Someone call 9-1-1

Today is the last day, yes, you read it right-the LAST day of filming! We're on set at Hardin Memorial Hospital in Elizabeth town! Everything has been coming together quickly and smooth. We've had a long day! Bare bones crewed filmed last night in the hospital while the rest of us woke up bright and early today to meet up with everyone. Its been such a long day, but we all look good dressed in black t-shirts, army pants, different colored eyes, barcode tattoos & boots! The end is near and the road has been full of ups and downs, but i have faith that we're gonna pull off a successful movie! I'm so excited for April & highbridge :)

crisis management mode (from wednesday)

is something that doesn't mix well with our crew, I've seen.
From Wednesday night, looking back at Tuesday night:

Last night was, well, interesting. We got what we needed shot wise, but along the way, there were more than just a few bumps it the road. To be honest, it was more like large sections of road were missing and we were still driving on hoping that somehow there would be road again.

Lessons learned? Oh where to begin!

One, you may feel that there's been enough preproduction. But you are wrong. Until you can achieve the place in preproduction where everyone is on the same page as the director (me... scary thought) then the job isn't done. We weren't on the same page.

Two, you may feel that you are communicating adequately. You are not, until someone looks at you and says "I got it the last three times you told me." No joke--communication between the department heads literally needs to be this repetitive. That way, no miscommunication can occur. We had plenty of that going on.

Three, you may feel that bothering the director every five seconds about a logistical thing is a good thing to do. Do I need to know? Usually, but not always. Think about the question beforehand--ask yourself who handles this normally. Will the director know a logistic about time? Unlikely. We're more concerned with the creative aspect than with time. 1st AD handles those kind of logistics. Lighting? Talk to the Gaffer or DP. Director has final say, but we don't handle it most of the time.

Four, you may think that if something isn't going right that you should step up and try to offer advice. DO NOT DO THIS!!!! JUST STOP. You don't need to offer advice. The people who should be controlling things are the 1st AD, the Director, and the DP. With everyone else jumping in and trying to control things, the three of us were torn apart and it was a mess.

Five, you may feel that having a good time on set is a priority. Actually, it's not. Getting the job done is the priority. And if things are going right, you will have a good time, but constantly joking around and enjoying things wastes precious time. And in Hollywood, time is money. When we're not filming, you should remain relatively quiet and focused so that the DHs can have what's called working quiet. Our brains sometimes need you to shut up so we can think at full strength.

Six, you may feel that yelling STOP! and telling everyone to take five while you powwow with the other department heads to get on the same page is wasting time, but it's actually going to save you time. We should have done that last night.

Seven, you may think you have a good idea for my actors and obviously it's a good idea to pipe up and talk. As a director, you have no idea how frustrating and angering it is to have people talking to my actors. What would you do if someone stepped in and started trying to do your job when you are perfectly capable of doing it yourself? And when they have no idea what's really going on. Also, when I pause before giving feedback, it's not because I don't know, it's because I'm replaying things in my head and working out what worked, what didn't, and how I want to fix things. A major thing to remember is that on a normal Hollywood set, talking to actors if you're not the director can get you kicked off set instantly.

As a young director, I'm learning in leaps and bounds on this project. Sometimes that's a frustrating place to be, and other times it feels like the best possible place. Last night I learned far more than I would have liked to, and in the worst way possible. I'm still rather upset about it, and to be honest I don't want to look at the footage from last night because I'm so angry about it.

Plans Come Together

We shoot tonight. We have recast Dr. Giles and I am confident he will perform well despite my not having interacted with him at all. But hey, that's what a producer's intuition is good for, right?

The hospital where we are filming tonight is actually an Asbury Alum's personal doctor's office. We were given free rein of the place all evening and into the night, so it will be my job to make sure no one takes advantage of this incredible amount of trust given to us.

We've changed the production schedule around (yet again) so we are no longer shooting at the Luce Physical Activities Center here on campus. That's good because it's one fewer location where we have to load and unload equipment, plus now we're at locations that are completely unfamiliar to our Asbury audience. The bad news is, that means we have more to cram into our hospital location in E-town.

In other news, transportation is arranged for the weekend and I will be driving a 12-passenger van full of extras to the set Saturday morning! Should be a blast.

We Knew it Couldn't Be Perfect Forever, Right?

