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…and I’m Spent!

After and exhausting and exhilarating weekend, The Specimen is in the can. (Or should I say cup?).

I wanted to thank my cast & crew for their tireless dedication over two long production days.  I had a pretty ambitious shot list for any location, but shooting in a real public bathroom (this wasn’t a set) made it all the more so.  We were all crammed on top of each other, forcing the actors to wade through a mine-field of c-stands to step in front of the camera.  Good luck keeping that boom mic out of the shot.  In some instances I literally had to direct by standing on an apple box and looking over the stall wall.  This made setups take longer than we thought, and stressed out our AD Sam Mark who was continually tweaking the schedule as we went.  Despite the cramped quarters, the cast & crew all maintained great spirits and professionalism (Well, as professional as you can be making a movie about masturbating in a public mens room.) thanks to my wife and Producer Dara, who made sure we all had food, water, or whatever else we needed.  We did end up going over schedule a few hours, but we got the shots.

In this respect my choice of shooting on a Canon 7D DSLR really was a god-send.  Due to it’s small footprint it allowed us to maneuver in ways we couldn’t have done with a larger camera, while still maintaining a high production standard.  Our DP Geoff Knight, his 1st AC Olivia Kuan, and our day 2 AC (Gaffer Jeff Porter) delivered some great shots through difficult focus pulls and camera moves, sometimes having to contort their bodies just to hold the focus whip and keep their eyes on the monitor.

Then of course there were the performances.  Brian Pope, Nate Orr, John Dunne, Jim Jones, and the other actors made it difficult for us to hold it together and not ruin the takes with laughter.  Sam said, “Quiet on the set,” a lot. It was a lot of hard work, but fun, and rewarding.  You can check out the production stills taken by Tony Teofilo on the Photos Page.

In short, I had an embarrassment of riches on this shoot with these folks at my side and I won’t let them down.  On to post-production.

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