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[Deep Dive] DIY Filmmaking: Pre-Production Lessons from a $250 Short Film · Indie Film Podcast

• 0:00
  Welcome to Indie Film Podcast. In this week's episode we will
• 0:03
  be diving into the pre production process for a $250
• 0:07
  short film called Dive, directed by me, Victoria Horne.
• 0:10
  I'm Chuck, I'm Co host as well as location sound recordist and
• 0:13
  sound mixer on the short film dive.
• 0:15
  We're both micro budget film makers and we're also active.
• 0:19
  So for the next three episodes, we'll do our best to prove that
• 0:22
  we do more than just talk about making films.
• 0:24
  So we'll be discussing things like the script drafting
• 0:27
  process. Choosing cast and crew.
• 0:31
  Shot Listing. Location scouting.
• 0:34
  And will we ever learn to schedule enough time for the
• 0:37
  actual shoot? Yes and no.
• 0:40
  Half the time you did, half the time you didn't.
• 0:43
  Well, let's talk about dive. Let's talk about the pre
• 0:45
  production process. OK in pre production for dive?
• 0:48
  So you had an idea for a short film?
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  Yes, and we need to preface this by saying that Idaho Film Family
• 0:58
  Festival is an annual festival here in Idaho where they give
• 1:02
  you several months to produce a short film.
• 1:07
  You have four months to create a short film, so it's a festival
• 1:10
  and competition. Shameless Plug is run by Cody
• 1:13
  Newton. It is one of the coolest,
• 1:18
  funnest, the most fun. Not funnest, most fun.
• 1:20
  It's both. It's both.
• 1:22
  You know what it is? It's funnest and the most fun.
• 1:24
  No, it's a phenomenal festival and competition.
• 1:27
  It's really fun. The community is really active
• 1:29
  and gets really into it. And this was the 5th year that
• 1:35
  it's been running, I'm pretty sure.
• 1:37
  Right around there right around 5:00.
• 1:39
  But the demand for a longer form Film Festival was out in Idaho
• 1:45
  for a while because we have a couple of 48 hour film festivals
• 1:49
  and whenever you do one of those weekend dashes where you're
• 1:53
  trying to write a script and never sleeping for 48 hours and
• 1:58
  production and post production, a lot of times it leaves the
• 2:02
  final product wanting. And this is a cool one because
• 2:05
  you have so much time to get it done.
• 2:08
  There's some guidelines this year.
• 2:10
  I think it was like you're supposed to represent your film,
• 2:13
  or you're supposed to. Your film was inspired by a
• 2:15
  decade. Yeah, so that was the that was
• 2:17
  the guideline for this year's. But the quality on these films
• 2:21
  is always really high because it's not just 48 hours.
• 2:25
  Not that you can't produce something high quality in 48.
• 2:27
  Hours. But we've seen some cool stuff
• 2:29
  at some of those 48 hour film festivals too.
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  Like the creativity is wild there.
• 2:33
  It's awesome. Absolutely.
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  But this is, you know, the, the quality is usually a lot higher
• 2:37
  on this because you do have several days to make adjustments
• 2:40
  to the edit and you have several days to to make adjustments to
• 2:43
  the sound, which I was grateful for.
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  And you're not trying to rush through things and then kick out
• 2:48
  a final product and realize, oh, I missed that.
• 2:50
  Yeah. So this was a festival that you
• 2:54
  signed up for, Yes. And basically, I don't think
• 2:58
  you're allowed to pay people on this festival.
• 3:00
  This is kind of like a volunteer situation, that is.
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  Definitely the implication because so many of the other
• 3:07
  festivals do that and have that rule where because even 13
• 3:13
  stories is another local Idaho one, that's the Idaho Historical
• 3:16
  Society and the Idaho State Penitentiary and the the
• 3:20
  historic Penitentiary. We don't just go into jails to
• 3:24
  film. There's a historic one.
• 3:26
  Anyway, it's a cool, it's a cool other festival and competition.
• 3:30
  It also gives you a few months. The caveat being they give you a
• 3:33
  prisoner who was, you know, incarcerated to the old Idaho
• 3:36
  State Penn at some point in, you know, the 30s to the 60s.
