How I spent two months preparing for Hell Week
Up to this point, you probably know about the project, how it came to be, and how we wrote it with our 5-day-schedule in mind. But we still had two months between conception and shooting, so how did we utilise those two months to prepare ourselves?
A lot goes on in pre-production- permit gathering, wardrobe gathering, prop gathering, budgeting... gathering, etc, etc. But I wanna focus on the directing. Why?
Because I directed this. That's pretty much the reason. I did a little producing, as you do when you're trying to make your own projects, but mainly I focused on writing and directing, so I know exactly what I did and why.
Even with just directing in mind, a lot goes on during pre-production. But I wanna further focus on camera and acting. Those were the two elements most impacted by our tight schedule. So how would we capture everything in the time given?
First, let's do a rough break down of the script: 40 scenes, 5 days to shoot, 10 hours of shooting time per day... That leaves about an hour, hour and a quarter per scene.
And I know doing it "per scene" isn't quite industry standard, but as you saw in previous posts, we wrote in "tension time" and places where we very obviously weren't following the "1 page = 1 minute" rule. Also, because of the improvising, using scenes was an easier way to organise our days.
So I gave myself an hour for each scene. That included setup, rehearsal, blocking, shooting. Not ideal, but not too bad given we had only two EX3 cameras, a small crew, and one actor. Plus, it gave us some leeway if we needed extra time.
In order to hit my "1 hour" target, I gave myself one simple rule: I was allowed 3 camera setups per scene (combined with two cameras, that gave me a potential 6 setups). But because of the time it would take for each setup, I did my best to never use all 6!
Ok, great, I had a rule to help me keep on schedule. But that didn't help me creatively. Which brings me to how the hell did I "story tell" with just outdated cameras and tripods?
During production, we only had tripods. We only had EX3 cameras. And we only had 5 days to shoot. That ruled out a lot of creativity- no tracking, dollying, following. No big camera moves or transitions. I was able to pan, tilt, and stay still within the height limits of the tripods. That was it.
And I couldn't use any of that as an excuse for what you'll eventually watch. I had to make panning, tilting, and static...ing work. It had to become a style choice, a storytelling choice.
So I broke down the script. I created rules that we could follow in a jiffy on set should we get into a tight spot. Rules to help tell the story without compromising anything.
Firstly, there were two major components to the story- Austin and his bear and Austin and Luke. Another way to look at it- Austin and his past (the bear) and Austin and the future (Luke). Interesting...
CREATIVE RULE #1: When Austin is thinking about the past, he's looking frame left. When thinking about the future, looking frame right.
That's an extremely subtle thing, but it at least gave the film a bit of clarity. And while we couldn't fit that rule in 100% of the time, it did help to ground some of the scenes.
Good, so I had a framing rule I could follow on set. What other elements were in the script? Well, Austin eventually loses his mind, as in any decent survival film. How would I show that? By switching to handheld.
CREATIVE RULE #2: When Austin breaks, switch to handheld. One thing we had to keep consistent with this was our camera moves. Obviously, handheld opens up a lot more potential movement possibilities. But up until that point, we had only ever used pans/tilts/statics. So even handheld, we maintained only pans/tilts/statics.
Alright, it's coming along. We have a way to frame, we have a camera change, but what else can we add? What about...
CREATIVE RULE #3: Get progressively closer to Austin when he talks to Luke. A simple one that was unfortunately difficult to get right: every progressive scene with Luke, the camera would get a little bit closer to Austin, getting a little bit more in his space.
So those were my Big 3 rules to tell this story. And they helped a lot. Even though I storyboarded the film, it changed a lot on set. And sticking to these at least meant I could keep a coherent style throughout.
What about shooting around the improv?
That was fun... We specifically planned "Johnny-just-talk" improv scenes to speed up both the shooting process and writing process. That means there are certain scenes where Johnny and I decided to set up the cameras and let him just talk.
A quick aside: if you're planning on using improv, always make sure to set parameters. Johnny always had a task in his improv scenes. And after each take, if he said something interesting, I'd make sure he went down that road again.
Oh... you did multiple takes of improv? You bet. How did you cut it together?
MASTER IMPROV RULE: Get cutaways without his face. Every scene, Austin is doing something with the either the bear or himself. Which means, we have perfect cutaways- what is he doing with his hands, what is the bear doing, what is he looking at? And that's how we shot 4 to 5 to 6 completely different takes and seamlessly stitched them together (well, seamless for us at least... we'll see just how seamless it was when the film is released!).
What about shooting with Luke?
Luke, played by Jonah Paull, is the child in the film who's role is completely off screen- he's a voice in the radio. A logistical decision from our part.
We didn't record his V.O. (voiceover) until a few months after wrap. And I gave Johnny freedom to go slightly off script for Luke scenes if he wished.
So how'd we film that?
Well, by sticking to the rules above. I said Luke's lines, Johnny responded, and if I had to alter any lines, I would alter them. I ended up rewriting the script before doing V.O. with Jonah.
Ok, now that we know all the camera rules for when we go to set. How did I get Johnny ready in preproduction?
We did a couple improv sessions and he helped me write the story. That's really it. We would discuss script notes, breaking down his character in the process, and we did one or two sessions of pure improv- him as Austin, myself as another character: Luke, an interviewer, his dead brother or father or mother; I was just talking to him as another character.
And those worked. It also worked that Johnny got immersed in Austin's character in his daily life. So much so, we gave him one of our prop bears so he could talk to it as Austin would.
And that prep shows.
Anyways, that's how I prepared myself to film The One Survivor Of Conifer. And next time, I'll talk about production struggles! Or more pre-production. I'm not quite sure yet.
