Cullen
Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Soldiers of Cinema Podcast. Episode 41. This is another little special episode we're doing just about the behind the scenes kind of making of the feature that I'm working on right now. Of course, I'm joined by Clark. As always, Clark. Coffey.
00:00:26:21 - 00:00:29:21
Clark
How's it going? Hello. It's going fantastic. How are you, sir?
00:00:30:04 - 00:00:31:03
Cullen
I'm good. Good.
00:00:31:11 - 00:00:31:22
Clark
Excellent.
00:00:32:02 - 00:00:32:10
Cullen
Yeah.
00:00:32:11 - 00:00:35:18
Clark
I'm excited to hear about your movie and how production is coming along.
00:00:36:00 - 00:00:56:14
Cullen
Yeah. So, I mean, at this point, from the last episode like this, we did. I've done my first shoot day. Yeah. All right. So beforehand I was just in rehearsals, and now I've. I've. I've shot one day and I've had to ship some schedule things, but. But everything is going quite smoothly right off the bat. I know that's not great for the drama and the excitement.
00:00:56:14 - 00:01:16:04
Clark
It always is. But you've got 90% of your shoot days left. So I'm sure. Yes. That we're going to get some we'll get some drama in there at some point, you know. I hope so. But it'll be interesting. I mean, to recap a little bit, you know, our last and first special episode, we kind of talked a little bit about, you know, the rehearsals that you were doing, preparation.
00:01:16:04 - 00:01:42:05
Clark
I mean, we covered everything from kind of your writing process to, you know, casting, prepping with actors, how you were putting together your shot list and how your rehearsals were informing that and a lot of different things like that. So I think it'd be interesting to kind of we can kind of quickly in a short episode here, touch base on how all of that pre-production preparation is actually shaking out in real life on, you know, on the field your first day of production.
00:01:42:05 - 00:01:45:09
Clark
So. So yeah, I.
00:01:45:09 - 00:01:56:12
Cullen
Mean, yeah, like let's perhaps go into like what was done, what was actually planned and Yeah, yeah. And then how that shaped out due to the actual prep work.
00:01:56:12 - 00:01:57:21
Clark
Actual real world. Yeah.
00:01:58:04 - 00:02:14:08
Cullen
Yeah. So I mean, basically we had scenes 2 to 11 to shoot and many of those scenes were just transitional or just tiny moments, one or two shots. And how many pages had it roughly? I'd say about 12 pages. So it's.
00:02:14:12 - 00:02:15:04
Clark
I mean a.
00:02:15:08 - 00:02:40:06
Cullen
Huge chunk. Yeah. So the reason that I kind of overloaded it and, you know, knew that I was overscheduling was just because everything is so local that I've got days set aside in case reshoots had to happen and things like that. But you know as I'll get into I think very much owing to all the prep work, it actually went really, really smoothly.
00:02:40:06 - 00:02:47:05
Cullen
We got pretty much everything we wanted to get done, actually, not even pretty much literally everything we wanted to get done.
00:02:47:06 - 00:02:49:09
Clark
Okay, great. Made your day good with.
00:02:49:09 - 00:03:05:03
Cullen
Time to spare. We had we were about a half hour below or ahead of schedule, which was very, very surprising to me. So and never felt like it was rushing, ever felt like there was anything that was like going haywire or that I had to like.
00:03:05:16 - 00:03:07:13
Clark
Right. You know, no stress, sacrifice.
00:03:07:13 - 00:03:15:01
Cullen
Quality for speed or something like that. Like it was always really, you know, every shot that we got, we I did until I got it.
00:03:15:02 - 00:03:15:19
Clark
Into, we got.
00:03:15:19 - 00:03:23:02
Cullen
It, we retook and stuff like that and yeah, set up and it wasn't, yeah, it wasn't this massive chaos that so.
00:03:23:12 - 00:03:46:17
Clark
So things went smoothly. You had, you had a lot to shoot but you got it done and you feel good about all the footage that you got. Mm hmm. I want to ask, you know, because I don't hear and, you know, periodically you'll hear a director talk about how they begin their very first day of shooting. I'm always curious because I think it makes I think it's a huge deal.
