Thursday, July 17, 2008

On a Shoot!

I apologize for not having many updates lately. You see - I'm now working on the image campaign that will air during the Olympics.

Five days of shooting -- with a lighting director, talent, extras, makeup artists, several locations - its always fun and maddening!

There are so many balls in the air - its difficult to keep up with it. We've been setting it all up for about a week and the puzzle was difficult to put together. Some locations that seemed confirmed dropped out... our studio was booked with another project forcing us to reschedule the anchors... it just isn't easy to do this type of project.

I am writing this now around 6am, as crew call is 7am. As hard as this can be - I love doing these kinds of projects. There is a lot of pressure on these spots - but we have a great crew and we started our week the smart way - inside the station. Instead of being on location - we began at WESH, which gave us a chance to get to know each other and see how things will go.

Luckily, I actually followed my own advice - a lesson I learned years ago. Always budget more time for setup than you'd expect. For some reason, especially on the first day, the getting to know you/figuring out what we're doing part always takes awhile. We were on schedule the entire day - which was a good way to start.

My other rule of "big production" -- feed the crew. We had some donuts in the morning and a favorite pizza place for lunch. Even with a small budget - you should always feed your crew.

Today - its Chic fi la Chicken Minis for breakfast and lunch at the restaurant we're shooting at today.

Mmmmm.... food.

I'll keep you guys updated on the shoot. I love it... but can't WAIT for the weekend. :)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Excellent judgment. Having produced/directed many, many shoots over the years, can't express enough how important the food part is. A good crew will move mountains for you...as long as they've eaten and feel taken care of.

Conversely, I've also worked for someone who was essentially an anorexic and therefore didn't see the need for a break for food...or why that break couldn't wait 'til 6 or 7 hours into an 8 hour shoot. As you can imagine, those shoots didn't not go so smoothly.

Good luck on the rest of your shoot!

Anonymous said...

Who holds down the fort for you guys when you're gone for a week on a big shoot? Are all your Writer/Producers out with you or does someone hang behind to handle daily stuff?

IDOPROMOZ said...

Our CSD doesn't come out on most of the shoots... and our night promo producer is still there - although he will be coming out for one day.

Myself and our senior producer are on the shoot - along with a lighting director we hired.