Aaron and I still talk about this experience often, what we’ve learned, what we’d definitely keep in mind on next projects, what people we’d definitely want to work with again, what people impressed us the most, what surprised us the best, etc. Here I would like to share what we’ve learned with you all, also take this as a reminder to ourselves for our future projects.

SHOOT WHAT’S ON THE PAGES

Script is your “Bible” of shooting. Always get the shots on the pages first. If you have extra time, you could get more coverage, but most of the films don’t. No matter it’s a $3000 low budget indie film or a $30M studio film, shooting time is always not enough. You have to work with the limited amount of time to get the best result you can. Even though our film is a low-budget short film, we had over 30 people on set including the crew, actors and extras. This is simply LOTS of work. You have to deal with so many things at the same time, brainstorming all the time and making sure every decision you make is toward the right direction. The most important work is getting the shots you want once you are standing on set. So it’s extremely important that you know what you want to get and have a very clear picture of how the shots need to look like. It’s very helpful if you have worked out a shot list before the shooting. That way you will always know your 1st priority shots having the script and the shot list in hand working on set. You can’t go too far from the right direction. Everything you need is on the pages. You just need to stick with them while shooting.

TALK WITH YOUR EDITOR BEFORE SHOOTING

Everyone knows how important it is having a good editor for your film. Just don’t wait until you finish the shooting to start working with your editor. Talk with them before you start shooting. You’ll be surprised how useful and helpful their opinions are. Luckily we are working with a great editor. Although we met him before the shooting and he gave us some advice, we still failed following everything he told us. Once we were in the editing room, we immediately realized that we’d have done a much better job if we did all that he mentioned earlier. Even though we were thinking about the editing throughout the shooting, the editor is certainly with a better view of what’s needed in the editing. So, just talk with your editor before shooting and follow their advice and suggestions while shooting. This is going to save you from a lot of “oops” in the editing room.

NEVER GIVE UP

Never give up, always keep trying, even at the moment seemingly impossible to succeed, don’t give up, just wait and sort out your thoughts. There is always a way out.

We’ve experienced a lot working on this film. What make this journey so valuable and unforgettable are the obstacles we have overcome successfully to get to this point. You have to be an excellent problem-solver, a great pressure-dissolver, and a fast-thinker. There were many times that we felt stuck, not knowing what to do at all. We tried all the possible options, kept trying and trying until we figured a best way out. When something goes wrong, just stay calm brainstorming. Freaking out and losing control will not help you solve any problem. All you need to do is to keep trying. As long as you’re still working on it, things WILL work out for you. You have to believe in this. There was one thing that we experienced is a best example for this.

First of all, I am not complaining or blaming anybody. I am actually very grateful for everything. It’s not easy for us to complete this film. Neither for everyone involved. We’re thankful to the effort and help that everybody has input.

Before we started shooting in the restaurant we’d chosen, we had been contacting G, the owner of the restaurant, for about a month talking about the terms and details of shooting in his restaurant. It’s a very nice restaurant. We can clearly tell that G has put a lot of work and heart into it. The evening before the day we scheduled shooting in the restaurant, after we had sent out the call sheet to everybody, rented and picked up all the equipments, and after I had visited the restaurant and talked to G a few hours earlier that day, when everybody was charging up for the next day shoot, G raised the rate a few times higher than what we had been agreed on. We were all shocked. Veronica immediately started looking for alternation. Bob was re-going through all the emails we had with G trying to figure something out. Aaron called G twice trying to make him change his mind but obviously it’s not working at all. There just seemed no way to bring G back to our original agreement. My brain went blank for a few minutes. Only one question was spinning in my head: “What am I gonna do?” and only one answer came out: “I have no idea.”. That moment was so dramatic. When Aaron told me that he’s going to send out the emails to cancel the shooting, I could not speak a word but only looking at him in tears. We were only three days away from our dream becoming true. We had been working on this for over two years. Right that moment, I just could not persuade myself to give up. No way for me to give up when we already had half of the film in can from the first weekend shoot knowing we had gotten very beautiful shots and believed this was going to be a good film. I had NO idea what I could do, but I knew I did NOT want to give up.

