Return to Sender: Set Design

Before Return to Sender, I had never really put much attention into set design. I just used whatever was in the location I was lucky enough to get. If it wasn’t actively at the location, I didn’t really think about it.

For this particular film, that changed because one of my locations didn’t have any furniture. We had to make it seem like someone lived there. We had to start from scratch.

We hatched an idea that our main character was an artist, a painter to be specific. We had a lot of props at our disposal to work with this idea. We set up enough furniture to make our shots look lived in. We had canvases and paintings on the walls. I think we successfully made it look like a painter lived in the space we had to film in.

This character was curious and outgoing, so we used a lot of bright colors and creative ideas. We had the actress dress in red to work with this theme as well.

Our second location had more furniture already. We just had to cater it to our character. We didn’t want to overuse paintings on the walls again. We wanted to do something different that worked with the furniture and such. We ended up going with more neutral colors, photographs, and flowers.

This character was the more reserved of the two. If our lead character was the type to be the first one on the dance floor, this character was the type who needed to be coaxed out with her. I decided to make her a cat person with a photograph of my childhood cat. We had flowers around the set and a photograph of a beach. They were very subtle things, might not be very noticeable in the final cut, but the thought is there.

I think my favorite aspect of the set design that we chose to do was to add matching paintings. My production assistant Sarah Sofia Serrato and I had been to a painting class together in the past, so we both had different versions of the same painting of an owl with pumpkins. Sarah’s painting is in the background of one of the shots at the lead character’s house, and my version of the painting is in the supporting character’s house. We aren’t sure if anyone will really see it and make the connection, but we liked the thought behind it.

I’ll definitely be taking this experience with set design into future projects. Even if it doesn’t really show up completely within the shots of the film, it really helps solidify the character and their motivations. It created a mood on set. I liked that fact.

Of course, other elements that came into play with this project had to do with prop design. I’ll discuss those in another post.

Return to Sender: Shoot Day 2

On Sunday, March 18, 2018, we had our second day of shooting for my upcoming short film, Return to Sender. After our first shoot was so immensely successful, I was really looking forward to another day of filming.

At the first shoot, I felt that it took a bit for me to get back into the director’s chair, at least to sit there comfortably again. By the end of that first shoot, I had gotten the swing of things again. I was hoping that I’d still be ready to go for this second shoot as well. I think I can safely say that I did well.

This shoot had the same crew as before. I definitely had more actors to work with this time around though. I was working with three actors at this shoot. Two of these actors were playing minor detective roles. They clicked together very easily. I’m very happy with my casting choice for them. The other actress was playing my supporting character. She really embodied the role, just as I knew she would when she was cast.

We filmed the bulk of the story at our first shoot, so this time around was definitely much more simple. It was a smaller location, so there was less area to appropriately light. It was actually my own house, so there was less space that needed to be decorated. I mainly had to focus on empty wall space. I’ll talk more about set and prop design in another post.

It wasn’t as difficult as I thought it was going to be to direct three actors at once. Either I just got lucky or I was adequately prepared. In any case, I’m happy that it went well.

For this shoot, half of the day was spent finishing up the visuals for the end of the film. Once this was completed, the majority of the cast and crew were able to leave. Our supporting actress stuck around for a while longer in order to fill in some of the audio gaps from our first shoot. Despite it being her first time recording voiceover, she got the hang of it very quickly. She did a fantastic job.

It all went very smoothly. Everyone got along really well. There was lots of laughs. This made for a really great energy throughout the day. I think the food at craft services went over well. I almost wiped out and dropped the camera rig at one point while attempting a handheld shot that won’t even make the final cut, but I think it went well!

We’re officially in post production now. I can’t wait to see how this all turns out.

Return to Sender: Shoot Day 1

It finally happened. The first shoot day for my latest short film Return to Sender took place on Sunday, March 11. After holding auditions and weeks of planning, we were finally ready to go.

I needed to be on set at about 8:00am, so before that we needed to pack the car. Then, we had an hour commute to the shooting location. We got there early to begin setting up and make last minute decisions for set design. Luckily, we had a lot of this done days in advance so there wasn’t too much to do.

Crew time was 9:00am. This is when we started working to set up lights, balance the steady cam set up, put markers on the floor, get the boom pole ready. About 30 minutes before the cast arrived, we started setting up the craft services table.

