Monday

Production meeting – 1 hour

Phone call with my DP/producer Casey about the status of all the tasks on our plate – crew, dates, priorities, insurance, etc.

We also scheduled a day this weekend to do a test shoot for some of the SFX shots we still haven’t tested plus our entire final scene. I can’t wait.

Research – 1 hour

For our ending scene, it’s all POV/found footage style, and part of it is in night vision. We could use the Alexa 35 we’ll be shooting on for this, but I have a feeling it’ll feel “realer” with a real camcorder with night vision.

Plus we may want to mount the camcorder to our actual cinema camera, and film the camcorder’s flip-out LCD screen like this:

So I looked into camcorders with night vision mode, and learned a lot about which models ghost hunters prefer using. Some are quite old and low-res, but I figured a 4k model would be the safe bet.

Found a couple of great deals for them on Facebook Marketplace and reached out with a lowball offer.

Normal work – Rest of day

This includes regular admin and planning for the YouTube channel, plus some of the deliverables I owe the sponsors of the film (gotta get that budget collected soon!)

Tuesday

Call with production designer – 45 minutes (+1 hr research)

After some emailing back and forth, we finally got on the phone and I was very relieved to have locked him in as our PD.

We talked through some of the options we have for sourcing the many specific props and set dressings we’ll need for this project, and he set my worries at ease. It looks like there’s a couple of rental houses out here that will have most of our art list, with very little modifications needed!

After our call, I spent another hour or so looking at the websites of the houses he recommended and pulling images.

Next, we’ll make a trip in person to these prop houses and make our actual selections (I’ll try to record this, would make for a fun video).

Call with insurance broker – 1 hour

This monkey has been on my back for way too long!

I had hoped to piggyback on another production company’s policy and save some money here (that’s what we did for our last big short film) – but I got crickets from the producer I reached out to, so figured we were on our own and would have to shell out.

Fortunately, this phone call cleared up a lot of the confusion I’d had about what insurance we needed and how much it was actually going to cost.

Is it going to be expensive? Yep.

But there’s no way around it for the vendors we’re working with (not to mention the liability I might be exposed to if something went wrong on set). And the cost isn’t as bad as I feared it might be… Onwards!

Bought camcorder from FB Marketplace- 30 minutes

I got a bite on my lowball offer for a great night vision camera, and ran out to buy it in cash. After the film is done, I should be able to resell this on eBay for a $100-$200 profit 🤑

Call with other producer – 30 minutes

I caught our other producer up with the latest, and chatted some other details we still had to work out.

Wednesday

Meeting with lead – 2.5 hours

Met up with Oliver Brody himself, Thatcher Robinson, who I’ve worked with a few times before.

We met at what turned out to be an incredible bagel shop halfway between us, but I forgot that Thatcher was losing weight for the role – he’s already down 11 lbs! Me choosing a bagel place was a cruel move for an actor on a diet, whoops 😂

We broke down the script scene by scene, talking through the character’s motivations, and generally getting on the same page.

I also got confirmation that he’s available to join us on our 2nd test shoot this weekend, score.

Researched wardrobe options – 1.5 hours

Found some costume rental shops near us that should have what we’re looking for.

Fortunately, we’re only have one actor to dress in this film, which simplifies things quite a bit, but still – it’s a period piece and needs to look great.

There’s one rental shop in town that looks like it specializes in period wardrobe, so I’ll have to make a visit there with Thatcher soon.

Thursday

Today!

Well I wrote this newsletter, updating you fine folks about how we’re doing.

Other than that I’m getting some work that pays the bills done, and then taking off early today – it’s been a mad rush this week.

Looking forward to knocking a few more movie to-do’s off my list tomorrow, then prepping for the test shoot this weekend.

Stay tuned for more next week.

Favorites this week:

🍿 Movie: Warfare

As an Alex Garland fan, I was excited to watch this, and it didn’t disappoint. It’s very different from his other films, in fact he co-directed it with an Iraq veteran who was there.

But the unrelenting focus on realism was very effective – it didn’t feel Hollywood, it felt like I was right there with these soldiers the whole time, and the tension never let up.

Excellent performances too, felt very authentic. Highly recommend watching in theaters for the great sound design.

💬 Quote

Self-plagiarism is style” -Alfred Hitchcock

Let’s make some movies.

-Kent