featurette

On Monday, we had our first big production meeting. Production meetings are an interesting beast. There are so many decisions that have to be discussed and decided. I took notes - and now that I'm looking at them - I don't know why I did. I tend to write down things that I already know. Things like "we need crew". Duh.

One of the big issues that we are dealing with is our camera set up. As this is a low budget, we would like to shoot on HD. We feel that this will give us the best possible quality for what we are wanting to achieve. There are so many things that go into making these types of decisions. We have to look at not only the best HD cameras that are out there, but the best ones that we can get for the budget. We are also looking at numerous camera lenses to give the HD footage the look as if it was shot on 35mm. Most of the movies that you see - with exceptions of course - are shot on film. To those who can tell, there is quite a difference between the digital footage, and the actual film. So, when you are shooting on HD, adding certain lenses can make it feel like the feature was shot on film.

This is where Ron, our Director of Photography (DP), comes in. Ron's job is to paint the picture of what you see in each frame. He works with the Gaffer (basically the guy in charge of lighting), to help set the mood of the scene. I have much respect for DPs. Not only do they need a creative side, in order to create beautiful pictures, but they also have to have the technical savvy to achieve the looks that they need and want. There is much to learn from the DP - things that I am looking forward to learning.

Tuesday, we went location scouting. I find location scouting rather enjoyable. Especially yesterday. It was beautiful outside.

Finding locations is usually really easy, or really difficult. In my limited experiences, it has never quite been in between. We have found about half of our locations so far. We have a lot more to find. Hopefully it won't lean more towards the difficult end.

Yesterday we went down south to Burleson. Burleson is about 20 minutes directly south of Ft. Worth. We were very pleased with some of the looks that Burleson had to offer. Also, the fact that it is fairly close to the production office is also a plus. Now that we have looked around at some possible places to film, we have to go to the city and business owners and ask for permission. Some phone calls and paperwork later, and an old abandoned warehouse becomes a thing of beauty on film.

PICTURES