00:03:46:17 - 00:04:06:04
Clark
I think that it makes a big difference how a director rallies the troops and kicks off that very first day of shooting. I know, you know, some directors have kind of a ritual that they go through. Others don't make a big deal about it. And it's just kind of like, okay, let's let's just start. You know, they don't really make a scene.
00:04:06:09 - 00:04:21:00
Clark
I'm curious, you know, how and I know that you have a preexisting relationship with most not all of the people that you're working with. And it's a relatively small cast and crew, but still still important. How did you start your very first day of shooting?
00:04:21:22 - 00:04:35:10
Cullen
Very casually, not, you know, again, both owing to a few things. One of the things was that one of the people was a little bit late. So for a lot of setup, it was actually just me. And essentially with my first A.D..
00:04:35:16 - 00:04:37:08
Clark
You're not going to say any names, are you?
00:04:37:09 - 00:04:56:11
Cullen
No, it's okay. They got the strap now. Yeah. Yeah. So it was just, you know, for the first a little bit of setup, It was actually. Yeah, just for a while. Just me and the first A.D. kind of hanging out, setting up the equipment, really casual. And then the actors were all called at different times as well. Yeah.
00:04:56:15 - 00:05:17:22
Cullen
So there wasn't really a big like moment where everyone had arrived and, you know, I did like a speech or something like that, like it was very much, you know, when people arrived. My priority is to make them comfortable and to give them space to prepare themselves. So, yeah, you know, when the first actor arrived who plays the main character, we were still sort of setting up some of the dollies and stuff like that.
00:05:17:22 - 00:05:32:23
Cullen
And so I sort of said, you know, if you want to head inside, get a drink of water and just kind of like run over some lines and just relax for a bit. We'll come in and get you when we're ready. Yeah. And even when the second actor arrived, it was the same thing. Like, I was just kind of like, you know, make yourself comfortable.
00:05:32:23 - 00:05:49:00
Cullen
Yeah, Relax. You know, because I think that's a big thing is that people, they wake up in the morning, they're all hyped up. They get in their car, they drive, they're still all hyped up and they kind of get to set and sometimes they're just forced to jump into it. They don't really have a time to just kind of sit back and relax and get their nerves down.
00:05:49:00 - 00:06:11:00
Cullen
Or even if they don't have nerves, just at least get kind of their head straight. Yeah. So that's kind of like rather than making a huge deal about anything, I think that's kind of what I tried to do. I would say that the beginning of shooting, like the grand kind of perhaps, you know, ritual, so to say, was actually during the prep when we did the Equipment Day, because that was the first day that everyone had been together.
00:06:11:20 - 00:06:32:03
Cullen
So that day I definitely sort of made a bigger deal about like, all right, here's like what the goals are, Here's what we're going to be doing. Here's kind of, you know, the breakdown of like how that's going to run, things like that. But again, owing to prep work, that was a really handy thing to have had to have gotten out of the way prior to our first shoot day, because then we could just kind of get into it.
00:06:32:03 - 00:06:48:23
Cullen
So not necessarily a matter of like people showing up and just kind of going, Oh, all right, let's get it. Still having, you know, a moment of conversation in the moment to give the actors to kind of sit around, decompress and yeah, I mean, relax for a little bit and get in their headspace.
00:06:49:04 - 00:07:09:23
Clark
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think that there's a there's a million different ways you can do it, right? And I think, like, everybody's got their own way. But I do think it's important. Yeah. That it's kind of that in some way you kind of allow for a transition from like real world. Yeah. To like, okay, now we are, now we're in this other thing.
00:07:09:23 - 00:07:27:11
Clark
Like now we're making a movie. We are entering into a world of imagination and this is a place where we play at work, but this is where we're, you know, especially for actors, where they're allowed to kind of transition from real world to. Okay.
00:07:27:17 - 00:07:28:01
Cullen
Mm hmm.
00:07:28:04 - 00:07:28:22
Clark
Movie world.
00:07:29:02 - 00:07:30:00
Cullen
I'm in the headspace.
00:07:30:00 - 00:07:56:13
Clark
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Okay. Okay. So you kind of casually went into that. Let's talk about you know, I know you did a lot of prep. You did a lot of rehearsals with your actors in the day that you shot. I mean, it sounds like things went great. So I'm assuming that that rehearsal really paid off, but maybe you can kind of tell us a little bit about how how do you feel like the rehearsals impacted that first day of shooting?
