The anatomy of a short film

I wrote several drafts very quickly. The working title was SOULMATES.  The script was full of swearing, blaming, yelling. I tried to take the intensity of emotion to the limit. I sent the script to Leah Holder at Theatre by the Bay to see if it could be included in Barrie Theatre Lab's October session. It was accepted. That was a mistake.

The good news this month is that I pitched a THE CHRISTMAS NOTE rehearsed table read to Theatre by the Bay's Iain Moggach and Zarah Walpole as a Christmas Fund Raiser for the company. The drawing card was Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame inductee, Jason McCoy. The musical is written around his songs, and he has a starring part. All speed ahead for a December event.

We did the table read for and EVER at the Barrie Theatre Lab, and with some very fine actors. But I thought it was awful. The writing was stilted. The profanity didn't add a thing. It distracted. My plot was lost in the quagmire and the dialogue dragged. No amount of swearing and yelling would cover up its flaws. Everyone at the Lab was very encouraging. I felt I was getting a participation medal, a pat on the back, and here, have a popsicle. I had to put this debacle on the shelf for a while and think about how to turn this minor disaster around. I wasn't giving up. It, and I, had to sit for a while. It was an exercise after all. I never meant to make this into a short film.

The script sat on the shelf, but the theme kept whirring in my head until it started to have a beat. The beat turned into words and chords. The song is called DARKNESS. I recorded it with producer/composer Glenn Coulson. I listened to it over and over. I liked it. But, it was missing something.

The song needed to be a duet. DARKNESS is a tragic love song, so it needed another voice to contrast mine. In my head I heard the cool, smooth tones of the very talented Kat Chabot. I had met Kat quite a few years ago and our paths would cross now and again. I sent her a note. To my delight she agreed to lend her voice to the song. Glenn Coulson worked magic as he produced, recorded and mixed her vocals. I laid down a haunting lead guitar solo and the song was finished. Hold on. Was I now committed to producing this short film? No. Yes. No. Yes. I just wanted to... I didn't know what I wanted to do with it.

I was deep into tweaking the feature for the Christmas event, but I kept flipping over to SOULMATES because it gnawed on me. I started rewriting it from the end backwards. I knew where I wanted to end up. In a film the action lines are as important as the dialogue. Show don't tell. But these two people are in a car, stuck, can't move. I reminded myself that this was just an exercise I created to improve writing dialogue. My fits and starts on SOULMATES actually helped THE CHRISTMAS NOTE as I was making revisions on that script. Every course, seminar, book, podcast and Youtube video I've ever taken, read, listened to or seen all have one underlying lesson. Just write, keep writing until your fingers bleed, your eyes go fuzzy and your brain hurts. That always served me well in my long career as an advertising writer. When ideas don't come, writer's block can be paralyzing. So just put pen to paper or hands to keyboard and start. Plow through that wall. You could be writing complete nonsense. But it works.

THE CHRISTMAS NOTE was a great success. I was so grateful to Theatre by the Bay, the incredible actors and Jason McCoy for trusting me with creating a RomCom genre script around his songs. And I was armed with some great feedback. Seeing and hearing my work performed really helps to see where the script could be strengthened.

SOULMATES helped THE CHRISTMAS NOTE. And the inverse was true. I pulled up SOULMATES on my laptop and sliced and diced my way through the dialogue. Some of the best lines ended up in the recycle bin. They had nothing to do with the story. Swearing gone, the introduction of two new minor characters helped turn this into a love story. It always was one, I just couldn't see it until my characters told me. Lesson learned, (again), well developed characters will start making the decisions for you. So I went back and spent time thinking about them. Screen and Play writers start scripts many different ways. Character driven, plot driven, theme driven. I discovered I tend to be theme driven. How do my characters fit into that theme? What makes them care about that theme? In a short film most of those characters traits or the back story will never be seen, or known by the audience. But I know it. The characters know it. And it dictates what they will do when faced with adversity. It was all starting to take shape.

Time to take a break. Discipline is key when writing. You just have to do it, and keep doing it. But there's a point where you need to sit back and look at the stars. Let the mind wander. Relax. At least that's my experience. Read some books, watch some mindless movies.

