The Blustery Day: Day 3 of Filming

So far day three has gone the smoothest. We got to set on time we get set up and got right to filming. After our long day of not knowing lines the day before I took David and ran lines with him for an hour. This helped tremendously. We started in the library where we left off the day before and we able to wrap the the library soon after.

After that we set up for the living room scene and after a long time of drilling lines we were far enough along that Ginny and I could run and get lunch for everyone. We came back just as they finished up in the library and moved up to the attic.

The attic was fun. We moved a lot of furniture around to make it look like a laboratory and with the help of the owner moved a beautiful but heavy desk from the library to the attic. The attic scene went well there were only a few takes and David remembered his lines. What made the attic really fun was This Guy coming up and visiting the set. He was so excited he stuck around for the rest of the day.  Kris and Evan did a lot of other little scenes that I wasn't around to see but he was extremely proud of a scene of a music box.

After all the little scenes we did another balcony scene where we laughed and joked. I got a great shot of Evan and Kris that is a perfect illustration of how well we all work together.

My favorite scene of the day was the a scene with a skeleton. It was my favorite because we had to jerry rig a way to make a skeleton turn his head and wave. We pulled it off and it turned out beautiful.

After we finished up we broke for dinner at Camden House a pizza house and enjoyed a well deserved break. We went back to set and got ready for our only outdoor scene. This scene was fun to shoot David had to ride a bike across the set. I think what made it most fun was the owners decided to sit outside and watch.

At the end of the day we were able to wrap 9 scenes which was everything that Evan wanted to get done we had an extremely successful day and finished it up by taking a cast photo for the owners to frame. I also got a few more stills of the set.

Watch for more of our South Carolina adventure!

Anne Orban 

Blogger and Photo Journalist 

Ipsum Fims 

The Blustery Day: 2nd Day of Shooting

There are always days on set that are hard. This day started out rough. We got a lot done but it was rough and these days will happen on set.

We started the day out late. Darn you daylight savings. Kris and I pulled up to the set and we had no actor. He forgot to bring nice shoes and thought he could buy some in the morning. Well he didn't find any came back and then we had to send him back to Wal-Mart to buy shoes after he finally got back and in costume we started two hours later than we had planned.



We finally were able to wrap all of the cellar scenes, which was nice because the cellar was cold and it took a long time to get everything right. Then we moved on to the library.

We were so behind at this point we took 2 hours in the library. Something that everyone has to remember is that emotions always run hot on a set especially when things are not going right. In order to try and lighten the mood I started to write funny sayings on the bottom of the slate. Everyone enjoyed seeing what the bottom of the slate would say next.

Even though it was a long day we still had fun we got coffee and started over. We  shot the last of the bedroom scenes and created a cool way to fake tearing out a base bored by using a cardboard box and a piece of wood.

We finished the day out with the funnest scene of the show, dropping a dummy from the banister. We named the dummy Costello and he is a dog. We had fun during these takes and it was a fun end to a long day.

If there is anything I have learned from this experience it is that patience is key on long days. I still got some great shots of the day!

Keep watching for more of our South Carolina adventure!

Anne Orban 

Blogger and Photo Journalist 

Ipsum Films 

The Blustery Day: 2nd Day on Set 1st Day Filming

Sorry its a day late but here is the blog!

In every film things never go quite as planned. Somethings just do not work the way you want them or they turn out better than you imagined. Kris has been trying to do the latter of the two for this film. The house we are in has just about everything we need to bring the story of "Johannes Cabal and the Blustery Day" by Jonathan Howard, to life.

When we arrived on set we went over the plan for the night and then went over one pressing matter, a door at the top of the stairs. There is a scene that Cabal has to run to the top of the stairs and slam the door then go to his lab. As beautiful as the house we did not have this luxury. Lucky for us Kris and Evan are both very creative people. We found a closet door and blocked it out that all we see is our Actor, David, and the door. After we figured this out we set a few things up and left for supper. 

When we got back we had one goal, finish all the night scenes. We didn't but we finished as many as we could. We had to stop early because we were occupying the owners master bedroom and it was midnight. Even though we didn't get as many scenes done as we wanted we were able to keep everything taped off and come back the next night and finish up. 

The best part of our first night of filming was the connections that we all made. Kris and Evan just work so well together. We all laughed and joked and began to create something that I think we can all be proud of. I took quite a few stills of the crew. 

Keep watching for more of our South Carolina filming adventure!

By Anne Orban 

Blogger and Photo Journalist 

Ipsum Films 

The Blustery Day: First Day On Set

Kris is always looking for projects so when he told me that he was asked to film a student directed short in South Carolina I wasn't very surprised and when he asked me if I wanted to come I was excited to be of help to him in this endeavor. This is of course how I felt before we hit the road.  One part of film is being available to travel which I love except for the 27+ hours in the car.

We left on Wednesday March 4th and arrived in the small town of Camden South Carolina on Friday March 6th. Camden is small but beautiful. The simplistic atmosphere lets you know that you are in the deep south it is a whole. The town is filled with beautiful historic buildings and houses which now brings me to the set of "The Blustery Day."

