Clark
Hello everyone, and welcome to the Soldiers of Cinema Podcast. I'm Clark Coffey and with me is Mr. Cullen McFater. Hello. I'm going to do this like, like a WWF announcer. I know who is get ready to the boxing, but that was boxing, right? That was I remember when I was a kid and I used to watch Mike Tyson boxing, that guy would come out and it was like, you just knew you were in for a two minute long fight.
00:00:34:20 - 00:00:43:03
Clark
Basically, you'd get super excited. I remember my dad and I would make like nachos and popcorn and get, you know, get everything together. And then Mike Tyson would knock whoever he was.
00:00:43:03 - 00:00:44:03
Cullen
Well, my my.
00:00:44:10 - 00:00:45:03
Clark
Like 90 was.
00:00:45:09 - 00:00:46:23
Cullen
The Canadian boxing champions.
00:00:46:23 - 00:01:09:03
Clark
So there you go. Oh, that's amazing. Yeah, that's right. Culinary champs. I'm telling you, it's just you've you've got these like, you've got these colorful, colorful, rich, textured life and family. It's amazing. So and good for that because you're actually going to be kind of the topic of this episode is episode 39 here. And and it's going to be a different type of that is episode four.
00:01:09:03 - 00:01:31:12
Clark
It's a little bit shorter, a little bit shorter, but and we may end up doing a series of these, but we have a really unique and interesting opportunity. So Cullen is currently in pre-production on a film that he's getting ready to shoot, and we thought that this would be a great opportunity to in almost real time here, discuss his process and experiences with this film.
00:01:31:12 - 00:01:52:04
Clark
So for anybody out there who's interested to kind of hear firsthand how films are made or somebody out there who is an aspiring filmmaker would like to maybe, you know, pick up some tips and tricks on how to how to get things done on a low budget. But why don't you kind of start things off, CULLEN by kind of setting the stage for what's the scope of your project?
00:01:52:04 - 00:02:08:02
Clark
Is it a short is it a feature? What genre are you looking at? Kind of give us a scope for what you're putting together and maybe tell us a little bit about the story. So we kind of have some, you know, at least a summary to kind of hold in our mind as far as, yeah, what you're getting ready to get on film and we'll go from there.
00:02:08:10 - 00:02:29:14
Cullen
Yeah. So the movie is called Daylight Again. It's a feature. It's my first feature and the basic plot is that there's this woman named Maggie and she's kind of like, you know, she's hit a dead end in life. She's in trouble with the police. Like she's kind of run out. All the relationships with her friends and her family is kind of disowned her.
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Cullen
And she's desperate for basically at this point, just even shelter. And she has no money and she winds up running into her old ex-boyfriend, Peter, who she basically used to run these, you know, circuits with. And he was kind of the one that got her into this life of crime. He's kind of put together now. He's like, gone straight and has, you know, a beautiful house and stuff like that.
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Cullen
And so she kind of figures, I'm going to take this, use this to my advantage and go up and live with him. He invites her up and but of course, not all is as it seems. And Peter's kind of intentions aren't really as altruistic as he was, just kind of, you know.
00:03:12:14 - 00:03:13:19
Clark
As opposed to.
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Cullen
As a or as a first seem. So that's kind of the basic plot.
00:03:18:03 - 00:03:18:14
Clark
Based.
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Cullen
Off of very, very loosely based off of a short film that a friend of mine and I did two years ago. So right at the beginning of 2019, I think it was called Hector. And that movie was again, pretty much no comparison to this movie now, but it was definitely the seed that kind of sprouted into this movie, to use a flowery metaphor.
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Clark
Oh, nice.
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Cullen
So, um, so yeah, definitely is, is, you know, scope wise, um, really small scale.
00:03:52:03 - 00:03:52:13
Clark
Uh huh.
00:03:52:13 - 00:03:54:13
Cullen
Um, primarily one location.
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Clark
Okay, so, so similar a little bit to Shallow Grave that we just.
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Cullen
Covered.
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Clark
Their last episode and give us an idea. So what, what roughly is the size of your cast and crew on this project?
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Cullen
So we've got two leads.
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Clark
Okay.
00:04:07:23 - 00:04:22:09
Cullen
They are kind of the main, of course, uh, main players. And then there are two secondary characters that have, you know, scenes that aren't huge. They're not major scenes, but they are kind of the two other characters that have some dialog.
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Clark
Okay, so some couple supporting actors supporting, Yeah.
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Cullen
And then there are, I'd say, six other actors that are really just only momentary actors that come in and just kind of say a few lines and things like that. So there's about nine, ten people total of nine or ten.
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Clark
And Crystal Cruises.
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Cullen
Crew size is about, I'd say eight. I think I've got eight.
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Clark
Okay, okay.
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Cullen
The exact number on width.
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Clark
So this'll be helpful for people to to maybe learn a little bit more about. So tell me, you know, with those eight people you've got a constrained budget. How many shoot days real quick are you looking at? 11. Okay. So that 811 shoot. So you got to shoot a lot in a really short amount of time. So tell me, what eight positions did you fill?
00:05:07:09 - 00:05:18:07
Clark
You've got you only have so many people. So what positions did you fill and share a little bit too, about where you you've kind of doubled or even tripled up because I'm so it's so my good friend.
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Cullen
My good friend Adam is kind of my right hand man.
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Clark
Okay.
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Cullen
He's basically the first A.D. first A.C, sort of like script supervisor in a way. So he's going to be, you know, running Slate, checking the short list to make sure everything's done. And he'll also be writing a, you know, keeping track of like, okay, take three is good. And so he's kind of doing he's he's really going to be my essentially my mate.
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Clark
And just to clarify, so you're directing, obviously. Yes. Yeah. But are you going to be operating?
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Cullen
Yeah, I'll be operating, yeah.
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Clark
So you'll be directing, operating and will you be basically acting as your own cinematographer then as well? Yeah. Okay. So the reason for.
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Cullen
That and this is something that I wouldn't recommend for a lot of people, but I am super familiar with, you know.
00:06:04:15 - 00:06:06:06
Clark
Yeah, you're very terribly work.
00:06:06:06 - 00:06:10:03
Cullen
As a cinematographer and I like that's kind of my professional where.
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Clark
I write.
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Cullen
The money that I make in film is primarily doing that. Yes. And what I realized during pre-production was that to make everything really efficient, to keep everything both low budget and again, to make sure that everything's kind of streamlined, that I wasn't going to use a director, I was going to kind of take the you know, PTA approach to it, which is make it sort of a group effort.
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Cullen
So I've got, you know, I think of things when I direct and even from the writing phase, I think of things super visually and like not only framing wise, but like I know from the moment that I write a page of a script.
