Why We Shoot

Pre-Productionating

Hi. It's Ben.

I guess you could say Pre-Production officially started yesterday. Tara and I met with Natalie Sakai, a really sharp producer who I feel is going to give our production that final shove off the ledge of uncertainty and into the soft warm bosom of productivity and unnecessary metaphors.

The script still isn’t quite where I want it but I’ve sort of reached that point where I want to see what our cast is like, what our location is like, and then use those tangible characteristics to massage it into a solid shooting draft. Also, Tara has been hocking me to post a blog on our spiffy new blog site…which is why I’m doing this. Right now. So there.

As we enter pre-production I continue to try and visualize the film. One thing I've learned over the years is that it’s integral to the process to have a visual framework that your crew can identify and understand. So I’ve been storyboarding with a previz program on my computer, which has been really helpful because, as detailed below, I’ve discovered I can’t draw.



We’re posting casting calls this week and aim to start holding auditions for the role of Jessica next week. I’m really excited about our lead, Mike McKiddy, a fellow Detroiter with whom I’ve never had the privilege to work. He has a quality about him that is going to play perfectly as the character of Josh.

I’m not gonna lie. We still have six weeks till we shoot and I’m already fucking terrified. I’m one of those people who obsesses over unresolved issues. Problem with making a low budget short film is…well…you have absolutely no control of any of those things. It’s sort of like skydiving without a parachute.

Ha. No it’s nothing like that actually. Cause that would kill you. And this isn’t going to kill me.

or is it…