I'm sitting on the ferry, traveling from Vancouver back to Victoria, British Columbia. Figured I'd use the free wireless to update y'all on today's emotional roller coaster ride.
I started the day without much sleep last night - I have this irrational, and completely irritating habit of not being able to sleep the night before I travel. I have no idea why this happens. I'm usually a really great sleeper (and napper too!), but in any case, this morning I was off to a bit of a rough start.
I headed over to Jen's place to pick her up, with just enough time to catch the ferry. I had an important meeting with a producer in Vancouver, and since we live on an island we have take a ferry and if we miss it, we have to wait 2 hours until the next one. So I arrived with the clock ticking, only to find out that Jen had 2 sick kids at home, and a duty day at one of the kids'pre-school. ARGH! Her hubby couldn't do the duty day as he needs a new police check, so our hands were tied. After a mild freak-out (on my end), and a few outbursts of "God Dangit! We were going to get SO much done on the ferry!" and some other swear words... I sucked it up and went on my lonesome.
side note: I should tell you here that I'm a new driver. So, driving in Vancouver isn't really my cup of tea just yet.
Anyway, I made it to the meeting after 3 hours of travel, and it rocked. Seriously, this producer was awesome at helping me learn what I need to know, and with offering free advice & contacts for me to follow up with. SCORE! He helped me to realize that there is indeed money out there for us, and all I need to do is ask for it. Double-score! Being in Canada does make it easier for indie filmmaking. Or so I'm told anyway. I'll get on his suggestions tomorrow.
I also had a conversation with a movie star's mother today. We're trying to book her daughter for our little movie, and let me tell you - talking to a star's mom is the same as talking to any mom - they all just want to know that their kids are awesome. Same as teaching in inner city schools really. I'm happy to say that she loved our script as well. Woohoo! More conversations to come I'm sure.
To finish the day, I went to meet up with our Director of Photography, at the IKEA restaurant - because sadly, we don't have an Ikea on Vancouver Island, and it was the only place I thought I knew how to get to without getting lost. And lost I got. So very lost.
It took me 2 hours to meet him, after breaking down in a parking lot (I'm not even kidding - I wailed! And boy oh boy, am I ever happy the star's mom didn't hear the f-bombs I dropped!). Our poor DP was waiting forever for me! What a great guy. I heard loads of stories about what he's working on now, particularly about directors smoking joints on set while he waits for them to get back on task.
Second side note: Seriously? Seriously?! We are so going to ROCK this movie if that's what happens out there on other indie sets. We're 2 women, one a former-innercity-school teacher, the other a mom with a masters degree, a photography background and 3 kids - we're focused, driven and on task, and ... sober on set. Um, yeah - no wonder so many people want to work with us!
And now, here we are. I'm back on the ferry. This time it's rocking back & forth, which is really rare for this journey. I can't wait to get home, get back to focusing on the kickstarter campaign, and get back to bed. Tomorrow I'll rock the new ideas, get my dress fitted for Elton John's Oscars Party (is that for real?!), meet up with a great friend and one of our most supportive investors and hang out with Jen and the kids. WOOHOO!
See how it's all up...down...up...down...and loop-di-loop?
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Monday, November 29, 2010
Ramblings on Casting, Auditions & Working with a Family
It's Casting Week here at Elgin Road! Which means, we're holding auditions in Victoria & Vancouver - a feat in and of itself.
According to the ACTRA low budget union agreements, we're supposed to shoot in a location where the actors can return home every night - which means, we either can't hire actors from Vancouver & shoot in Victoria, or we can't hire Victoria actors and shoot in Vancouver.
Or option C: we don't sign with the union. We had planned to just rent a house with a garage (since our film is set in 1 location - "Locked in a Garage Band" - get it?), and accommodate all our traveling actors in the location for the 2 week shoot, but now we have to rethink that plan. If we go union.
Oh and one more strike against going with the union is that we can't hire any non-Canadian actors. So, if an actor from Seattle comes up to Vancouver & nails the audition, we can't hire them. If we go union.