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Clark
How that's how it to be shot out and how right is it. Did you wrote this or was.
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Cullen
Yes, so I did. Yeah. So it was so again, it came from this this short film and was originally much more similar to that short film. And I'm comfortable saying that because now if you go back to the short film and go, I know where this movie's going to go, you probably don't because it is so different. But I was very, very.
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Clark
Just inspired from Yeah, yeah.
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Cullen
It was written, you know, the plot of the short film was a guy goes up to his cousin's cottage or cousin's house for like a weekend to stay there and his cousin's gone for the night. I was there alone with his roommate, and then the roommate turns out to be a monster. That's the plot of the short film.
00:07:21:19 - 00:07:44:02
Cullen
Yeah, nothing related to that in this version. But the first draft was very related to that. It was very much just an expanded version of that. And I had written it with the guy that I did the short film with and two others. We were kind of the writing team. I was doing the screenwriting, but they were kind of the people that I would like bounce off of, and we would have writing meetings and kind of come up with, okay, maybe this should go that way.
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Cullen
And that was kind of primarily how the script got so altered from what it was to to what it is now.
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Clark
So you had input and feedback? Yeah, I had some people who worked with you on the writing. Okay, exactly.
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Cullen
Yeah. And so then that went on for about a year.
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Clark
Okay.
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Cullen
We started writing, or at least I started like kind of planting the seeds of it and doing the, the, the outline thing and kind of a treatment for it in March of last year. So right when COVID kind of hit, I decided that was like a good time to do that. So and then it was written basically, I think the draft that we're going to camera with was finished in like late March of this year.
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Cullen
So just over a year of writing, which I think is a pretty decent amount of time.
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Clark
Yeah.
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Cullen
And you know, there's also, I think, you know, just to kind of go into that just quickly for sure. Yeah. And for anybody who perhaps is writing their own movie right now and is like at that phase where they're like, the script's done, but I don't feel comfortable.
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Clark
Well, that's a good it's really great. Like, how many edits did you go through? And kind of there was some.
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Cullen
Six total drafts within those drafts. I would say each of them had about four.
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Clark
Stages and.
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Cullen
Stages, so probably close to 20 versions of the script that that went through. But but six major drafts were like, you know, draft 1 to 2 to 3 to 4 to 5 to 6.
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Clark
I think you're especially super changed, I think especially in people who are just starting out, they don't have maybe as much experience there and they're beginning of their career. I think, you know, I just want to kind of reiterate without hopefully being too preachy. You know, this is the stage where you can work all day long. You can make as many you know, you can put as much work into a script as you could possibly imagine.
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Clark
There's no limit and it doesn't cost you anything. But time. This is the only part. Exactly. If you're the writer, right? If you're if this is your film, this is the only part that doesn't cost you anything. So there's no reason not to put everything you've got into making that script as polished as you can absolutely make it.
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Clark
And I made it, at least for me and I think probably likely for most people. Your best work is not your first draft at anything. Oh yeah, the first draft is where. But but I just, you know, I know. Especially when I was much younger. People get so excited to shoot. They want to get on set, they want to get a camera, they want to get actors there.
00:10:01:04 - 00:10:22:04
Clark
And it's and the scripts are half baked. They go into production with half baked scripts and it happens a lot. So it's just good to kind of hear that you've spent a year that you've gone through. I mean, if you take the revisions of each draft, you're over, what, 20, 30 drafts? Yeah, it's just important to kind of, you know, set expectations if you're writing, you know, I'm.
00:10:22:04 - 00:10:26:04
Cullen
Actually going to be putting all of the drafts on the line once the movie's done.
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Clark
Oh, I.
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Cullen
Think that it's actually kind of a neat thing to be able to share with people to sort of go like.
00:10:30:05 - 00:10:31:05
Clark
Oh, that's fantastic.
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Cullen
Different every draft. Like, if.
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Clark
So, we'll do that one.
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Cullen
To two to 3 to 4 of.
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Clark
Us will link to that to the Yeah. Yeah. Once it so everybody you can kind of get it, you can actually kind of look at how the story progresses because.
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Cullen
That's what's incredible is that if you shot like I think that's one of the things that the actors that signed on later, I always kind of joke with them and I say like, if you were to go back and read Draft two and make that movie, you could make this movie in that movie. And I don't think people would realize.
00:10:57:02 - 00:11:14:13
Clark
That it would never be the same thing. Yeah, I mean, I often won't even find I mean, you know, if I say I write an entire script, I may not even get to what I actually really want to get to until, you know, 80 pages in. And I take this little nugget almost that I wrote in his first script, and then I you know, it's kind of it's so right.
00:11:14:13 - 00:11:39:09
Clark
It's be open as a writer. Yeah. To taking just what really works or what really sparks your love for for what you're doing in that first draft and then make that your entire second draft and you may have to go through several iterations of that. But so to get back to it. So you're writing, so you've got you yourself, you're the writer, you're the director, you're going to operate and just be just a little bit of technical.
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Clark
So real quick, tell me what you're going to be operating. What are you going to be?
00:11:42:18 - 00:11:57:20
Cullen
Yeah, so I've got the I own all of my own gear. I'm a big believer in that as well as I'm not a really big fan of renting. So I basically worked. You know, pizza delivery job and a bartending job and I teach film. And so I was just, you know, a lot of that is just money set.
00:11:57:20 - 00:11:58:15
Clark
Aside right.
00:11:58:22 - 00:12:09:01
Cullen
By this stuff. Not cheap. But I think to me, I would much rather have owned that equipment and have been able to call it my own and be able to like take a camera out whenever I want and go and do something.
00:12:09:01 - 00:12:10:12
Clark
Else and shoot every day flying on.
00:12:10:12 - 00:12:25:01
Cullen
A rental and. Exactly. And so I've got no pressure on me to finish something faster because, you know, the rental is running out or something. So I tried Ursa G2, Blackmagic Ursa pro G2 is what I'm with the camera I'm operating on with a picture cinema.
00:12:25:01 - 00:12:27:04
Clark
Zoom and you've got the zoom.
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Cullen
Lenses.
00:12:27:18 - 00:12:29:08
Clark
You've got the wide what is it. Yeah.
00:12:29:09 - 00:12:30:07
Cullen
20 to 55.
00:12:30:07 - 00:12:33:20
Clark
And I've got that would do that straight lens by the way. It's a really great lens.
00:12:33:20 - 00:12:40:05
Cullen
Yeah. And I'm a big believer in zoom lenses. I think that a lot of people kind of scoff at them and it's like no primes only. But I.
