Film School Follies: Part 12 – The Best of Times II

By ScottDS

In his audio commentary for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, director Nicholas Meyer remarks (I’m paraphrasing from memory): “One works by instinct and intuition. When people ask me why Khan only wears one glove, I tell them, ‘I don’t know. It seemed like the right idea at the time.’” This all leads me to my job as...

Director

There were nine directors on Sanguinity including me. In one of our pre-pro meetings, it was literally a case of, “Whoever wants to direct, raise your hand.” Naturally, mine shot up along with eight others. As I wrote in the comments last week, I sort of missed the forest for the trees and was so hellbent on directing that I missed other learning opportunities that were available. I never worked as a sound tech or camera assistant – two perfectly marketable skills in Hollywood and elsewhere. But to walk in and say you’re a director – “Oh yeah? Prove it!” As a crew, we were allowed two dolly shots (one per day, though I think we broke this rule), 18 shots per day (for a total of 36), eight camera setups a day (16 total). Each day would last for 11 hours with a call time of 7:30 a.m. Each director would only get a certain amount of time in the day in which to work: “time for each director = number of directors divided by 11 hours.” Fair enough.

With these limitations in mind, we all met for a “shot meeting” wherein we would determine how the movie would be filmed. I don’t recall the thought process that went into it but there’s really only one or two ways we could’ve shot the film. There needs to be a natural progression (shot A leads to B and so on) and since we were shooting in such a confined area, we couldn’t get too experimental with the blocking of the actors. Eventually, we divided the script into six scenes: three on the plane, two in the restaurant, and one in Peggy’s apartment. For the apartment scene (which we would see for only a moment in a brief montage), we used the set from another film titled Revenge Again that was shooting right behind us. For the plane, the camera would sit on a dolly track. Actually, I’m pretty sure the camera sat on the dolly track for both days, only being removed to film a shot of the airplane interior for the aforementioned montage.

Claudia (sigh...) was the casting director and she and her people supervised the casting sessions while the rest of us were in a meeting. This gave me butterflies – the thought of working with real actors. The auditions were videotaped and we all gathered at Bill’s apartment one night to watch them. Our wisecracks notwithstanding, there were some good people. Peggy would be played by a nice local actress named Cathi and Carl would be played by a local actor named Craig (who we later spied in some other film shot by Full Sail personnel around the same time). We also cast Peggy’s co-worker (this led to one of the lighting techs having to ask, “How do you light someone who’s, uh, dark-skinned?”) and an “arguing couple” for one of the plane scenes. The actors who played the couple (Ned and Heather) improvised their dialogue – we probably could’ve saved time by having classmates play the roles instead. Claudia also took the actors shopping for wardrobe (I abstained from this part). I made name badges for Peggy and her co-worker (Joanne) and one classmate managed to get some pilot wings during a flight home for spring break. At one point, Dave and I had actually visited a local uniform warehouse for authentic flight attendant outfits but there was no way we’d be able to: a.) get only two, and b.) get them for next to nothing. Thankfully, Claudia was more than up to the task. All of the airplane and restaurant extras would be played by classmates.

We had a table read and rehearsals with the actors. Maybe I was more comfortable because there were nine directors, though I don’t know how the actors felt about that. It was simply a matter of communication – answering their questions, understanding why the characters would perform action A and say line B. During the rehearsals, we’d go through the script in order line by line and each director would step in when it was his/her scene (or shot – some directors only had to film one shot before handing over the reins to the next person). The rehearsals must’ve gone well because we didn’t fire anybody (it’s happened)! I have to say, everyone loved the plane (there’s that ego again) but that sort of thing helps the actors and brings a nice sense of verisimilitude to the proceedings. We rehearsed both in a small room down the hall from the soundstage and on the sets where the actors were able to sit in their chairs, at the table, push the meal cart, etc.

