We Made a Movie: Part 2 Preproduction Purgatory

If war is hell then preproduction is... nothing like hell. Come on, do you really think I'm going to compare what I do to going to war? How self-aggrandizing do you think I am (hint: a little bit, not a lot)?

So we were pretty sure we had Rich. That changed the entire movie. We couldn't be no-budget now; we had to fly him in, put him up somewhere. We had to be SAG, which meant that union actors could participate, which meant we had to leave money in the budget to be able to pay a couple more people minimum rates if they were cast. We needed the best cinematographer, which meant Michael, which meant money. We needed impeccable sound which meant that our trusty rode mic on a pole wasn't going to work. I didn't need to try and attempt makeup, which meant... you see where this is going. There was a lot of money gathering, figuring out what to give investors, rearranging finances, etc.

Gentle readers, I don't like producing. I WILL produce to get a project that I care about done and because Glenn does too much as is, but I don't like it. I will say, though, that producing a feature in a very limited time frame in the middle of the winter holiday mashup is a fool's errand and I hope never to do it again.

The other thing that we quickly realized was that we were deeply (deeply) mistaken about a car movie being easy to make. Yes, the car itself was the anchor of each scene, but it still had to BE at locations. Lots of locations. Specific locations. Shit. More calling, more arguing ("I think this should be a cemetery." "I don't want a cemetery." "It will be better visually." "Go crap in a hat.")

We needed props. Some of them were tricky, some weren't, but all needed to be found and gathered. More calls.

We needed wardrobe for (we hoped) Rich.

We needed the rest of our cast. Do we include the Roger character in the cast breakdown just in case this doesn't work out? No? Are you sure, Glenn? OK, I trust you. Did we want to try for another name for the Jess character? No? Are you sure, Casey? I'm gonna try anyway.

The more film-savvy among you are probably saying "It's called a location scout, wardrobe manager, etc." to which I say you are welcome to bankroll our next movie so that we can pay such people.

I mentioned that this all happened in between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I am deeply grateful that my Mom and family are both very cool and very, very supportive of my film pursuits. I think a lesser Mom would have been pretty peeved that her kid's cell phone was glued to her hand through all family gatherings as she fired off pictures, questions and follow ups to her production partner. I realized that I was the biggest heel on the planet when I felt a moment of relief that Christmas with my in-laws would have to be postponed, giving me an extra workday (I love you, Pernells! Sorry I'm fundamentally selfish).

Mainly preproduction involves calling a lot of people and asking for things. It can start to feel like begging. I don't even like asking for favors. I broke out into a sweat every time I had to approach someone about using their house, seeing if they could build us a safe version of a cross-bar tire iron, etc. And Glenn was doing everything that I was doing but add in buying/renting gear and drawing storyboards.

This is a very complaining post, so let me be clear: I love what I do and I'm grateful that unpleasantness gives the the opportunity to do so occasionally. And lest I make this a completely negative note, I will say this: I'm sure that I have a price, but this production taught me that it must be pretty high. If nothing else, I got good at saying no. To money, specifically. If it came attached to deals or people that I didn't feel comfortable with I didn't take it. And I'm beyond grateful to have a partner that understands and even leads the charge on that when need be.

But the main thing that I dislike about producing is having to think like a producer. Particularly when it comes to casting. More on that later.