• 3:40
  Yeah. And you are making a film about
• 3:42
  that person. And they give you access to the
• 3:44
  actual prison. Yes, which is really cool to
• 3:46
  have access to that location and be able to film there.
• 3:48
  It's a lot of fun too. But.
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  They give you a script on that. They don't give you a script.
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  They give you a story that you need to base your script on.
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  Yes. OK, And this one is a little bit
• 3:55
  more open. The one for all that you just
• 3:57
  wrote and directed, yes. Dive.
• 4:00
  Yes, and submitted to yes. So let's talk about your script
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  that you ended up shooting and then the script that you were
• 4:09
  talking to me about that you didn't end up shooting.
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  Technically, there were three. Oh, there were three.
• 4:14
  OK, technically. So why did you decide to shoot
• 4:18
  Dive instead of those other two scripts that you had in your
• 4:22
  head? I think part of it comes back to
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  a little bit of that Rick Rubin quote.
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  Again, you got to make what you really want to make.
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  OK, So are the original script idea was essentially dive OK,
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  but it was much, much longer. There is a time limit for this
• 4:45
  festival. It is 10 minutes.
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  Your film cannot be longer than 10 minutes.
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  And we should probably kind of explain what the film Dive is
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  about then. It's about a woman who enters a
• 4:54
  dive bar and she's messaging a friend.
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  There's some nebulous situation that she's waiting to be to have
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  resolved. And so there's like a tension
• 5:02
  building on these these series of text messages.
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  In the meantime, it's just her and one other guy in this dive
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  bar. And the guy is overly friendly
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  and overly talkative and wants to have small talk with this
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  poor woman while she's having this super intense text
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  messaging situation with her friend which may or may not be
• 5:27
  hinting at like a. The Log The log line for the
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  film is on the night her exes serve divorce papers, A woman
• 5:36
  waits in a quiet roadside bar, accosted by a strip boy.
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  It would be really cool if I had this memorized, but where?
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  Basically, she's serving her abusive ex divorce papers.
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  Meanwhile, she ends up caught up with this stranger who's going
• 5:54
  through his own divorce and trying to glean advice from him
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  while the threat of her ex escalates.
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  Yeah, and it's well executed. You basically had a script then
• 6:05
  that required one location. Yeah, one location which is 4
• 6:09
  actors. So I, I guess I, I got a little
• 6:14
  tangential there, which we do on this podcast quite a bit often.
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  So you decided to go with that script.
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  I did. And you said that it was because
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  you were inspired by Rick Rubin that you should do the art that
• 6:26
  you want to do. Apparently you should just do
• 6:28
  the art you want to. Well, it was twofold.
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  So the the first script I was kind of working on that ended up
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  kind of, it was dive essentially, but it was really
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  long. And I'm like, there's no way
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  this is going to happen, but I want to find a way to turn this
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  into kind of a short. But keep in mind, this is the
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  Idaho Film Family Festival. Caps out at PG13.
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  No F bombs. Keep vulgarity and profanity to
• 6:55
  a minimum when you can. So it didn't work well.
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  This is a This is a heartwarming, happy kind of Film
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  Festival. And maybe a woman trying
• 7:11
  desperately to escape domestic violence isn't the best place
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  for a film like that. So stepped away from that one
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  thanks to some advice from a very good friend of mine saying
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  this is a feature film, stop it, and went with a much happier,
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  more lighthearted script that is sort of a honestly a web series
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  that I've been writing in my head since college.
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  And I just won't actually do it. And I don't know why I won't
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  just actually do it. And it ended up in the 1st 15
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  pages, which means it's going to be longer than 10 minutes.
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  And the 1st 15 pages ended up with four locations, including
• 7:49
  shooting in like, parks at night and a cabin outside of town and
• 7:53
  a business office and downtown Boise, where you need permits to
• 7:57
  film there now. And so it was a lot, a lot, a
• 8:02
  lot and very complicated. And even with four months, still
• 8:07
  not an ideal situation. So at that point the there's
• 8:13
  another team that was entering, we all kind of cross pollinate
• 8:15
  and help each other out. So I was offering some support
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  for the female film Slayers, which is the group of female
• 8:22
  independent film makers here in Boise.