Bill gave me the first two shots for day 1 and I was the only director (or possibly one of only two) allowed to shoot using two camera setups. Both of my shots were dolly shots (there would also be two dolly shots for the restaurant scene on day 2). The first shot starts with a passenger in the last seat of the airplane: he gets up, grabs his bag out of the overhead bin, and walks to the front of the plane where Peggy and Joanne are saying their good-byes to everyone. After the passenger deplanes, Peggy walks over to one of the overheads, closes it, and sits down. Joanne follows, sits down in the next seat, and they have a little chat about Carl. From looking at Steve’s notes, I shot four takes – on the first three, the camera operator accidentally got the stage wall in the shot. The final shot isn’t perfect – it features a jerky movement that shouldn’t be there – but such is life. We had to have the actors sit on apple boxes (wooden boxes used for just about anything) because they were too low in the seats and we couldn’t see their whole faces. We also had to weigh down the seats because every time an actor would sit down, the seat would jostle a little bit, exactly the way real airplane seats wouldn’t! This was all discovered on the first day of shooting – the kinds of things that don’t occur to you until after they happen.

Four takes later and I yelled, “Cut! Print!” The printed takes are circled on the paperwork and used for editing. We were shooting on Super 16mm film but, unlike our 35mm films, we weren’t limited in how much we could use. To give you an idea of how much film we might’ve used, eleven minutes equals roughly 400 feet of film in Super 16 format. We shot the film using an ARRI SR-3 16mm camera mounted on a Sachtler fluid head which itself was mounted on a Chapman-Leonard Super PeeWee dolly. To view the scene, I would simply stand at the monitor that was connected to the camera and mounted on a “beaver board” (basically a 1/8 apple box with a metal “baby plate” light mount attached to it), which was affixed to a C-stand. C-stands are all-purpose metal stands that can be seen on any film set. They are used to mount gels, flags, reflectors... anything a grip can think of. I’m not well-versed in lighting (which is why I skipped that particular blog entry) but most of the interior airplane lighting was provided by two Kino Flo fixtures. Kinos are fluorescent lights and very easy to set up. What was problematic was the lighting outside the plane. In still photos, it looks very good, with the windows properly blown out. Not so much in the finished film. The windows were lined with special material to diffuse the light but I guess they didn’t use enough.

For my second shot – a dolly shot starting from the front of the plane featuring Peggy and Joanne handing out snacks from the meal cart and passing by the bickering couple – I figured it would be easier but, after looking at Steve’s paperwork, I shot five (!) takes: two were good, an actress flubbed a line on one, both actresses started before I yelled “Action!” on another, and the camera was having gate trouble on yet another. I met the bickering couple just five minutes before shooting. I simply told them: “You’re having an argument. It’s serious but you’re in public so don’t make a scene. Improvise!” The script didn’t include any dialogue for them but they performed admirably. As for Peggy and Joanne, they had to push the meal cart from A to B and finish their lines before we ran out of dolly track. One thing we didn’t realize until it was time to shoot: they needed snacks to give out to the passengers! Someone rushed to the craft services table and brought back a bunch of water bottles, soda, and peanuts. Our airline serves Costco–brand water and Albertsons-brand soda! And no one thought to spray some WD-40 on the cart’s wheels so a couple guys had to lay down a blanket to absorb some of the noise.

My shots were filmed between 9:00 and 11:00 and 11:00 and 12:30, respectively, on May 5th, 2004. After lunch (Bill and Dave had taken care of that – catering by Roadhouse Grill!), classmate Ryan was up next – he shot the actress’ close-ups during their initial dialogue scene. He also added a shot at the last minute: Peggy closing the overhead bin from another angle. Bill was annoyed – we had a ticking clock and it would set a bad precedent. And I didn’t think it was necessary. I served as his first assistant director and had no idea what I was doing. I basically had to make sure everyone was where they needed to be and to help Ryan with anything he needed. The order is as follows: 1st A.D.: “Quiet, everyone!” and then “Roll sound!” Sound mixer: “Sound speed!” 1st A.D.: “Roll camera!” Camera operator: “Speed!” Camera assistant with clapper: “Marker!” 1st A.D.: “Background action!” Director: “Action!” and eventually “Cut!” Chris was up after Ryan and shot Peggy performing her routine tasks aboard the plane. Working independently, he produced an interesting sequence, blending four separate shots together, one dissolving into another, while artificially panning right and dissolving into the shot of Peggy in her apartment, sitting in a chair, eyeing her answering machine. Chris produced this on Adobe After Effects and even added in a blinking light for the machine.