Aaron already finished half of the email of canceling the shoot. I asked him to hold on and not send it out for now. I walked into the bedroom, closed the door, then dialed the number of G’s. Although Aaron had told me that he had talked to G twice and he didn’t think there’s a way to change G’s mind, I still wanted to talk to G. He seemed very nice and supporting when I talked to him just a few hours earlier. I just knew I had to talk to him myself. I dialed his number, he picked up the phone. At the beginning, G explained to me that he thought there’s a big misunderstanding between him and Veronica, and he just couldn’t do it with the original rate. He had difficulties. He wanted to take good care of his restaurant, and his business. After he finished explaining, I said I understood completely. I really did. Instead of talking about the rate, I told him how we started this project, how long we had been working on this, how much we had done in the first weekend shoot and for the other half of shoot starting the next day. I said what this film meant to me was just what the restaurant meant to him, and it’s a ultra low budget short film, we couldn’t afford the new rate. I told him the dream of getting this film made was only three days away, I simply couldn’t give up. I asked him at the end if there’s any way for him to change his mind to lower the rate. He said sorry. I knew there was nothing more I could do. I hang up the phone.

Right that moment, Veronica called and told me another restaurant that might be suitable for our film, and the rate was affordable. Aaron and I headed out immediately after I finished the phone to check out that restaurant. But it turned out that restaurant was impossible for shooting because it’s full of mirrors on the walls. The crew would have no where to stand. On the way back home, we were both silent, my brain went blank again. After we got back home, it was almost 11pm, I knew that there’s no way to shoot the next day without a location locked, but I just couldn’t say to cancel it. Too hard for me to give up. Right that moment, my phone was ringing again. Out of my expectation, it was from G. He asked me if I had found any alternative. I said no. Then he explained a lot what he needed to do so as to let us shoot in his restaurant, which was costly. I said okay. Then he told me that he liked I was a sincere person and he would like to see this film get done, he offered a lower rate, which was still higher than the original one but a lot less than the last one, most importantly it’s affordable. He asked me to call him back if I thought it’s acceptable. That was the best he could do, he said. I thanked him. After hanging up the phone, I let my producer friends Veronica and Bob know about the latest rate. Aaron suggested to wait until next morning to confirm. I did.

The next morning, I called G and made the deal. He signed the contract. We sent out the updated call sheet. Everything was back on track.

1st night shooting in the restaurant. Only few people knew what we'd been through to get there. We made it happen.

The first night of shooting in the restaurant, when I was standing inside the dining room looking at everybody getting ready for the shoot, I was SO glad and grateful that everything was happening as scheduled. Few people knew how we got to that point, but what only mattered was that we made it happen. For the rest of the stories, you all already know.

Aaron says I’m stubborn. I don’t know about that, but I do know I’m persistent. It’s very hard for me to give up something once I’ve set up the goal and been on track. That’s what has led me to this point of my life.

[ ... to be continued ]

MEETING WITH THE EDITOR

Cathy and I met with Robert, the editor, to talk about the progress of his work and hear his suggestions for some b-roll footage that we could grab to help him in the process. He showed us what he had done so far and also discussed some of his ideas. He has come up with some great ideas! And with 35 years of professional editing experience under his belt I find myself learning something each time I speak with him. He has given me gems of knowledge that I will apply to future projects.

We are hoping to have the rough cut completed by mid-September. Then we can pass it along to Peace for music editing and also begin submitting the short film to a few film festivals.

Cathy and I are also hoping to begin working on a trailer for the short film. We have ideas that we’ve discussed. Now it’s a matter of sitting down, clarifying the “message” we want to give the viewer and starting to edit.

SHOOTING IN DOWNTOWN LA

Immediately after meeting with Robert we drove downtown and met Francisco. We had contacted him earlier, rented some equipment and had a list of shots we wanted to capture. These are mostly images that will be used to add atmosphere and help with transitions.

One thing we rented was an intervolometer; something I must get for my 5D Mark II. With this we were able to grab still photos of the skyline at regular intervals and stitched them together later into a timelapse of the sun setting over the Los Angeles downtown skyline.

With the hood mount we captured more day and night time shots of downtown LA. Mostly of the highrise buildings but also of the streets in general. Things went smoothly…

…until the sun went down.

We wanted to capture the varied aspects of downtown LA, so our shots were spread out in various areas. As it became dark and we drove through areas close to “skid row” people would yell out at us and it was at times quite threatening. Francisco was quite nervous; he had been on a shoot grabbing the exact same type of footage and the car he was in was suddenly surrounded by people and they started attacking them!