The set is a magnificently built house, the owner actually built it himself, to describe the entire house would be a post in its self so I will post a few photos so you can get an idea of how beautiful it is. We were very impressed when we arrived. It was as if we were arriving at Captain Von Traps home in "The Sound Of Music."

After we arrived on set we met the director for the first time,in person that is,  received some sweet tea from the owners wife and then received the grand tour. After getting a tour of a house this beautiful the term Grand Tour made a lot more sense to me. We then jumped right in to spiking the set.

For anyone who doesn't know, spiking is when you take every camera angle you are going to want and mark where the camera is on the set with tape. Most independent filmmakers that I have worked with have done this while shooting but to save time we decided to spike the day before. Having all the spiking done before hand will save us time so the director can work with his actor and Kris and I can work on getting the shots perfect. To be able to spike the set this quickly the director and the cinematographer have to be on the same page and the director needs to know what he wants. Luckily our director Evan is a great planner and knew almost every shot and he and Kris hit it off almost immediately after meeting.

Even though we have the luxury of a director who knows what he wants, since the house is so big it took us a very long time to track down all the shots we had to get a job that would have probably taken an hour on a small set took us three hours and we didn't get all the spiking done since there are still a few shots that the director is unsure of. After spiking we looked for a few last minute props got dinner, met the actor Kris and the director chatted about a few plans for the short. Our first day on set was a day of planning which is important to make sure your film is a success.

Thus far I have learned that when it comes time to film make sure you have all your planning done before hand. When you are filming on a budget it makes it that much more simple and will save you money in the long run. I have also learned that even though you may have planned everything give yourself room to be creative and never be afraid to improvise.

Watch for more on this weeks filming adventure and enjoy this picture of me being tired of the road!

By Anne Orban 

Blogger and Photo Journalist 

Ipsum Films 

We have a new video on YouTube! Answer Me Trailer

via IFTTT

Write a Treatment

Having written a handful of stageplays, short screenplays, and two features in the works - organizing and planning is nothing new to my process. That said, I have ignorantly avoided writing "Treatments" for scripts. 

Recently, I was encouraged to write a two page Treatment for a script that has been giving me a lot of trouble and have never felt my eyes more open about a script. 

A Treatment, in my eyes, has always been  an elusive creature ready to tear my fingers off. And while that is an unchanged opinion, I am excited to embrace the Treatment. 

It is a document, whether one page or thirty, that tells your story from start to finish. Similar in style to a super short story, or novella, in that it's dramatic and feels like a very precise and detailed work of fiction. The reader should be able to see, smell, and feel, the world and characters involved with the story, and every word in the document is chosen with pitching the script in mind. 

It is quite common, and often requested, that a Treatment accompany a script so it can be read before opening the script's coverpage. For that reason, the Treatment should be revered as the first impression readers will encounter and the way it is crafted will determine if your script will be read or thrown away. 

From start to finish, Treatments provide an eye opening truth that tell you where you are at in the development of the story. Trying to organize characters, scenes, plots, refine dialogue, pacing, overall continuity, etc, can get overwhelming and your brains starts to fill in the blanks of where the bigger picture needs to get to. By doing that, it's easy to say, "I'll fix this later. I'll come back to this. I'll remember this hole and fill it in." And so on. 

By writing a Treatment you can stay on top of where a script is at instead of assuming you've got everything in place. These periodic Treatments expose the height of stakes, relationships, and how entertaining the story actually is. 

Long story short, a Treatment is a very detailed summary (not an outline) of your screenplay. An outline has bullet points and facts, a Treatment paints a well crafted picture of your script.

Treat yourself and the stories you want to tell; read some example treatments and make write one yourself. 

Project Management

Writing Part 2 will come soon enough.. ;) 

For now, I need to share some thoughts on project management. 

Project Management, literally referring to the management of projects, is something that gets me excited and feeling fulfilled - yet it comes with its challenges. Personally, my tendency is to pass a phase of searching for every new project, then they pile up on top of each other, leading to a hearty workload that a full time job simply doesn't allow. 

In the last year, my project management skills have exponentially grown but I am far from perfect. 

Everything aside, there are a few things that have been aiding in recent productivity: 

1. Go to SLEEP before midnight every chance possible. Whenever that doesn't happen, productivity tends to lack the next day. 

2. DON'T DWELL on a project. "Pet" projects aren't usually worth the countless hours, or years, of "what if." Just do them and move on, as much as possible. If they don't pour out of you, and they're a burden, they could easily feel that way to an audience. 

3. COMMUNICATE. Some of us are notoriously awful at communicating, even though the world is at our fingertips. Never assume others are on the same page with the rat race taking place in your mind. Communication is the most basic step to accountability and reputation. 

With everything going on: jobs, family, sanity, and personal projects - it is easy to get lost. 

Keep a calendar. Talking is better than texting. Prioritize. Strive for fulfilling experiences and don't take yourself TOO seriously.