Shitty Moment in Filmaking #276
So, on top of my Fringe activities over the weekend, I was also called in to shoot scenes from the film. For those of you who are not familiar or might have forgotten about it (God knows I tried), please feel free to look up some of the craziness here.
It's been three weeks since I filmed a scene and I was looking forward to getting more done. Same scenario as last time though, I didn't get my call time until 9pm on Friday for 11am on Saturday. To be fair though, one of the actors had a family emergency and so I understand he had to move things around.
Anyway, I show up at 10 to 11am and lo and behold one of the makeup girls is there. Yes! I think to myself, we'll finally get this all done.
At 11 on the dot, the director pulls in. "I've got some bad news," he says.
Nononononononono, I think to myself, the makeup girl is right here. And she's very prepared. No bad news!
It seems he couldn't get the same camera we had been using for the entire shoot, but the people at SAW told him that this one would be just the same. Unfortunately, he just found out from the camera guy, 10 minutes before he arrived on location, that it would not work. They can, however, get the camera for 5pm.
So, I get sent home. And the camera girl, who came from Kanata to South Keys, gets sent home. And she can't be here at 5pm, so we're going to need the other girl. The one who didn't show up last time. And who didn't confirm she could be here today. Do you see where this is going?
The director tells me he'll call me on my cell once he confirms the makeup girl, to let me know what time to show up at. Fair enough. By 4:30pm, I hadn't heard from him, so I call. He tells me to show up at around 5:15pm, because that's when the makeup girl is suppose to be there.
"Did you confirm this with her?" I ask. "No, but I left her a message," he replies.
Uh huh. Having learned my lesson in the past, I show up at 5:45pm. Not only is the makeup girl not there, but the camera isn't set up because they don't have the right cables. It also seems that we can use the other camera after all, so we wasted the whole day for no reason. We also had an actor in for this one particular scene who had never worked with us before. Poor guy. He was in for a long night.
So, they get new cables and I do my own makeup. It sucked, but it was passable. Since he's got all three actors he needs for the scene, we're all set to shoot it right?
All those of you who guessed WRONG get a cookie.
Instead he shoots some filler scene with one guy working at his computer, instead of the bank scene with our poor banker who's just been sitting around with nothing to do other then review his lines. With a 5pm call, we didn't start shooting until 9pm. Unfortunately, we were suppose to have everything done and be at the house for some last scenes at 8pm. One of the other actors sat around for a half hour before he called the director to find out why we weren't there. Since we hadn't even started the bank scene, which with there track record would take at least 2 hours to film, does he apologize to the actor for not reaching him on his cell and tell him to go home after an hour and a half bus ride to get there? No. He tells him to wait around a bit more. Poor Chris was stuck outside a locked up house with nothing to do for over an hour before the director finally cancelled and sent him home.
So, we finish shooting the bank scene at around 11:30pm.
"Ok guys, so be there at 8am tomorrow morning for the house scene," he says.
"Um, so the makeup girl will be there tomorrow?"
"Yes."
"And you confirmed this with her?"
"No, but she doesn't work on Sundays so she has nothing else to do."
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigggggggghhhhhtttttttttt!!!!!!!
So you're going to call her after 11:30pm and let her know to show up for 8am the next day? Hmmmm. Ok. Also, it's Sunday tomorrow and the bus service to where we need to go sucks. Finally he changed the time to 8:30am. However, because of bus troubles, Chris and I only get there after 9. Its' ok though because he's shooting the scenes with one guy.
Now, all five actors are ready. We're in our clothes and makeup (that we did ourselves, no surprise there) and it's about 10:00am. He's almost done with the one guy scene and the camera guy has to leave at noon. No problem, we think, all he needs is a shot of us getting into the car. There isn't even any dialogue. Well, according to the actor who was close to completing his scenes, that would take three hours, so we won't be shooting it today.
What?!?!
That's not possible we think. We'll just wait until the director tells us what's up. 10:30am rolls around and he still hasn't told us anything. Finally, one of the other actors goes in to ask. Yup, we're not going to be shooting. He's sending us home. And he didn't even have the decency to tell us himself.
Well that's just great. I could have stayed in bed. I could have gone out the night before. I could have drank more than 3 beers!
