Carry On My Wayward Video Production in FILM / THEATRE / VIDEO WORK & CORPSE NATION

I think I’ve defined myself well enough on here to show that I’m a creative individual, but sometimes (often) in fact you do gigs that require you to restrain your creativity and work within certain boundaries.

This is all well and good; every production is different and it’s always about the clients need.

Some productions are more arduous than others, particularly when you have a client that isn’t very familiar with video production. I’m speaking about the whole process, not the aspect of holding a camera and shooting.

This is about the most challenging production I’ve ever done. It wasn’t a bad production by any means; everyone involved was amazing, and the client was very happy with the end result, but it was immensely difficult for a number of reasons.

Let’s briefly go over video / film production (cliff notes version).

First is (Pre-production)

I’m not going to list everything involved, but it includes writing, editing scripts, rehearsing with talent, with crew (individually and together), you find, secure, then go to the set or location and figure out lighting, sound, blocking (placement of props) and a whole lot more. This ensures that the day or days of shooting go smoothly because you know ahead of time where to set up and how.

Production

This (as you may have guessed) is the actual filming of the production. A short day on set might be 12 hours, though I’ve worked many 20+ hour days. There was one commercial I worked on as a 2nd Assistant Director many years ago that was 4 days (of me on set) 1 day of Pre - 2 days of filming and a day at the studio wrapping up. The hours for me those 4 days…
14 - 21 - 21 & 11.

Last is Post Production***

Editing is the focal point here. Getting the sound tracks together, finding or creating music, figuring out the cuts, the best shots to use, transitions, color correcting and so forth.

On this particular gig it, I was contacted out of the blue by this company that got my name from another company that I had done work for. One thing that was challenging for me was that I was dealing with a secretary this time around, not a decision maker and I had a lot of questions so that I could be as prepared as possible. I was hired after being asked to visit their building and meeting with ownership. I did my research on them, they were a 100 million dollar and year company, and although we had a great conversation, I left without many of my queries being directly answered; but their time was limited and I figured I’d have time to get those answers through email and/or phone calls. However, upon my hiring I had very little time to do any pre-production. (Just a few days).

This is my “Oye Vey” face…

A. I wasn’t familiar with the actress who was the talent. So, I wanted to read lines with her, rehearse, talk about outfits, but with no time before the shoot date, we couldn’t make this happen. All I could do was offer suggestions and have her bring multiple clothing options and accessories.

B. I was only able to get to the location where we would be shooting for about an hour a couple days ahead of the production date. Typically, this sort of thing would be done in a tv studio with a controlled environment. Instead, I had to shoot on location in a storage room that was in use during the day as business continued in other rooms and areas around us.

C. At the last minute (The day before the shoot) I was told that a 2nd actor was going to be in half the video’s. This was major, because we were using a lavalier mic (clips onto / under a shirt) and I only had 1!!! We weren’t using a boom because of the threat of outside noise, and it wasn’t in the budget for me to have a dedicated sound person (which is common). I had to do this with a skeleton crew, just myself and 2 others. Now I had to rent another mic and put a rush on it. (Which I had to eat financially).

D. I wasn’t given the scripts until 10:30pm, the night before the shoot! And guess what? They had to be rewritten. They read like something you’d read in a magazine, not video. It didn’t work at all. This posed a few issues: 1. the talent wouldn’t know the new scripts. 2. I had to rewrite 8 scripts that night and had to put them into teleprompter software I had on my computer and program it all the while needing to be up at 5am to drive an hour and be on set at 6:30am. To be honest, I couldn’t even fully re-write them because I had to leave certain things as they were. As a writer; I disagreed, I have the ability to make changes while keeping the message the same, but I had to abide by those who were paying me.

Additionally, because of the mic issue above, one of my crew had to get up early to travel and pic up the 2nd lav mic, but he had to wait to get it because they didn’t open early (which we humbly requested) and that made him late to set and also meant that myself and my other crew member had to set everything up ourselves, lights, green screen, props, teleprompter, cameras etc… Oh, and one more thing; we couldn’t go over 10 hours because we were shooting in their building and their staff had to leave by a certain time. Talk about pressure! I had to speak with the owner and explain that shooting 8 video’s in this time frame with no rehearsal, a new actor and on short hours was just not feasible. He agreed and it was broken up into 2 days.

I’m not going to show the one’s we shot with the second actor, I’m just not happy with them. The client is, which is all I care about, but I’m not. He was a great guy, tried his best, but he was not an actor. He had no experience, he was someone that worked for that company and I think was asked to do it, but maybe wasn’t that comfortable with it. I wish (as the director) I had been approached on the subject, but I digress; even for a seasoned actor, with so little prep time, it would have been very challenging, so even though I’m not going to show it, I give this guy mad props for doing his very best, he was super nice, really did try and he worked his butt off. My hat’s off to him.

So, here’s a couple of the video’s we did plus some bts shots (I know you guys like them). :) The actress is Karina Brez (Miss Florida USA 2012). I have to say: I was very impressed with her. I didn’t know what to expect, but she took direction very well and was extremely pleasant and professional on set. She really helped make my job easier by studying the products ahead of time and overcoming obstacles throughout the day. She recently got married and has a baby on the way; my congratulations to her!

Here I’m getting a low angle shot of the maneuverability of the product while employees take pics in the background. (No flashes or sound being recorded) ;)

Karina liked having a director that also did hair and makeup (well… hair anyways, lol). She has a great sense of humor, we shared a lot of laughs on set!

I always like to keep things light on set; there’s so much work to be done and there’s a lot of money floating around with lens rentals, cameras, lights and so forth, you have to make sure everyone’s having a good time and try to keep the stress levels down. I didn’t have the luxury of creative freedom, but you do whatever needs to be done given whatever parameters you have. We had a great time on set and accomplished a lot of cool things. The company was very professional, and courteous. I overcame a lot on this particular gig, and am proud of my crew and how things turned out given the budget, time restraints and everything else. It’s helped me get a lot of future work, so I sure can’t complain!

Once I’m on set working, everything just comes together; I love it when the magic happens!

In the end, everyone was happy, and that’s what matters most. Recommend you change youtube’s settings to 1080 on each video.

By the way… something I think you guys will appreciate… That desk / countertop is a bookcase that we turned on its side and draped the company logo over. ;)

Also - I’ll put it out to you guys here on PB. As a writer, one of the things I wanted to change was the 1st “dirty’ at the beginning of the 2nd video. Whoever wrote the original script used that word twice in the opening which is a serious faux pas! I wanted to change it to “Sultry or Naughty” then you can use dirty in the follow up. Your thoughts?

Last updated June 18, 2017