Luckily, we escaped with only yells and suspicious looks. But I can imagine people feeling a little nervous about someone with a camera driving by at night. Even if it was not pointed directly at them.

Anyway, we hope it was all worth, right?!

We have been getting test clips from the editor Robert Ferretti the past few days. Things are shaping up nice. Of course there are shots we wish we had had the time but we are equally confident that we have done our absolute best given the time and budget constraints of the project. The edits Robert’s sent us look quite good.

Cathy and I are meeting with him tomorrow to discuss some of his ideas and we will also go over the script with him to detail our ideas and vision.

We rented a car mount and intervolometer at Samy’s Camera in Playa Vista; they have a rental house there. Francisco will use the intervolometer to film a timelapse of the sunset tomorrow. Earlier in the day we will use the car mount to shoot more downtown LA buildings. The mount configuration that we have does not have the rod mounts that we had used before but it has been rigged with three suction sups and a stabilizing bar that will make it far more stable than what we had before. Francisco will take a break then return for the sunset shoot as well as some night time shots of Los Angeles.

AFTERTHOUGHTS

Cathy and I sat eating breakfast the morning after we wrapped production. One of the first things we asked each other, literally, was “so, what do you want to do next?”

Can you believe that? As exhausted and emotionally spent as we were, the first thought that came to us was doing it all over again!

And we intend to do just that! There are a few feature length scripts that we are working on developing. One is an adaptation of a short story that I had read and loved over 25 years ago(!). Cathy and I have talked about this story and how we would adapt it numerous times. I recently emailed every source I could locate to get in touch with the again author to ask about acquiring the rights to her story. And she replied to my email!

The next step is Cathy and I finishing out outline for the adaptation and having that ready to pitch the author. Hopefully the rights will be available and affordable. It’s a story we both love and would love to turn into a movie.

As I said, we have a few more feature length projects we are developing also. And I would personally like to continue shooting more short films in the meantime. Much shorter in length than “The Last Supper,” in the 5 minute range I think. This way we can continue to work on writing, the mechanics of film making and defining the “look” of the movies we will make.

In retrospect, there were some shots that I had clearly in my mind while shooting “The Last Super.” But, alas, was not able to get some of these shots due to time, logistical or budgetary constraints. Moving forward we will use what we learned from our first production and continue to improve our film making and storytelling skills.

A COMPANY NAME!

Toward our commitment to film making and collaboration, Cathy and I have established an LLC. So it’s official; we’re partners in crime!

We’ve completed shooting “The Last Supper!” The first shots were captured midday on July 31st with the Canon 5D Mark II mounted onto the hood of my car. Later, we met at the location we call “Michael’s Alley” and shot through the night. The acting, the crew and the experience were all fantastic!

The next day we started shooting early in the morning and continued at a second location into the evening until we started losing sunlight.

The following weekend was where things got really, really challenging. We hired out a restaurant for the finale and main obstacle our main character Michael was to face and overcome. The crew grew in size as did the number of extras. It was an organizational challenge to say the least. We shot from 7PM to 7AM on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. And we had a LOT of pages to get through.

It was quite a challenge but even more exhilarating! I learned so much and always felt lucky to be working with such an incredible cast and crew. At the end I knew that we would not have succeeded in completing all that we had without the input, experience and dedication of everyone we worked with.

From the cast of incredible actors to the awesome crew to the tireless extras… we cannot thank you enough.

Now that we have all this footage it’s time to dive into post-production. That means editing and color timing. Slipping in the time to cut a trailer. We also need to add some finishing touches to the music once we have the rough cut and final edit.

Our work is far from done but we’ve passed a major milestone by shooting twenty-five pages of images, emotions and dialogue in five fun-filled days and nights. And once again we are still looking for your help in funding what is going to be a great short film.

Michael learns the bad news.

Michael sits on his bed in the alley.

Michaels plays the violin in the street.

Michael is facing Maitre d' in the restaurant.

Reviewing the Footage

MEETING WITH FRANCISCO

We met Francisco tonight to go over the footage from this past weekend. The three of us agreed that things had turned out well and that we should have enough for the editing later on. The night time shots from Saturday look great. I’m pleased with what we were able to accomplish in those two days.

