TV Directing 09: The Shoot 3:30am to 6:15am

3:30 am.  You're already awake.  Somehow you woke up a minute earlier than the alarm which just went off.  You were up until 11pm last night preparing for today.  You jump out of bed and get cleaned up and rush to the set.

5:00am  You arrive at the set 30 minutes before call time so you can walk the location.  You're shooting at a park in the hills today - two locations.  You arrive at base camp.  There are five trucks lined up on the street.  One is a long trailer for actors, one is for administration (producers and AD's), one is for wardrobe, one is art department, and one is catering.   A few people are already there getting breakfast from the caterer.

You grab something from the caterer and head to the location.  The sun is rising and you're at the top of a mountain and you realize that you spend your entire life writing and planning inside and only because something is written on a whim to be at this dramatic location do you find yourself here.  

As you're walking around, someone who you don't recognize says hi to you and uses your name.  You smile back and say, "good morning" and then moments later wonder who they were and think you should have actually shaken their hand, gotten their name just to be friendly but you were thinking too much about the curve of the trees and how that will frame your shot.

5:30am  You've walked back to base-camp and the AD makes an announcement about safety and schedules.  The day begins.  The grips begin to move all the equipment to your first location where you start walking to.  You're stopped by the props person who is showing you a prop and asking if it will work.  You think it might need a slight adjustment in order for the audience to instantly understand what it is.  She runs back to her truck to work on it.  You make it half way to the location when a few people start to walk with you.  "Where's the first shot?"  This was what you were doing moments earlier.  You always want to know your first shot right away.  It kills momentum if you don't.  Even if you don't know what it is, you just make one up so that you're shooting.  Instincts are usually pretty good anyway.  But you were here earlier and know exactly where the shot is.  "Will you need track?" and a few other questions come - you answer all of them.

This is pretty much the morning.  It's a series of questions for about 30 minutes as the equipment is moved into place and the sun slowly starts to rise.

"After this are we punching in?"  (getting a close up from a similar camera position)

"How many set ups before we flip?"  (how many times to we move the camera before we flip the camera to point towards where the crew is now.

"Where can video village move?"  ("Video village" is where the monitor is set up that everyone watches from including the director except that you operate the camera yourself, so your chair at video village holds your backback only and will eventually hold the jacket your wearing as the day warms up.)

5:50am The AD tells you the actor is ready in a new wardrobe.  You go to the trailer.  You introduce yourself to the actor.  You've never met them before.  You look at their outfit - it seems to match the character.  You don't get picky because the time and options are going to be limited.  You make sure they know you actually like it and aren't just accepting it.  Best to really like or change something.  Ambiguity kills momentum.  People feeling like they are doing a good job helps momentum - so if they did a good job, they should know it - so you say "That's really great" and not "That'll work."

6:05am You get back to the camera, it's set up - but you make some adjustments.  The AC has to pick up the camera and place it in it's new place and you feel bad for being such a perfectionist with shots - but 3 inches really does make a big difference for the angle when you're zoomed in.  And you're zoomed in because longer lenses feel more cinematic, are flattering for the actors, and just feel right for the moment.  Later on you'll be using some wider lenses because you want to give a lighter, more airy feeling.  But this is a dramatic moment - sun rising, some shadows, and a longer lens is required.

"Are we ready, can we do this?"

"I'm ready."

"Sound?"  

"Actors need to be wired."

This is the chatter that starts when the first shot is coming.  It's very important to get that first shot off as soon as possible.  It sets the pace for the day and everyone feels like they are doing something.  The AD knows this as well or better than you do and he starts checking in with everyone.  You start hearing the first grumblings.  "Why weren't the actors wired?"  "Suns moving, pull in a relector board." "Actors just got here."

You suddenly realize that you haven't done anything for 30 seconds.  Not good.  You walk over to the actors.  You've met them before and it's nice to see them again.  They're being distracted by the boom operator who is needing to route a wire on their body - but right at this moment - he has the most important job on the set.  The entire shoot is on his back waiting for him to finish wiring the actor, he's more important than anyone including you at this moment.  Productions are like that.  Everyone there tends to have their most important moment.

"Why don't you guys run your lines," you ask the actors.

They go through once not really putting in a performance, just to say them outloud.

"Now, I know you weren't doing a performance there, but let me point out a couple things which matter."  You then point out to the actors where the scene shifts.  You start with the largest, most important story point of the scene and make sure the actors know they are working towards that moment.  They run the scene again.  It has focus now.  You point out a few things to the actors that will help you get across what you need.  You try to stay aware of if you're asking something because it's serving the story or if it is serving some sort of preconceived notion you had in your head.  The latter can be dangerous and annoying.  Often you have an idea of how a line should sound, but there are a hundred different ways it could sound which would be equally as good.  However, sometimes a line sounds out of flow - out of story; it sounds as though it isn't in the moment that is being built.  Sometimes the actor isn't geling with the line and the performance becomes monotonous and you need to break up the line for them into different beat which have their own intentions.  

6:11 am The AD walks up to you, "We gotta roll.  Are they wired?"  The boom operator steps away - "They're wired."  The AD leads you and everyone back to the camera.   The AD focuses everyone to watch you.  You block out the scene for everyone.  "They start out over here, they walk over to this tree, he stops at the rock.  Then he walks around in front of her, facing her, turns, then walks away on his own."

The actors step up and you run through it again with the actors.  It looks a little different than you had imagined.  You can tell the actor thinks so as well.  "Why am I stopping at the rock?"

You blocked it that way for camera, but it is not playing as naturally as you had imagined.  Right after the actors asks the question, you know you have literally about 2 seconds to have a convincing answer.  But you can't think of one, so you immediately change plans.  "Yeah, that doesn't work at all - he'd want to get right in front of her, so you just go to her, in fact, you reach out and stop her from moving.  She doesn't want to stop, you grab her and stop her and that will be the moment that the scene pivots like we talked about... right at that moment."  The actor nods, smiling because it makes sense and they know how to perform that moment.  Finish up fast on the up beat.  "She fights back, but you've made your point, you head out and leave her standing her ground - alone."  that's it.

The AD calls out.  Okay let's shoot!

You catch the AD's eye and you quickly run through the set ups:  "Here, punch in to her - we'll ped up on that.  Here.  Then flip and  punch in."  

AD, "okay."

You, "Oh - and we should get a close up on when he grabs her."

AD, "Can it be a punch in?"

You, "We'll need to move the camera to get it right."

He looks suspiciously at you, "Let's see if we can get it at the end."

You, "It's the first time these two have every touched in the entire series."

AD, "Right - okay, we'll get it in.  No dolly here, right?"

You were thinking maybe, the key grip is near by, "How much time to get the track out here and set up?"

Key Grip, "20 minutes, it's on the truck."

You, "No, no, no dolly.  I'd rather have the shot of the hand grabbing."

AD, "Good let's shoot. PICTURE'S UP!"

2nd AD calls in the distance "PICTURES UP!"