Making films is fun. Its a challenge, like a big puzzle and we all need to come together to solve it. This puzzle is ever-changing, which means all of us need to adapt to it in order to fit into the big picture.
Ok.... I just wanted to share something with you all that I thought was pretty cool. About 3 weeks ago, I was having a discussion with my friend Blake, who is an actor, and we were talking bout he was having trouble booking roles because his image, or look, is a hard one to place. He has long curly hair, which in turn usually gets him type cast as the stoner college/rock guy, which really isn't an issue, in fact its badass, but he wanted to try something new.
We were half joking, and he said, "Has there ever been a super dope, dark, true to life version of tarzan?" I said, "Oooooohhhhh that would be sick". We decided to make a trailer and at least try something. Here is the trailer...
Now the question was how to do it. I don't have any money to finance this, I can't spend a lot of time on it due to other projects I am working on, and I don't really want to call in any favors ( I am a firm believer in calling in favors when its absolutely necessary). Where can I shoot it? I know! We have a couple of Jungle-looking trees in the front yard. Lets just keep it real tight and work within what we have. Here are pictures of the location in my front yard.
Three person crew, and one actor.
After a beer and a game of ping pong with my brother - He said, "What are you doing tonight, lets just shoot that thing now, tonight". "Yeah, lets do it"
So me, my brother Adam, and his girlfriend Haley Pikhart went out front. We grabbed the camera, some work lights and a fog machine and set out to light it.
While Blake was getting ready, we planned the shots. We decided on a dolly shot for the opening shot. Of course we did - but we dont have a dolly - but what do we have with wheels? A bike! We constructed a dolly out of a couple c-stand knuckles and a mono-pod head - we did a couple of tests while it was light and it worked out alright, pretty shakey. We decided to go handheld and throw a stabilizer on it in post. Next issue - we need rain - no problem. Haley grabbed a hose and started spraying it - she was our rain maker. This effect worked out quite nice because above where we were shooting was almost a complete ceiling of trees, which would evenly distribute the rain drops after saturating them.
Now its time for lightning. We,ve gone this far, might as well go as big as we can. Easy, one stinger with a power strip and a standard dimmer. But who's gonna operate that? Me.
Blake came out, we talked for a little bit about what was happening, his character and how he is going to play it. We walked him through our blocking and our shots, he added his own flavor to them. We talked about what the fuck it would be like to be a human who never knew society and the kinds of things that would enter such a primitive mind, yet a mind more sophisticated than anything else in the jungle. He covered himself in mud and we went.
Here's how it worked - Blake was acting and doing his mud. Adam would set a little smoke off from the smoke machine and then pick up the camera to shoot it. Haley was creating the rain, sometimes doing the smoke, and making sure Blake had mud on him, she also made the loincloth. I was watching the monitor ( a little portable tablet DVD player) while operating the lightning and directing Blake.
It was so much fun. Here's the trailer again.
We shot for about an hour, and then we captured it and I cut it that night. Not a lot of time spent on the project, that was one of the goals. We knew where this project rested, knew what we could and could not do, and pushed it to the limits within what we could do.
This was nothing more than an exercise that could one day turn into something more... or not, its all good. The key to making films is making films, you must be constantly challenging yourself and overcoming obstacles on your own time. That way when someone drops money on you to make a project - you already know whats up. Its fun, remember that.
