Behind The Scenes: Block 07
Back in early February we had what was almost certainly the challenging and intense weekend of shooting of Play It Safe's entire production. The scenes we shot are from the very end of Play It Safe's first act, where (the protagonist) Jamie's band has their final gig. We had a massive amount of coverage to get, there were three different musical acts to film, three dialogue scenes, a buttload of extras to manage, and to make matters worse we were forced to find a new location only two days before the shoot! I can safely say that this weekend was definitely the most stressful one I have ever encountered.
Play It Safe - Video Update #1
MC Jibber Jabber
A while back I cast Melbourne comedian Alasdair Tremblay-Birchall in the role of Jefferson, who is the best friend and housemate of the protagonist Jamie. Al is a very funny guy and working with him has been absolutely hilarious. For the last few weeks I've been working with him on a song that Jeff and Jamie will perform (when drunk one night in their living room) late in the film. I'm totally stoked with how the track is turning out and I can't way to record the final version. I don't want to give away too much info about the song just yet, but for now here are a few photos of Al in action:
Workshopping With Actors & Reworking The Script
Workshops
As we get closer to shooting, I have been spending more time with the actors workshopping and rehearsing scenes. This process has been incredibly productive and it's also a whole lot of fun. After working on the script for more than a year now, it's quite an amazing experience seeing it come to life in the actors' performances.
I plan to write much more extensively on my process working with actors (whenever I get a free moment). For now here are some photos from workshops with Nick Kato (who plays the protagonist Jamie), Christine Lui (who plays Chloe), and Kane Felsinger (who plays Craig):
Aims: What Are We Trying To Achieve?
Over the next few months I'm going to do my best to not only keep you updated with our progress as we begin shooting Play It Safe, but to also fill you in on its development during 2011. The first step in charting our journey must be a discussion of the aims I had when I set out to make Play It Safe.
As I famously exclaimed to my co-writer Jack White one night back in early 2011: “If I’m doing things then I want to be doing them, not like not doing them!” In some ways this eloquent statement sums up what Play It Safe has been about from the beginning. Namely, I wanted to make a feature film!
After years of making short films and then music videos I needed a change. In late 2010 I decided to take a risk and make my first feature film. I also decided that I wanted to get it done as soon as possible. There were a few external factors in this, but primarily I just wanted to force myself to get it done. I'd heard many stories about films ending up in development hell, just gestating for years and years. I didn't want to go through that. I didn't have a concept that I was precious about and would give up anything to realise. I just wanted to direct a movie. If someone handed me a great script that I could direct on a micro-budget, then I would have just done it. Unfortunately that wasn’t really an option for me, so the next best thing was to just do it myself.
I love (and also loathe) writing, but it wasn't (and still isn't) my primary aim to work as a writer. I wanted work as a director. I wanted to make films. And any kind of screenplay that Jack and I were going to write needed to feed into that, regardless of how much we might want to write about explosions and dragons and all those other awesome things. I needed a screenplay that I could shoot as soon as possible! I wasn't interested in developing a spec script that I would probably never be able to sell or get funded.
That's what I meant when I said “If I’m doing things then I want to be doing them, not like not doing them!” I certainly could have put it better, but that sentiment has guided everything we have done since then. It might be fun to imagine a grand epic, but if it can't be realised with the resources we have then it's not a road we can go down. I've mentioned before that working with limitations can have a lot of benefits, and this has definitely been true with Play It Safe so far. Our focus on practicality has forced us to be really creative, and consequently I think that the final film will be a lot more nuanced and interesting than if we just threw in a few CGI dragons and explosions. (Although I guess you guys will be the final judge of that.)
That's all for today. Coming up soon will be the next stage: Defining some commandments that were essential in creating the screenplay.
A Week At Acting School - Part One
As I mentioned in a previous post, I spent a lot of time last year trying to learn as much as possible about the different aspects of my craft as a filmmaker and director. One idea that I came across again and again was that a director cannot work well with actors unless they have some acting experience. It's a simple idea that I think holds a lot of truth. Would you get up to conduct an orchestra if you had never played an instrument?
Rehearsal & Gear Test
Just a quick update today. The last few weeks have been very productive and all the pieces are starting to fall into place. This culminated in our first big workshop / rehearsal / gear test on Friday night.
We spent the evening completely going over one scene with sound, lighting, two cameras, and even some costumes. We covered all conceivable angles, from establishing wide shots to extreme close-ups and my next task is to play around with the footage in the edit to work out how we want to cover the scene for the real thing. Jaque and I have already spent a lot of time talking about how we want the film to look and how the film's visual development should support the thematic development. This process of mocking up scenes and then trying things out and edit is really the final stage of defining how we want to execute the film's visuals, both aesthetically and practically.
I was pretty preoccupied operating B camera on Friday night, so unfortunately I didn't get a chance to take any behind-the-scenes pictures. Here are a few stills from the footage though:
Many thanks to Nick, Spencer, Jaque, Maia, and Dan for all your hard work on a Friday night!
Quick Update: Workshopping With Spencer & Script Draft Three
Okay, just a quick update for today. (I'm trying to get into the habit of making short updates regularly instead of putting them off because they have to be long and detailed - we'll see how it goes.)
I just wrapped up a day of workshopping with Spencer that went really well. On the one hand, workshopping can be quite challenging - both for the actors, and for myself as the director. However, on the other hand, it's hard to call something that's this fun "work"...