Food for Thought

Hello readers!

I must start off by saying this week was a bit crazy as many unexpected things prevented me from focusing on feature film stuff. So updates will be short this week.

Updates:

So looks like Love, Concord is in the lead for the title of the movie. Many of you posted comments on the blog, or emailed me, or Face Book messaged me your feelings and that title was overwhelmingly well received. However, before I sign off on it I'm going to do one last poll on a final list of contenders for this movie's name.

Organization is Key.

Part of why I have few updates to write about this week is because I took a paid gig on a shoot this past Thursday. I was basically a glorified photographer's assistant and a data manager on the shoot. What was being shot was photos for a shoe company's ad campaign and HD and 16mm footage for a behind the scenes/webisode type thing.

I started working at 7:30 am and didn't get off the clock until 12am. I worked 16 and a half hours on a shoot that was suppose to end by 9pm. Why did I slave away and work well past the time I was booked (besides wanting to be paid)? Because this shoot was one of the worst planned shoots I've ever been on.

For instance, at the first location of this production day there were about 10 models, 5 crew members, 3 make-up artist, and various staff members from the shoe company on the set and only one case of bottled water. Needless to say by 1pm we were out of water with no replacements in site. To add insult to injury, we were suppose to eat lunch at 1pm, did that happen on time? Nope! Not only that, but we didn't eat until around 5pm because we wrapped the first location 90 minutes late because the DP wouldn't hurry up! And no one put pressure on him to do so.

All this brings me to the point about how important a production's planning will determine it's success. Granted this one day shoot won't suffer much from running 14 hours versus 12, but imagine if this became a habit on a 6 day production week? Morale on the set would crash and burn.

Therefore, I want to insure my readers, and most importantly my crew, that I won't make the same mistakes. I can promise that my production will be meticulously planned as I wont' stand for wasting anyone's time.

And I especially won't ever starve my crew on my set. One thing I've always taken pride in is how well my crew is fed. I don't settle for crappy fast food or pizza every day like on other low budget movies. I serve up well catered meals both because it's my way of thanking the hard working volunteers and I'm a food snob. The only time pizza or junk food is served on my set is if it's a majority request or it's an unexpected emergency.

Returning to the topic of planning, this is one of the many things I taught my video students. In fact many of them were shocked as to how much pre-production paperwork I required before I green lit a production. But in the end many of them returned from their principal photography to exclaim how all the planning made a world of difference in the success of their shoot.

So allow me to teach you non-film folks a key position that makes a significant impact as to whether this happens or not. The position is called the 1st Assistant Director (1st AD). What's with the 1st in front of the title? I'll get to that in a moment. The 1st AD is in charge of running the set of a production. This person cracks the whip by getting all the different crew members, department heads, actors, etc. in and out of the set at the right time in a safe and efficient manner. They do this, among other managerial things, so the Director can focus on the important artistic decisions that need to be made on the set. Without a strong leading 1st AD a production will become a slow, inefficient mess.

Now, the 1st aspect in this position designates the level of command they have as there are more than one Assistant Director on a well run production. The second one would obviously be called the Second Assistant Director (2nd AD) but the third one is actually called the Second Second Assistant Director (2nd 2nd AD). Only rarely are there Third Assistant Directors, and it takes an epic film like the Lord of the Rings trilogy to necessitate that much. The lowest AD position on a movie is called an Additional Assistant Director, and again, are rare and only for movies with huge cast members and or production demands.

The importance of a strong 1st AD is one of the first concerns I brought to my Producer Virginia, but she has assured me she has thought of it also and how she thinks she'll be able to get someone to fill the position more close to the start of principal photography. Now that is a crew member I'm looking forward to profiling on the blog, until then we'll just have to wait patiently.

Well that wraps it up folks. Have a great week everyone and wish me luck on my hike up Half Dome this weekend.

Forward!

-Gustavo