January 10, 2016
The pitch went well, though I did not have as much of a presentation as I expected. First of all, Carter couldn’t be there today, so Jack talked to him after school. He asked Carter if he would join the project and he said yes… without much resistance. I was mostly surprised for Carter since, as said before, he has a history for being wishy washy. I was glad he decided to join, but I want to double check to make sure he understands what he is being tasked with.
Only Angus, Ayla, Thomas, Patrick, Gabe, and Alexander showed up, so I was missing Mayah and Alyssa. (I’m going to need to follow up with them and Sierra later.) I didn’t expect Alexander to join though. I didn’t want to get down to business immediately, so I let the Friday conversation play out as usual. Unfortunately, I waited too long and Gabe and Ayla had to leave. I gave a quick little spiel about how I need their help with a short film. To my surprise, I didn’t have to get far before they immediately agreed to it (Ayla on the condition that she wouldn’t be acting.) I thought they made the decision a little quickly, however I’m going to try not to look the gift horse in the mouth.
Things are starting to get serious. If all goes well, we will be filming by this weekend, the MLK Holiday. A three day weekend full of filming is exactly what this project needs. It will help us get back on track.
Unfortunately, there are still cases when people are out of town on those days. Angus will be on a boy scout trip and Jack will be visiting his dad. Jack’s ability to stay will be a deal breaker, I talked to him about it and he said he may be able to reschedule, but he also suggested we check with all of the other cast and crew members before we made such a decision. I agreed. We plan on having the meeting this Tuesday, (that’s January 12th). This is mostly to block out the shooting days and allocate roles on set.
I plan to have five shooting days to get all we need. If it goes as I plan, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday of the Martin Luther King holiday (January 16-18) will be used for the three days. This is for everything outside of school. That Wednesday and Thursday (January 20-21) will be shooting days inside the school. (On a side note, my birthday is that Friday, January 22! I’ll be 16!)
January 23, 24, and 26 will be back up shooting days for scenes not relating to school and the 27th and 28th are back up in school shooting days. I have a strong feeling that we will be rapping production this month! Keeping on schedule! (Fingers crossed.)
Tomorrow I’m meeting with Jack over Google Hangout. We need to talk about equipment, props (specifically what we need to buy and what we can borrow), rough scheduling, street locations (we don’t know where scenes STREET and SIDEWALK take place), craft services (food), and arguably most important, budget. After mulling it over, I’d say I’m ready to spend $100 on this film (It’ll hurt my stinginess, but I may just survive) as long as I’m making an investment for myself in the future (meaning I’m getting new equipment, experience, etc.) Though it’s big for me, I doubt it will get very far. Our main financial hurdle is food. We promised them to the cast and crew, but we’re not sure how to go about it. I know it’s a deal breaker, so we need to figure it out. I’m thinking maybe a bowl of popcorn, some chips, water, and maybe a fruit plate. We can’t regularly buy pizza because it’s pretty expensive. Hopefully Jack will be able to match my contribution or give a healthy amount. Regardless, I think we should look for some donation elsewhere. (Not directly money per say, much maybe someone could help us out with the food.)
Right now I’m most worried about finding extras for the school scenes. My mom’s classroom is relatively big and We may have a hard time filling the space. We are going to need students to make the classroom feel bigger. Otherwise, I’m just trying to plan out every other scene to make sure things go smoothly!
The storyboards are coming slowly. I definitely don’t think I will be able to finish them before we start shooting. I decided to do shot lists. They are a much faster method, though not as visual. I looked up some videos on YouTube about it. Seems simple enough. I plan breaking down the script over the next two days.
On a different note, based on the calculations from Adobe Story on the duration of the screenplay (and therefore, the movie), it only lasts about 15-16 minutes. That’s pretty good, making things more manageable. Also there are some scenes that we can drop if we get into too much of a time crunch. Knock on wood, but this may work!