00:07:56:22 - 00:08:14:18
Cullen
Well, I mean, again, because I had my so I guess I'll break it into two things, performance and visual and, you know, I'll go in the opposite. I'll go visual first because I had my viewfinder at the rehearsals. I was able to again, as we discussed the last time we did this, was I was able to alter shots.
00:08:14:18 - 00:08:29:18
Cullen
I was able to simplify scenes and kind of like cut things out of the short list that I realized were necessary just because I had my viewfinder there and I was able to kind of go, okay, I can actually get this scene from here. And then and not to worry about that other shot, you know, it becomes irrelevant.
00:08:30:00 - 00:08:43:23
Cullen
Yeah. And so it was really handy for that because then when I got on set, I was able to put the camera in the spot where I knew it had to be. And there was no surprise. It wasn't like suddenly when the actors crossed, oh, you know, that that suddenly shifted that element to the scene. And I can't do that.
00:08:43:23 - 00:08:59:22
Cullen
I've got to figure out another shot because I had already shot it all in my head when I had the viewfinder, which again was infinitely handy. So that was kind of the visual side of it. I also knew again, I'd done lighting tests and camera tests extensively just by myself beforehand, so I knew how I was going to light the scene.
00:09:00:23 - 00:09:15:05
Cullen
You know, I remember even one of the actors, the actor who I actually know the least kind of said, like, I wish all film sets were sufficient because it was it was literally like they got there and all the lights were set up. I hardly had to worry about adjusting light for the actors. If I did adjust light between shots.
00:09:15:05 - 00:09:34:10
Cullen
It was just a very minor like minute of just going, okay, I'm actually going to put the light a little bit lower because there's there's too much shadow under the eyes or something like that. So there was nothing that was like actors getting to your spots. Now we're going to take half an hour to light and then then we'll go like it was very, very, you know, my priority was efficiency.
00:09:34:10 - 00:09:42:22
Cullen
And so to me, that just means balancing high quality, but also not taking so much time to do something that people's energy just drops off.
00:09:43:00 - 00:09:43:09
Clark
Right.
00:09:43:22 - 00:10:04:23
Cullen
And so that also really got into, I think, performances because I didn't like there wasn't between takes, you know, it was really low taking out. I think we average about three or four takes per shot. Okay. And in the dialog. And the reason for that was because I was able to, you know, the first two takes, let's say we're kind of warming up to it and trying things out.
00:10:04:23 - 00:10:16:06
Cullen
And then the third take, I was able to sort of say like, remember when we did this in the rehearsal, we sort of tried it this way and they would go, Yeah, because the rehearsal is only two weeks ago. So they had that completely, you know, in the back of their heads and they were like, Oh yeah, totally.
00:10:16:06 - 00:10:37:04
Cullen
Let's try that way. And so we could kind of I could just kind of pull that out at any moment without having to go, okay, let's break for 10 minutes. Why? I sit down with the actors and we go through this, right? We'd already done all that work. So there was no need to, again, slow everything down by by discussing, you know, like, what are we feeling in this scene?
00:10:37:04 - 00:10:48:14
Cullen
How how do you like that? And, you know, like, maybe let's try it this way, because we'd already gone through so many different ways of doing the scene in the rehearsal that we'd all kind of agreed on. That really works.
00:10:48:14 - 00:10:51:20
Clark
We landed on the performances in your rehearsals pretty solidly. Yeah.
00:10:51:20 - 00:11:12:05
Cullen
So, so it was really, really easy to again, to allow me to just kind of like run through the scene and maybe I'd have a few notes about timing or just like slight notes about blocking or positioning or something like that. But as far as the performances, like my only really performance notes were just like, really, you know, let's accentuate that line a little bit more.
00:11:12:05 - 00:11:25:09
Cullen
Let's let's, you know, emphasize that part because they've got to really work. And the look that you're giving works really well. So but never anything really expansive or like it. You know, this has to completely be reworked because the prep was already done.
