As about any micro-budget, independent, bootstrap, blah blah blah production we did a lot with a small crew. I’ve mentioned some of this before; our AD handling stuff like continuity, our FX and make-up department was one hard working lady, our key grip/gaffer/electrical was one hard working dude. And then our Cinematography duo were also camera operators A and B as well as their own focus puller and everything else.

Myself and Raubyn and Lara (the cinematography duo, as it were) had gotten on the same page as far as communication and understanding sometime early on the second day. Now then, the schedule was tight and we had been running behind and shifting a number of things around and by the fourth day we didn’t have any room to maneuver. Which essentially meant that we had to get all the shots planned for that day completed. So after passing out at 4 in the morning and waking up at 7 to start prepping for the day I decided that we would break up into two units.

In the previous three days we had been at one location a day, some scenes were interior and some exterior, but still at a single basic location for each day. Day four had 7 or 9 unit location moves, depending on how you want to count.  So the logistics of everything made the amount of material we needed to get seem a bit daunting.

Back to the short handed nature of the crew for a second. While having written the thing and directing it I was also about the only on set producer. Raubyn and Lara could help in those categories and my fiance, Amber, could as well, but the majority of decisions that would fall to a producer were things I had to concern myself with all the time. And that morning making damn sure we got all the shots planned for that day in the can trumped everything else, including my role as director.

Thus when Raubyn and Lara showed up I said ‘Welcome to 2 unit day’. Which basically shook out like this; different sets of actors at different locations shooting at the same time. With me bouncing back and forth between Raubyn and Lara wearing my producer hat for the bulk of the day. Raubyn and Lara are both more than capable and they know what we are going for as a whole. Most importantly they know we have to get these shots done or we’d be forced to add another day of filming at some unknown date in the future (we had already added an extra day  and couldn’t really afford any more). So along with their own numerous proverbial hats they put on their director’s hat for part of the day.

And it all worked pretty well. I moved back and forth between them helping with the location moves, talking to actors as they set up, answering any questions or outlining my thoughts and then leaving them to their own talent and judgement. And sometime right before lunch (evening meal around 6pm) we combined back into one unit, only running a few minutes behind schedule. That night was a markedly different story, but that’ll be the next post.

The point of this is that you do what you have to when you’re short on time and cash. And on that day I had to be the producer more than the director, and they had to fill the parts of production I couldn’t. We’re all in it to see the movie completed, not play out a particular role. I had to think more about schedules and transportation and those production details than I could afford to be in the moment as a director.