It's a Wrap!

Last weekend we wrapped up the principal filming on The Ex-Factor.  Astonishingly, as they planned, they filmed 90 odd pages of script in just four filming days.  I haven't seen any of the footage, but from past experience and from what I've seen of the filming, I think it's shaping up to be what I wanted it to be. I designed the show to be as easy to produce as possible, but the extent that the production was streamlined was shocking even to me. The first shooting day they shot all of the studio scenes, which was about half of the script.

Comedy is hard. Also, hot and sweaty.

I worried for the stamina and sanity of the actors, particularly when I experienced the sweltering room that the studio scenes were filmed in, but the reports of all involved was that this was one of the most fulfilling creative endeavors that they've been involved in.  Hopefully, that translates into the final product. The next three shooting days we expanded the universe to shoot in other locations. Outdoors, bedrooms, living rooms, offices, restaurants, and the climactic bar scene. The series might feel a bit claustrophobic given the extreme focus on the two lead actors in a small room, and that's not necessarily bad, but we do explode the boundaries from time to time.

Filming a scene in the ladies' room of an office. Ah, the glamour of filmmaking.

Looking at how this project came together, with me writing a script and then offering it to groups, makes me think about how I prefer to do things. I've never been the type to be comfortable with the usual way things get done.  I don't like having to pitch to gatekeepers.  It's why I self-publish board games (At pair-of-dice.com. I don't think I've mentioned it on this blog yet.) rather than try to sell them to large companies.  There are too many stories of people whose games are in limbo for years, and in writing there are stories about people whose careers are selling scripts that actually never get made.  When I create something, if there's not a clear path from my writing or making it to other people seeing it I tend to lose steam.

"That was the most cooking I'd done in months." -Holly

For better or worse, I like to do things myself than have to rely on impressing some higher up. I know from experience that if I'm one voice in a room I don't have the ability to impress my opinion upon others with regularity.  Hence my track record with the 48 Hour Film Project. What I can do is write, and in the near future I'm going to offer a number of my short film scripts to groups who might want something to shoot. I recently found the Classifieds section on nefilm.com, and I'll plan to start there. If anyone out there wants something to film, let me know.

Hopefully there will be more film reports in the future.