00:11:25:09 - 00:11:53:21
Clark
You had found it. So okay, so it sounds like that your rehearsal really translated Absolutely. To actual performances. Sounds like it was really helpful to be able to refer back to that. You could kind of if an actor was was not quite hitting it the way you wanted it, you could kind of say, Hey, take your mind back to when we did X, Y, Z in the rehearsal and you had like a place to point to, to guide them back to as opposed to kind of having to try to find it out and nothing.
00:11:54:04 - 00:12:12:02
Cullen
And they're all super, you know, again, super versatile, communicable to actors. Yeah yeah. That like what's really great about working with the people that I was working with and I think any director will say that that's kind of the best type is that it's never like you're doing it wrong. It's always just kind of like, let's shift that moment.
00:12:12:02 - 00:12:28:14
Cullen
Like even something is as far as, you know, put a bigger pause between those two lines. Can, can change the emotion of it because maybe then rather than saying the second line, you know, in more of a yelling voice because that pauses now introduced you say it in much a much quieter tone. So things like that where.
00:12:28:14 - 00:12:49:23
Clark
It just sounds like technical, just really kind of little technical tweaks on kind of things. Yeah. And so it sounds like to that you it helped you remain really efficient. Not a lot of set up time between not a lot of time between setups because you had to already preplan, lighting and refresh my memory. Now, did you do rehearsals?
00:12:49:23 - 00:12:51:19
Clark
You didn't do rehearsals in the space.
00:12:51:21 - 00:12:54:02
Cullen
No, no. The rehearsals were done in a studio space.
00:12:54:02 - 00:12:58:10
Clark
So did you find that your lighting setups and things translated to the actual.
00:12:58:10 - 00:13:25:02
Cullen
I actually didn't light the rehearsals at all. So the the spaces that I had actually been in the first shot was actually one of the scenes was actually a shot in my kitchen. So I had the advantage of, you know, being able to light that whenever I want. And then the other scenes I'd just done kind of extensive scouting and taking my camera there because those scenes were outdoors, taking my camera there and gotten kind of variations of like, okay, this is what it will look like over class.
00:13:25:03 - 00:13:38:13
Cullen
This is what I look like when it's sunny. This is what it look like. If it's, you know, depending on the time of day and was able to actually get kind of what's the best time for us to be there, both in lighting wise, but also in terms of like how busy is the place at different times of day?
00:13:39:05 - 00:13:46:23
Cullen
And so so in terms of lighting, I also, you know, as as I think we've kind of talked about a lot, I light really simply.
00:13:47:06 - 00:13:47:13
Clark
Okay.
00:13:47:21 - 00:14:08:07
Cullen
You know, I kind of try and take the Carnegie Hall approach to things, which is just like have one sort of master light that influences all the other lighting. So if you want to change it, you just balance as opposed to setting up a whole new light that tends to and also really taking cues from the natural lighting of the space.
00:14:08:07 - 00:14:34:14
Cullen
That's kind of where I run from. So because I was so familiar with the space and the lighting in the space, I didn't have to wear as I am. Thankfully, with literally every location we're doing, even the ones that I don't own and, you know, am renting, I'm still already familiar with them. So again, that's such an advantage when it comes to lighting that I know what works and what doesn't work because I've done camera tests in those locations and I know gotcha.
00:14:34:17 - 00:14:42:16
Cullen
That that, hey, I don't even need to position a light there because that wall actually just bounces the sunlight really nicely. And, you know, so really, you.
00:14:42:16 - 00:15:03:07
Clark
Know, again, you even know you didn't. Yeah, I gotcha. So even though you didn't rehearse in the space, you were super familiar with the space and you keep your kit simple and just to what you need. And so okay, so, so then with your, with your shot list that you kind of it sounds like you honed that in your rehearsal.
00:15:03:23 - 00:15:10:02
Clark
Did you find that that translated basically 1 to 1? Did you find that you had to kind of adapt at all or.
00:15:10:10 - 00:15:27:17
Cullen
I'd say 99% of the shots were exact as they are in the shot list. The again, and that was another thing that the rehearsals came, as I mentioned, super in handy for it was that the list did change when I was starting to block with the actors because I was able to go. We don't actually need X, Y, Z.
