Principal Photography-Take 4-And in Conclusion

We finished shooting around 5:30PM. I let the crew go around 5 o’clock and shot the last bit of footage with Andrea myself. I didn’t actually get home until about 9PM so that made it a FIFTEEN-hour workday for me. Imagine if we had more than a one-day shoot?

I’m going to digress here for a moment. Fifteen plus hour days on a film shoot are typical because it is hard work. That’s why no matter how crappy I think a film is I still have props for the filmmakers because whatever the result, it took a lot of work, time and effort to produce it.

Back to the production, how do I remember such details? Ever since I was a child I had the uncanny ability for total recall. I can remember everything I experience to the last detail. Well not really, but that sounded good right? :p The answer is cell phone! They can record your whole life can’t they? I just checked the times I made the phone calls that day and approximated the times. I’m not a magician so I can reveal my secrets. LOL.

I have to give props again to my uncle and aunt for letting our little production take over their home…and their street. We had to stop traffic momentarily while we were filming our scenes in front of their house. Don’t worry, after we shot each take, we let the cars go through. Each individual take wasn’t that long and the neighbors were very courteous. We shot in front of their house, in their house and in back of their house (deck, backyard). We even stopped my uncle from entering his own house while we were filming in his kitchen. Thanks again Uncle Rommie and Aunt Gwen and thank you for being so gracious.

Previous “Takes” on Principal Photography

Principal Photography-Take 1-The Definition

Principal Photography-Take 2-You Can’t Mess With My Crew

Principal Photography-Take 3-You Still Can’t Mess With My Crew

Principal Photography-Take 3-You Still Can’t Mess With My Crew

I have to say what an AWESOME job the whole crew did. I received so many great compliments about how well we worked together. I’m also so proud to have had an all African American cast an astounding SIXTEEN actors as well as a mostly African American crew. Our goal at ‘Nother Brother Entertainment is not only to further propagate diverse images through development of films, but to also give work to African Americans behind the scenes also.

I have to give props to my man Jack who absolutely kept our production on track. I truly could not have done it without him.

Props to the Director of Photography Laylla. She has a great eye for detail and made sure all of shots had great composition.

Props to my man Preech. He made sure all of the sound equipment was working and most importantly sounded great.

I can’t forget our P.A.’s (Production Assistants) Yvette, Patricia, Steven and Wanda. They all worked tirelessly and were equally significant to our production.

I can’t thank my crew enough for the tremendous job they did! They were FANTASTIC!!!

Previous “Takes” on Principal Photography

Principal Photography-Take 1-The Definition
Principal Photography-Take 2-You Can’t Mess With My Crew

Principal Photography-Take 2-You Can’t Mess With My Crew

On August 30, 2008 we had our principal photography.

My day started around 6am. I had to pick up breakfast for my crew and my producer Amy. Here is my crew and basically what they were responsible for:

Producer
Amy Frost
My second set of eyes and ears. She was with me through every step of the production and helped me audition all of the actors. During principal photography she also was on set to help with everything as well as the administrative part of the shoot. She had to make sure EVERYONE signed a release form. Anyone who appeared on camera had to sign a release giving us permission to put him or her in the film.

Director of Photography
Laylla Strand
The DP (Director of Photography) (or Cinematographer) is responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image. On a large production (not this one) the rest of the camera department is subordinate to the DP, who, along with the director, has the final word on all decisions related to both lighting and framing.

In other words, she framed all of the shots and made sure everything in the frame of the camera looked right. She was also responsible for where we put the camera to get the best shot of not only the actors, but also what is in the background of the scene. Even when I was behind the camera she was behind the monitor to let me know if everything looked right.

Assistant Director
Jack Sherman
An assistant director (AD) is a person who helps the director in the making of a movie or television show. Jack's duties as an AD was, tracking our daily progress, arranging logistics, maintaining order on the set among other things as well as shooting some footage with our second camera.

Key Grip/Boom Operator
Torrance "Preech" Hopson
As Key Grip Preech helped with pretty much any technical aspect including help setting up the lights as well as the monitor. The principal responsibility of the boom operator is microphone placement, sometimes using a "fishpole" with a microphone attached to the end and sometimes, when the situation permits, using a "boom" (often a "fisher boom") which is a special piece of equipment that the operator stands on and that allows precise control of the microphone at a much greater distance away from the actors. He or she will also place wireless microphones on actors when it is necessary.

We didn't place wireless mics on any actor's but the kitchen scene was so small we just need to place them on the set and out of sight of the camera. The boom operator must decide where to place the boom microphone based on a combination of factors, including the location and projection of any dialogue, the frame position of the camera, and any unwanted noise sources.

Production Assistants
Yvette Moore
Patricia Cooper
Steven Cooper
Wanda Campbell
A Production Assistant, also known as a PA, is an entry-level job title used in filmmaking and television for a person responsible for various aspects of a production. The job of a PA can vary greatly depending on the budget and specific requirements of a production as well as whether or not the production is unionized.(Which our was not.)

