An Indie Film Reflection (Part Three)
A good crew can make all the difference - but so do good friends.
We’ve done it. We’ve conquered California without being bothered for permits. In fact, our latter days of shooting were constantly full of the question - where is everybody? Empty streets. Empty beach. Empty pack of Menthols. Before leaving Canada I harassed an acquaintance of mine who lives in Los Angeles incessantly about the rules - or rather the unwritten rules of filmmaking in the filmmaking capital of the world that seems bent on discouraging it. With her guidance I felt ready to get away with murder but ultimately it did not seem to matter. I was glad I was able to ask these questions, though, and then I began to reflect on the importance of relationships in this business.
I met Angelique on an off - chance through a Facebook post looking for an Assistant Camera three years ago for a 3 day shoot in Calgary. You just never know when the right person will pop up and where you’ll find them and thanks to her I was able to keep myself on the level through airport security and I knew all the right things to say and do if ever I was to be stopped. The biggest rule? No tripods and no more than three in your “crew”. I kept my gear compacted tight and we never left our AirBNB with more than a backpack.
But now the fun in the sun is over and reality is setting back in - we have to take ourselves through reshoots.
I know reshoots are an unfortunate reality of any project, big or small. Things happen outside of your control and it’s up to you as the director to understand that there is a reason for everything. I try and tell myself that in the end, even though it’s not readily visible right now - the events that just unfolded will make your project better. This reflection has held true throughout my slow post production process and I am thankful for those first 3 days that fell apart on us. Basking my actors in true punk culture before we came home to shoot out the beginning of the movie was critical and someday I plan to release the scenes we shot before we went next to the ones we shot after returning. Night and day isn’t a big enough statement of separation.
With a narrow window to get our planning square, I get aligned with a small but very eager film office in Stettler, Alberta. New to the film game, Stettler was quick, reliable, and so helpful in getting us our locations but now we’re missing a key crewmember - a DP.
Shooting AND directing can be a real challenge. I used to do all of my short films this way but I recognize how far it takes me away from being able to get the story right and ensure the actors feel equipped and confident. With my budget growing thinner and thinner every day, I tap into good friends to build a good crew…………………………… but he’s busy. HOWEVER! He taps HIS good friend and in enters Tyson King. Tyson is a fantastic teammate and an even better shooter. With a really unique eye, Tyson takes us into our Stettler shoot with innovation I was not expecting when I sat down to write this script. Lighting scenes with a projector, blooming our image with a fishing net, Tyson gave Shutter Punk the separation from the norm we needed. With no experience running the Blackmagic, he turned out a consistent and undeniably cool image that reinforced my beliefs that sometimes you don’t need a good crew - just good friends.
During one particular scene, that I wrote no less, I was not able to be near camera. It was a heavier scene based on my personal experiences with a violent alcoholic parent that I had no idea would affect me so much in practical application. On paper it seemed fine, but in person it was not. I expressed this to Tyson and to my AD, Gerald, and nothing more needed to be said. I simply sat on the stairs until it was over. I didn’t have budget for movie, I certainly don’t have budget for therapy.
Patience is a virtue but so is a cocaine addiction.
No, we weren’t on cocaine, but there are times I wish we were. Despite the fun we were having, the days were burning fast. I was quickly learning just how much time has to be allotted to shoot scenes that last 2 minutes and faced with a decision. Rush what we have left or figure out how to add more days later. Did I mention my thinning budget? I was already 3 days over my original plan and in a game with razor thin room for error I was beginning to stress the fuck out.
So at the dinner table we sat again (see part one) but this time we sat with purpose. Everyone understood how far we had come and they understood how much of a better project we were now making so we made plans to add more days. Not quite sure how we would afford it but determined to make it happen. Would I have gotten the same level of understanding from people I did not know? Not likely. That’ s why I believe relationships are the most important thing you can have in independent filmmaking (and why I find myself standing on top of a definitely in service CN Train)
Skinhead Sheldon
Contrary to popular belief, skinhead and racist are not the same thing and as I peer down the length of a railroad track from atop a train car, the man standing in the gravel below calls up to me from his anti - nazi t shirt wearing chest and says “Yeah I don’t think this track is out of service, man".”
Whilst looking for bands to perform songs in Shutter Punk, I met Sheldon. Sheldon is a long time punk and borderline historian in the Alberta punk scene who was able to guide me towards bands like Harsh, as well as make suggestions that increased the exposure of punk in Calgary. With the promise of several holy grail locations for the movie on the horizon Sheldon and I linked up in the city to scout.
I swing by the mall to pick up my latest filmmaking relationship and he cracks a beer before we even leave the interior of the mall. Ballsy. He lights a joint in my car and he gives me directions to a deadly spot he heard of from a friend - an abandoned train track in the south with an abandoned train. This will be a great spot to set up and do an outdoor show. We talk punk the whole way there. Rush hour traffic gives me opportunity to gain insight into the world of a going on 40 punk and I get to share bits and pieces of me, a latecomer who grew up in a super restrictive and intolerant environment.
Yeah, this train is not abandoned.
Cool spot, I say. Get your finger outta my ass says the graffiti on the train. I like it……….but we dash at the appearance of two CN rail workers coming up the track. Sheldon blames his friend whilst we walk quickly, joint still hanging on his lip. But we still have one spot to go - an abandoned skate park in the middle of the city. I think the word abandoned has started to lose it’s meaning and thus I have no longer been abandoned by my mother as a child. Look at that! No therapy needed!
Sheldon is hanging out the window of my car raising middle fingers in the air. FUCK GENTRIFICATION he says to a group of businessmen walking across the street. Hell yeah. We roll up to the park, now pushed out of the landscape by an overpass. The remnants of the ramps are there and right away I know this is the spot. It’s free, it’s bright, it’s loud as fuck and my sound guy is going to piss himself but hey, the things we do for the art.
Sheldon lights another joint as we wander the space taking photos, telling me about the shows they have played there in the past and somewhere in between he mentions the warrants out for his arrest. I’ve got my spot. I’ve got good stories to share in the future, and now it’s time to go meet more friends that are going to turn this spot into what it deserves - the band HARSH.