00:15:28:17 - 00:15:47:21
Cullen
I can just shift the camera over here and get all of that in one, you know, perhaps one master or something like that. Yeah. So there were some shots on set that I that I even then I realized like, oh, I actually don't really need, I can't really recall exactly at the moment what what they were, but a few times, yeah.
00:15:47:21 - 00:16:09:12
Cullen
We crossed a few things off just because I realized that it was just, it was tertiary. It didn't really it wasn't there for something to cut to and but then on the other hand, there were also shots that we did get that I didn't use. Yeah. You know, some, some especially when we were outside in the location that I couldn't really control in that it wasn't a location that we had like rented, it was just a parking lot.
00:16:09:12 - 00:16:26:08
Cullen
So at any time somebody could come ask us to leave there. I was a lot more careful about getting pretty much everything I could possibly think I needed so that in the event someone asked us to leave or in the event that, you know, something doesn't work, we don't have to go back there and reshoot anything because I've got such a wide variety of stuff to choose from.
00:16:26:12 - 00:16:32:00
Cullen
But even then in the edit, I wound up only using like two shots from those locations of perhaps the four or five that we did shoot.
00:16:32:08 - 00:16:32:18
Clark
Gotcha.
00:16:33:17 - 00:16:49:19
Cullen
So yeah, there was definitely the short list. Again, you know, I'm a big believer in short lists. I think that the night and day between when I used to make movies without shortlists, you know, like I think the last movie I probably made without a shortlist was the one I did for the Werner Herzog Masterclass.
00:16:49:21 - 00:16:50:06
Clark
Right?
00:16:50:11 - 00:17:04:14
Cullen
And I remember like so many times there be a moment where somebody would walk out of a room and that or there'd be like an action and I'd be like, I just need something to cut to between that because those two shots don't cut together. Like, I just need, I need an insert of something or I need something in between there.
00:17:04:14 - 00:17:22:04
Cullen
And it always was just so frustrating to get to the edit and be like, Dammit, those shots don't cut. And then I think the movie, I did it about a year after that, which was kind of like the first large scale short film I'd say I'd ever done, which, you know, took place over a few months. And, and shooting was a while.
00:17:22:06 - 00:17:38:20
Cullen
It was about half an hour long. That was the first time ever I'd ever used a short list. And again, it was such a night and day between, you know, getting to the edit and having everything and not having to be like, Oh, did I get that shot? Did I, you know, forget that because I'm literally just sitting and checking off.
00:17:38:20 - 00:17:55:16
Cullen
Well, I'm not. The first aid is literally sitting there checking off. And in addition to that, like the first lady, Adam has been really helpful because he also writes which takes or the best or like he'll like make a note in a column of every take and sort of say like, this one was good at this point, not so good for the ending.
00:17:56:08 - 00:18:13:23
Cullen
There was a mike issue in this one. There was, you know, so I can actually look at when I'm cutting together and when I'm sinking audio when I'm choosing which shots to take and use. I'm looking at this not only the shot list, but I'm looking at his kind of graph of which takes in these shots. Worked and which takes didn't work.
00:18:13:23 - 00:18:28:02
Cullen
So everything was just again, like I think the thing is, it sounds like so much to do, and this is one of the things that I it's funny enough, I actually spent the last week teaching a class as well four and a half hours a day, which was quite a lot of work to do to kind of come home from that and have to edit.
00:18:28:02 - 00:18:41:04
Cullen
But one of the things that I said to them is I actually showed them the production binder, like the kind of the production bible I have. And I was like, It looks like there's a lot in here. It looks like this is a ton of work, but it's really not, you know, it's really a lot of it's just common sense.
00:18:41:04 - 00:18:56:08
Cullen
And so when I talk about, you know, yeah, the first lady writing down the takes that work, it's like that seems like an extra step to have to take. But it's really not because I think everyone sort of looks at each other anyway at the end of a good take and says, That's a good one. Yeah, why not just write it down.
00:18:56:08 - 00:18:57:00
Cullen
Yeah, it's a yeah.
00:18:57:01 - 00:19:18:09
Clark
Organization is so key and it, you know, it's, it's easy to get wrapped up in it's especially if you're running behind and that's where preparation helps on so many fronts because it is kind of a cascade effect. Right. And you get on set, you're not well prepared or you start to get behind schedule. Then you start making shortcuts that are going to cost you so much later.