00:12:40:12 - 00:12:41:16
Clark
Love I do too.
00:12:41:16 - 00:12:49:06
Cullen
Because I think that I think that, you know, people, when they get all technical about lenses, they're like, Oh, the book is nice, but it's like, that doesn't matter to me. You know, I don't.
00:12:49:08 - 00:12:50:04
Clark
Need that for this level.
00:12:50:04 - 00:12:55:06
Cullen
Creaminess of a bouquet I care about. I don't have to switch lenses if I'm going from a 20 to a 50.
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Clark
Absolutely. And at this level, that's important, right? Yeah. Your ability to reframe, your ability to to move fast, it's when you've got 11 days to shoot and you're shooting a feature film, I'm going to guess you're what, around 190 to 120 pages ish, right?
00:13:09:02 - 00:13:11:18
Cullen
Yeah, I don't know. I think 90, 90. I think the last draft was something.
00:13:11:18 - 00:13:31:02
Clark
Yeah. Okay. So you got 90 pages to shoot in 11 days. I mean, to go back and forth and back and forth to lens, to lens to lens, you're going to save a ton of time. So. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So you're shooting with the 2255, You've got the black magic, Ursa G2. You you've got your own. Tell me what you're going to do with lighting.
00:13:31:16 - 00:13:36:18
Clark
Are you shooting exteriors? Interiors? I think you said it was mostly interiors, mostly the interiors.
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Cullen
In the house.
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Clark
And you've, you've, you've scouted a location yet this house, as I understand it, specifically because you knew it would have good lighting.
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Cullen
It's a beautiful house.
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Clark
It is.
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Cullen
When I got to the set, I actually accidentally scouted it. I went there to stay there for my birthday last year for like a I think five days with some friends. And I remember as soon I was already in process of writing this movie at that point and I remember like getting there and being like, I have to shoot this movie here because it's just I have never seen a house that both has so much character inside.
00:14:06:23 - 00:14:07:08
Clark
Right?
00:14:07:08 - 00:14:15:04
Cullen
And the way that the light just, you know, that the the natural light and like it's almost, of course, light, which is inviting. But but.
00:14:15:11 - 00:14:16:06
Clark
You could shoot a movie.
00:14:16:06 - 00:14:19:06
Cullen
Without any extra lighting. That movie, it would still I think look beautiful.
00:14:19:09 - 00:14:34:12
Clark
Okay. And so let's talk about your additional lighting. So obviously, it's important you're I know you've got some of your own lighting, but it's limited to some extent. I know you're on a small budget, so it's you've picked a location where you know, the lighting is going to be great. But then how how will you be augmenting that?
00:14:34:12 - 00:14:35:15
Clark
Tell us a little bit about that.
00:14:36:00 - 00:14:58:10
Cullen
So a big thing for me is kind of like I of course, you know, any anybody who lights, I'll tell you, the accentuation is the key to the lighting, which is just looking at the room naturally and then going, okay, I want to play up that part. So like that window, I will put a light over there to, to bring up that light and to kind of, you know, highlighted a little bit more.
00:14:58:10 - 00:15:15:01
Cullen
But I also sort of, you know, I think a lot of movies these days especially are shot with with like realism in mind. And I find that to be a little bit boring. So what I usually do just kind of the way I light is like a light. Realistically, I'll get a room naturally lit the way I want it.
00:15:15:01 - 00:15:30:02
Cullen
And so there's again, if there's like a big window, that's our that's our kind of prime light, the primary source of light around that. And then I start going in and I start cutting things and I start, you know, accenting things with lights that don't really make sense, that that realistically don't make sense. I mean, in.
00:15:30:02 - 00:15:30:08
Clark
Terms of.
00:15:30:20 - 00:15:31:16
Cullen
Actual geography.
00:15:31:16 - 00:15:32:00
Clark
Of this.
00:15:32:14 - 00:15:55:21
Cullen
Setup. And so I'll take a look at things like that. And again, just highlight things like I described this before, but I use it again, just for clarification. I kind of land between like a realist and an expression in terms of the way I light where it's I do like basing things off of reality. I like using real windows and stuff to, to, you know.
00:15:56:05 - 00:15:59:13
Clark
Impose lighting, motives, reason. Yeah, and yeah, in the reality.
00:16:00:11 - 00:16:16:23
Cullen
But at the same time I do you know I wouldn't I never shy away from like playing up the theatrical of the lighting or, you know really dramatizing light and using light to continue to tell that story in an even more meaningful way than perhaps if it was just realistically lit.
00:16:17:03 - 00:16:20:16
Clark
And just in a practical sense, what, what kit are you going to be?
00:16:20:17 - 00:16:27:23
Cullen
Yeah. So I've got, you know, again, very cheap lights, but yeah, I've got some new air. Newer.
00:16:28:08 - 00:16:28:22
Clark
Yeah, I pronounce.
00:16:28:22 - 00:16:30:07
Cullen
That name light panels.
00:16:30:07 - 00:16:30:23
Clark
So we all.
00:16:31:15 - 00:16:31:22
Cullen
Just.
00:16:32:05 - 00:16:32:13
Clark
Every.
00:16:32:13 - 00:16:33:08
Cullen
Everyone knows.
00:16:33:08 - 00:16:37:17
Clark
Every no, everybody who's on a low budget knows them. Yeah. I don't know how they're pronounced either. Yeah.
00:16:38:07 - 00:16:43:21
Cullen
So I've got the two of their light panels. One is like a full rg B and then one is just a bi color.
00:16:43:21 - 00:16:45:00
Clark
So LEDs right there.
00:16:45:08 - 00:17:04:19
Cullen
LED light panels. Then I've got a larger go dock's SL 60, which is kind of like it's a daylight only light, but you can of course throw gels over and stuff, but that light is really going to be used for like again, kind of the lighting, the entire space and not necessarily singling out certain elements.
00:17:05:03 - 00:17:07:06
Clark
Okay. So we'll just make sure because I like it.
00:17:07:17 - 00:17:30:09
Cullen
Yeah, I'll clap so we can see that in the thing. Yeah.
00:17:30:09 - 00:17:38:17
Clark
But I will be going to to just let me know if you like. Yes. What. Yes, Check it out.
00:17:39:00 - 00:17:42:03
Speaker 3
Okay.
00:17:42:03 - 00:17:46:05
Clark
What they want to do. Oh. So what is going to.
00:17:47:18 - 00:17:48:00
Speaker 3
Be.
00:17:48:11 - 00:17:59:12
Clark
You. We'll just, we'll just do what we can. The. Yeah.