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  And they're amazing and super fun.
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  Anyway, I read that script, fell in love with it, thought it was
• 8:29
  the most adorable, heart warming and just wholesome but still
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  solid story and immediately knew there's no way I'm winning this
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  festival. Oh, OK.
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  So it just kind of dropped the stakes entirely for me.
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  And maybe that sounds so negative and so bad.
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  Yeah. But I was like, well, it doesn't
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  matter if I'm not going to win and who care?
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  I want to make the script I want to make nice, which is a bad way
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  to get to that conclusion. Yeah, you should just make the
• 8:57
  script you want to make. That's where you should start.
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  You should always make the script that's exciting for you.
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  Yes. So you rewrote the instead of
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  going with the four location script.
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  Then you revisited Dive or the script that you had about the
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  domestic abuse situation. Yes.
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  And I just shortened it and I actually leaned into, I wanted
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  to try to take something from a filmmaker I admire and try to
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  learn how to do that and do it better.
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  OK, So what was that? Hitchcock actually has a theory
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  on suspense, that it's dramatic irony that makes the scene
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  suspenseful. Anything can be suspenseful if
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  the audience knows something your characters do not.
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  For example, two people sitting and having lunch can be really
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  suspenseful if the audience knows there's a bomb under the
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  table. And it doesn't matter what
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  they're talking about. Because.
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  And you took that, you took that advice to heart.
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  I did. I went real hard into that.
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  It's a weird, weird dialogue. But you you did basically all of
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  the dialogue that's happening in Dive has zero to do with the
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  underlying situation, correct? Which I thought was really cool.
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  It was fun. It was that that was The thing
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  is, I had so much more fun writing this then trying to pare
• 10:21
  down that other much more heart warming script into something
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  that it's not. It's not a 10 minute film.
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  So paring that down into something it wasn't was way less
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  exciting and interesting to me than dive it was.
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  So it was just, it was fun. Yeah.
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  So let's talk about you make that decision then and you're
• 10:41
  going to shoot this, which when you were talking about to me
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  about potentially shooting that other script with four
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  locations, I was thinking, I don't know how you're going to
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  be able to do this just because of everybody's crazy busy
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  schedules. Because everybody that's into
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  the filmmaking scene here in Boise also has day jobs.
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  And is also already working on at least one other film for this
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  festival. Yes.
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  So it would have been really hard to get everybody's
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  schedules coordinated over several multiple days.
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  Not to mention I needed like 20 actors.
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  Yeah, that would all have speaking lines and be integral
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  to the plot. Yes.
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  So you ended up going with the one that essentially has two
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  actors, somebody makes a quick cameo, we don't even see that
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  person's face, so. And then the bartender and oh.
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  The bar, Yes, absolutely. But technically has no lines.
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  But was very intentional. I wanted the bartender to say
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  nothing. Yeah, the lead actress to say as
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  little as she possibly could and the lead actor to just never
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  stop talking and. You nailed it.
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  So can you talk about the pre production process that you
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  have, the script which you did end up writing it then during
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  this festivals like time period? Yeah, which I don't think is a
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  requirement for this particular festival.
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  But you bounced because you were bouncing around.
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  You decided that, OK, I'm just going to take this idea and I'm
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  going to cut it down to you. How many pages was it that you
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  ended up filming? I think it's 10.
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  OK, I think it is at maybe it's 9.
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  I think it's 9. 9 pages. 9 pages.
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  What ended up being the final, the final draft.
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  Yeah, OK. And So what did you do first
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  once you had the script basically locked in?
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  Ish. Once I was actually happy with
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  the script, I did something I have not been able to do on a
• 12:32
  script before because I'm usually writing it so last
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  minute, OK? And it felt so good.
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  I sent it out to people whose writing I really admire, OK, and
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  asked them to please help me. Nice.
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  What do you think of this script?
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  Can you give me feedback? How many?
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  People, did you send it out to then?
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  I sent it out to three, technically 4.
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  OK. And heard back from.