00:19:19:09 - 00:19:30:07
Clark
And these things don't take a lot of additional time. But when you feel rushed or you feel kind of stressed or if you're tired, you're kind of pushed to the limit, these things often start to fall to the side and get lost.
00:19:30:07 - 00:19:30:21
Cullen
Yeah, yeah.
00:19:30:21 - 00:19:49:08
Clark
And then they can be so helpful. So, so helpful. And you're right, it just it's just like an extra second and it's going to save you so much time in editing, especially now. I mean, it sounds like you didn't shoot a lot of coverage, extra stuff. You didn't do a ton of takes. So not huge, but but still a big time saver.
00:19:49:08 - 00:19:59:13
Clark
And especially on a if you did have a lot of coverage, if you did do a lot of takes, oh my gosh. To go through all of that without any kind of indication as to what you felt, you know, in the moment.
00:19:59:18 - 00:20:00:15
Cullen
But yeah, or.
00:20:00:22 - 00:20:20:08
Clark
That you're starting from scratch. So so I mean, what sounds like all the way around the the the all the pre-production planning that you did really helped make this a super efficient, super productive shoot. You got 12 pages in a day and you're happy with what you got.
00:20:20:08 - 00:20:36:07
Cullen
And I think that that's the funny thing too, is that like when I if I were to describe someone beforehand, it's like, Hey, I'm shooting a feature. I've got literally three crew, three actors, and we're going to do 12 pages in a day. I think that that would be one of those things that people would go, Yeah, good luck.
00:20:36:20 - 00:21:01:15
Cullen
I would too. You know, I again had planned to I had set aside time to do reshoots for the day or like an overspill day in, Kate, because I didn't think that we'd be able to get it. But again, it was I think that and this isn't only just it's a testament to the pre-production, I think is just that yeah, the more you prepare people I think, overthink and I think a big thing that a lot of people do too is panic.
00:21:01:19 - 00:21:20:07
Cullen
Like you said, they start going, Oh, we don't have time, we don't have time. And they start so they start cutting corners and then you know, maybe the quality isn't there or yeah, even you just miss a shot or something. And it's like that just winds up costing you more time in the long run because you're going to have to either go back and fix it.
00:21:20:07 - 00:21:22:04
Clark
Or the film will suffer.
00:21:22:04 - 00:21:22:09
Cullen
Because.
00:21:22:17 - 00:21:36:20
Clark
Yeah, yeah. So yeah, so it sounds like I mean, it sounds like a lot of stuff went right and I'm excited to see the footage. Did anything go wrong and did you learn anything and would you change anything about, Yeah, your first day on the job here.
00:21:37:13 - 00:21:42:05
Cullen
I would say that the closest thing to going wrong was just the one sound guy turning up late.
00:21:42:11 - 00:21:44:07
Clark
But that was Guy, whoever you are.
00:21:44:07 - 00:21:47:22
Cullen
Yeah, get it. But no, I wasn't. I wasn't angry, and I.
00:21:47:22 - 00:21:51:05
Clark
Just get it. I just get it. Lester bustin chops here, just in case.
00:21:51:07 - 00:21:56:02
Cullen
I'm saving my image. Because I actually was. You know, I was furious, but.
00:21:56:12 - 00:21:58:04
Clark
Right. I can just imagine.
00:21:58:04 - 00:21:59:14
Cullen
Yeah, I've heard rumors.
00:21:59:14 - 00:22:00:08
Clark
I've heard rumors.
00:22:00:10 - 00:22:18:07
Cullen
Colin There's a perfect example of just being able to, like, snap into another thing, which is just that, ah, you know, the sound guy was like, okay, sorry. You know, slip through my line. I'll be there as soon as I can. Right? And I was like, That's totally fine, because we'll just get there was a bunch of shots that we were going get that were Mos anyway, which is his motor only shot, or you know, without sound.
00:22:20:03 - 00:22:37:22
Cullen
And so we were just like, Let's just get those, you know, we'll just ship those ahead in the schedule and we'll get we'll get all those shots and literally, as we got done with those shots, he was there. So the timing worked out perfectly. And again, like a lot of these things are circumstantial. You know, will that timing always work out as perfectly as I did?
