“It’s got it’s ups and downs but at the end of the day we’re here because we love film.”

Well well, it’s been a week or so now since the fifth and last shoot of Ante, somewhat of a lonely shoot compared to the large crew and high pressure of the hotel ones.
Find myself been slightly more relaxed since I know that the shooting is all over along with my role as AD, all over to Cron now for the editing stage, which I know he loves! haha… ok maybe not but I have to admit that im slightly envious of the footage he has got in his project from it all, no doubt that it’ll make a good film… it better anyways or… well, im sure it will be lol.
All in all it was a good shoot, I do give a mathematic equation in the behind the scenes documentary (it got cut out) that sums the shoot up as “most good”. However I did arrive at this answer after the last of my brain cells had died due to lack of sleep and stress. So i’ll commit my memory back to the shoot just for you guys….

Once again the good old rat pack got together Eugeen Maguee, Phil Meacham, James Rice, Sam Cronin, Myself and Chris to shoot Ante, just like we did on Dirge… what is it with Chris and night shooting… can’t he shoot at a reasonable time in the day… ah well cant argue with the results and for anything less than film i wouldn’t do it!!!
My role on this was Assistant Director, and in other words, “that ba%*@#& with the clipboard, who’s always on the crews back. As AD on this I was constantly cracking the whip, not only because we (as with any low/no budget film) were working off a lot of favors and had time restraints, but because of the fact that i’d been in the pre-prod of this from near the beginning of if and I could see the amazing potential that this film has. The hotel gave us the location free for the three nights that we shot, then even for the forth night reshoot, so we had more than a lot to do in such a short time so the pressure was on all round.

First night was terrible, oh dear me, yes it was. Some of the most complicated shots like the jibs and the jib-tracks seemed to slow down the production speed a lot, for some reason the shoot just didn’t move as fast as i’d have liked. Maybe it was because of everyone still “geling” or maybe once again shaking off the cobwebs and getting into the swing of things, but probably due to the quality of the new 7D cameras we were using, and this type of quality showing every little spec possible, this aint always a bad thing though. Eugene’s sensual noises from behind the cam before visiting the little boys room let us all know that the shots were at least looking good even if they weren’t getting done fast enough. I think everyone knew that the shoot wasn’t going well and im sure my constant “friendly” reminders of the time went down well.

However not without my own blame as I also took way too long on the jib shots. Half way through we managed to pick up a little and get some speed but it was too little too late. Breakfast was tense that morning I can tell you! (although technically it was more like supper on our schedule)… J.R chewing his sausages loudly while death glaring Phil due to a lighitng/Gel “Incident” and Eugene and myself slightly displeased with each other because of Time Vs Creativity. While Chris just sat on his own pondering.

We went to the second shoot prepared, color coded-time orientated-cross sectioned cam-position/equiptment, shot lists, divided into actor specific sections came into play and the crew went wild on location, the magic flowed again and the rat pack stormed through the second shoot like Vindaloo through an old lady’s digestive system! The actors picked up on the new positive vibe and produced some serious magic of their own, shots and takes that i can only describe as amazing! I was so proud haha! Everyone was insanely pleased. We once again had a film, the night ended too quick though, daylight came and sadly we had to call it :(

Breakfast was DAYM good that morning J.R ate with a smile on his face and Phil buzzed about how good the acting was! Eugene told us how much he loved the shots using “ooohhh” “mmmmmm” and “sexy” in most of the descriptions! I let people know that the shoot went great and showed people all of what we had accomplished while Cron just kinda sat there smiling.

Third and Final night of the main shoots was a hard one, lots to do and lots to get and not enough time to get it. The second shoot had gone really well but we still hadn’t pulled it back the first night. Now we had a film,the third shoot was the icing on the cake, the most of the most difficult and complicated shots were still to do, jibs, Jib-tracks, Straight tracks, Rotational tracks, Jib-rotation tracks, Counterzoom tracks and thats just the tip of the ice burg , this was a challenge not only for the crew to get these shots quickly but for the actors too. Now the shots were done in the order they were quickest and not chronologically, so the actors and make up were always on their toes! But being the professionals that they are (not wanting to brown nose but the seriously WERE that good), taking it all in their stride and not pulling any punches with another amazing day from the actors. Once again that pesky sun couldn’t stay down and decided to rear it ugly daylight head forcing us to stop with only a few shots left to do. Well no breakfast after the third shoot, everyone was going separate ways for the time being and sad to say the shoot was over. BUT im sure if there was breakfast it would have rocked! :D
Not sure if im allowed to talk about the last shoot we did? so ill keep quiet about that :D
Well now that its all over and i can look back, i feel like giving a “man of the shoot” out to someone, Phil came close due to all his extra help on the set between shoots and his constant flow of tea he pumped into me, but i have to give it to Sam Cronin, even though originally he was brought on as a runner, he managed to pull himself up to camera assistant, without him the production would have been a lot slower and harder, so well done Sam!

Well done to everyone. Seriously amazing team, amazing script, amazing actors and makeup and no doubt amazing film :)

KB