• 13:01
  Because one person had split personality disorder, so they
• 13:03
  count as two people. No, but one of them was your
• 13:08
  brother Slash, the Co founder of Lower Gentry Studios.
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  And therefore I also got to kind of force Zoe, his wife, the
• 13:18
  third part of Lowered Gentry Studios to also give feedback on
• 13:22
  it, which was probably not fair, but was really kind of both of
• 13:25
  them to take the time to actually read it and then give
• 13:28
  me feedback on it. And then a friend of mine who's
• 13:31
  an amazing writer and actually came on set to help with the
• 13:34
  shoot even though she'd never done it before.
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  Her name is Sam. She's fantastic and she's.
• 13:39
  Basically PA. She was like 2 AC slash PA
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  slash. Script.
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  Supervisor slash the one sending all the text messages so the
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  screen would light up on the camera at the right.
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  Time, timing, timing that. So that the yeah, that was good.
• 13:53
  She did great on that. Yeah.
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  So you got that. You got advice on the script,
• 13:57
  and you did actually change the script pretty drastically based
• 14:00
  on input. I did.
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  And how did you decide which input to take and which input to
• 14:06
  ignore? I think I ended up taking 95% of
• 14:15
  it because I couldn't argue it, it was just logically.
• 14:21
  Nope, they're right, it is better XYZ way or this specific
• 14:27
  change does make it flow better and faster.
• 14:30
  So like the final line of the film having that tie back to one
• 14:34
  of the text messages the delete actress receives from her
• 14:39
  friend. Oh, adding in the doorbell
• 14:45
  chiming noise. Yeah, to indicate people are
• 14:48
  coming in and out of of the bar, which was was actually a good
• 14:53
  time saver on the day of the shoot to use sound effects.
• 14:55
  Yeah, because we were. But we'll we'll get into the
• 14:58
  production end of things and the post production end of things,
• 15:00
  but it cut down setups. Yeah.
• 15:02
  So you took that input and then. The only thing, the only thing I
• 15:07
  couldn't let go of was a discussion about free will,
• 15:09
  because I think it's the most entertaining thing and I am just
• 15:12
  wildly passionate about it. And it was that fact that
• 15:15
  talking about free will and a dive bar between two complete
• 15:18
  strangers is so weird and uncomfortable and it has nothing
• 15:21
  to do with the text message drama that's happening.
• 15:24
  I really loved it and I just couldn't let it go.
• 15:28
  So that was a darling I couldn't kill.
• 15:30
  Nice, so there's a scene in there where the the gentleman
• 15:33
  that's bothering the woman that's trying to basically start
• 15:36
  the divorce process, he can't get her attention then just
• 15:40
  looks at her intently and says do you believe in free will And
• 15:43
  carries on on his own discussion 1 sided.
• 15:46
  Very one sided discussion. About free will.
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  So I thought that was kind of cool.
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  So you got all the all the input, you have the script
• 15:54
  finish, then what? What'd you do?
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  I desperately needed to get people to play the parts and
• 16:04
  hope that they would say yes and find the location for it.
• 16:09
  Thankfully props and costumes. Finally.
• 16:11
  This one was just modern day. It was supposed to be inspired
• 16:14
  by the 90s, but I had too much cell phone text messaging for
• 16:17
  that to work. So instead I went with like
• 16:19
  tripod shots. Pretty wide desolate feel that's
• 16:23
  a little bit more in the. Production.
• 16:25
  And the things. But yeah, that was my attempt to
• 16:28
  keep it 90s vibe cool and. So you get, you start reaching
• 16:32
  out to cast. Yeah, and you got your cast that
• 16:36
  you wanted. I got the cast that I wanted.
• 16:38
  And one thing that was really, really kind was there is there
• 16:44
  is a restaurant here in town, Hilltop Station.
• 16:47
  Yeah. I was like, I think I'm allowed
• 16:48
  to just say Hilltop Station is, I guess not technically here in
• 16:52
  town. It is a little bit outside of
• 16:53
  town, but it's absolutely amazing.
