lucy. Once the bed and canopy setup had been set, I blocked out the movement and positioning with two of our crew who acted as stand in or “lay-ins” if you will for lighting and camera framing purposes.

Once Brennan had the lighting set and we were happy with the blocking, we invited our actresses Kaitlyn and Janine Oda (playing Kylie) to set to rehearse the movement for the first time.

I kept a very intimate focus on the two characters and we framed every shot pretty close for this scene to keep the audience oriented and “inside” the cuddle session, but also to preserve the illusion that this was a different bedroom setting.

We took about 9 takes to nail the opening shot of a dolly in and camera crane “boom up” and “tilt down” to move the camera from outside the canopy to inside the canopy and then up and straight down to look at the two characters laying peacefully in bed, right as Lucy starts to turn over on cue to face Kylie. This was one of the more complicated shots for many reasons. The movement had to be steady and perfectly timed, the focus had to be right, the actors had to hit their timing and the camera had to enter the canopy without getting caught on the sheets as it entered (which it did many times).

I laugh thinking about this now because in hindsight we completely scrapped this shot in the edit for runtime purposes. I still maintain that we had to have at least one perfect take of this shot to know that we actually didn’t need it later on and the time spent on it is still justified in my mind. That is the reality of filmmaking at any level.

Thankfully the rest of the scene was pretty straightforward (save for some vacuum sounds above us that affected audio), and the actors absolutely nailed the performances, down to the sighs and intimate moments we captured, being so close to them. We wrapped Janine as Kylie and then moved onto the next scenes before lunch.

The next scene was of Lucy having a very intense and emotional moment on the phone with her Lawyer in the story. We captured this using the jib and essentially we hung on a close up of Lucy and then as she finishes the phone call we “boom” up high and thanks to the tall ceilings, we were able to get a very nice graphic frame at the end of the shot looking down on Lucy in her most vulnerable moment.

This was probably the most challenging scenes, Kaitlyn told me later, since she had to cry multiple times for various takes, shout at the highest energy level and act against nobody else on the other end of the phone line. But she pulled it off with consummate professionalism and consistency, and truly elevated this moment to the next level. I was in awe of her performance, watching this on the day and I still feel the raw emotion every time I watch it in the completed film.

After nailing this scene, our actor Chris Anthony Ferrer (playing James) arrived on set and we blocked out the James Proposal scene in the bed with Lucy.

Part of the challenge of this scene was selling the surprise that Lucy is being proposed to and how she would react in a genuinely surprised way over and over again, but also the fact that James films the proposal with a DV tape camcorder that he flips around like a selfie, that the framing had to work for since we planned to use it in the film. We had Chris practice the filming and we showed him how to work the camera so that he could capture it in the shot.

Hats off to Chris for being an excellent camera operator and actor. I genuinely felt the natural chemistry between Chris and Kaitlyn and thankfully they really nailed the tone of the scene and really sold the investment in their relationship for the audience.

LUNCH

After we broke for our lunch break, our young magnificent six year old actress Lorelei Olivia Mote, playing Lucy’s daughter Marina, arrived on set with her Father. Since Lorelei was six years old when we shot, based off California child labor laws, we could have her on set for about 7 hours total with a mandatory 1 hour break factored in. Thankfully because it was Summer, she wasn’t required to do any school work with the Studio Teacher, who was also required to be on set during our shoot.

Because there is a large family montage placed right in the middle of the film, a lot of what we were shooting after lunch was quick shots and setups of the family characters in various situations around the loft apartment that would be rapidly cycled in the edit.

We got very fortunate in that all of the actors gelled incredibly well and Lorelei might have been one of the most well behaved little girls I have ever been around. She knew her lines, had an amazing attitude and focus and truly played off of Kaitlyn and Chris in the scenes.

We even blocked out a cool “action style” shot where Lorelei ran around the furniture as we ran behind her with the camera until she finished her path near the bed and Chris popped out of the bed and play wrestled with her on the bed as she giggled.

With our scheduling constraints, we ended up nixing some of the montage shots originally planned due to running behind, but looking back on it, I don’t miss a single one of them. For montage shots, my approach is capture what you can and capture those the best you can and then layer it in the edit with the myriad ways you can cut the scene and chances are that you can make it work.

We were able to run through various setups and even in between lighting changes I grabbed a smaller Sony A7s ii mirrorless camera and the camcorder we had and shot more intimate home video style shots with all of the actors and a lot of those shots ended up making their way into the completed film.

KEY TAKEAWAY 5: Shoot extra footage of actors, beautiful landscapes, abstract objects around you, etc. whenever you’re waiting in between shots. So much of filmmaking is a waiting game between setups and this is valuable time you can grab the most beautifully spontaneous moments that can often work their way into the finished product.

After we finished our shots with Lorelei and got her out on time before she hit the allotted maximum of her time on set, we finished the night with a shot in the kitchen of Lucy and James kissing in slow motion on a counter top; very simple but romantic in the same breadth.