Oops. That didn't last long. I had an idea for The Simcoe County Theatre Festival, where my play, THERE ARE ENEMIES, was featured the year before. I spent a couple of weeks fleshing the new story out. Then I tabled it and went back to SOULMATES,  and discovered that there's a zillion movies titled some form of SOULMATES. So switched to WISHFUL. I didn't like that either. But it was a working title.

I finally had SOULMATES/WISHFUL/AND EVER where I wanted it. So do I try and produce this script? I thought, "Hey, I've written and produced and directed hundreds of TV commercials, corporate videos and on and on. How hard can this be? So I started putting together my production book. My first narrative, my first serious short film.

I put together my budget. Who do I need to pay and who can I pull some favours from? I wasn't starting from ground zero. I have a great group of friends that are in or retired from the television business. I also have worked with some amazing younger (much younger than me) media whiz's. I was planning to go to camera  on May 27 and 28. I said it. I wrote it down. It's real.

Now to put the pieces in place.

I put out a casting call for the two principle actors on Facebook pages in the Simcoe County area related to theatre, film and the arts in general. Unfortunately I only got one local woman. I sent her the sides to put together an audition video. I never heard from her again.

But Khaleel Gandhi, the Communications and Marketing person at Theatre by the Bay, sent me a text saying he'd like to help. I've known Khaleel for a couple of years now. He's multi-talented, creative and easy to work with. Note to all: Be easy to work with. Khaleel has done some amazing work, including the Theatre by the Bay documentary and I asked him to be my DOP.

The next day, February 25, my former Production Manager/Exec Producer for a music show I produced, asked if he could be any help. I was delighted. Mike Patterson has written, produced and directed and brings a wealth of knowledge and experience. He recently finished his own feature, GOOD GRIEF IT'S FRIDAY.

Did I mention they both volunteered their time? Very grateful.

I was hoping to cast this short film locally. I was offering an honourarium of $150 plus travel. That didn't look like that was going to happen. Mike said he got a good response from the website, MANDY. So I put the call out once more. I was inundated with responses.

I sent out the sides to over twenty, what seemed to be, very keen actors. The age range was the only defining factor.  I was looking forward to seeing the audition videos.

Now, I needed a car. Not just any car, but an old car in great shape. A 1960's something. I thought I would head down to Heritage Park in Barrie on a Wednesday night (in May) to the show and shine to see if anybody was up for putting their car in the film. I only needed one day with it . Then it struck me that my friend, Greg, had a 1970 Camaro SS RS. A very rare version of that car. I had owned a 1969 Camaro. But the difference was apples and solid gold oranges. He has owned it since new. He didn't drive it in the rain. I don't think that he'd let me sink it in a swamp. But I had a work around for that. (which would be the bane of my existence, but more on that in July) An email was promptly replied to and Greg graciously agreed to let me use his hot rod.

I had the car, a DOP, and an AD. Only make up, audio, a swamp and two more actors to go.

Despite the huge response to the initial audition notice. When it came to the audition videos. The response was underwhelming. The script is very challenging. I believe it intimidated people. It's all dialogue while stuck in a car with lots of dynamic. I had one actor continually telling me he will send me an audition video when he's off the film he's in and before he starts the next one and blah, blah, blah. After about four emails like that I never heard from them again.  All in all I had two women and two men apply for the 'job'. Lucky for me they were all great. How did I choose? It wasn't easy. I went with the two that looked like they were from the era. Christa and Jack. Time to tell them the good news.  I also took the time to thank the other two. No response from them. Note to actors: If a producer/director contacts you to tell you thanks but no thanks, that's a courtesy that is rarely extended, and you should acknowledge that. You never know what other projects they have in development that you might be perfect for. Top of mind and easy to work with. Be that person.

Audio person, that was an easy get. My friend, fellow producer/director, one time boss, and someone who worked about every job in television including audio. That was quick ask and accepted. I passed the make up person search to my daughter. A one time make up artist and now Creative Director/Production Designer for a film company.  I interviewed via ZOOM the two she thought would be good for the job. So now I had my four actors and crew. I voluntold my other daughter, a wedding photographer, that she was doing behind the scenes photography.  But I needed a swamp. and fast.

The shoot days were fast approaching. My production book was coming together. A two day shoot. Skeleton crew. Two actors for one day with OLD ZED, ( the car). Two actors the second day in the swamp. Damn swamp! I scoured Simcoe County for an accessible, quiet, no hikers, more marshy than swampy location to place my rescuers. No luck. Yet. But dinner at a friends place in Oro-Medonte solved that. His daughter and son-in-law own a farm with a marsh smack dab in the middle. Beside the bugs. It was perfect.

