"Just Make The Budget Work!"

This weekend I worked on a student film entitled "Trystan." It was really fun, unbelievably exhausting, and a great learning experience. On Friday I went to the Film Society meeting right after my pre-production class. For my pre-pro class I have to work on a set and write about my experience, job, and overall observations. During the meeting Natalie and Spencer the A.D and Director came in and asked if anyone wanted to work on their film. Immediately raised my hand and signed up. Boy was I in for an incredible time. Every Friday and Sunday I work on a ROAR Network show called "LMU's Next Top Ridiculously Good Looking Person". Basically it is a spoof on America's Next Top Model and it is really laid back and simple compared to "Trystan."
Saturday I got up at 6:00 in the morning and was picked up by Natalie to go to Tommy's house in Westchester where we were filming for that day. During the day I unloaded the very full equiptment truck. did makeup, wardrobe continuity, set up craft services, set up lights, wrote about 1,000 sticky notes for a scene, dressed sets, yelled "camera rolling", and tried to stay out of a lot of people's way. It was exhausting. By 10:00 we were done shooting and I had to help pick up all of the equiptment (ex. dollies, tracks, gaffing, cords) and put the house that we used back the way it was. This included moving beds and desks, putting doors back on their hinges, and rewiring computers. We got back to campus around 11:30 p.m. The next day I had to wake up at 7:00 and we drove to Torrence where we were shooting at a different house. I did basically the same thing but a lot more because I felt more comfortable and learned most of the lingo that is used around sets. Natalie, the Assistant Director, was incredibly funny and really kept everybody laughing while also keeping everybody moving. At one point during a break Spencer (Director) was talking to Tommy (Producer) on the phone trying to get him to bring everyone lunch.
"Do we get vegetarian stuff?"
"Of coarse we get vegitarian stuff we are in California!"
"Wait if we get veggies we can't get cookies"
"Get both"
"We don't have enough in the budget"
"Tommy just make the budget work"

It was an incredibly funny interaction and there were tons of them during the 2 days of fiming. Natalie was talking to Bren the actress that Spencer hired. Bren asked "Can I go to a smile?" Natalie said" Go to a smile....Travel to it" in very dramatic voice like she was in the theatre. It was hilarious. By the end of the second shooting day I was exhausted. We didn't start loading up the truck until 12:00 a.m and We didn't get back to campus until about 2:00 a.m I still had a paper to write that was due in roughly six hours at 8:00 and so I had to pull my first all nighter after a total of 35 hours of working on a film. It was hard and I spent the rest of the remaining hours sitting in a really uncomfortable chair in the Whelan study room. After finishing classes on Monday at 2:00 I went go take pictures of a location in Venice for my pre-pro class. I got back at 4:00 and went to bed. I didn't wake up until 6:30 this morning. I think that was the longest I have ever slept. Overall this weekend was defintely worth it. I got actual experience outside of the class room and a small glimps of what production is actually like. This weeked I am working on a thesis film Friday, Saturday, and Sunday so I now have an idea of what I am going to be doing. It is going to be tiring but it is really worth it in the end and I love doing it no matter the amount of sleep that I don't get. Well that was what my weekend was like. These are a few pictures that I took while on the set.