• 16:56
  And one of the people who runs the whole restaurant is also a
• 17:01
  really talented actor who's worked on a couple of my
• 17:03
  projects in the past. Yeah, so Tate played the
• 17:05
  bartender and he was basically bartending at his bar, which was
• 17:09
  super awesome, and he donated the location.
• 17:11
  He donated the location to, which was amazing because when I
• 17:14
  wrote it, in my mind it was kind of at Hillsop station.
• 17:20
  That works out well, I know. So I got really, really lucky.
• 17:23
  I wish I could say that, you know, here's the the correct
• 17:26
  path to getting all of your key locations.
• 17:29
  Realistically, it's just knowing awesome people that are super
• 17:32
  generous. Yeah, and working with your film
• 17:34
  community and you do a really good job at using every single
• 17:38
  connection first before you start cold calling, for lack of
• 17:43
  a better term. You're not out there just kind
• 17:45
  of like knocking on doors, location scouting and then
• 17:49
  having a a conversation with somebody you have no idea who
• 17:52
  they are. Don't get me wrong, I've done
• 17:54
  that a lot too. Yeah, I mean, sometimes you.
• 17:57
  You do. It gets weird sometimes.
• 17:58
  You do what you got to do depending on what you need, but
• 18:01
  you basically had a script that worked in a location that you
• 18:06
  happen to know the owner. And I think that that's really
• 18:10
  good advice for people to consider if they're trying to
• 18:14
  make a short film and, you know, maybe they're trying to make
• 18:17
  their first short film. It's not as much about the idea
• 18:21
  as it is about, I mean, you want to have a good idea, but it's
• 18:25
  about what assets you have available to you.
• 18:28
  It's a big one because I could have written this to be in any
• 18:31
  type of other bar and there are plenty of dive bars around Idaho
• 18:34
  to choose from, obviously. But it was, I don't know, I feel
• 18:41
  like we're really lucky that the community in Idaho is so
• 18:46
  supportive here and we all do want to help each other out so
• 18:49
  much, but I don't know if that is exclusive to Idaho.
• 18:52
  I feel like a small to medium sized town would be very helpful
• 18:57
  to film makers and we still have that to where Boise is not so
• 19:00
  big yet that when we do mention hey, we're making a film here
• 19:05
  where businesses are excited about it.
• 19:07
  Whereas I bet any of you out in LA, which a lot of people in LA,
• 19:12
  we have listeners from LA listening to this podcast, I'm
• 19:15
  sure that you all can share stories of how businesses might
• 19:18
  not be so excited about you coming in and filming something
• 19:23
  in their. Location and would instead groan
• 19:25
  instead of being excited or would tell you absolutely not
• 19:28
  you need, you know, XYZ permits as well as paying us a, you
• 19:31
  know, $1500 retainer for any damages or collateral stuff.
• 19:35
  And then on the top of that, we want residuals or I don't know.
• 19:38
  I assume it's just absolute chaos in bigger towns and and
• 19:42
  more film focused towns. I assume that it's a lot harder
• 19:47
  to get locations. Yeah, let us let us know.
• 19:49
  But we're we're lucky enough here to where people are excited
• 19:52
  about the arts in Boise and people are super generous about
• 19:55
  what they have available. And so you got the location, you
• 19:58
  got your cast. So first you had you had Mark,
• 20:01
  Mark Ewens, Katie Rae, Zarande and Tay playing the bartender
• 20:05
  who actually owned the bar as well.
• 20:07
  And so. Of those 3 where you're who you
• 20:09
  wanted. That's who I wanted.
• 20:11
  You got lucky enough, got them. All I got lucky that they all
• 20:14
  said yes, that they read this really weird script and all
• 20:17
  hated the ending and said yes anyway.
• 20:20
  They didn't hate the ending, they just wanted it to be more
• 20:23
  or more satisfying or something more.
• 20:25
  Yes, which hopefully will be sharing this this film to
• 20:28
  everybody, but as you submit it to film festivals, we'll keep
• 20:32
  everybody abreast on what's going on and maybe we can work
• 20:34
  out something with a a link at some point but.
• 20:37
  Yeah, yeah, because we want to show what a $250 short film
• 20:40
  looks like. It's 8 minutes for $250.