My main actors live in Toronto, and like many young struggling actors, they do not own a car. So rehearsals were after hours at my daughter's business in the east end of the Six. I'm not paying them a lot. But they were both eager to get rehearsing. We started with a couple of ZOOM rehearsals. Then three in person rehearsals a week apart. They noted that often they don't get any rehearsal time for these low budget short films.  Wow. Maybe that's why they were so enthusiastic. I appreciated it.

Mike, my AD, and I had several discussions. We had one in person meeting with all the crew to go over the details. We planned to shoot on a Black Magic Cinema 6K using 10 - 20 mm lens and a 24-70 mm lens. Audio was recorded on a Tascam unit with a boom mic. I'd sync that up in post. Premiere Pro makes that easy, well, easier than it used to be.

I have a half second 3D animation I needed done. I put the call out on a bunch of production and film related FB pages and other social media platforms. I have a small budget for this. The big animation houses didn't want to touch it. I asked my graphic design friends. They threw out there, but nobody in Simcoe County. And nobody in Toronto could do it. And I didn't even tell them how much I had. But I did buy the 3D model, so I just needed it animated. Steve from Houston, who used to live in Burlington ON, said he'd do it, no problem. Good, it seems I'm set.

Mike and I had done a camera/lens test earlier in the month. Greg and Bonnie have a large garage where Greg keeps the Camaro. It was perfect for our 'studio'. I tested the green screen covering the car. Why? More on that later. Everything seemed to be going smoothly.

Saturday, May 27

The crew arrived early at the location while I picked up lunch for the crew and then headed to the Barrie Go Station to wait for my two actors. I was able to pay a small honourarium and I paid for their transportation. They arrived at 10, and we got to the location 20 minutes later. I figured we'd be done by 5.

I should have warned Tatyana about traffic coming up from Toronto. Barrie is the gateway to cottage, beach and camping country. Saturday morning coming out of Toronto on a beautiful day looks similar to a parking lot at Walmart at Christmas. She arrived and Christa went into makeup.  We constructed a green screen to take promo photos with Christa and Jack. Kelsey did those and all the behind the scenes photos. It's really nice to have those.

We have a beautiful 1970 Camaro, but we barely get a glimpse of it in the film. The majority of the film is shot in the interior. We put a chroma curtain over it so I could key in the 'exterior' in post.

NOTE: Do any camera testing in the environment you are actually shooting.

I did the green screen test outside with tons of natural daylight. Shooting inside, I didn't have near enough or powerful enough lights. Lesson learned.

Christa and Jack were well rehearsed and we ran through their scene on a reverse angle straight through about 3 times. I knew it wasn't an angle I was going to use often, so it was a good warm up for them.

All in all I had 6 angles storyboarded. Not much freedom when you're in a car. Especially a smaller car. A wide angle, or in this case a two shot. A reverse wide angle as mentioned before. Then each actor had a CU and a two shot. Both of these were shot through the drivers and passenger doors with the windows down.

Microphone placement was tricky. I had a Rodes stereo mic suction cupped to the front window and a boom mic hidden in the console. We didn't have the Tascam set up correctly so the sound became problematic. Good, but... I talk about that when we get into post-production.

We worked fairly efficiently but time was escaping us. We had a reasonable break for lunch. Then back at it. Lighting became an issue. I knew I could fix it in post, but if we had the right lights, it would have saved me a week in After Effects.

Christa and Jack were great. At times it was stuffy in the car and we had to let them get some air. We plodded along. It would have been a good idea to pull Kelsey off BTS and had her as my script assistant. I missed a couple of pickup shots. They were there on the script. I just missed them in the rush. They would have really helped in editing.  Having the rehearsals saved loads of time in front of the camera. The actors knew what to do, and each time they did it better. We did no more than three or four takes of most shots. My 5 pm deadline went whistling by and we wrapped about 6:30 pm.  It would have been great to socialize, but everybody was dead tired and we needed to break everything down and I was giving the actors a ride back to Toronto from Barrie. I pulled back into my driveway at 11 pm. And we had our second shoot the next day. Thankfully not until 11 am.