That’s a wrap on DAY 2. Just one more day to go!

SHOOT DAY 3

The best part about our third day was that from the night before, we were able to do a “walk-away” in which we could leave all equipment and setup in place and come back the next day with it still there. This certainly is a morale booster starting a shoot day.

We had Henry Brower take over as our first assistant director from Justin Madriaga, who had AD’ed the first two days thus far.

Working With Child Actors

Our third and final shoot day really consisted mostly of scenes between Lucy and Marina, with Kaitlyn and Lucy to perform. Our biggest anxiety on this day was the significant number of lines that Lorelei, playing Marina, had to say on camera.

Our fears were quickly allayed when Lorelei showed up to set and completely nailed her takes and performances with gusto. She even improv’d a line, “I love you Mommy” toward the very end of the last scene in the story that we shot first on day 3. I nearly cried on set watching the performance on the monitor. Those are always the kind of magical takes you hope for as a director on the shoot. I like to make the joke that Lorelei is a better screenwriter than I am.

KEY TAKEAWAY 6: When working with child actors, I have two big pieces of advice: 1. It can be helpful to incentivize child actors with a stuffed animal, piece of candy, etc, keeping it within reason and with approval of the parents first and foremost, if they continue to behave and perform multiple takes for you. It’s a great way to show your appreciation but really does help to motivate them for that last take or two you need to get the coverage required.

2. Make sure to look out for child actors looking directly into the camera lens, or looking off camera for their parent or guardian. It can be very common when a child loses focus to look toward the parent for guidance, so it is helpful to place them closer to the proper eye-line that the child should be looking at, but also to gently remind the child actor to maintain focus with the other actor and not shift their limbs around too much in the frame since it can ruin a great take with everything else working properly. Sometimes asking the parent if they can ask their child to implement the specific direction you have for them is helpful since they might know tips of how to interact with their kid and get them to implement certain directions better than you can.

One other small note is to be very mindful of how the parents behave when casting the child. The last thing you want is a parent telling you how to direct your own movie or their child as an actor, when it is your film at the end of the day.

Working With Assistant Directors, Pt. 2

Something worth pointing out is how unbelievably important a good assistant director is to a shoot.

Both Justin and Henry did such an excellent job of balancing the time and schedule and the communication with me and Brennan about staying on the schedule and making calculated decisions about what was doable and what was not.

The standard operating procedure of how it worked was Brennan and I discussed each setup with the AD, they gave time estimates for how long we had and we gave estimates for how long the lighting would take and then once it was set, we rehearsed the blocking with stand ins and then we would bring in the actors and then run the scene. In between takes, the AD would let us know how much time we had until we needed to move on and I tried to abide by the schedule as closely as I could. It’s always a balance of capturing the best art, while also hitting your schedule.

During a few of the shoot days, Brennan and I would confer with Justin or Henry and certain shots or montage scenes we ended up scrapping to be able to make our shoot days on time and complete the scope of work outlined on our schedule. I think it’s important to be realistic as a director and make smart decisions about what you absolutely need and don’t need and as long as you are not cutting essential scenes or shots that convey central plot, character information or move the story forward, then it can most likely be cut.

For example, a lot of sections of the montage could be cut from the schedule since after a certain point, the audience fully understands what’s happening and the function it serves and beyond that, extra shots become a bonus that aren’t crucial to the narrative. I don’t think grabbing those shots would have really added much to the narrative value of the film as it exists today.

The reality is that as an independent director, you can’t always get everything you want and this ends up being a good thing I believe. It teaches you to do a lot with less and to also make those things shine and appreciate when you do have more resources and budget.

Finishing Day 3

After we had shot the morning scene between Kaitlyn and Lorelei, we shot one more scene between both of them, also in bed, but this was the second scene in the film where we first meet and establish Marina and Lucy’s relationship, and so this was also a pivotal scene to nail to ensure our audience cared about their dynamic early on.

Lorelei and Kaitlyn were once again exceptional and really brought the magic to their scenes as you can see in the completed film.

After wrapping that scene, the longer scenes had been completed and we just had to shoot a lot of disparate parts of Lorelei, Chris and Kaitlyn doing fun family activities that were intended to be interspersed throughout the montage in the edit.

Our last really big scene with Lorelei involved the argument scene between Kaitlyn and Chris and this proved to be very intense for all involved due to the screaming, crying and Lorelei having to witness the actors bringing intense energy and emotion to the performances. Thankfully Lorelei’s parents allowed us to have Lorelei on set for these and everyone once again really delivered.

After that we were able to picture wrap Lorelei and work toward getting our last setups completed with just Lucy and James. Everyone truly loved working with Lorelei and she made our jobs much easier by being so professional. It truly was a dream to have on a shoot this involved.

Our last big setup involved a surreal dream-like “floating away” shot that we always wanted to be hyper-stylized. We used a “skate board dolly”, which is essentially a moving flat platform with wheels that sits on a dolly track and we placed Chris on it standing and had a dolly grip push and pull him away from where Kaitlyn was sitting.

