It's a Wrap... well, it WAS a wrap!

Well, there it is, seven locations and as many shooting days later,  we have finally wrapped AnA. 

I have to say that it seems to be the same every time.  We think it is impossible, but it always, always turns out to BE possible.  What i liked the most about today- apart from the fact that we shot in two locations that were as good as any professional location scout could have come up with- was that by the end of the shoot, the kids had gelled into one.  Sandy, from a local school, is best buddies with Alina from an international school.  The two of them were chatting away like hens in Mandarin all day.  Venus, a local school girl, chided the girls who didn't want to pick up the heavy equipment and spoke up for Ben when the girl's complained that he wasn't helping them to straighten up after the shoot:  "well, you always ask him to carry the bags so don't expect him to also do the washing up".  In the end, they all carried all the equipment and they all did the straightening up.

I am hoping that all we have shot will cut together properly and that we can convey the story.  I am mostly hoping that the story that is there will be acceptable to the sponsors.  It is always a fine line between empowering the kids to do their own work and guiding them to do a) something that looks good and b) something that the people providing the money will accept.

I have offered to log the footage and get an assembly edit ready for them over the holidays.  Normally i would get them to do this, but the timing of the shoots and workshops is such that it wil be best if i get it done now while they have their break.  Besides, i want a really good idea of what is there.  And even though i was at every shoot, there is no knowledge of a piece like an editors knowledge of a piece.  I am and will always be a director/editor.

In every workshop there is one or two kids that rise to the top.  The ones to watch.  The ones that we pick as the next potential film makers.  In my group there are three.  Vanessa- camera woman for sure, Ben- also camera, perhaps lighting and Alina- producing.  They each have a real touch for the department and all are having a great time.  They absorb what you tell them with understanding and are looking for more input as soon as you finish.  They need more experience and i hope we will be able to give it to them.

What i am always amazed at though is the fact that in spite of enthusiasm, in spite of classes and workshops, in spite of all their good intentions... if you leave them too long to work at their own pace, they falter and get off track.  Each instructor finds this to be the case, no matter what language or what the level of talent.  It seems that a galvanizing element, a guide factor, is essential to the completion of the projects, even of shots and scenes on the set or on location.  We all have to be ready, at the end of the shot, to evaluate if there is indeed enough footage to work with to make a story and figure out how to shoot something quickly that will cover as many options as possible. 

It is like a game of strategy.  In the end, the shoots are more exhausting then a shoot of our own, because we have to contantly re think the strategy.  When shooting for ourselves, we have all the layers to consider at all times, but in these shoots we have to add the layer of teaching, guiding, letting them make the mistakes and calculating which mistakes can be aborbed and which ones corrected.

So now i'm off for Chinese New Year and a break... finally a break.  I am going to sleep for a few days.  And then i will attack the footage and hopefully, hopefully find a little gem of a film hiding under all that data.