It's two days before our next big shoot and we've just gotten word that our Dr. Giles is sick with a bad case of the flu! Thankfully, we haven't filmed any of his scenes yet, so we have decided to recast.

Am I worried? Not a bit. We've got a great crew, facing real challenges. This is going to be a great film - against all odds. :)

Mrs. Darcy

Today started out great, with Tessa giving me gummy bears and a note to "Mrs. Darcy". There's an inside joke with that, but short version of the story, that was the perfect beginning.

We arrived on set and immediately work began. I basically run around looking at everything, answering questions, working with actors, approving whatever else, and so forth. It gets a bit hectic, really. Filming began and things ran smoothly, and let me tell you, I timed out something so perfectly it's amazing: a phone call where the phone needs to start ringing right as the camera locks off. And it was great. Things ran relatively smoothly at the beginning, and then because it started raining, that changed. But we managed, and finished out the first few scenes we filmed today with good results. And a lot of takes. Olivia was way on her game today too with all the timing she was doing. I have no clue how she does it, but she does. And she's good.

Then came the kitchen. Oh man. STRESS. This scene was really important and long and a lot of important things happen in it, so it took a lot to really get it right on all levels. But we did! And, we even wrapped a little ahead of schedule. That's pretty impressive. Yay! Probably my favorite part of the kitchen scene was this cute little interaction between Shannon and Phil (Lycia and Dad) where she jokes about burning the bunnies and he throws a chocolate chip at her. That was his idea, and it worked out so well--made the relationship between them feel more real and less forced or staged. The acting in that scene was super impressive to me; at times I felt that I wasn't watching a movie but standing on the edge of a real family's interaction and that at any second I could say something and enter into the action. Before this film, I'd never experienced that, never felt like I was watching real life rather than a scene someone had written and people were now acting. I ended up trusting Lee entirely on what the kitchen shots looked like and not letting myself watching anything but the acting. That might be why I was able to feel so much about the acting.

This film has been challenging me in a lot of ways, but one of the reasons why today was so stressful for me is because I forced myself to trust in my crew a lot more than I would have liked to. Generally I don't like trusting people with how I feel (if I'm not in a good mood) or with creative things. This film has become my life, and it's hard for me to relinquish control and trust someone else for how the shot looks, how the sound is, and so forth. I pretty much handed full control over to Lee today as to what the shots look like, aside from watching a few things for timing purposes (like when to motion to Olivia to call Lycia's phone or when to have Nathaniel open his eyes at the end.) But time and time again this crew has proven that they are worthy of every bit of my trust--I just need to allow myself to rely on them because they'll make sure that everything is good.

Every day is a new learning experience for me, whether it's on or off the set.

Props to us. . . literally.

The job of an art department is very vague. Therefore, we've done pretty much anything you can imagine.

This week has been fun. I had to create a fire escape route sign for the hospital sequence. They told me to pretty much do whatever. So I did. This may or may not have included adding the word "poop" to the men's restroom. It's really little and you can't see it unless you zoom in really close, but it's there.

Now the major issue at hand is creating Lycia's genetic file. Again, they are giving me absolute freedom here (besides a few specifics). Therefore, my sister is a genetic donor and bears the name of my high school Spanish teacher. Oh, it's a possibility that Jason Bourne is a genetic donor as well. This is getting fun.

Now for today. Because you guys all care.

I crawled out of bed this morning (as well as one can crawl out of a bunk bed), changed clothes, ate pudding, brushed my teeth, grabbed my bag, and left for Corbitt. We definitely rocked out on the road trip to our location, cranking up both techno and classic Disney music. We arrived on set, and we went to town.

Set-up girl's room, Lycia's make-up, set-up bathroom, Greek the toilet, cram food in our mouths, set-up boy's room, boy's make-up, Mom's make-up, Dad's make-up, set-up kitchen, little bit of down time, tear down girl's room, tear down bathroom, cram more food in our mouths, and now some more down time because they are filming the kitchen scene and it is taking. . . a long time.

Soon (I hope) we'll be tearing down the boy's room, then the kitchen, then we will eat cake, take a picture, and go home. But probably not for a couple hours.

I love filming.

Greeking a Toilet.