00:18:00:00 - 00:18:01:19
Cullen
I'll go back to that. Go dox. Yeah.
00:18:01:19 - 00:18:13:19
Clark
Yeah. All right. So and then if they get loud what we'll do is we'll just kind of, we'll like kind of stop here. We can add more to it at another time. Yeah. Yeah. Let's just see what we can do. I apologize. No, no, no, it's okay. Yeah.
00:18:14:09 - 00:18:36:11
Cullen
So? So I've also got a go dox SL 60, which is like a larger daylight rated light. It's not. You can't actually vary the color on it, but of course you can tend to throw gels. Yeah. And throw gels on. And so that one is very, very bright and each of these lights is kind of double purpose. So that light during the day I'm going to have a huge soft box on it and it's almost going to be a close up light.
00:18:36:11 - 00:18:37:07
Clark
So it'll.
00:18:37:12 - 00:18:57:23
Cullen
Vary. That soft box will be very, very close to the actors faces and will kind of be this really it provides this really beautiful, soft sunlight looking light. And then at night I'm going to throw for now on that light and it will be kind of the the space light. So it'll be what I light the entire if like there's a room with no light, if you.
00:18:57:23 - 00:19:01:10
Clark
Want a basic level of exposure before and then an accent in.
00:19:01:19 - 00:19:07:13
Cullen
Yeah. And then I can put in those little LED light panels, I've also got a aperture mini like little.
00:19:07:16 - 00:19:09:16
Clark
Oh, those are great. Yeah, those are fantastic.
00:19:09:17 - 00:19:11:11
Cullen
Fantastic. You're going to stick those anywhere and.
00:19:11:11 - 00:19:12:11
Clark
Oh I love those for.
00:19:12:11 - 00:19:14:15
Cullen
Those so I can like put them on a bookshelf or whatever.
00:19:14:16 - 00:19:14:22
Clark
Yep.
00:19:15:02 - 00:19:20:13
Cullen
Um, I'm trying to think if I have any other really major, like, I think that's pretty much it for lighting.
00:19:20:13 - 00:19:21:03
Clark
Okay. I've got.
00:19:21:03 - 00:19:21:08
Cullen
Like.
00:19:22:00 - 00:19:42:02
Clark
Of course you have like a, I mean, you kind of described your your philosophy for lighting. I'm curious, do you have like an overall kind of do you have any inspirations? Do you have anything? You're kind of shooting for? Is there anything that that you can kind of point to to just say, you know, I'm looking to light like X, Y, Z, or yeah.
00:19:42:21 - 00:19:54:23
Cullen
I, I as we've talked about and when we did our Butch Cassidy episode, my favorite cinematographer is Connie Hall. Mm hmm. And I really like the way that Connie Hall bent to light, if that makes sense. So he what he.
00:19:54:23 - 00:19:55:11
Clark
Could do.
00:19:55:11 - 00:20:20:11
Cullen
Was he would use one powerful light and then just bounce it all over the room, and it would create this really engaging like, again, it felt natural because it all sort of felt like it was coming from one source and sort of like one place. But at the same time, it was a great way to be able to, you know, highlight or point out certain things in a shot with the light without having to set up a thousand different lights.
00:20:21:12 - 00:20:36:10
Cullen
And so I thought that, you know, was a brilliant way of working in this, his separation of foreground background and almost lighting like it was black and white still. Yeah, I think is really, you know, a great way to great philosophy. I'm more contemporary. I'm a big fan of Steve Yedlin.
00:20:36:18 - 00:20:37:00
Clark
Okay.
00:20:37:06 - 00:20:50:22
Cullen
Both in his like the way that he does his color processes and things like that in terms of his post-production pipeline, but also the way that he, you know, again, I the way that I got that idea again for putting the soft box super close like a foot from an actor's face like this.
00:20:51:05 - 00:20:55:02
Clark
Which is extremely close by the way you just Yes.
00:20:55:02 - 00:21:12:19
Cullen
Was him like his. If you look at a lot of the beats of you know, he most recently did knives out. You look at the beats of that and it's like these huge, huge sheets of of light that are really close to an actor's face. And it just provides this really beautiful, soft kind of fall off and this wrap around.
00:21:13:04 - 00:21:13:12
Clark
Yeah.
00:21:13:17 - 00:21:26:15
Cullen
So I would say those two are primarily really what I'm going for. Okay, lighting wise. And then visually, like just in terms of the general visual language, you know, I'm I'm a huge Hitchcock fan. I've kind of made no secret of that.
00:21:26:19 - 00:21:27:03
Clark
Right.
00:21:27:07 - 00:21:52:19
Cullen
And Hitchcock really was a late addition to this movie, weirdly enough, the movie originally, when it was being written, was kind of, you know, leaning towards this Texas chainsaw. Oh, Tremors, almost tone of like this comedy horror thing. And then I really when I got to the sixth draft, I realized that I didn't like any of that. And I pulled all of the comedy out of it.
00:21:52:19 - 00:21:56:23
Cullen
I pulled all of the heightened craziness out of it and grounded.
00:21:56:23 - 00:21:57:02
Clark
It.
00:21:57:23 - 00:21:59:19
Cullen
Into this like, Hitchcock drama.
00:21:59:19 - 00:22:01:12
Clark
So it's a drama thriller now.
00:22:01:12 - 00:22:09:20
Cullen
Yeah. So now it's much more of a grounded Hitchcock kind of style of thing. Paul Thomas Anderson Again, you know, Phantom Thread is a movie that I actually have.
00:22:09:20 - 00:22:10:23
Clark
Specifically been.
00:22:11:11 - 00:22:35:12
Cullen
Looking at and kind of going like, that's a really brilliant way to shoot a scene like that. And, you know, and perhaps, you know, this is actually a good segue way to get into the rehearsal process because this is, you know, everything's related. But to just kind of, I guess, preface that I wrote a short list long ago when I'd written the script screenplay, I wrote a short list basically alongside of it, and I've never really had the chance to rehearse before.
00:22:36:08 - 00:22:43:11
Cullen
That's been something that I've always kind of missed out on, both because I know budget is difficult to get people to write, to be there for more than they need to be.
00:22:43:15 - 00:22:45:21
Clark
In reality is on films you often don't have.
00:22:45:21 - 00:23:15:20
Cullen
Often. Exactly. You don't have that time. Yeah, and but I have a viewfinder, a director's viewfinder and Alan Gordon, Mark VB Which, you know, honestly, when I bought it wasn't sure if I'd get much use out of it and I am so thankful I did because what I did with the rehearsals over the past weekend and we spent two days just rehearsing full days, was that while the actors so we would do like a read through of the scene and then we would, I would kind of go through the blocking with them and sort of say like, here's where the camera will be, here's kind of how it's gonna be shot.
