Risks
- Still waiting for proof of insurance. We are required to demonstrate £10m of liability insurance in order to film on location.
- Most locations are subject to permits and insurance.
- One private location has not yet responded to my request, I am working on contingencies just in case
Notes
- Pre-production planning goes apace, and permit requests have been submitted – however, approval is on hold until insurance documentation can be provided. I first asked Raindance to provide this in November 2017, and have chased periodically since then.
- I have found Trello with TeamGantt to be a viable project planning tool and have used this to lay out the basics of my shooting schedule.
- The script rewrites are ongoing, I am close to a finished script at which stage I can start planning the shots
- My lead actors have accepted and are currently learning v 1.05 of the script whilst on holiday in Madeira at a family birthday
Reflections
I am sure I must be doing something wrong … people (other students at Raindance) keep telling me my plans are ambitious and that my shoot is complicated. At the same time, I look at the plan and the shoot and figure I could probably do the whole thing in an afternoon, but I’ve scheduled two whole days to do the shoot along with a bunch of contingency. Where I think an outdoor shoot will take 5 to 10 minutes I have allowed 2 hours. The one thing I have absolutely no control over, however, is the weather. We need a sunny day for the outdoor scenes. If the heavens open then we fall back to plan B and we may have to shoot some of the transit scenes either another day (I have actors booked for 12th and 13th Feb, they are also available on the 14th if necessary) – so lets just hope we don’t get downfall of biblical proportions, if it rains at all 🙂
What would people think/say if I told them that for one of the scenes I have an idea to shoot in front of a green screen – now this I do think is ambitious, and may not (probably won’t) work – however I am factoring this in as my contingency and not as a must have for the story/film. If I don’t do at least one thing a day that challenges and scares me then I am not pushing myself and I start to become complacent.
Worst case, the whole thing can be shot in my local pub’s beer garden (weather permitting), it won’t be quite as “swanky” as I would like, but I have that “rewrite” in the back of my mind if the permits either don’t come through or the cost of the permits is prohibitive.
Thankfully I have been able to secure a small amount of sponsorship/funding for this exercise, should it be necessary, however, I am keeping the powder dry on this option and holding the offer(s) in reserve for future projects.
Most of my cast has been secured, although I may need a few younger actresses for the disco scene, I can film that with whatever talent turns up on the day (night). Lighting day for night is something I haven’t done for a while, it shouldn’t be too difficult though – mental note, I need to try and book out the lights from Raindance … there has however been some debate about whether or not the Raindance kit is available for students to use off-site. (At least three HND students have so far said that the kit can’t be used). If this is the case, I can see a quick trip to a rental outlet or a last minute Amazon Prime purchase to supplement the LED lights I have currently.
My budgets are on the high side, but that’s usually how I operate. If I put in a stupidly low figure and it is accepted then delivering is impossible. I find it always much better to under promise and over deliver, as with budgets, always leave a surplus for next time when you can.
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