PAs work on the physical set of the production, whether on location or on a sound stage. They report to the Assistant Director (AD) department and key set PA if one is so designated. Duties include pretty much ANY tasks as mandated by the AD.

On our film the PAs did everything from operate the slate (pictured at the top of this entry), stop traffic while we were shooting a scene on the street, taking pictures as well as moving stuff out of the shot. PAs usually work 12- to 16-hour days and are regularly the "first to arrive and the last to leave".


So that's technical whos and whats NEXT will be the props. Not set props, but MY props 2 my crew.

Previous “Takes” on Principal Photography
Principal Photography-Take 1-The Definition

Principal Photography-Take 1-The Definition

Let’s start with exactly what the heck “principal photography” is.

Principal photography is the phase of film production in which the movie is actually shot. It’s called “principal” not only because it is the most imortant element, it’s when the majority of the film is shot. Lots of times after most of the film is shot, during or even after editing, the film may need additional scenes to further convey the story. Some times “test audiences” don’t like the ending of the film and they go back and reshoot the ending. That will NOT be happening on The Part.

Even though we may shoot additional material, there won’t be any test audiences. Whatever I think is the best representation of the film is will be final. I plan on enjoying my “final word” while I can. All filmmakers hope to be successful, but with that success comes many other elements. You no longer have that total control of your films and have to answer to studios, producers and such. So until that time this film is not to be altered or undone!

Next Time: Meet the crew!

You can read about Pre-Production in the below entries:
Pre-Production-Scene 1
Pre-Production-Scene 2: Proverbs 10:7
Pre-Production-Scene 3: Leap of Faith: The Andrea Ross Story
Pre-Production-Scene 4: Pernicious Precipitation, The Final Scene

Pre-Production-Scene 4: Pernicious Precipitation, The Final Scene

This is not about the final scene of the movie, but it is the final “scene” of my Pre-Production blog entries. That “Pernicious Precipitation” is what this entry is about.

It hadn’t rained in Baltimore in about six weeks, but lo and behold August 29th, the day before principal photography, it poured down. This was the first time I ever checked the weather online that frequently. My Aunt Gwen, whose home we were shooting at, called me around the 27th because of the rain forecast to ask me if we were still going ahead. I said “yes”. I had actor’s coming from out of town and I was determined to shoot on August 30th. Was I going to try and film a cookout scene in the rain? Of course not, but I was going to film. Rain or shine we WERE going to film the kitchen scene! Three of my four main cast were in that scene and we were going to film it.

I kept checking the weather because if it didn’t stop raining I was going to tell the rest of the cast NOT to come. August 29th was a Friday. It rained Friday morning, it rained Friday afternoon. Even when I got off of work and had to pick up the equipment, it was still raining. As soon as I got home I went online to check on the weather. The forecast called for partly sunny until about 4pm. That would give us enough time to shoot everything. When I called my Aunt that rainy Friday night to make final arrangements she asked me again if we were going to shoot and again I said “yes”. Just like situation I spoke of in Leap of Faith: The Andrea Ross Story I had to pray and have faith that things would be ok.

Saturday, August 30th the sky was cloudy, by the time we commenced shooting it was not partly, but completely sunny. God is good (all the time). The sun stayed out the whole shoot and about a hour after we finished shooting a thunderstorm poured down. Again, a true a testament to God and his power.

So that’s it. Everything (well mostly everything) I had to go through to get to principal photography. If you have more questions you can always email me at Dankwa@NotherBrother.com.

Is that all I have to say about our production? Of course not. I have to talk about my wonderful crew.


Previous “scenes” of Pre-Production:
Pre-Production-Scene 1
Pre-Production-Scene 2: Proverbs 10:7
Pre-Production-Scene 3: Leap of Faith: The Andrea Ross Story

Director’s Cut-Edit 4:In the Still of the Byte

Forgive the bad pun, but it came to me in a dream, well more like when I woke up. Does that count as a “vision”? Let me explain myself. What I’m bringing you in this post is photo “stills” from The Part via computer in the form of (mega) “bytes”. See it all makes sense. :/ They say if you have to explain a joke (or pun as it were) then it’s not funny. :( That very well may be true, but I had to explain the method to my madness anyway.

I woke up thinking about this blog entry because I was supposed to post these stills last night, but was too tired. After watching a late overtime Monday night football game (Baltimore Ravens, they lost), I had to go to work the next morning and then edited again last night after work. After all that, I just went to bed. I wanted to post the stills because I’m just as excited to show them as I am for the cast to see them. These are actual stills from our film (as opposed to photos from the actual shoot).

Monday and Tuesday Gino and I worked on the “kitchen scene” pictured in the stills. The last scene is from the “reveal scene” I spoke about here. I’ll try to post more stills in the future. Enjoy :)

Previous editing blog entries:
Director's Cut
Director’s Cut-Edit 2
Director's Cut-Edit 3:Meet the EIC