Shooting a short film - Director's blog Part 2 

Source:

TV2 Movies asked director Christopher Banks to keep a blog of a shoot of his new short film, Teddy as they shot over one (unexpectedly wet) weekend in November to capture the trials, tribulations and ultimately jubilation of a shoot after months of planning, hiring and casting.

Don't forget TVNZ6 has all the best short films - click here for details! And you can watch the short films for free here!

About Christopher Banks: A film-maker and journalist for print, television and the web, Christopher Banks also scored a string of hits as a songwriter and record producer for various New Zealand pop outfits in the late 1990s, including Deep Obsession. He wrote, produced and directed his first feature Quiet Night In, which was released in 2005.  Teddy is his second film project.
About Teddy: " Teddy " is a short film about Tony, who travels from his home in London in the hopes of rekindling an old relationship with his ex Neil, who left him behind several years ago to live in New Zealand.

Monday November 24, 2008
SHOOT DAY 2

9am
The studio scene.  Everyone straggles in, looking none the worse for wear after yesterday's early start.  The weather outside is dreadful.  There are dark rumblings about the train station scenes that have to be shot later in the day.

11:30am
Transport arrangements.  The producer starts drawing Xs on a bit of paper to make sure we've got enough cars. 

12:45pm (ish)
Everyone is here, standing on the platform at Helensville station.  The sky is still overcast, but the rain has evaporated.  We decide to shoot a quick scene before lunch at the station café, who have opened especially for us.

1:30pm
The Ginger Crunch café have put on a really good lunch for us ( hence the gratuitous plug.)  It's a step up from the meat pies of yesterday, I am told.

2:30pm
With everyone relaxed and fed, and the weather still behaving itself, we move straight into shooting the closing scenes of the film.  We're ahead of time as we cross the railway tracks in our special orange vests (we needed permission from the authorities for this, kids) to get a shot. 

4:30pm
Cloudburst.  And we are just about to go and shoot a major dialogue scene in an open carpark.  The wind is blowing in huge gusts, potentially ruining our sound.  But that isn't our biggest problem - our main camera has died.

Our behind the scenes camera crew shoot an interview with the cast on the platform, blissfully unaware that the director of photography is sitting on a bench behind them with a camera on his lap and a screwdriver (and possibly the future of our film) in his hand. 

The bloody thing is jammed.  There's a tape in there - thankfully not one with footage on it.  This afternoon's work had been ejected and safely stored away, but when a new tape was inserted, it seized up.

There's no time to go back into town for a replacement - there's a train coming in at 7pm which we have to be ready to capture for our film's opening scenes.  The other camera we have on set is a much smaller model which can't take the good lenses we've been using on the big camera, and there would be a noticeable difference in image quality.  For the first time, I'm actually starting to panic.
 
4:45pm
After another 20-odd minutes of beavering away with the screwdriver, the tape comes loose - completely chewed up, but loose.  It is discarded and a new one put in.  The breakdown has cost us valuable time and the rain and wind have not let up.  We have no choice.  We head straight out into it to start setting up for our scene.

5:00pm
It's a long scene.  The actors are required to walk (or run, in this weather) from the station, which is in the background, to the car, deliver dialogue while they load the car up with luggage and then drive off - all in one take.  Capturing sound is incredibly difficult.  The camera is on a jib, like a small crane, which needs to be operated by two people, one of whom is holding an umbrella over the camera. 

There are so many things that can go wrong with a take, and we manage to strike each one in succession.  Microphone coming into shot.  Camera move too wobbly.  Fluffed or forgotten lines.  And the most frustrating, right at the end of a very good take - stupid, annoying people gawping at the film crew like stunned gazelles from their 4x4 as the camera pans to follow the Mini out of the carpark! 

The producer comes down and says we're running out of time.  We can only do one more take.  We do one more take.  I can only cross fingers that it's ok as we move back up to the platform to prepare ourselves for the final leg - absolutely soaked to the skin.

6:00pm
We have an hour till the train arrives.  When it does, it will sit in the station for between ten and fifteen minutes.  During that time, we have to get two shots for the opening of the film involving dolly moves which have to be rehearsed.  Both involve traveling shots where the camera keeps in front of the actor while he walks.  In addition, we have to get a third shot of the train entering the station. 

The logistics are soon worked out and we're up to speed.  Everyone is nervous - the pressure will be on once that train arrives, and fifteen minutes, possibly as little as ten, isn't a lot of time to get things right.

The station master then tells us that sometimes the train comes in late, at 7:10pm.  But it has to keep to its departure schedule firmly, which is 7:15pm.  So we may only have five minutes to get our shots.

7:00pm
Waiting.  The camera is set up, ready to capture the train as it enters the station.  The train only comes into this station twice a day so if we miss this, it means another day of shooting - not an option on our limited budget.

The second camera crew have taken a break from behind the scenes filming to get a shot of the train coming in from another angle, for safety's sake.  They're stuck out in the rain with umbrellas.

Finally, we see a light - it's coming.  The train rolls in and we have our first shot.  Everyone snaps into place for the next, our main character walking along the platform with his suitcase having just disembarked from the train. 

Luckily, we're able to get going almost immediately as the platform clears of passengers quite quickly.  We run for a first take, and have to cut because of a camera wobble.  We set up again for another.  The producer tells me that the train people are willing to wait for an extra few minutes to give us more time.  Another two takes and we've got our first shot.

We flip round for the second, and rush through two more takes.  The actors' performances are completely consistent, so we're able to concentrate totally on making sure we get everything as technically perfect as possible.  A shout goes up that the train is about to depart.  We've got one more chance to get this&we pull it out of the bag and get a satisfactory shot.

The train leaves and everyone breathes a sigh of relief.  There's one more shot to get, I say.  "Of us drinking beer?" asks the director of photography.  Actually no, I say, we do have one more shot.  Thankfully it's a very simple one, and we head off for that beer soon after.

There's a great relaxed feeling all round, a sense of accomplishment.  It has been a tough couple of days.  We've shot just over two hours of footage for a ten-minute film.  Now we just have to hope that everything is there - I'll be starting to edit later this week.  But for now, we're done.

For more information on "Teddy" go to the official Teddy website!