Destroying expectations
There. Done. All three of my films are completed. But when Otis comes to you to ask for help on his film using the exact same crew as Maya, I couldn't turn it down.
My role in this chaotic film was to try to help out Barra, who was struggling to balance working on the film, with working on his own film which was due to shoot the week after. I started by getting to grips with all the information, I had to learn the script, the locations, props, logistics. Then I organised meetings with the crews so we could get organised. I turned copies of my paperwork from previous films I'd 1st AD'd so that Barra could use those as templates. Everything was starting to look very good, except that corona virus was becoming a very serious problem and we weren't sure if the country was going into lockdown.
The 1st two days of shooting came about and went very smoothly. Day 1 was shot in New Haven whilst day 2 was down the road in Rottingdean. Barra and myself had come up with an excellent way of looking after Archie, our child actor. Barra would stay at unit base and control paperwork for the child and figure out the plan for the next lot of shooting in the caravan, whilst I would run the set and look after the child. We communicated using walkie-talkies. As this point in the shoot everything had been going smoothly. I had another chance to work with the wonderful Maya crew. However, the corona had struck. Going to shoot the second half of the film in the caravan only half of the crew could make it. The crew had turned into the definition of bare bones. Barra was feeling unwell and travelled home to his home in Ireland, making me the 1st AD. We also had a plethora of other problems, but as a core crew we managed to sort:
-lack of costumes and props.
-lack of a key actor.
-personal issues with out child actor.
-the shoot being cut a day.
We carried on blind, not knowing what problems we were going to have the next day. The shoot felt cursed. However, I couldn't have picked a better 6 people to work with. I was very stressed but I haven't had that much fun on a shoot ever. I would do it again.
Somehow we shot everything. I've seen the early edits and they are fantastic, we made it work.
If you would like to see some BTS photos from Destructors check them out here: https://www.facebook.com/Michael-Dunbar-Films-116719346686404
Thank you for reading
-Michael
My role in this chaotic film was to try to help out Barra, who was struggling to balance working on the film, with working on his own film which was due to shoot the week after. I started by getting to grips with all the information, I had to learn the script, the locations, props, logistics. Then I organised meetings with the crews so we could get organised. I turned copies of my paperwork from previous films I'd 1st AD'd so that Barra could use those as templates. Everything was starting to look very good, except that corona virus was becoming a very serious problem and we weren't sure if the country was going into lockdown.
The 1st two days of shooting came about and went very smoothly. Day 1 was shot in New Haven whilst day 2 was down the road in Rottingdean. Barra and myself had come up with an excellent way of looking after Archie, our child actor. Barra would stay at unit base and control paperwork for the child and figure out the plan for the next lot of shooting in the caravan, whilst I would run the set and look after the child. We communicated using walkie-talkies. As this point in the shoot everything had been going smoothly. I had another chance to work with the wonderful Maya crew. However, the corona had struck. Going to shoot the second half of the film in the caravan only half of the crew could make it. The crew had turned into the definition of bare bones. Barra was feeling unwell and travelled home to his home in Ireland, making me the 1st AD. We also had a plethora of other problems, but as a core crew we managed to sort:
-lack of costumes and props.
-lack of a key actor.
-personal issues with out child actor.
-the shoot being cut a day.
We carried on blind, not knowing what problems we were going to have the next day. The shoot felt cursed. However, I couldn't have picked a better 6 people to work with. I was very stressed but I haven't had that much fun on a shoot ever. I would do it again.
Somehow we shot everything. I've seen the early edits and they are fantastic, we made it work.
If you would like to see some BTS photos from Destructors check them out here: https://www.facebook.com/Michael-Dunbar-Films-116719346686404
Thank you for reading
-Michael
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