Kaitlyn sat in place and it was quite a complicated shot to pull off since we were mimicking a ¹“Zolly” (zoom dolly) type of effect in which, as Chris was being pushed away, we were Zooming out on the zoom lens while simultaneously racking out of focus to get a blurry frame as Chris got further from the lens, to simulate a disappearing into the white type of effect and seamless transition into the pure white of the next shot in the story. It was very much a team effort for Brennan to zoom out and frame the shot, while our Dolly Grip pushed on my cue and our 1st AC Amanda Petrone turned her wireless hand unit to shift the focus out. After about 10 or so takes, in which I was extremely insistent on the timing of everything, we got our take.

I’ll admit that watching the dailies back now, I can see my actors and crew starting to get a little frustrated with me, but that can be the price of getting exactly what you need and for that I will always defend the meticulousness.

KEY TAKEAWAY 7: As a director I think it is absolutely essential to push for the highest caliber from yourself, the crew and your actors. While you are all there and the money has been spent, you owe it to yourself to run a scene as many times as you need to get it right. You might not always be the most popular person on set after it but in the edit and more importantly on the screen, you will never ever regret it.

After we had completed this last setup, we had officially wrapped production on the film! I can still remember the glorious feeling of relief and accomplishment that you feel after finishing a shoot for a film that had lived in your head for multiple years and went through some of the greatest barriers I had ever faced.

We had to move very quick to wrap up all of our equipment to load out of the location and get everything back into the van for the drop offs.

The next day I dropped off all of the equipment back to it’s respective places and then delivered the van back to its location, Ubered home and then immediately crashed.

It’s a very interesting sensation to go from the adrenaline fueled mental high to a very melancholic low after wrapping a shoot. Your mind and body are drained but also confused as to how to process the stillness.

Stress Management

A major takeaway that I learned from this specific shoot, and subsequent shoots I have directed is this: stress management for yourself on the set is crucial.

I’ll admit that I am the kind of person who gets stressed very easily and very often. It’s been a great journey for me to learn how to manage and develop coping mechanisms to deal with the inherent chaos of filmmaking and directing an entire production.

I learned on this shoot that slowing down, breathing and taking everything in is a really good way to combat the stress when everything gets overwhelming. My technique is to force my body to move slower and as a result my mind starts to slow down, and then I try to answer one question at a time from crew members. It is very common to be asked a plethora of questions and being über prepared is a really great way to appease stress, but also it allows you to give a confident answer and move on to the next question.

I have found that answering one question at a time is key. Answer one question, tell the next person to “give you one second” and then get to them in the order they asked their question. Following up with your collaborators is a sure fire way to keep your anxiety lower, show that you care and also allow them to do their best work and better serve your vision.

In Conclusion

Directing a film is an endless array of work, preparation and specificity. To recap, here are the key ingredients to success for managing a successful production as a director:

1. Build Out a Practical Schedule With Your AD’s: Be sure to collaborate with your AD’s about the smartest and most practical schedule that is actually doable and be realistic if it needs to scale back.

2. Lock Your Shot List and Blocking: Be sure to confirm and review all of your shots with your AD’s and DP to iron out any special needs and manage expectations for the shoot and the schedule. This also allows you to really run the movie in your head and what you need from each shot on the day.

3. Get the Call Sheets Out and Rest Up Before the First Shoot Day: Make sure your AD’s get the call sheet with all information sent out and get adequate rest so you can be your best self on the shoot.

4. The Shoot: Set the tone for the first day by being clear, collaborative and meticulous for all of the details in the frame and performance. You don’t get a second chance in indie film so do yourself a favor and make sure to get it right with ultimate preparation and an answer ready for every question. Don’t budge unless it will help the movie.

5. Stay Adaptable On the Shoot: Be ready to nix setups, combine takes, run less takes and rethink scenes if necessary or a better idea is presented. This keeps the film truly alive and fresh and allows you to make your shoot day.

6. Work With Your Collaborators: Whether it be directing children actors or working through emotionally difficult scenes, be empathetic and a guiding light to your actors and crew. You can be great and kind in the same sentence.

7. Nail The Technicalities: I recommend understanding the technology and the details of the gear and nature of the shots you are trying to pull off so that you can communicate more clearly with the crew and also be more prepared to help aid in them executing a complicated technical shot with rack focuses, dollies, zooms, etc.

8. Manage Your Stress Levels: Learn to manage your stress levels and attitude on the shoot, especially when things go wrong or you are behind schedule. As the stress starts to rise, this is essential to keeping your creative faculties open and functional and to achieving success in the face of turmoil to lead your team to cinematic victory.

Next Up, the latest installment, Part 4 on Post-Production is below:

1. Zolly - A “zolly” or Zoom Dolly shot, also known as the “Vertigo shot”, is a camera move that combines a camera dollying into a subject while zooming out on the lens simultaneously to create an optical illusion where it feels like the subject is completely static while the space around them converges in on itself. This is a pretty difficult shot to pull off smoothly.