00:23:16:05 - 00:23:27:19
Cullen
And I was actually able to sit down and like lie down on the floor and get angles up with the actors with my viewfinder, right? And got to a point where there were scenes that had 13 shots and I got them down to like five.
00:23:27:23 - 00:23:28:23
Clark
Oh, okay.
00:23:29:00 - 00:23:33:22
Cullen
Moments that even like scenes that had like six shots and got them down to a single shot and realized I can.
00:23:33:22 - 00:23:35:11
Clark
Now be serious, you know, in.
00:23:35:11 - 00:23:36:01
Cullen
A master.
00:23:36:04 - 00:24:01:02
Clark
Help us understand it. Apologize if it kind of feels like we're jumping around a little bit. I will get back to the question of who the remainder of your crew are, but we'll keep following. Oh, yes. Yeah, well, it's okay. Yeah. We'll keep following this thread for a bit. So can you help us understand what was it about when you were writing your your shot list and you had, you know, 13 or eight or whatever it was, you know, setups or shots per scene.
00:24:01:12 - 00:24:08:22
Clark
And then when you went with your viewfinder to the rehearsal and you got that down to one or three, I think, why do you think that was what was going on there?
00:24:08:22 - 00:24:32:16
Cullen
A big part of it is coverage, right? Like you you sit down when you're writing a short list and you're like, Oh, I want to make sure that that'll cut with that. And so you're visualizing it in your head and you go like, Well, I might need a shot in between there to just kind of transition those two shots to each other, because I think that that cut might be too jarring, the angle might be too extreme and just see the difference of angles or like just like it might go, you know, is cutting from extreme close up to a wide.
00:24:32:16 - 00:24:51:22
Cullen
Is that going to be too weird? Will that jell together? But what again what I was able to do with this viewfinder was do those cuts in real time. And of course, the viewfinder is a record. But I was able to frame the shot while the actors were rehearsing the scene and go, okay, that's that's shot one and then pull out and go, This is shot two.
00:24:52:06 - 00:25:08:13
Cullen
Those actually work really well together or in some circumstance find a completely new shot. Find it like there was one scene in the in about midway through the movie where a character runs back into the kitchen after something happens. And it's kind of this intense moment where she's like out of breath. She's just had this like big moment in the movie.
00:25:08:13 - 00:25:24:20
Cullen
And in the second character comes in and it's kind of like trying to console her and like, like, what's going on? Explain this to me. And so initially it was like, I think four or five shots of like, you know, there's a shot of her entering. Then there's a like medium of the other character coming in, and then it's just kind of a shot of her shot.
00:25:24:20 - 00:25:39:07
Cullen
And I realized, no, I can actually shoot the entire thing from way back in the kitchen and changed up the blocking entirely. So now the character comes in and it's like she goes across the screen and then goes back over to the other character. The other character almost comes towards camera and they do this like Dosi.
00:25:39:07 - 00:26:09:06
Clark
Doe, right? And she sounds like you over a little bit from, you know, kind of a focus on, you know, from an editing perspective, you're kind of focused on, you know, keeping the spatial geography clean and trying to make sure that you've got you know, that you're focused on that, too. It looks like, okay, you're not losing that, but now you're able to move into more of like a, you know, a thematic understanding or a composition of shots and kind of, oh, you know, I don't need 13 different shots to for this conversation.
00:26:09:06 - 00:26:16:13
Clark
I can actually be a little more fluid and I think that's going to make a huge impact on the quality of your film, you know?
00:26:16:13 - 00:26:34:12
Cullen
Yeah, I think it and it really was like, there's nothing better than that feeling of excitement of like after we had done that specific scene that I was just referencing and we'd gotten it blocked out and we rehearsed it, I think like five different times. And I was like, that just elevated that scene so much. Like the the scene works so much better and just feels so much better.
00:26:34:12 - 00:26:43:04
Cullen
Or, you know, another big thing about rehearsals is we were able to sit down and sort of go like that ending. I don't really like the ending. And so that.
00:26:43:04 - 00:26:46:20
Clark
Was going to be my next question. Yeah. Why did your writing change? Yeah, yeah.
00:26:47:06 - 00:26:57:03
Cullen
Nothing major like nothing. I would say overarching change, but there was definitely moments where it was like this last four lines in the scene. Let's just cut all those and let's say that with a look.
00:26:57:08 - 00:26:58:04
Clark
Yes, let's just.
00:26:58:04 - 00:26:59:09
Cullen
Have this this moment.
00:26:59:09 - 00:27:00:14
Clark
And I love to hear that.
00:27:00:19 - 00:27:28:12
Cullen
Yeah, well, I feel like the person walking away and just like this, this silence and like, I think that that can be really, really powerful. And that happened with more than one scene. You know, like the movie opens on arguably, perhaps like a really emotional moment. Um, I won't get into spoilers, but like, it's a very emotionally, like, rich scene and we were sitting there and I was, you know, initially the moment ends with the two of them kind of watching like one of the characters, watching the other one go out the door.
00:27:28:23 - 00:27:45:18
Cullen
And I was like, wait a minute, that that will hit so much harder if you don't even watch her. Like, if you just like she leaves and you don't even even bother to go and watch her leave. So a lot of things like that that came out of this rehearsal that, you know, kind of put me firmly in the camp of whenever I have the chance to do rehearsals.
00:27:45:18 - 00:27:49:04
Cullen
Now I am absolutely taking that. So far I was never anti rehearsal but I.
00:27:49:06 - 00:28:06:02
Clark
Right. Yeah, but this really reinforced it. So it sounds like I mean you've got, you've got your, your, your blocking, you've got some writing changes, you've got, you know, set up changes. What about the actors. How did you find, did you find what was what do you feel like their experience was. So, um.
00:28:06:13 - 00:28:08:06
Cullen
So do you mean specifically for the rehearsals.
00:28:08:13 - 00:28:10:09
Clark
Correct. Correct. Yes.
00:28:10:09 - 00:28:34:21
Cullen
So they again, you know, I know both of these actors relatively well. One of them, the lead actress, so much more. You know, we went to high school together and she's like a really brilliant actress. And I, you know, pretty much wrote this role for her. And I think that that was really great. And Devin, who plays the second character, Peter, I think having that familiarity with him really helped.
00:28:34:21 - 00:29:01:06
Cullen
But also just to be able to, I think the thing that really helps is doing that initial read through kind of reading through the scene together and going through like, okay, this is where again, this is where the camera's going to be. This kind of how the blocking went in my head, letting them run through that on their own a bunch that they can kind of explore those characters while I'm almost just sort of like doing shots by myself as they run through it and then doing one final kind of run through one or two final run threes where we're actually like, I give notes.
