19 Feb Star 98.7 Production
Monday, February 19, 2007
This is the first of a series of exclusive film making blogs…I’m only going to post these stories for my friends here…so if you are reading this you’re already one of ’em=)
I’m going to keep you all updated on the ups and downs, the in’s and out’s of my film making journey. It will be like the special features on a dvd…only free and as it happens…and without million dollars budgets…heh…for now.
A couple weeks ago the Ivar Hill Productions boys and I decided to enter a commercial contest for the local LA radio station, Star 98.7. No one, no one that I talked to has ever listened to that station, but they were offering a $25,000.000 cash prize for a 15 second commercial, so why the heck not?
We pitched ideas back and forth and settled on two main spots…with a third if time permitted.
For this project I was acting as producer, so I went to work securing crew and planning as best I could. Due to our time & budget restrictions we decided to steal locations. That’s the term used for shooting w/o permits…
The first step was finding a street that would be chill, shaded, and mostly open on a Sunday
morning.
A test angle for the piece.
The next day we went into production. We got a little bit of a late start…I’m not sure if it was because of a crew member’s faulty alarm clock or what…but we still were able to get our first shoot done on time.
Christian directed the first spot “Blind Date.” Here he is rehearsing with Sarah & Troy.
Joey was the AD for Christian’s shoot.
Most of time I hung out down the street away from the action with any crew that wasn’t actively doing anything. The more people we had around the car at a given time, the more conspicuous we’d look…and that was to be avoided.
Christian at work.
Towards the end the light changed and we lost a few shot because the background was blown out. Had we started on time, we’d have been able to get through all our shots before the change. Buuut, we had the coverage to cut together a good piece none the less.
I wasn’t sure the makeshift “bumper sticker” I made would stay on…it was from a pack of “Post It” sticky paper…and when I went to put it on, I realized it was thicker and less sticky than I expected. I was hoping for a “sticker” and this was more like a card-stock-post-it-note. But it stayed on long enough for us to get the final shot.
Next up was lunch…another delicious meal by Liisa and Clovis. Two of my friends from SF that live down here now. It’s really cool to find friends that actually LIKE to make food for a film shoot. I’ve been on so many shoots were food is the Achille’s heel of the production. One shoot I survived on coffee, krispy cremes and 1 hour of sleep until about 1pm. It was NOT good. So having good, home cooked meal is a real blessing.
Clovis! (and Ray, who was visiting and hung out w/ us on set)
For Joey’s shoot we had a couple locations in mind…one I didn’t think we could get away with…the other was noisy. We did a quick scouting mission and it looked like we might be able to pull it off… One problem…his actress hadn’t shown up. In fact she had just WOKE up. And she was already supposed to be there. And she lived in on the Westside…so if would be at least an hour for her to get there…if she was fast at getting ready. And something about a girl that sleeps until 12:30pm on a day when she is supposed to be on set at 12pm gives me the impression that she wouldn’t be speedy.
Luckily, Liisa can act.
Joey directed the next spot “Bad Music.”
Troy, Tom, and the actors.
Christian, now the AD
Joey directing.
It was pretty warm up there…so those of us not actively shooting got a little shut eye…and apparently took pictures of the other people when they were sleeping.
This lasted until security finally caught on to what we were doing…but it was ok we’d already gotten the shots we needed. We headed back to the house, and since it was only the early afternoon decided to shoot the last spot.
The was Troy’s creation, he acted, I directed…the peanut gallery gave suggestions. hehe. Actually there were some good ones.
Mid-way through it Joey and Christian’s turn for naps…for such a light day of shooting, I’m not sure why we all got so sleepy…
I’m going to be posting the clips soon on the ivarhillproductions.com page…put until then…here’s a couple super über secret links for you…
Joey’s spot will be up soon…soon as he gets me the file.
-Luke
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