Sigh
You keep crying wolf like that and, one day, I just won't show up.
It's been three weeks since I filmed a scene and I was looking forward to getting more done. Same scenario as last time though, I didn't get my call time until 9pm on Friday for 11am on Saturday. To be fair though, one of the actors had a family emergency and so I understand he had to move things around.
Anyway, I show up at 10 to 11am and lo and behold one of the makeup girls is there. Yes! I think to myself, we'll finally get this all done.
At 11 on the dot, the director pulls in. "I've got some bad news," he says.
Nononononononono, I think to myself, the makeup girl is right here. And she's very prepared. No bad news!
It seems he couldn't get the same camera we had been using for the entire shoot, but the people at SAW told him that this one would be just the same. Unfortunately, he just found out from the camera guy, 10 minutes before he arrived on location, that it would not work. They can, however, get the camera for 5pm.
So, I get sent home. And the camera girl, who came from Kanata to South Keys, gets sent home. And she can't be here at 5pm, so we're going to need the other girl. The one who didn't show up last time. And who didn't confirm she could be here today. Do you see where this is going?
The director tells me he'll call me on my cell once he confirms the makeup girl, to let me know what time to show up at. Fair enough. By 4:30pm, I hadn't heard from him, so I call. He tells me to show up at around 5:15pm, because that's when the makeup girl is suppose to be there.
"Did you confirm this with her?" I ask. "No, but I left her a message," he replies.
Uh huh. Having learned my lesson in the past, I show up at 5:45pm. Not only is the makeup girl not there, but the camera isn't set up because they don't have the right cables. It also seems that we can use the other camera after all, so we wasted the whole day for no reason. We also had an actor in for this one particular scene who had never worked with us before. Poor guy. He was in for a long night.
So, they get new cables and I do my own makeup. It sucked, but it was passable. Since he's got all three actors he needs for the scene, we're all set to shoot it right?
All those of you who guessed WRONG get a cookie.
Instead he shoots some filler scene with one guy working at his computer, instead of the bank scene with our poor banker who's just been sitting around with nothing to do other then review his lines. With a 5pm call, we didn't start shooting until 9pm. Unfortunately, we were suppose to have everything done and be at the house for some last scenes at 8pm. One of the other actors sat around for a half hour before he called the director to find out why we weren't there. Since we hadn't even started the bank scene, which with there track record would take at least 2 hours to film, does he apologize to the actor for not reaching him on his cell and tell him to go home after an hour and a half bus ride to get there? No. He tells him to wait around a bit more. Poor Chris was stuck outside a locked up house with nothing to do for over an hour before the director finally cancelled and sent him home.
So, we finish shooting the bank scene at around 11:30pm.
"Ok guys, so be there at 8am tomorrow morning for the house scene," he says.
"Um, so the makeup girl will be there tomorrow?"
"Yes."
"And you confirmed this with her?"
"No, but she doesn't work on Sundays so she has nothing else to do."
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigggggggghhhhhtttttttttt!!!!!!!
So you're going to call her after 11:30pm and let her know to show up for 8am the next day? Hmmmm. Ok. Also, it's Sunday tomorrow and the bus service to where we need to go sucks. Finally he changed the time to 8:30am. However, because of bus troubles, Chris and I only get there after 9. Its' ok though because he's shooting the scenes with one guy.
Now, all five actors are ready. We're in our clothes and makeup (that we did ourselves, no surprise there) and it's about 10:00am. He's almost done with the one guy scene and the camera guy has to leave at noon. No problem, we think, all he needs is a shot of us getting into the car. There isn't even any dialogue. Well, according to the actor who was close to completing his scenes, that would take three hours, so we won't be shooting it today.
What?!?!
That's not possible we think. We'll just wait until the director tells us what's up. 10:30am rolls around and he still hasn't told us anything. Finally, one of the other actors goes in to ask. Yup, we're not going to be shooting. He's sending us home. And he didn't even have the decency to tell us himself.
Well that's just great. I could have stayed in bed. I could have gone out the night before. I could have drank more than 3 beers!
Sigh
You keep crying wolf like that and, one day, I just won't show up.
posted by Nancy Kenny at
12:02 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home