Running a production is tough stuff and can feel incredibly overwhelming, so I wanted to share my experience with you guys! I kept a production blog for my newest piece,Classic Alice, and tweaked it a little bit to make sure the experience was educational for anyone out there thinking about working a production.
The Shoot!
Jan 2014. This was it! Our shoot days had arrived in early Jan. and we set out to make being on set fun and profitable for everyone. We shot the first book at my house (oi) entirely; Andrew’s set was in one corner of my office and Alice’s dorm was on the other side. The night before the shoot, our set designer came and set up the major pieces (including the ridiculous diorama that would be used in one of the episodes) and helped rearrange my house to look more like a dorm.
My wonderful director (@thejdcompton) organized our shooting schedule and I made our call sheets out. I just used a filmmaking kit that I downloaded to make sure they looked fancy and professional and emailed them to the cast and crew. We shot somewhat out of order because of actor schedules, but everything was relatively clear-cut: because it’s a vlog-style documentary, we didn’t have to worry about billions of camera set ups and our major time sucks were pretty minimal.
We knew that we would need to give ample time for costume and makeup/hair changes to make sure it was clear that time passed from episode to episode. My hair and makeup was the most time-consuming, but Crystal (hair & makeup) and I had a good chat about what looks we wanted, so it was just a matter of implementing the changes and getting the director approval on wardrobe.
Then we’d head into set! Because the lighting and camera set ups were simple, we really got to focus more on the performance. The style of the show meant that I had just BUCKETS of monologues to memorize. To help, we set up a music stand just off camera & I had my script right there for reference. There were also many, many takes of errors — which we should be compiling into a blooper reel! It was really a pretty low-key, easy production day both days and we’re sharing fun stories over on our Tumblr for #OnSetSecretSunday, a feature we just recently implemented to embrace our transmedia experience!
Shooting took two days to complete thirty three pages (which is a LOT of pages) and the days weren’t insanely long — so I was pretty proud (and exhausted) by the end of it! I definitely hope to not shoot in my house again (poor Josh is also super allergic to cats) but the reality is: when you’re a low budget production, you’re going to probably have to do things you wish you didn’t have to do. Shooting in your home? one of them. It really saves a lot of money and lets you move faster (no locations trips).
Still: no matter what, the on set experience is by far my favorite — I’m an actor first and I’m happiest in a place I get to play and perform. I can’t wait to go back for Book 2 of Classic Alice, which we just secured funding to shoot!
See you guys next time! As we at Classic Alice say: Top Aces!