00:29:01:17 - 00:29:17:11
Cullen
Okay, okay, this shot actually works really well, so let's change this thing up. And then they're able to, you know, again, the advantage of being there in person and so much better than doing it over Zoom or something naturally is that that when I was changing lines, I was able to say like, what do you think you would say?
00:29:17:11 - 00:29:19:14
Cullen
They're like, Right, how are you playing that?
00:29:19:14 - 00:29:23:06
Clark
Did you work on performance much? Did you? It was performance, yeah. Yeah.
00:29:23:06 - 00:29:45:11
Cullen
I mean, there was a lot of there was like if you look at the screenplay that like my actual copy the screenplay, there's a ton of notes about just like, you know, let's try for you know, again if for example, there's a, there was one scene in the movie where one of the third characters comes in in initially, even in the way that it was written, he was played like he was playing it very interested in the conversation, like he was engaged in the conversation and wanted to be there.
00:29:45:23 - 00:29:59:16
Cullen
And there was just something that wasn't clicking about it. And it wasn't any fault of the actor, but it was more so just like the way it was written. I was like, I don't really think that that should be it. Like, why don't we try it so that you are completely disinterested? Like, why don't we play this scene as though you want?
00:29:59:18 - 00:30:23:00
Cullen
You get like there's nothing more that you want than to get out of this situation and just to leave. Right. And we played it like that and suddenly it clicked and suddenly it was so much more like fluid. And there was a lot more, you know, even though I say that I took a lot of the comedy out of it, there's still like tidbits of comedy and, you know, very much, again, a big fan of Bong Joon Ho as well, who can have like really dramatic scenes, but still, like there's these little comedic comedic moments in them.
00:30:23:08 - 00:30:33:12
Cullen
Sure. So I very much like that kind of style of filmmaking that tone. So being able to play with that just performance wise. And are there any dropkicks? Yes, Yes, that there are.
00:30:33:19 - 00:30:36:14
Clark
You have drop call dropping.
00:30:36:14 - 00:30:37:06
Cullen
Can you imagine.
00:30:37:07 - 00:30:57:15
Clark
That? You know what? I'm sold. I'm sorry. Yeah. Is it too late to invest? So. Okay, so you so rehearsal you worked on It sounds like you refined a lot of things in the rehearsal. So let's move back then to kind of crew. The crew. So, yeah. So who else then, do you have on set? You've got your right hand, man.
00:30:57:20 - 00:31:02:01
Clark
And refresh my memory, basically like an ad plus what else?
00:31:02:03 - 00:31:22:16
Cullen
The ad, AC, you know, okay. Someone that me and me and have known each other for ages and we've worked together on a lot of things. So he is also if there was somebody that was going to be like, if I had to credit somebody as a cinematographer that wasn't me, he would be the one like very much, but very much a fluid relationship where it's like he could say, like, you know, I think this shot might look really cool if we do this.
00:31:22:16 - 00:31:39:04
Cullen
So he's kind of, again, like the assistant director in the most broad sense of the term where he's just assistant assisting me and making sure that things run smoothly and really, really valuable role. Then I've got basically my key grip. Who's Nigel. Nigel is very.
00:31:39:04 - 00:31:41:00
Clark
Such a great like I don't know why I love.
00:31:41:00 - 00:32:09:14
Cullen
Wonderful names but he is basically focusing he's got a lot of theater background so like, you know, lighting huge lighting trees for theater situations. And so he's going to be the one that is primarily in charge of like running wires, setting up those lights, sandbagging, you know, while I'm working with the actors, if we're getting a different set up, like, you know, again, I've known him for so long and I think that's one thing that you'll notice is very much a through line with all the cast and crew is that I'm very good friends with all of them.
00:32:09:14 - 00:32:12:12
Cullen
I know them super well, I know how they work. And so.
00:32:12:17 - 00:32:13:09
Clark
That'll be so.
00:32:13:09 - 00:32:25:03
Cullen
How you one on set who is like, I'm just like a who's, who's kind of a mixed bag or who I don't know very well. Yeah. So that's really helpful to just be able to say to Nigel like, okay, here, this next set up is this. And I know for a fact that he'll know exactly what to do.
00:32:25:03 - 00:32:36:02
Cullen
Go and set that up. I can sit there and work with the actors, you know, frame up the shot while he's doing the lighting. Yeah. And then I've got our sound guy, Evan, who again, I've known Evan since we were in kindergarten.
00:32:36:18 - 00:32:37:15
Clark
We've made like.
00:32:37:15 - 00:32:43:14
Cullen
We always made when we were kids. Like our first movies together. And he is like a really great.
00:32:44:07 - 00:32:45:23
Clark
What equipment will he be using? I just.
00:32:45:23 - 00:32:48:00
Cullen
So he's going to be using. Yeah. The F6 which.
00:32:48:18 - 00:32:51:08
Clark
Which I've got as well. The assume F6. Yes.
00:32:51:18 - 00:32:56:00
Cullen
Which will be you know I'm sure there be more than one situation where that 32 bit float will save our asses.
00:32:56:01 - 00:32:56:11
Clark
Yeah.
00:32:56:11 - 00:33:05:00
Cullen
For sure. And he'll all, he'll just, you know, we'll have two labs on each actor or sorry two labs on the actors, not two labs on each right.
00:33:05:00 - 00:33:05:18
Clark
One on each. Yeah.
00:33:05:20 - 00:33:12:15
Cullen
And then a boom. So very simple sound set up. There'll be, you know really three sources for all the scenes. So should be pretty good because.
00:33:12:15 - 00:33:32:05
Clark
It is worth it. It is worth I always feel like it's good to take a moment to kind of reiterate this just for people kind of starting out. It's easy sometimes to overlook the importance of sound. Oh, yes, because we are so focused on the visual as filmmakers. It's, you know, usually that's kind of how we orientate ourselves to the world.
00:33:32:05 - 00:33:54:21
Clark
It's, you know, we're visual kind of thinkers and but yeah, sound quality is I can't tell you how many projects I've been involved with. You know, I've had issues on my own in the very beginning, and then I was like at different various positions on other people's projects and had same challenges where you'll get you'll just work your butt off and you'll get home and the sound will just be subpar and will ruin it.
00:33:54:21 - 00:34:01:09
Clark
And the your your error, the margin for error in sound is really, really small.
00:34:01:12 - 00:34:04:22
Cullen
Sound is much more objective than visual song.
