One of the most frustrating things about filmmaking – or any project really – is when you get stuck. A lot of times it’s because you’re waiting for someone or something. But what’s even more frustrating is when the ball is in your court, but the path forward isn’t clear for some reason.
That’s where I’m at right now.. it’s been a couple of weeks since I last shot, and there’s a lot I need to do to prepare for the next scene.
This next shoot is probably going to be the most difficult condensed part of the film. There are some special effects type of things, some video playback, a set that’s only going to be used for this shoot, and a new actor that I haven’t worked with before.
In order to prep for the shoot I need to prepare costumes for two actors, figure out some special effects stuff, prepare a video for playback (I’m collaborating with someone on this), and most importantly figure out the set.
I’m pretty much out of budget, so possible solutions are limited! My plan has been to keep the existing set structure, but change it to make it look like a different location. Currently the walls have wallpaper on them, and I want to use something different. I have a small quantity of different wallpaper – enough to almost cover one wall. I’ve thought about painting over the existing wallpaper, or hanging up sheets or something like that.
I also need to figure out furniture, floor, decorations, etc.
I’ve been a little reluctant to paint over the wallpaper in case I need to do reshoots later. The wallpaper would be pretty much impossible to replace, since it’s vintage wallpaper I got from Ebay.
It occurred to me that it might actually just be easier to use an existing room in my house. There are some downsides to it – I’m not sure if the look would be exactly what I want, and might be harder to control the lighting, camera angles, etc. But I’m going to give it some more thought – it’s important not to get too attached to the set concept just because I have it. After all it’s supposed to be an asset to me, not a burden!
This all sounds very whiny I know, but this is how the process goes for me a lot of the time. Once I finish some part of it, it’s really easy to get stuck when trying to move on to the next part.
But my collaborators are waiting on me, so I need to get this shoot rolling soon! After this shoot, there are only two other shoots to do (plus some b-roll type stuff that I can do on a smaller scale.) It’s good to remember that the light at the end of the tunnel is always getting closer!