• 20:44
  Yeah. And so you got the the cast that
• 20:47
  you wanted and then talk about the crew.
• 20:49
  Yes, was really lucky that Danny said yes.
• 20:53
  He was the cinematographer for Stockton to Table Rock.
• 20:55
  Yes, I have hired him for another documentary project that
• 20:59
  I was working on last year. So I already knew Danny and
• 21:04
  there was definitely some miscommunication at first.
• 21:06
  This would be my tip if you are going to ask someone to come
• 21:09
  volunteer time on your set, just flat out ask them for what you
• 21:17
  want. Because I wanted Danny to be my
• 21:20
  cinematographer. However, in my brain, I thought
• 21:24
  that was too big of an ask for someone like Danny with his
• 21:28
  skill sets, his availability and, and his gear too, to be
• 21:33
  willing to donate for free. So I was trying to sneak it in
• 21:36
  with like, Hey, I'm going to run camera.
• 21:39
  I really need a gaffer. You're stellar.
• 21:42
  You know, if, if you want, I'll, I'll hand over camera to you
• 21:44
  too. Like it just got really buried
• 21:46
  in the weeds to the point where he's, he initially said no
• 21:51
  because he didn't want to come on and gaffe someone else's, you
• 21:54
  know, cinematography stuff just based on he has a lot of other
• 21:57
  projects going on right now. And that that didn't rise to the
• 22:01
  importance for him. And I was bummed, but could deal
• 22:06
  with it. And then we just kind of kept
• 22:08
  talking. And I asked him, OK, so then
• 22:10
  what advice would you give me for lights because I need to
• 22:13
  build out my lighting kit. So what would you suggest?
• 22:15
  And he was really generous with all this advice about lighting
• 22:18
  stuff. We ended up talking about it
• 22:20
  more and more. It turns out, no, I had just
• 22:23
  really not been clear in my ask. He did not understand that I was
• 22:26
  asking him to DP this. Yeah.
• 22:28
  And as soon as I said oh, no, I would love it if you would do
• 22:31
  that, would you please meet the cinematographer?
• 22:32
  He immediately said yes. So be direct in your asks.
• 22:37
  Don't try to beat around the Bush and try to be more polite
• 22:40
  or try to protect somebody else's time for them.
• 22:44
  Just let them tell you no. Yeah, Just let them do it.
• 22:46
  I. Like that crew, crew especially,
• 22:49
  you can a lot of times find people that want to practice
• 22:52
  their acting chops. Yeah.
• 22:54
  And you know, they're the the people that have a whole bunch
• 22:58
  of expensive equipment that are used to getting paid to bringing
• 23:01
  that for bringing that on set. It does feel a little bit
• 23:04
  strange sometimes being like, hey, do you want to help me out
• 23:06
  with this? But hey, ask, you never know.
• 23:09
  The worst they can say is just no.
• 23:10
  I know, but it's so it's hot. It sucks because I don't I know
• 23:17
  how valuable their time is. I wouldn't be asking them to
• 23:20
  work with me like even the gaffer and AD.
• 23:23
  So Christy ended up as my AD, who also was ready to double as
• 23:27
  another person in the bar if we needed her to and showed up in
• 23:30
  full hair, makeup and costume both days for this shoot to do
• 23:34
  it. And we didn't even end up
• 23:35
  needing her on camera. And then Lee, who did end up
• 23:39
  being on camera, who was also the gaffer and was working with
• 23:42
  Danny on it like it was, it's really, I mean, he's got an Emmy
• 23:48
  and I'm asking him to come gaff this $250 short film.
• 23:52
  That's right, Lee Vanderboe does have an.
• 23:54
  He does. He literally has an Emmy and I'm
• 23:56
  asking him to show up and volunteer on this for free.
• 23:59
  And again, the community here is really supportive and all of the
• 24:02
  people on this shoot are just really nice, kind, fun people
• 24:05
  who I am eternally grateful for in my life.
• 24:09
  But they it's hard to ask them to give that time for free
• 24:13
  because I know how valuable their time is.
• 24:15
  So that is something that I struggle with and sometimes you
• 24:19
  have to just get over it. Yeah.