00:34:04:22 - 00:34:23:13
Clark
And it's and people won't tolerate bad sound. It's got if you've got bad sound, then you're just going to lose your audience. People can tolerate some kind of, you know, issues with visuals much, much, much more readily than they can with audio. So yeah, definitely, definitely, definitely. Don't skimp on audio and it's it's just you can't do that yourself.
00:34:23:20 - 00:34:30:01
Clark
You've got it. No, you got one person and hopefully a couple, but good. Okay. So you've got your sound guy. Yeah. All right.
00:34:30:12 - 00:34:35:21
Cullen
And then the rest of the people that are working on a more so just like, you know, not just like production is a.
00:34:35:21 - 00:34:36:07
Clark
General.
00:34:36:07 - 00:34:57:20
Cullen
Purpose. Like general purpose? Yeah. Like so Julia, who is actually Adam's girlfriend, who is kind of by again, my right hand man there, she's going to be basically drafting up like the Excel documents of, like this shot as good, like what we shot today. And then I've got people there that are really just, you know, we've got a Beats photographer, Laura and videographers.
00:34:57:20 - 00:35:10:18
Cullen
So she's going to be able to capture a lot of the behind the scenes stuff, which to me was really important because I want to be able to use this as almost a teaching as well, like just to kind of go through, you know, perhaps it will all go horribly, but at least I'll get that on camera.
00:35:11:01 - 00:35:15:16
Clark
And, you know, it would be a good learning experience. Yeah. Regardless. Absolutely. Yes. Yeah.
00:35:16:01 - 00:35:38:10
Cullen
I mean, I think, again, the one thing that I've learned in prepping this and I've got the production Bible like right over there and it's, you know, thick, thick, thick. Yeah. Is that like I you hear horror stories about people's first features all the time. And the reason that I am not very stressed about it and, you know, I'm very cautious of things and preparing for backups and backups are back.
00:35:38:10 - 00:35:55:06
Cullen
And so, you know, failsafe and failsafe. But the reason that I'm not like up in cold sweats at night about it is because a I've done you know what I was talking to Rio about who's been in some of my short films before as I was like a lot of the short films that we made were probably more difficult.
00:35:55:06 - 00:36:14:22
Cullen
Shoots than this will be, because this is so planned and prepared, right? And because we've got crew there. Whereas beforehand it would have just been like me and two other people just trying to like throw together some lights in a, you know, a car, drive out somewhere late at night and get a shot. Yeah. Now it's it's like we own the locations that we're going to for, for more than enough time that we need them.
00:36:14:22 - 00:36:30:12
Cullen
We, you know, there's no time constraints on us. And the other thing again is that, like, I've prepared it all to hell. I've got two shot lists, I've got the one master shot list, and then I've got a day to day shortlist of the order of the shots we'll be shooting and I can use those to kind of cross-reference each other.
00:36:30:12 - 00:36:49:18
Cullen
So it's like making sure that every shot is gone. That was one thing that I always whenever I teach a film class, I always like really, really kind of harp on shot lists as being like one of the best tools for low budget filmmaking because there is nothing worse than shooting a scene, getting home in the edit and being like, that makes no.
00:36:49:18 - 00:36:50:21
Clark
Sense. You've got no place to go.
00:36:51:04 - 00:37:09:18
Cullen
Because there's no way, there's nowhere to cut that. You know that does not work. And so building a shot list and knowing that you have everything and, you know, occasionally a little bit of extra is just such a stress relief. It's so great to have that. And I've got you know, the other thing is that like because I've kind of worn all the producer hats on this, I've got an executive producer, producers working with me.
00:37:09:18 - 00:37:15:13
Cullen
But a lot of the work in terms of like costuming and locations and things like that, I've done myself. Yeah, I think.
00:37:15:13 - 00:37:25:00
Clark
That well, that was what I was going to ask us for a quick So as far as like production design, costuming, hair and makeup, do you have people that are going to help with that or.
00:37:25:01 - 00:37:32:03
Cullen
So in the moment. So I've got one makeup artist coming in for four a day for like there's I got to kind of more vex heavy sequence.
00:37:32:03 - 00:37:32:18
Clark
Okay.
00:37:32:18 - 00:37:33:20
Cullen
She's going to be there for that.
00:37:35:15 - 00:37:38:06
Clark
Other than that, you'll have your leads do their own hair.
00:37:38:06 - 00:37:43:05
Cullen
Yeah. So other than that, it'll just be very, just basic, you know, there's very little that'll have to be done.
00:37:43:09 - 00:37:44:11
Clark
And then wardrobe.
00:37:44:17 - 00:37:50:20
Cullen
Wash. Wardrobe was, are a lot of. Yeah. I actually saw what we talked about, you know, what they should wear and stuff like that.
00:37:50:20 - 00:37:56:04
Clark
You work with the actors and yeah. In conjunction you kind of came together to the wardrobe. Okay.
00:37:56:06 - 00:38:02:16
Cullen
And then another big part of that, though, too, is, is ease of wardrobe. Like everything for me when I'm doing things like that, is about efficiency.
00:38:02:16 - 00:38:03:16
Clark
So, okay, there's a.
00:38:03:16 - 00:38:18:19
Cullen
Scene, there's two days that take place where there's like two scenes that kind of take place in the same location outdoors, in a different location that we're gonna be shooting. And so I was like, Okay, those two days costumes are going to be very similar. Like it'll just be like a cardigan on one day and then no cardigan on the next day.
00:38:18:19 - 00:38:25:01
Cullen
So that way when we're on that location, you don't have to go off and change. You just pull off that cardigan and that's your next day's costume.
00:38:25:02 - 00:38:25:19
Clark
Okay? And so.
00:38:25:19 - 00:38:29:20
Cullen
It's like things like that just keep things really efficient to keep things really like easy.
00:38:29:20 - 00:38:30:08
Clark
And yeah.
00:38:31:04 - 00:38:43:03
Cullen
To make sure that insulin, even things like there's like a, you know, very minor blood effects. And so I've got like four pairs of that that days costume so that if the blood effects go wrong, take those clothes off.
00:38:43:08 - 00:39:04:14
Clark
So you got another example stuff. Yeah. And those are important things to note because sometimes it's easy, you know, it's when when you're on such a small budget and you're on such a tight time frame, you know, it's it's unlikely that you're going to have a singular position that's going to be wardrobe or costume designer especially, you know, because you're going to be getting off the rack stuff or you might even be having your actors bring in.
00:39:04:14 - 00:39:05:05
Cullen
Wardrobe of.
