Director's
notes, the making of "New Director's Shorts" (2002) Pistachio Films #5
BY
Giovanni Pistachio.
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1. Batman & Sigmund.
New Director's shorts, is a little Freudian piece about the man's
fear of turning up on the set of his first ever movie shoot. It
is supposed to be this man's (a new director) first day on the
set. He has great fears about this, and these fears manifest
themselves in his dreams. He is afraid that he will turn up and
not know what he is doing, or that his fellow crewmembers will laugh at
his supposed inability to direct his first movie.
The day of this director's first shoot ends up with him getting up, and
not being able to locate any trousers. Here his fears manifest
themselves, with the cast and crew making fun of the director as he
turns up on set in his underwear. This eventually turns
around and happens in reality too. As opposed to the first time
we see it when it is actually supposed to be in his dream.
Any dream had by a person who is somewhere, other than a bedroom, in
their underwear is supposed to be a dream of insecurity about a certain
situation.
2. Large Casts.
This turned out to have been our biggest cast in one of our shorts to
this point. With a cast of seven people for one location, at one
time, in the actual location of the director's first shoot. This
was a big step for us as previously we had only been dealing with a
cast of two or three people at a time. And here we were with 7
cast, 2 crew and a 2-hour time limit on the shoot in the location. This
took tolls of stress on Martainn and myself. But as always with the
filmmaking process and always at Pistachio films it was a learning
process for us, in the organisation, and in dealing with an on set time
limit. Unfortunately there were a couple of problems.
1. We were one man short for the planned shoot two parts were supposed
to be on screen, an assistant director, and a cinematographer. As it
turns out only one of these people turned up, and we had to do some
quick thinking to sort out the situation. Thanks to Ross Mcewan for
helpful his suggestions.
2. Also as it turns out our camera bag only had one tape in it.
This was a brand new tape so we anticipated no problems.
But as we found out to our chagrin it was not of the best quality and
subsequently the footage which we shot that day, actually has on screen
blip, thanks to a low quality of the tape. Ever since then, after
every take even with new cameras and new tapes we check for problems
like this, after shooting a scene/shot, and counteract it by always
bringing along plenty of spare blank tapes.
3. I Hate
Tripods!
Martainn has a phobia about using a tripod and for the first time,
thanks to this film being about filmmaking, he is able to express this
phobia on screen. It kind of goes like, "Ok Pistachio you like
rooting the tripod to the ground, and not moving the camera, but me
we'll I want it moving all over the place!" As we can see
in some of his other films. So here we just let him throw a
little angst the old tripods way, even though the cinematographer in
the film within the film is a bit miffed at this. But as Martainn
says, "If the tripod ain't broke, break it!" Move the camera,
move the cameraman, anything but use it, unless it's deliberately
hooked up squint that is! So we let him throw a little abuse the
tripods way, which I guess is ok since I abused him here AGAIN, by
getting him to be in front of the camera without all his clothes!
4. The Idea
The idea came from well just a little play on words on advertising
for a series of short films made in the UK by new directors, and just
throw it in at the end of the year after Monica to boost up the
production output for that year! And thanks to all the cast
members who were performing for the first time, and did so admirably!
5. Budget.
Oh not much again just for a change. A few quid for the hire of
the hall, and some drinks and grub, that’s about it, certainly under 30
quid anyway.
Until next time, happy and cheap filmmaking
Giovanni Pistachio.
©
Owned By Giovanni
Pistachio
05/03/2004 19:23