Or, we could just say, "&&^$ it! We're doing our own thing!"
Which is much more our style anyway. We won't be shooting ridiculously long days. Jen has 3 kids, ages 8, 4 and 1 so there's no 12-15 hour days happening on our shoot - she hardly gets any sleep as it is! Plus, we're not A-holes. We treat people really well, feed them great food and are doing this movie for fun so, hopefully everyone will enjoy working on the set and not complaining that we're dickheads for not going union.
The only down side is that great, experienced, union actors want to audition and they can't if we don't sign.
Ugh. Big decision folks.
So, what else is happening?
Oh yeah - all these resumes & headshots are pouring in. It's absolutely amazing to see how many incredibly talented people want to work with us. There are a tonne of musically inclined actors applying because of the garage band theme, and I have to admit - I'm kind of intimidated by their resumes. But maybe they won't be nearly as cool in person? Some are sending in You Tube video clips, which are really great. Most of the time. Some are random - of course. It wouldn't be an open casting call without some randoms right?
We've been shooting funny videos on Jen's Nikon D90 all night to test it out & see if we can use it to shoot auditions this weekend. It only runs for 20 minutes at a time, but so far it's holding up really well. The auditions are planned for 8 minutes each, with a 2 minute break between each actor for Jen & our amazing Casting Director to take notes, discuss quickly and reset the camera.
Jen's kids are super-hyper about being on camera, which we mistakenly did right before bed-time, so I type while Jen & her hubby try to get the kids wound down & ready for bed. They love their routines and tonight was definitely not a normal night in the living room.
Seriously, how are we going to shoot a movie without dirsupting their family routines too much? The kids are in bed by 7pm.
The joys of casting, auditions & working with a busy family.
According to the ACTRA low budget union agreements, we're supposed to shoot in a location where the actors can return home every night - which means, we either can't hire actors from Vancouver & shoot in Victoria, or we can't hire Victoria actors and shoot in Vancouver.
Or option C: we don't sign with the union. We had planned to just rent a house with a garage (since our film is set in 1 location - "Locked in a Garage Band" - get it?), and accommodate all our traveling actors in the location for the 2 week shoot, but now we have to rethink that plan. If we go union.
Oh and one more strike against going with the union is that we can't hire any non-Canadian actors. So, if an actor from Seattle comes up to Vancouver & nails the audition, we can't hire them. If we go union.
Or, we could just say, "&&^$ it! We're doing our own thing!"
Which is much more our style anyway. We won't be shooting ridiculously long days. Jen has 3 kids, ages 8, 4 and 1 so there's no 12-15 hour days happening on our shoot - she hardly gets any sleep as it is! Plus, we're not A-holes. We treat people really well, feed them great food and are doing this movie for fun so, hopefully everyone will enjoy working on the set and not complaining that we're dickheads for not going union.
The only down side is that great, experienced, union actors want to audition and they can't if we don't sign.
Ugh. Big decision folks.
So, what else is happening?
Oh yeah - all these resumes & headshots are pouring in. It's absolutely amazing to see how many incredibly talented people want to work with us. There are a tonne of musically inclined actors applying because of the garage band theme, and I have to admit - I'm kind of intimidated by their resumes. But maybe they won't be nearly as cool in person? Some are sending in You Tube video clips, which are really great. Most of the time. Some are random - of course. It wouldn't be an open casting call without some randoms right?
We've been shooting funny videos on Jen's Nikon D90 all night to test it out & see if we can use it to shoot auditions this weekend. It only runs for 20 minutes at a time, but so far it's holding up really well. The auditions are planned for 8 minutes each, with a 2 minute break between each actor for Jen & our amazing Casting Director to take notes, discuss quickly and reset the camera.
Jen's kids are super-hyper about being on camera, which we mistakenly did right before bed-time, so I type while Jen & her hubby try to get the kids wound down & ready for bed. They love their routines and tonight was definitely not a normal night in the living room.
Seriously, how are we going to shoot a movie without dirsupting their family routines too much? The kids are in bed by 7pm.
The joys of casting, auditions & working with a busy family.
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