00:39:05:05 - 00:39:23:00
Clark
Their own. If it's not wardrobe that's going to be damaged in the filming, like you're shot. What about production design? I know that you went you scouted the location and your primary location is this house. And so I'm assuming that most of your production design is going to be included. The house that you've.
00:39:23:00 - 00:39:24:08
Cullen
Rented, then the house so.
00:39:24:08 - 00:39:33:15
Clark
Beautiful, I can't even describe it. Was there anything else that you that you did? I assume then you probably did whatever production exist. You did that it sounds like.
00:39:33:23 - 00:39:41:13
Cullen
Yes. Yeah, Yeah. It's a very light, you know, again, mostly just like moving furniture around to make sure that things work and, and.
00:39:41:13 - 00:39:43:14
Clark
So not a lot of props you didn't have to have. No.
00:39:43:14 - 00:40:00:05
Cullen
Yeah there is there are a few like props wise there's, there's a few things that I bought that will be, you know, used and of course getting like multiples of those and different versions of them for different moments. Um, you know, it's kind of like a little mini Warner Brothers like studio tour where they show you the different baseball bats.
00:40:00:05 - 00:40:01:06
Clark
But right.
00:40:01:06 - 00:40:15:18
Cullen
But you know, things like that where it's just a again, to keep everything simple and to make sure that like the less things that can go wrong, the less. Yeah. Things that can like, be forgotten or, yeah, you know, screwed up or may not work the better.
00:40:15:18 - 00:40:16:19
Clark
So yeah, I'm.
00:40:16:19 - 00:40:20:21
Cullen
Basically primarily just keeping things as simple as possible.
00:40:20:21 - 00:40:34:13
Clark
Yeah, well, that's smart. I mean that because you don't have a lot of room for error. And, you know, on your first feature, the idea is to. To just get away with the film and you go from there. And if you don't have a way with the film, then you know you've got nothing regardless of how good it was.
00:40:34:13 - 00:40:42:09
Clark
So yeah, well, good on you. So. So you're done with your rehearsal process, are you now, are you pretty much done with pre-production? Are you getting ready?
00:40:42:09 - 00:40:47:21
Cullen
Yeah, we're shooting on I think it's four four days from now is our first shoot.
00:40:48:00 - 00:40:49:20
Clark
Excellent. Okay, so five days.
00:40:49:20 - 00:40:50:02
Cullen
Yeah.
00:40:50:04 - 00:40:57:13
Clark
So will I. It'll be fun after we'll revisit after you've. You've been in production for a little bit if you can sneak away and.
00:40:58:00 - 00:40:58:15
Cullen
Yeah, of course.
00:40:58:15 - 00:41:18:04
Clark
Yeah. And then we'll, we'll kind of, we'll follow you through production and I'll be interested to hear about how you feel like, you know, your blocking and your your, the rehearsal process with the viewfinder and the shots that you've set up, the work with your actors. I'll be really excited to hear how all that's going. Yeah, yeah, that was out.
00:41:18:05 - 00:41:24:02
Clark
Yeah. And then I'm. I'm assuming you tell me, but I assume you're probably editing in color correcting. Is that correct?
00:41:24:07 - 00:41:27:11
Cullen
Yeah. So again, the color process is something that I've been working on for.
00:41:27:11 - 00:41:41:04
Clark
Like, Yeah, you've been using that will definitely go into a lot of that because yeah, you've got some really great information to share. I mean you really are, are educated in that and you'll be doing your editing. And what about your like sound design.
00:41:41:07 - 00:41:48:20
Cullen
Sound mix. I actually mix. I'm very lucky to know my cousin who is a like, really accomplished sound designer, did Oh, the Witch, the Robert Eggers movie and things like that.
00:41:48:20 - 00:41:50:13
Clark
And he Oh, wow. That's he's not.
00:41:50:13 - 00:42:07:03
Cullen
Going to be doing it himself, but he's going to be getting another industry professional that he knows he primarily does scoring now. So he's kind of the sound mixing game, but he's going to get me somebody and then score as in the the music. It's a good friend of mine, Kathryn Petkoff, who's done two other short films of mine.
00:42:07:06 - 00:42:08:03
Clark
Okay.
00:42:08:03 - 00:42:18:20
Cullen
And we've always like really gelled really well together. And like, she's one of those people that will, you know, I'll just have to kind of show her the visuals and she'll come up with a song, send it to me, and I'll be like, That is exactly what I want.
00:42:19:04 - 00:42:19:19
Clark
Oh, fantastic.
00:42:19:19 - 00:42:26:21
Cullen
She's, you know, incredibly talented and excellent. Again, one of the people that can you just kind of have like one word and it works out really well.
00:42:26:21 - 00:42:45:23
Clark
Well, it sounds it sounds like you've got a lot of bases covered. It's I mean, it's you you know, everybody you're working with, you've worked with them for a long time. That's going to be fantastic. Do you have a do you have a goal, a time frame for when you'd like to have the final, final edit, final cut done?
00:42:46:03 - 00:42:46:18
Clark
Ready to Rock?
00:42:47:04 - 00:43:10:20
Cullen
Yeah. So we are I mean, so it's 11 days, as I said, 11 shoot days, and it goes from I think July 4th is really our first official shoot day to August 7th. And then I'm planning on doing the the post throughout the entire fall. We're probably going to do some like post-production crowdfunding. And then I'm hoping that the final cut will be done around December, or at least a final cut that I can show at a premiere.
00:43:10:23 - 00:43:16:14
Cullen
Okay, Perhaps get feedback from there, make changes that then get sent off to festival. So, well, we.
00:43:16:14 - 00:43:27:23
Clark
Can follow through that because that'll be another you know, it's not just when you when you get the film finished, that's where you know, you now you're beginning an entirely new part of this process that often. Yes. Be much harder and take even.
00:43:27:23 - 00:43:29:15
Cullen
Longer the hellish marketing process.
00:43:29:15 - 00:43:48:01
Clark
Which is done right, trying to find distribution and trying to, you know, have your film, find an audience. So excellent. Well, that's fantastic. I really appreciate you taking the time to to share your experience Now. Look forward to following you as you go through your journey on your very first feature film. That's exciting. Yeah. You only get one first.
00:43:48:12 - 00:44:08:13
Clark
Yeah. Excellent. It's good. Yeah. I think you've got a really good shot at it being excellent. So. All right. COEN Well, thank you so much. This will wrap up our special edition. This is our first special episode. It's exciting, so we'll look forward to talking to you again after you've been in production for a bit until next time.
00:44:08:17 - 00:44:18:03
Clark
Thank you, everybody for listening to Hope. This has been entertaining and maybe even a little bit informative. We'll see you guys next time. Take care. Bye bye.