Never filmed for 6 1/2 hours but here we are in Louisville and still going!!!
Yes!
It has ben an awesome day!
We got here to this house in Louisville and started setting up right away in the girls room (which was actually a boys room so we had to move quite a bit of stuff)
But we got it all set up and pretty and moved and set up the bathroom and boys room. The boys room was fun because the bed was in a deep nook in the wall and so we made him lay sideways and just took the shot that way. It was cool
The bathroom even came with "greeking the toilet". :) It was crazy haha
Then we got to pig out on food for lunch. yes!
We had a few breaks and them putting on makeup and the "quiet on set!" every few minutes. It was fun.
We did a lot of cool things setting up wise and got to greek a lot of labels especially in the kitchen.
Dinner was pretty good too especially since my dad brought it. He also brought along all my family! It was nice to see them since it had been a few weeks.
After all the craziness they started to film the loooon kitchen scene so that's where we are now. Sitting on a slightly cold porch waiting for them to finish. It will be the last scene for tonight then we can head out!
Of course, after we take a group picture, eat birthday cake, and clean up our big mess, then we can go home! hah
But, it's been a great day and I am excited for the other four filming days!

Summer Camp Meets "When We're Grown Up"

For me (the producer) today feels just like summer camp for a years' work of school and headache. Production is the fun part for me - where I can "sit back" and watch the film come to life before my eyes! As far as the work I'm actually doing on set, I've been answering basic questions about the film from crew members, standing in as location liason and 2nd AD, updating the budget, taking behind-the-scenes photos and video, and trying to boost crew morale as much as I can. Fortunately, the crew's morale only needs a limited amount of boosting. In fact, I heard them singing together earlier - that warmed my heart. :)

It's amazing just how much good food on set can motivate a crew! We've pulled out all the stops and even have Starbucks coffee! I want to give a HUGE shout out to Mrs. Meiners' for opening her house for us and providing lunch, as well as to Mr. Cipkowski for catering dinner! On behalf of the crew, THANK YOU!!!

My adventures so far? I'd say most notably, I climbed up on the roof with a couple grips to check out the lighting through the skylight into the bathroom for one of the first scenes of the film. Then it started to rain! While it has put us behind 30 minutes, things are still moving along.

The rain has not made the porch where most of us have been contained (as well as where we've kept food) still a comfortable, dry space. Actually, the weather has been SUCH a blessing, because even in mid-November, I am sitting outside after 7pm when the sun has long gone, and don't even need a jacket! Indian summer has definitely hit at the right time. We have 3 more hours scheduled, will probably be here another 4-5, then it's off to various crew members' houses to stay the night and head to Elizabethtown to scout our hospital tomorrow morning!

Quotes!

The quotes I've gleaned so far from the production... Feel free to add your own either as comments or in a new post!

"Have you ever been to the upstairs of my house?" "No, but I've thought about it" - Zach Meiners and Elisa Platillero

"We had a rooster going through puberty..." - Zach Meiners

"Someone tell Don Mink to take a hike a mile down the road."- Olivia Wardwell

"I just Greeked a toilet" - Art Dept

"That's really uncomfortable, what you're doing to me" - Molly Hoy

"You can pee, as long as you do it in 8oz increments" - Nathaniel Glass

"I'm going to employ situational leadership. And I'll show you situational leadership" (smacks him on the head)

"Someone turn OFF Don Mink!" - Olivia Wardwell

"Do you need anything? Can I give you a massage?" "...later" *wink wink* - Elisa Platillero and Olivia Wardwell

"I don't need a rape whistle, I've got a rape call." Olivia Wardwell to Jen Silver

I hope this is the right place to post this.

So.
I am Chelsea Babcock.
I am an electrician.
I took notes.

DAY 1 - CHIMERA
MORNING SHOOT :
I turned my lights off at 11pm last night. I'm guessing I fell asleep around midnight.
Alarm set for 6:50am.

Arrived on set @ 7:35am.

First shot printed @ 9:05am.

9:18am - On my second cup of coffee. A little jittery!

9:25am - I can definitely feel the coffee, there is no doubt about that!

9:35am - Elisa wants Producer to be an anagram for Awesome.
However, "Producer" lacks an a, w, s, and m.
It is, however, an anagram for "Rudecrop", "Poreducr", "Crudpore", "Dupecrro", "Copuderr", "Errcoupd", and "Rerocupd".

9:54am - I whip my hair back and forth.