After reviewing the footage we talked through the schedule for next weekend. Most of the shots will take place inside the restaurant that we’ve hired out. Nevertheless, we have a lot of scenes to cover and a lot of work will need to get done. We’ve brought on a First AD to help keep things on track throughout the weekend. This will be a big help given how much we have to get done.

Wooden Nickel

FINALLY, A TRUE UNDERSTANDING OF MURPHY’S LAW

It’s just before 12:30AM and we are going to call it a night and get some sleep soon. This will be the earliest we’ve been able to go to bed during the last couple of weeks as a matter of fact. We both need to be rested for the first weekend of shooting on “The Last Supper.”

We’ve been making several arrangements in preparation for the shoot this weekend. And, of course, everything that could go wrong has gone wrong! But the silver lining was that no one completely lost their wits or temper and we were always able to make things work out someway, somehow.

We had a final production meeting last night at Literati Cafe on Wilshire Blvd. The crew got together and asked questions, voiced their concerns and worked out solutions. It was a productive meeting I think and I feel even more confident that things will work out well over the next couple of weekends. During the meeting Francisco mentioned that I pick up eight 50-foot stingers when I dropped by to rent the 3000 watt generator. He was kind enough to call ahead and during this call learned that the rental house did NOT in fact have the generator. So all of a sudden we were without the genny we needed for the first night of shooting.

But not to panic! I would simply call another rental house and take care of it the next morning. Right?

Well, the next morning (today) turned out to be insanely busy at work! As a matter of fact, the entire week was pretty crazy at work. One day I’ll get my act together and either take a long period of time off from visual effects or quit altogether if I want to make a feature film. No way on earth it would work trying to work on a project that size and hold down a fulltime job. I can barely keep it together with this short.

Anyway, I called Wooden Nickel and confirmed that they had the generator and cables that Francisco needed. But the catch was that I was not able to get away from work until 3PM and I had to somehow make it to North Hollywood before 4:30PM.

I jumped in the car (I had skipped lunch so that I could run this errand and not feel too guilty), got onto the congested highway 10 east then transitioned onto the 405 north. It was at this point that I realized there was a snowballs chance in hell that I was going to make it to North Hollywood by 4:30PM. As a matter of fact, I had pretty much resolved myself to not making it there at all before they closed at 5PM so I would not even have a chance to beg them to let me rent the equipment.

But I drove on. And miraculously made it there a few minutes before they closed. They had the equipment waiting for me, I filled out the paperwork, handed over a copy of the insurance we have for the production then loaded the genny and stingers into the car. Of course the entire journey took two hours but I stay late at work to make up the extra hour I was away from the office.

Nevertheless, I came away with the generator and cables that we needed for tomorrow night’s outdoor shoot.

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!

Oh, don’t think for one second it stops there.

After the production meeting I had to put out a pretty serious fire with one of the actors. It all worked out in the end but it was a bit worrisome for Cathy. I believed, as I always do, that things would work out and they have.

While I was on the phone with Wooden Nickel trying to find a replacement generator I got a call from Cathy. The permits had suddenly gotten a lot more expensive due to circumstances we had not been aware of despite trying our best as newbie filmmakers to perform our due diligence and research everything. But what else would we expect than last minute monkey wrenches to try to throw us off?  ;)

LOOKING FORWARD TO A BUSY MORNING & PRODUCTIVE DAY

We meet Francisco and Kyle downtown at 2PM tomorrow to shoot some b-roll footage for the opening credits. I imagine we will also shoot additional b-roll throughout the production as time permits to have the extra footage for editing. But before then we have quite a few little errands to complete. Small things but necessary for what needs to get done this weekend.

It’s now a little past 1:10AM. Time for an early night’s sleep!

Veronica McKenzie & Marie Rowe

VERONICA & MARIE

As we approach the beginning of the shoot we’d like to take time out and begin introducing our crew members in more detail. We’ll start with two women who’ve worked tirelessly from the very beginning and continue to do so: Veronica McKenzie and Marie Rowe!

Veronica studied in both the UCLA Professional’s Program and the UCLA Extension Producer’s Program with Cathy. She was in the class where Cathy first pitched our story idea. Once Cathy and I decided to embark on the project, Veronica has been there with advice, hard work, research and encouragement. We would not be where we are now without her hard work. But lucky for us she has been there, so now we are days away from beginning the first weekend of shooting on our short film.