00:22:37:22 - 00:22:46:01
Cullen
No, But I think that's again, also why it's like, don't panic, just just kind of go with the flow of things. And yeah.
00:22:46:10 - 00:22:48:22
Clark
You keep your cool. Keep your cool. Yeah.
00:22:48:22 - 00:23:11:06
Cullen
And again had I which I would never do but had I like freaked out at him and been like, Oh, all right, you're not here for my shoot. And it's, you know, that would just totally kill the mood the whole day. I think that that's a tough balance. It it worked on a set before you know that the people who like get angry or have really short tempers, they just can kind of kill a whole shoot because it's just kind of like, I'm not enjoying this at all.
00:23:11:06 - 00:23:12:19
Cullen
And yeah, am I doing here?
00:23:12:22 - 00:23:49:11
Clark
Yeah, yeah. It could be a fine line, you know, it'd be a fine line. And I it's, it's sometimes can be difficult. Yeah. And you know, you often on a film set there are, you know people of passionate personalities and things can sometimes be challenging. But yes, it's always for the best If you can maintain diplomacy, professionalism, courteous and this absolutely this like this, this kind of romanticized idea of, you know, of actors or directors or just artist in general that are kind of like, you know, like off the hook and wild and kind of being ridiculous.
00:23:49:11 - 00:23:51:23
Clark
It's just in the real world that just doesn't fly.
00:23:52:06 - 00:23:57:20
Cullen
No, no, no. It's it. And when people attempt it, it definitely doesn't fly and it just ruins things.
00:23:57:23 - 00:23:58:11
Clark
Yeah.
00:23:58:21 - 00:24:05:13
Cullen
Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, again, I to me it was like the embarrassment of sleeping through your alarm is usually enough.
00:24:05:18 - 00:24:06:13
Clark
It's usually not.
00:24:06:13 - 00:24:10:12
Cullen
Again, I'm not going to, I'm not going to make the person feel bad, you know?
00:24:10:13 - 00:24:44:18
Clark
And, you know, a lot of times you can do fun things. I mean, I've heard I've heard stories where you know, if a professional sets even, you know, like big time professional sets, where where, you know, if somebody makes the mistake of having their phone and it goes off, you know, within kind of the you know, the the the zone of the camera, that they, you know, kind of do like slightly hazy but also funny, you know, like people will show up with t shirts that are like, you know, making fun of the person whose alarm that went off or, you know, or if somebody falls asleep on set, you know, they'll like take a
00:24:44:18 - 00:25:00:21
Clark
funny picture of them and they'll have a little, like, bored of shame. You can make it. You can make it fun. And obviously you have to be very careful. I'm not suggesting that it's appropriate that you like, hey, somebody in a in a in a way that is going to be misconstrued as as malicious. I don't think that's appropriate.
00:25:00:21 - 00:25:15:07
Clark
But I mean, there are there are kind of fun ways that you can have a sense of humor about these things. We're all human. We all make mistakes. And so you never want to be so harsh on somebody, you know, because like, look, eventually you're going to make a mistake, too. And then, you know, how would you want to be treated?
00:25:15:07 - 00:25:27:18
Clark
So. Right. You know, it again, it's like I always used to like when I was younger, I used to think, well, you know, the only thing that matters is the film. And it's like nothing else matters. And it's like you just you get the film done and everything is a sacrifice for that. And like, you know, who cares about anything else?
00:25:28:02 - 00:25:47:18
Clark
And I couldn't have a more different perspective now. I mean, I yeah, you know, I don't feel like the ends justify the means as some people out there might think that's horrible. But, you know, as much as I love film, I don't think it's appropriate to sacrifice people and their well-being for a film. I don't think it's necessary and I don't think it's called for.
00:25:47:18 - 00:25:48:21
Clark
So that's I mean.
00:25:49:08 - 00:26:13:05
Cullen
There were other other things, too, that that, you know, I was actually supposed to have two additional people there to just help out that the person who did sound was actually not the sound person, but the sound person was away at the moment, which I knew in advance. So I was able to kind of shift that around. But then there was another person there that was kind of going to act as a grip who wasn't able to be there.