9:57am - Room tone

10:15am - Wrap for morning shooting.

10:20am(approx) - Left set.

Lol, I'm not very eloquent. My mind finds things easier to organize if they're in a outline format, so thats how my posts will probably be. And I'm kinda tired, and still super jittery from the coffee. WHEEEE CAFFEINE!

At this moment.

I am at this moment sitting in a green room.

Pretty Epic.

First time, but super excited.

Need I say more :)

They Call Me the Muffin (wo)Man

Greetings! - your producer here.

Some of you may be wondering how I spend my time when I'm not crunching numbers for the budget, creating deadlines for pre-production, hiring crew, planning meetings, solving problems as they arise, or working with the director and department heads to make sure they have everything they need for production. Well...

I make muffins! (With the help of my sweet roommates and friends)

Among the unexpected shifts that have happened throughout pre-production was the promotion of our UPM, Tessa, to also be in charge of craft services. With just a week before production, she swiftly pulled food resources together for our shoot today. To ease some of the burden, my roommate and I offered to bake the main breakfast offering - muffins! I've never shopped for ingredients in such large quantities. My roommate and I wandered the baking aisle in Wal-Mart thinking "how many pounds of flour do you think would be enough for 20 cups?"

20 CUPS of flour?!??! Yes, feeding a crew is that epic.

We made 3 varities of muffins, estimating about 48 servings of each, which meant a normal batch of muffins times 12! Among them were lemon-poppyseed muffins, chocolate chip, and banana. Check out the photo on the left, that's just 1/3 of the total batter we whipped out.

So how long did all this craziness take? I think we set a record. Over 150 muffins in 4 hours.

I never realized how vital it was to have food on set until I started working on larger productions, but when it is the only way you can pay your volunteer crew for their work, if you don't have food, you lose your crew fast.

If nothing else, when this production is said and done the crew will not be able to say that they went hungry on set! And don't worry, with an early call this morning, we were sure to provide coffee as well.

Finally, I want to give props to my crew for showing up on a SATURDAY MORNING at 7:30am with great attitudes! You guys are awesome!

First day on set...fantastic

I am sitting in the green room right now and Olivia just screamed, "Quiet on set!" which is, ironically enough, not very quiet. And she told us that she wasn't much for yelling. She lied.

The morning started out with me not waking up to my alarm (my apologies to my roommate who did). I was pretty groggy until I stepped outside, and it happened to be freezing. As I walked across the front lawn of Kresge I heard a large crash from the front porch of Pike; I found out later that this was Tessa. What a good Samaritan I was--totally just kept walking. I arrived promptly at Corbitt at 7:09 to find the doors locked at the department heads all huddled in a car for warmth. There wasn't any room left in the car. Awesome. So the rest of us stood on the porch and ate muffins that Elisa made last night. Let's just say she is really, really proud of those muffins.

As soon as Security opened the building, a mad rush began. We, the art department, frantically worked to "Greek" everything. Essentially this means that we had to cover up every label and every logo of anything that anyone could see--in the control room. We definitely used lots of tape and finished the job in 23 minutes. Yes, Olivia timed us. Then, we all made fun of Eric as Kristen did his make-up. I'm thoroughly convinced that he enjoyed the make-up process very much. Especially the lipstick.

We kicked off just a few minutes behind schedule and they are now shooting. Now there is a pattern of talking, then hushed whispers, then talking, then hushed whispers as we hear "Quiet on set!" then "Cut!" over and over again.

"Print!" That was followed by a chorus of cheers. Everyone seems pretty happy. I like this. We should do it more often.

Haha, we will.

Never Before

I remember sitting at my desk the night I got the application to apply to be apart of this film. I made a crazy decision, dropping the play I was working on with hopes I would be apart of this. You have no idea how excited I was to actually get something back! I had never done props before on this large of a scale and never before had I done a film. I was nervous that first meeting but also super excited.

It's been a lot of work and there is still more to come but I've had so much fun doing. And honestly, I never though I would even get to do something like this as a freshman.

Last night was especially cool for me because I got to see a lot of how it was really done. It was cool getting to talk to some different people and learn about the set.

Saturday is going to be a lot of work but probably more fun than I've had in a long time. I have a passion for film-making and I can't believe I'm finally getting to put it to use.

Thanks for having faith in me!

Can't wait for the filming to begin!