Marie joined the production early on as the Casting Director, helping us gather the great actors we’ve been fortunate to work with as we make our film. She has also been a fresh pair of eyes on our script, offering some helpful suggestions throughout. Marie’s even going to step in and use her acting skills as one of the key characters in the movie, so keep an eye out for her. I doubt you will miss the shots that she will be in.

We are thankful and offer our deep appreciation for the hard work, professionalism and dedication from the “Dynamic Duo” from England, Veronica and Marie! Thanks.

CONTINUING WITH THE SHOT LIST

We met Francisco midday and walked to a second hand store that we have spoken to the owners about using for two scenes in the short film. He had not seen this location yet so we wanted to get his feedback on the lighting, how much time he will need to setup and execute the shots and finally what he thought about the location for our needs.

Francisco really liked it and thinks it will work out perfectly! Now we just need to negotiate for an extra hour or two from the owner.  ;)

Afterwards we drove down the street to a cafe and continued with the shot list. This was just as productive as the last time we met and discussed the script and how we would execute the shots. He likes our ideas and has great ideas of his own. The process is working out quite well. We decided to stop at the last scene, inside the restaurant. It’s a long and involved scene and since Francisco has completed his long shoot on a feature film he will have time to meet with us again this upcoming week. So we’ll finish it in a couple of days.

MORE LOCATION SCOUTING

We left the cafe and drove over the hill to look at a couple of locations we have made arrangements to use in Sherman Oaks. First we visited the restaurant with Francisco to look at the interior. It should work out quite well but will have a challenge or two. The restaurant interior is gorgeous and a perfect match for the intimacy and warmth we want for this final scene.

Francisco and I walked across the street to look at the outdoor location that will serve as Michael’s (the main character’s) home, so to speak. It is secluded but spacious enough for the cameras and lights we’ll need for these pivotal night time shots. And it is located right across from the object of Michael’s desires; the cozy restaurant he has set as a goal for himself as his health deteriorates.

We spoke with Francisco about the light and camera equipment we’ll need for these two locations as well as the logistics of getting all of this filmed within the budget and time constraints we have. Cathy has completed a detailed breakdown and we will finish the schedule, what shots we’ll cover on which dates and locations, tonight. Yes… another late night ahead of us!

LOCATION SCOUTING

This morning Veronica and Cathy went to the restaurant to talk with the owner. He was very nice to let us shoot in his restaurant and use their name and logo in our film. It’s an Italian restaurant, having beautiful painting on the walls. When we got there today, they were playing the theme song from “God Father” while staff were getting prepared for their first guest. Such a nice start of the day!

After that, we went to a thrift store that I checked out earlier and thought it could be a good location for the filming. We talked with the manager. After the brief introduction to this project, she quickly promised that we could shoot in their store for free, BUT only for one hour. This is going to be such a task for us, because we’re thinking to shoot two scenes in the store. One hour is really too tight. But this is what we got, we have no choice but to make it happen.

Then we checked out two pawn shops. It seemed neither of them was interested in this project. It was my first time walking into a pawn shop. Interesting experience.

After all that, we went to a small but very nice cafe making schedules for the week. Still have so much to get done. But we will get it done.

ANOTHER REWRITE

Aaron went through the script again tonight, making dialogue adjustments based on the table reading we had. We had told the actors that we wanted them to keep the intent of the dialogue but to make any changes they felt would make their words sound more natural. And many of their subtle changes did in fact make the dialogue flow more naturally, so we’re happy to fine tune what we had written earlier.

There was also one particular piece of dialogue at a pivotal scene that has bothered me ever since we put the words onto the page. We’ve written and re-written this dialogue so many times but have never felt satisfied with what we had.

We feel that we’ve arrived at a very simple and eloquent solution to the dialogue problem we had in this scene. Something that is most true to the characters and is not overly heavy handed.

Aaron has emailed a copy to Cathy for her comments (although she was sitting beside me the entire time and I read the changes to her). And because Aaron finished at around 1AM he’s decided to read through the entire script again tomorrow during lunch, catch any typos my weary eyes might have missed tonight then email the script to the crew.

Hopefully this will be the final draft before shooting. As with most of the revisions, we feel really good about the changes and confident that it will make the story and emotion stronger.