When things work out, and when they don't...

I was working on a scene this week; a scene we shot the 2nd day of filming. It seems like so long ago, but watching that scene was interesting. Its funny... back then we had no idea what was going to happen. For all we knew back then, everything would fall apart at any minute. We got lucky. We passed that 2nd day and here we are now.

You never know what is going to happen. You can plan, and plan, and plan, but in the end you need to be able to adapt. For example, the initial screenplay called for a camp fire for the scene we shot in the woods. Unfortunately, (or fortunately) we shot in the summer. The woods were dry, and we couldn't start a fire without the very real risk of starting a much larger campfire than we had in mind. So, we adapted. I could be wrong, but I think I have to credit Bobby with the solution that saved us (I won't get into too many story points for fear of spoiling). Our lighting guy, Doug, created a lighting rig (and did an amazing job of it) and it fit the story!

Sometimes what was written on the page was filmed exactly as written, and sometimes it worked out very well. Sometimes it didn't, and I have had to cut some stuff that I had in my screenplay. Sometimes what was filmed went above and beyond what was in the script, and again... Sometimes it worked very well, and sometimes it did not. It's quite an experience going through all of the hours of footage, and shaping it into a movie. Seeing what worked, what didn't work... What surprised us, what disappointed us.

It makes the small stuff seem very small, knowing that the final product will be as good as it is. I have been slightly lazy with stills over the last two weeks, so below you will see a bunch of them.

Right now, the first cut of the movie is 1 hr and 10 minutes long. Not bad. Not bad at all.

Stay tuned!

Sam

Actor, Writer, Producer

"Blaming George Romero"