Here’s a few pictures from the shoot on Friday. With a total crew of five – and that includes the Producer/Director, who also played an on-camera role – they shot all the dialogue in my 24-page script in a single day. That’s pretty stunningly good; although it wasn’t a dramatic screenplay, it’s a training video. So you didn’t need to cover a lot of angles – most of it is eventually going to be laid over graphics and B-Roll.
I was supremely impressed with the professional spokesperson they hired to play the “Host”. He had an amazing ability to take highly-technical language, speak it accurately in sentence rhythm while reading it for the first time off a teleprompter, and look like he’s charming the pants off the viewer the whole time he’s doing it. I think this is probably what acting in a Star Trek show is like – just bull through the verbiage, make it look natural, and have faith in the connection you’re trying to project with the audience and the characters in the scene. Not just any actor can handle that.
Mercenary as this work has been, I actually am looking forward to seeing it all cut together. Considering how low the budget was for this thing, ultimately, it’s looking as if it’s going to have a fair level of polish.
(By the way – I forgot to pack my camera, so all these pictures were taken with my phone. I am positively surprised by my phone.)
The outside of the studio complex
Here’s the most obvious difference between studios in Texas and studios in California. The director told me that this sign is basically a joke, and that anyone with a concealed carry license (like him) could freely ignore it, because the lettering on the sign didn’t meet the minimum height requirements, nor did the sign cite the proper state codes to be enforceable. I guess they pay attention to that stuff in Texas.
Early morning light work
The Amazing Floaty Shelves
For pretty much as long as there has been film, there has been people dangling things on fishing wire on film
The Producer/Director also played the role of “Client”, and is checking himself out on the monitor
First shots of the day
The lady playing the Agent was damned attractive, and damned skinny. When I hugged her I thought I might snap her in half.
The way the crew improvised a corner of a TV studio set into a “Legal-type Office” was pretty impressive. We were stealing props and furniture from all over the building.
The 3 C’s of low-budget filmmaking – Camera, Computer, Caffeine