02/05/10

Today has not ended for me just yet, but thought I would catch you up on what has happened so far …

This morning started at 8am – Daz (my location manager), Joe (my assistant director), James (my cinematographer) and Gary (my production manager) all piled into cars to take one last look at my locations.

The shooting location for Sweet As

I had prepared myself for what I thought was going to be a day of  ”no”s as I had been warned that I am over budget, my script times 30 seconds over and I just don’t have enough hours in the day to shoot my project. I always knew that it was going to be tight, but being able to explain each of my shots etc to Joe and James really made me feel at east as they were both on the same page as me! This also means that I have not had to cut anything just yet…

Milo Cawthorne, who plays Sean in Sweet As

In other news, I finally have Sean (talk about last minute casting)! I was able to get none other than the green Power Ranger – Milo Cawthorne! I was also able to choose James’ hero car (a 1980’s Toyota Corolla) and swing by Ken’s warehouse to look at the opening credit signage that he has created (awesome) and to choose the looks of the photo albums that James and Sean will have!

Signage created for the film's opening credits sequence

Phew – it is now 8pm and I am about to start my dreaded shot list (I have been procrastinating – why am I so scared of it?) and to finalize the photos that we will be green screening the actors into for the albums.

02/06/10

Twas the night before shooting and all through the production…. IT WAS UTTER MAYHEM! No not really – it has actually been extremely calm, collected and civilized!

The morning started off with me sitting with James (my DP) and going through my shot list to trim, trim and then trim some more (Agh!). Anyhow, we were almost there and close to rocking and rolling tomorrow…

Luke's super-short shorts

It was then last minute additions with Ken (Production Designer) for the set before Luke Hawker and Milo Cawthorne arrived for their costume tests etc. I had never met Milo before, so was glad that we clicked right away. Luke then came up and I felt slightly bad about making him wear his character’s super short shorts, but everything came together and he looked GREAT! Pip (Costume Designer) really outdid herself. Unfortunately due to availability, Kate and Helen (Granny and Nana) do not fly in until tomorrow which means Pip will be doing all the fittings solo, but I trust her and know that she will show me pics and selections at the end of the day …

Anyhow, we shot the costume tests, compiled the images with background images and sent those off to Ken to Photoshop together (these images will appear in the photo albums). Then it was back to the damn shot list (bane of my existence) and they have just now handed me my call sheet for Day #1 – SO EXCITED! I am going to try to get as much sleep as possible tonight, but have a feeling that my mind will not stop …

Aya