• 24:21
  And, and I want to talk to you about the making of the art,
• 24:25
  which for me as well, doing sound gigs, usually the stuff
• 24:30
  that I get paid for, it's, I wouldn't really consider it art.
• 24:35
  You know, I do, I do get some pay gigs where it is artistic,
• 24:38
  but a lot of times it's like, OK, we have a live event, we
• 24:41
  need sound that's going into the sound board.
• 24:43
  We want people to have their microphones and you know, we
• 24:46
  need location sound for this commercial shoot.
• 24:49
  And that that's a different skill set.
• 24:51
  I feel like if you're making art and you can get people excited
• 24:54
  about your script, you'd be surprised at who you can find to
• 24:57
  donate some time so that they can, especially if they're
• 25:00
  working with something outside of their skill set that they
• 25:04
  normally use. If you're used to corporate
• 25:06
  lighting or you know, I'm used to processing sound in a way
• 25:09
  that's a little bit more straightforward, whereas if I'm
• 25:13
  doing something on a short film, then I get to experiment with
• 25:16
  things. You get me handing you my aunt's
• 25:19
  music and saying can you do something with this?
• 25:22
  Oh, yes, yes. And having it play over the
• 25:25
  speakers in the bar. Yeah.
• 25:26
  But, you know, with Danny, I think it was kind of helpful
• 25:29
  that he had some new anamorphic lenses that he hadn't had a
• 25:33
  chance to use yet. And it's like, OK, well, let's
• 25:35
  test this out in a safe space where it's everybody's
• 25:39
  volunteering their time. And then that way when he gets a
• 25:42
  paid gig, he's going to know so much better how much those
• 25:44
  lenses behave. Yeah, he's actually got the and
• 25:47
  not just that he can pull any of those stills for it, keep his
• 25:50
  own record of it. And that way, if somebody comes
• 25:52
  to him and says this is kind of a look I'm going for, he's like,
• 25:54
  oh, well, here's exactly how I got that look, and I already
• 25:57
  have those lenses. Here it is.
• 25:58
  Here's the proof. Like you just have it, which is
• 26:02
  valuable. I would still really enjoy
• 26:06
  getting to pay people for their time.
• 26:07
  Yeah, eventually. That's that's, that's always the
• 26:10
  dream, but it's indie filmmaking and you do what you got to do to
• 26:13
  just make it happen. And you got to get your reps in,
• 26:15
  otherwise you're going to forget if you if you take a year off.
• 26:18
  That's not ideal. No.
• 26:19
  If you sit around waiting for paid stuff to happen, it's at
• 26:23
  least in Boise, it's not. It's not going to.
• 26:26
  And that was actually the runner of the festival was was chatting
• 26:30
  at Cody Newton was chatting with me and he was talking about how
• 26:37
  sometimes the paycheck isn't everything.
• 26:42
  Sometimes you just got to make the art.
• 26:45
  And he's just really excited to see people make art.
• 26:50
  And to be fair, he was one of the people that I hired for the
• 26:54
  man who would not shake hands. He was my gaffer and B Cam op
• 26:57
  and he definitely came onto that shoot for under his day rate,
• 27:02
  I'm positive. Yeah, right.
• 27:04
  Like that was very generous of him.
• 27:06
  So even at the point where you are sometimes paying people not
• 27:09
  to go too much back to our budgeting episode.
• 27:11
  Yeah, but maybe you're not paying them what you really wish
• 27:13
  you could. Yeah, but it's something.
• 27:17
  Yeah. And I bet there's a lot of
• 27:18
  people out there. I know for me personally, I have
• 27:20
  a different rate that I quote for commercial stuff versus
• 27:24
  people's creative stuff because it's like I'm going to give you
• 27:28
  a discount, but if you're, you know, if you're a large
• 27:31
  corporation, if we're shooting. If you're a Fortune 500 company,
• 27:34
  you can afford my day. Right, it's going to.
• 27:35
  Be you. Can afford my day I guess.
