Making Movies

I have spent the last week in a different world. Reality as I knew it ceased to exist and another one took over.... one called Making Movies.

Turns out, making movies and watching movies are as different as centipedes and pudding. One is a passive, usually relaxing activity the other... well lets just say I don't remember the last time I was this tired.

Part of the school curriculum is to have every student write, produce and direct their own short movie. What they don't really tell you is that all of that happens in a very short amount of time. I was assigned to a team of four and all of us had eight days to collectively shoot all of our four short films.

That's a lot of shooting all at once... which would be fine if we had a long period of pre production and could really plan out what we were doing. But we didn't. It was all a little last minute.

Which is why I've only slept about 2 to 4 hours every night for the past eight days. The most epic day was, after only two hours of sleep, I woke up at 4 am and didn't get home again until 3 am the next morning. 23 hours of shooting. It was brutal.

But I've learned so much and I have some strong muscles now from hauling around all that equipment.

Things I've learned
- I can fit under the dashboard of a car with a camera while the seat is occupied by an actor
- lack of sleep makes people communicate like they're cavemen
- M&Ms are a lifesaver on set
- good food late while working 23 hours straight makes the world of difference
- always carry Dramamine while shooting a car scene on a windy road for two days straight
- when your car breaks down after a day of shooting, it could be the oil...
- finding extras can be a real problem... possibly the biggest problem of them all
- acting like you're dead isn't as easy as it sounds