Coffin Fit

[klward]

Good grief, we actually did it!

Me and some friends, namely jblum , shellshear and Andrew O. have been wanting to get together and make a short film for a while now. Between us, we have experience in all the basic crew roles and have all the necessary equipment, plus that essential sympathy of purpose.  Which is to say, when I throw up a script involving a vampire with a mobile phone, everyone else says, "yeah, that's cool. Let's make that."

Working really quite reasonable hours over the past two weekends, we did. At least, we've shot the thing. And there aren't going to be any pick-ups because today, all three coffins went back to the places we hired them, together with the plinth. That's what it was on the invoice and I'm not arguing. In a way it's a shame, because they really did dress up the garage, but having spent the better part of three days in one, I've lost all desire to do so ever again. Oh yeah, guess who was playing the vampire.

I'd like to say this was guerilla film-making at its best; raw, improvised and uncompromising. But the whole process was actually quite civilised. Very calm. Fully catered. We had permission to be in the cemetery. And if I developed bronchitis and the Director put his back out, this had nothing to do with the shoot itself. Fact is, we've all done the guerilla, or at least the appallingly organised student film-making thing and we know better now.  That's where experience gets you. It struck me more than once that this was the kind of film I should have attempted at uni rather than the 45 minute post-apocalyptic epic that I occasionally remember when running a temperature at 3 o'clock in the morning. This one will run 7 minutes, as a hint of what we're aiming for. Three main roles, three interiors including the goth club and one exterior. Nice.

It was delightful working with all you. Especially lovely to have two such fine actors to bounce off as jack_ryder  and "Carmilla". I can only hope "the others" were gentle with you. Robert, I can't thank you enough for making the trip and bringing your own latex. Julian, I don't know how we're going to handle your credit but you were indispensible. Jae, I'm really sorry about the three hour drive and hope you appreciate you were indispensible too.

Of course, bringing off this project has extended and deepened our experience, in ways we cannot fully appreciate right now. But, to take a stab:

* Coffins are much more comfortable when you have a hot water bottle.

* A redundancy of three Directors is just about right.

* Coughing in a corset really hurts.

* Our garage does have mobile reception.

* Minivacs for coffin maintenance, oh yes.

* Eucalyptus is a hardwood. Balsa is a softwood. Next time, remind me to make the stake out of balsa and the cross out of - well, to buy one, actually.

* Anywhere can be a goth club: it's all a matter of attitude. And black drapery. Lots of black drapery.

* And, to confirm something I noticed during my live action roleplaying days, people can ignore anything if that means they don't have to deal with it. Our neighbours think we're rabid anyway.

It's done. Now we can all go lie in a feverish sheep!

Comments

[jack-ryder.livejournal.com]

thanks for the kind words, but it's jack_ryder not jryder.

It was a great experience and I can't wait to see the final result.