10:00am was the talent call time. I was very glad that we had everything set up and ready to go before our actress arrived. It really saved a lot of time, and I think it made a good impression. It looked like we had our stuff together.

Overall, I think the shoot went really well. The actress we cast as our lead was just as impressive on the shoot day as she was at the audition. I’m really happy with the performance she gave.

There were some pretty tricky shots that we wanted to get for this part of the film. We had spent a lot of time leading up to the shoot practicing them, but they still required a lot of time on the day. These shots included a bit of gear. We had a steady cam rig, a slider, monopods for tighter spaces. I’m very grateful for all of the prep we did for those shots because it helped us be more prepared on the day. I’m always happy to be prepared.

I did end up making some decisions on the fly that diverged from my plans. I was a bit worried about how that would work out in the edit, but based on our rough edits after the fact, it all seems to be working out perfectly.

I’ll talk more about the editing process when we are officially in post production.

As for directing, this is the first time I’ve been in the director’s chair since we filmed 3:03 in 2016. It definitely took me some time to get back in the swing of it. There were a lot of mistakes I made at the beginning of the shoot day that I find pretty embarrassing. By the end of the day though, I think I was good. I think I was back to normal.

Hopefully I’ll still be ready to go for the next shoot. This shoot will be on Sunday, March 18. The upcoming shoot will be in a smaller location with three actors instead of one. It will be a different experience for me. I hope it goes well.

Return to Sender: Prep Work

It’s been a long time coming, but I can finally say that filming for Return to Sender is right around the corner!

With principle photography beginning in a matter of days, there are quite a few things that we’re working to finalize and prepare.

We have some intricate camera shots planned for this first day, including many that are done with a steady cam rig. We have been meticulously planning these shots for a while now, but there is definitely a benefit to actually, physically, practicing them ahead of time. There were several things that we figured out about our rig set up while actually running through the moves that caused us to recalibrate the entire thing. I’m very glad we didn’t stumble upon those issues on the day of the shoot.

Since we were on a roll with those shots, we figured we’d test out some of the other shots too. This led us to have a much better idea of how everything was going to work out on the day that we filmed. I know I definitely got a better idea of how I wanted to block things and direct my lead actress by running through the scenes myself.

I really can’t stress how much prep work really helps with my work flow. There is always an element of uncertainty to film shoots, but with enough prep work, I can eliminate so many potential problems from a day where time is very limited. I don’t want my cast and crew to sit around all day because of issues that could have been easily prevented. They’re volunteering their time for me, and I want to respect their time as much as possible.

We’re also working on set design and prop design, but since that’s still in progress, I may reflect on that process more at a later time. These are both new things for me that I haven’t paid much attention to in previous projects. We’ll see how much I have to say about it by the end.

Exit Interview

Don’t let the title deceive you. I’m not leaving any jobs.

This post will be about the short film Exit Interview, directed by Jason Rugg, which I recently produced. Conceptualized as an entry for the 2017 Rode Reel competition, Exit Interview follows a man who doesn’t understand that his ideal girlfriend is just not that into him.

Going into the production of this film, my role was more of a line producer. This means that my main job was to keep the production on time, to make sure that everything happened and stayed on schedule.

Over the last few productions I’ve been a part of, I’ve used Shot Lister to help with this. I definitely have some complaints about the current state of the program, but it has the potential to be a very nice organizational tool. I would suggest checking it out. It might be of use to you.

We had a small crew, but there was a bit more help than we usually have. Rugg was directing. I was doing my producing role. Erik Leal of E Leal Productions was running audio and helping with lighting. Rugg also brought in someone to record behind the scenes video and assist when needed. We had three cast members, and two groups of extras throughout the day.

It was an all day shoot. As a crew member, I was there from 9:00am till almost 10:00pm. All of the scenes were shot at a central location, so break down and set up throughout the day wasn’t incredibly difficult. Overall, the day was very eventful and a good learning experience for everyone involved.

You can view the Behind the Scenes video below.

As for editing, that was a bit of a challenge. Everyone just has so much going on, its hard to set time aside. We managed to get an edit done for the Rode Reel deadline. It’s so nice to see how everything came together in the edit.