• 27:37
  Either I discount the artist or I just charge double to the the
• 27:40
  corporate people. I would also like to throw in a
• 27:42
  caveat that that was years ago. I do not, I do not encourage
• 27:46
  anyone to go offer someone below their day rate just to be
• 27:50
  involved in something. I'm not trying to promote that
• 27:53
  in any way. And yeah, now I really hope
• 27:55
  could not upset that I used him as an example.
• 27:59
  We'll find out, Cody. Let us know in the comments.
• 28:02
  So what, you got your cast? You got your crew then?
• 28:07
  Yeah, let's talk about scheduling the shoot.
• 28:09
  Scheduling the shoot was actually a little bit easier
• 28:13
  than I expected it to be because Hilltop Station is closed on
• 28:17
  Mondays and Tuesdays. Yes.
• 28:19
  So that is when we were gonna film.
• 28:22
  End of story. Yeah, obviously everybody else
• 28:25
  on the shoot works a day job, so we were going to be filming at
• 28:28
  night. Yes.
• 28:30
  And that's that. So it was 2 evenings.
• 28:32
  Two evenings, that's. All you're able to basically get
• 28:35
  everybody together and I think we were scheduled was it from
• 28:38
  everybody shows up at it was late afternoon, I think it was.
• 28:43
  One, yeah, especially for the first day.
• 28:45
  I think for crew it was, I want to say it was like 3 to 10 with
• 28:50
  talent showing up at five. Yes.
• 28:53
  And then following day was similar, but I think Crew was
• 28:57
  going to show up a little bit later because we'd already
• 28:59
  gotten a feel for the space and we were able to leave a lot of
• 29:02
  the stuff there and set up and ready to go for the next day,
• 29:04
  which was really nice to not have to do a full load out and
• 29:07
  then a full load in again the next day.
• 29:08
  It did save time. It did.
• 29:10
  Save time and do you want to talk about how many shots you
• 29:14
  planned for the shoot based on how many hours we're going to be
• 29:18
  shooting? I do not want to admit to this.
• 29:20
  I will. I will.
• 29:22
  I want to say that out the door for both days.
• 29:30
  What was it like 48 or 52? Shot it was it was a lot of.
• 29:35
  It was a very stupidly ambitious shot list for knowing that we
• 29:40
  are going to have cameras rolling for 8 total hours across
• 29:44
  two nights, yes, and that some of those were going to have to
• 29:47
  be exterior. And we had a a lot of heavy
• 29:50
  gaffing going on because Lee Vanderboe is excellent.
• 29:54
  Well, Danny and Danny and working with him like between
• 29:57
  the two of them they that was magic.
• 30:00
  That was magic between the shots.
• 30:02
  It's the the time it takes is just more when you have people
• 30:05
  that are really, really talented with light.
• 30:09
  So you had 50 some shots planned and how many shots an hour do
• 30:15
  you think we averaged on that shoot?
• 30:18
  Actually a surprising amount. I was really impressed.
• 30:21
  How many shots did we end up getting over the two days?
• 30:23
  Over the two days, I still think we ended up with 40 shots.
• 30:26
  Oh, was it 3535? I'll know more.
• 30:31
  I'll double check when we come back and actually talk with
• 30:35
  Danny. I believe Danny's Danny's going
• 30:38
  to join us to talk about the actual production.
• 30:41
  So then I will have those numbers.
• 30:42
  So I'm leaving you on a cliffhanger, much like the short
• 30:46
  film. Yeah, perfect.
• 30:47
  So next week, come back and we'll talk to Danny because he
• 30:51
  was the cinematographer. We're going to break down the
• 30:54
  production on the next episode and then on the final episode
• 30:58
  we'll talk about post production.
• 31:00
  And you were editor Danny did the color grading.
• 31:05
  And you did all the magic with the sound.
• 31:07
  And I did all the the post sound as well.
• 31:09
  So basically between the three of us, we have every single
• 31:13
  aspect of production, post production.
• 31:15
  Obviously there were more people with hands on we're.
• 31:16
  Definitely more people. On set, but like we at the the
• 31:20
  final push, the three of us took it over the finish line and we
• 31:23
  can break that down for you. So yeah, should we have a
• 31:26
  succinct goodbye until next week?
• 31:28
  That sounds great. Bye bye.