I had another title for his entry, but I’ll save that one for another day.
After almost three months since our last filming date (and two cancelled dates in May), we staked this one out for our third day of filming. Well, a funny thing kind of happened. Originally we had hoped to film at the primary location of the first part of the film (it’s split into two “movements”), but life, once again, intervened, and that plan was put aside. But it did offer an opportunity. One of the main actors- Mike- was unable to make it to original shooting location because of responsibilities in his own life situation, but after 3pm today, he was free to get together. And so myself, Dave, and Ron (the other principles in the film) made our way gradually up to Mike’s place for an afternoon/evening of hanging out and- hopefully- filming some stuff, namely the flashback in the first movement, but hopefully maybe even a scene between Mike and I that starts the second movement. We didn’t get to the latter scene- a good thing since it gives us the opportunity to rewrite it and rework it if necessary- but the flashback was filmed. To say it isn’t exactly what I was thinking it should be goes without saying. I was thinking, as it was conceived, that it would be a quick, 10-15 second flash for a quick joke. That was before we played it out. The scene is actually- in the grand scheme of the story- pretty pointless, and in all honesty, even to the moment it’s explaining in the story, it doesn’t really make much sense. But what we ended up with seems pretty inspired, if you ask me. Although the scene was meant to be an exchange that ended with a joke that cracks one character up a little too much, nothing was written for said exchange except a brief description.
We are not skilled comedians/actors. We’ll be the first to tell you. Improvisation is not an easy art for us. But once we hit on an area of discussion for the scene (alternate versions will be available at some point), inspiration hit, and an out-of-nowhere joke hit the mark. The question is, how much will get in? The dialogue played out for about four minutes. That will be decided in editing. If you weren’t there, you’ll have to wait for the finished film to find out.
The visual style of the scene also struck of inspiration…at least it did for me. Flashbacks in movies are, generally speaking, first person accounts of the moment. But do they ever really look that way? Most of the time (if not all of the time), flashbacks are filmed as if a film crew just happened to be there at the time. Why not try a literal first-person account, with the point-of-view visually to match? We originally thought about shooting it in a wide shot, as we normally see in films and TV, but the idea of a first-person POV struck everyone, it seemed, as a way to go. We cheat it a little bit, but it should be a fun twist on convention when it’s put together.
Other than that, we didn’t really do too much. Played some video games, went on endlessly trying to figure out something to watch (to no avail), and even watched some “behind the scenes” footage we filmed on Mike’s camera the first day (it was really quite entertaining). Overall, a nice hour or so of filming. We didn’t get a lot done- again- but what we did get done is, I think, pretty cool. Thanks to Mike, Dave, and Ron for their assistance and patience. To Jeff and Chris, we hope to see you next time.
Thanks for listening,
Brian Skutle
www.sonic-cinema.com
Click here to download or watch Brian’s first video diary after the first day of shooting.
Click here to read my second “Unwinnable Hand†Production Diary.
Click here to read my first “Unwinnable Hand†Production Diary.
