We wrapped on Principal Photography today for “The Artist.” I think it’s going to cut well.
This is the first film I’ve directed that I’m not editing. It’s sort of weird giving up that control… I’ll still be monitoring Jennifer, our editor, but she is the editor. Yikes!
This is also the first film I’ve directed where I had an actual camera operator and a DP. I definitely need a camera operator. A DP, not necessarily. I usually have a definite visual look I want for every shot.
Extras! What a pain in the ass. I definitely need a PA or AD or something to wrangle extras. Just figuring out who you are going to use for which shots, who would create a continuity error, etc, is very taxing.
I came up with a system that I will definitely use next time:
- all the extras must show up at the beginning, at the same time
- only extras who have signed a release may enter the set
- You leave, you can’t come back!
- on arrival, every extra is given a ticket with a number.
- The lower the number, the more desireable the extra’s presence in a shot is (better looking, better fits the setting).
- More appropriate extras will be in more prominent positions in shots
- that means that latecomers get lower priority…
- the shot list has these numbers on it, decided in preproduction.
- So when a shot comes up, the AD just reads the numbers of the extras that will be in the shot. Like “Shot 6.2, extras 12, 18, 47, and 54 please get on set.”