I’m a really big fan of how the locations look and the performance of the actress who plays Amy, Emma Baker. She was fantastic on set, and her performance comes off really well in the final film. I’m super pleased.

You can see the Rode Reel submission below!

At some point in the future, there may be a director’s cut that would give a little more freedom in the edit without the Rode competition restrictions. If that comes to pass, I will be sharing that as well.

3:03 (2016) Online

At last! Now that the My Rode Reel competition is over, I can finally promote my newest short film as a film, rather than a contest entry.

After taking some time to add the new E Leal Productions bumper to the beginning of the film, both 3:03 and the Behind the Scenes video can be seen on Vimeo.

If you want a deeper look into the film’s production, check out the behind the scenes video below!

Taco Night (2016) Online

Now that the Rode competition is over, it’s time to start promoting these films as films rather than entries to a contest.

With that in mind, check out Taco Night (previously referred to as Catharsis), a short action/drama with a touch of comedy, directed by Jason Rugg!

If you enjoyed the film, make sure to leave a comment or a like!

Also, as producer, one of my roles included filming a Behind the Scenes video. I’ll include that below so you can get an inside look at the process.

3:03 – Production

On April 24, 2016, we finally got around to principle photography on my new short film project, 3:03. We had planned extensively for the shoot, including a plethora of test shots and lighting tests. When the day finally came, we felt very prepared. The day was a success overall.

Our call time was at 3:00, and we gave ourselves an hour of prep time before we planned to start filming at 4:00. Once our actress had successfully gotten into character and our camera was set up, we started shooting (five minutes ahead of schedule).

The first shot that we planned to do would be the most difficult. It was a stabilized shot that followed our actress as she walked from the bedroom to the kitchen, and then to the door. This was the shot that we had practiced on for weeks, and all of that practice really paid off. We had scheduled about 30 minutes to get the shot the way that we wanted, but we got several takes that fit our standards in 15. This set a good precedent for the rest of the shoot.

This was also the first time that we had been able to utilize our Glide Gear stabilizer on a project. It was a big purchase that was made over a year ago, so it was nice to finally put it to good use.

Since our planning was so extensive, we flew through the next several shots fairly quickly. These were a lot of close ups in a confined area, but we had done test shots to prepare and made notes of what lenses we would need, so we didn’t have any problems on the day.

In retrospect, we did face a problem while filming these shots, but it was entirely my fault. Despite having made detailed plans, I thought of a new idea on the shoot day, so I tweaked my plan. I set myself too far away from the talent and the camera operator, so I didn’t see a potential problem that we would run into for the edit. One of the benefits of my new camera is that I can see the shot being captured from my iPad screen, so I don’t have to be right next to the camera operator to see the preview screen. I now know, for future reference, that I need to stay near the talent at all times. It doesn’t matter if I have a preview in my hands, there’s still an aspect of being present that I lose when I’m too distant.

After breaking for lunch, we began set up in the bedroom. The shots we were capturing in this location were decently easy, but we were going to be ending on a difficult note. The last shot was an overhead view of the main actress while she was lying down. Luckily, with all of the time we had saved on previous shots, we didn’t fall behind schedule while setting up the contraption that would eventually give us one of the more stunning shots of the project. It took 40 minutes and several attempts to get the set up correct, and it was a pretty precarious situation, but I think it turned out really well.

Some of the more interesting shots to film will have to be kept a secret for now. No spoilers. I will say that I was worried about the reactions I would get from any passers by. We made several attempts to get these shots exactly how we wanted them, and all of these attempts were made (very quietly) in the hours when our neighbors would be sleeping so as not to create a disturbance. I hope that viewers enjoy them.

For the competition that we’re planning on submitting this project to, we’re required to have a BTS (Behind the Scenes) video. Jason Rugg was wonderful enough to both film and photograph the production process for our behind the scenes needs. He also was a fantastic asset to have on set as we struggled with that overhead contraption I mentioned. I’ll be working on the BTS video soon, and it will be shared here eventually.

It was also incredibly nice to be working with Sarah Sofia Serrato again. There’s an aspect to her performance that really sells the type of stories I’m trying to tell. Her imagination adds a lot of great things to my stories to provide an excellent performance that brings the audience along for the ride. I was very lucky to have her for 3:03.

Stay tuned for updates on the post production of this short film project!