00:26:14:06 - 00:26:35:23
Cullen
But again, as I mentioned, because of the prep and because I intentionally kind of overbooked everything so that I would have the ability to shift things around like that, It yeah, it wound up not even being like a speedbump. It was, it was just like, yeah, okay, plan for that and adjust it with plan B And so yeah.
00:26:36:02 - 00:26:55:10
Cullen
And the other I mean in terms of larger scale things going wrong too, we were supposed to actually shoot this part. So it was the first two Sundays ago was our first shoot and then this past Sunday it was supposed to be the race. It was one Sunday ago. This Sunday was supposed to be our second shoot, but I had to shift that to next Sunday because of the rain.
00:26:56:07 - 00:27:13:05
Cullen
But even then, because of the prep work and stuff like that, I was like, Well, we actually wound up shooting one of the scenes I had rewritten very last minute. The scene that was supposed to be shot this coming Sunday to fit it into the day of last Sunday. So our first shoot day and it actually wound up working way better.
00:27:13:05 - 00:27:29:16
Cullen
I think the scene works way better on its own. And that was actually just because I couldn't find a location for it. I couldn't find the interior that we needed. I just couldn't get there was nowhere available to rent it out. Yeah. And so I rewrote it to be an exterior and that's why it we shot it last Sunday.
00:27:30:15 - 00:27:50:13
Cullen
But because of the rain that it's this past Sunday, I was actually just able to shift that shoot to the day that we would have done that interior. So again, like just knowing the prep work and knowing people's availability, D has been, you know, unbelievably useful because I've just been able to shift things around like that and sort of be like, okay.
00:27:50:19 - 00:27:51:20
Clark
It gives me, hey, we.
00:27:51:20 - 00:27:53:12
Cullen
Can just take that sun and use it for that.
00:27:53:12 - 00:28:11:09
Clark
So planning and preparation will give you the give you the freedom to empower you, I guess is maybe a better way to say it to to be able to do those kind of things. Yeah exactly. Yeah. Well that's I mean, any other like parting final kind of thoughts? I mean, it's. I'm excited for you, man. It sounds like things are going really well.
00:28:11:09 - 00:28:18:07
Clark
I hope that. That we can find a way to share the results of all of your work.
00:28:18:17 - 00:28:41:03
Cullen
I mean, yeah, Yeah. Once I start, I've got for some of the shoots, I'll have like a beats videographer there that I'm going to start putting up for our production diaries. Yeah. I mean, I guess one parting thing is that even though I, you know, you should always expect things to go wrong and plan for the worst, one thing that feels very good to me is logistically, that first day was the hardest.
00:28:42:01 - 00:28:58:23
Cullen
And so knowing that now we've no longer got any locations that we're not fully in control of is a great feeling. And that even even though I don't feel like we rushed, there's no longer that pressure of like, you know we can't spend all day here.
00:28:59:07 - 00:28:59:16
Clark
Yeah.
00:28:59:16 - 00:29:15:21
Cullen
So yeah, yeah. I'm definitely looking forward to the rest of it again. I'm, I'm anticipating anything that might go awry. But as of right now, it's, it's smooth sailing and, you know, perhaps in a month I'll look back on this and be like, you naive son of a bitch.
00:29:17:07 - 00:29:24:00
Clark
And you've got it. So just to be clear, you've got you've got nine more shoot days left. Correct? Or. Yeah, okay.
00:29:24:00 - 00:29:27:03
Cullen
Next hour or ninth is or second is coming up. So nine. Yeah.
00:29:27:03 - 00:29:34:17
Clark
And you're shooting pretty much primarily on weekends, correct. So you'll be shooting over the course of the next two months or so roughly. Yeah.
00:29:34:17 - 00:29:38:15
Cullen
Our last I think we wrapped production just mid-August, so. Okay. Yeah.
00:29:38:22 - 00:30:01:09
Clark
Awesome. Well, it'll be fun to get some periodic updates from you and and not that I want anything dramatic to happen, but when it does, at least you'll have the silver lining of being able to have a story for us here. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Excellent. All right, colored. Well, thanks for taking the time to share some of your experience with us and everybody out there.
00:30:01:09 - 00:30:06:14
Clark
Thanks for taking the time to listen. We will see you all next time. Until then, take care.
00:30:06:14 - 00:30:08:20
Cullen
Bye bye.