Post-Production

For editing, we paired off. Steve and I (along with everyone else) edited the film on the Avid Xpress non-linear digital editing system. One reason why many films today seem so frenetic is that, in the old days, filmmakers manipulated actual film with their hands and had to be very judicious in their editing decisions. Today, one mouse click and you’re done. (I exaggerate, slightly.) Amazingly, Steven Spielberg and his long-time editor Michael Kahn still edit the old-fashioned way, on a flatbed machine with actual film. Our films were developed locally at Continental Film using the cheapest process available. At one point in class, we watched rough VHS edits of all four films. I’m proud to say our film received the least amount of laughter – I almost had a heart attack laughing at some of the other material!

Steve and I still think our edit is the best one, despite accidentally omitting an entire section of Peggy’s dialogue during the final restaurant scene! Very often, it was a matter of saying, “Cut the last two frames.” And it would work. (24 frames = one second.) Much of this is simply instinctual. Steve and I would take turns at the keyboard and I think the final edit is a pretty good reflection of our sensibilities (such as they are). We didn’t use any scoring, though I’m sure we could’ve paid some local musician to come up with something. For the restaurant scenes, we used Dean Martin’s “That’s Amore” (how original) and “Eh Cumpari” by Julius La Rosa. Steve contributed some soft rock for the opening titles and montage but I can’t recall what it was. For the end credits (which I typed up on the Avid), we used “Beyond the Sea” by Bobby Darin. A year later, I was browsing the CD selection at Barnes & Noble and realized, “Shit, we should’ve used Sinatra’s ‘Come Fly with Me’!” I also would’ve been partial to “It’s Nice to Go Trav’ling” which was used for the end credits of Executive Decision, one of my guilty pleasures. We also added ambient airplane and restaurant sound effects from a pre-existing effects library.

For the opening credits, Chris dug up some home movie footage of New York and put together (on his own time) a nice title sequence. I was very close to driving up to New York City with Chris and few others in tow. My plan was to shoot some random street scenes and an Italian restaurant exterior – literally spend a few hours in Manhattan and then leave. We’d be the first Full Sail film to shoot out of state! But this didn’t happen, though I was totally game. In fact, during pre-pro we had discussed the idea of shooting the opening plane scene with bluescreen behind the windows, then getting background plates from Orlando Airport and compositing that footage into the scene, so you would actually see the runway and ground crew in the shot. This didn’t happen either.

Epilogue

Our informal wrap party was held at a bar called Uptown just a few blocks from the school. We drank, even though many of us were under age (I had turned 21 just four months earlier). Steve even brought along his didgeridoo and a good time was had by all. Bill and Dave’s edit was selected for the class DVD and shown at our graduation film festival at the AMC Cineplex 20 at Universal CityWalk in Orlando. I enjoyed working on the film, despite being oblivious to the damage my ego was doing.

To briefly touch on the other films: Revenge Again was a black comedy about two sisters who avenge the death of their parents at the hands of one grouchy Nazi, Taste of the Past was a post-apocalyptic tale (to the extent that Full Sail could afford it), and Die Todes Groupe was the WW2 movie about ghost soldiers which was later re-shot on a weekend because some students were dissatisfied with the final product. The student who re-shot the film saw it as a metaphor for the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and added some opening text to explain his point of view. I have no issue with his interpretation but I feel adding the text cheapened the work and would only invalidate anyone else’s idea of what the film might’ve represented.

For the plane set, I received the Course Director’s Award for Achievement in Set Design – surely proof that the Peter Principle exists! After the graduation ceremony, I told Chris that he deserved it, not just for his set design work in 35mm but for all of his computer-generated legerdemain. Part of me wonders if Chris, as a Christian, simply didn’t feel the need to brag about his accomplishments, unlike me. I saw him a few months ago (first time since 2004) and I told him I still refer to him as a genius. All he could do was shrug and thank me for mentioning him at all. He has a bright future ahead of him.

Sadly, a few months later we found out that another classmate of ours didn’t have a future at all...