WOW!!! What an experience... A couple of months ago when Ben called me and asked if I would be interested in Directing the Short " A glance in a Mirror" I was pretty excited, of course never having directed before, I had no idea what I was up against.. but said HEll yes!.. looking back there are so many things I would do differently, but wouldn't change the experience for anything. I was able to negoitate a deal with a production company that would supply us with DVX Cameras.. for those that don't know what they are, these are the same cameras used to film T.V. shows such as Ghost Hunters, Arrested Development, It's always Sunny in Philadelphia, etc. BEN WAS STOKED, to use a term from my childhood. He was like a kid at Christmas.. he was totally jazzed to have that camera in his hands.. in fact, I don't think I got to play with it at all... I gotta change that next time...
Once we had our initial read through with our cast we scheduled a blocking session where we blocked our scenes, we broke for the night and sent our cast home to work on their lines with a new schedule to rehearse in a couple of weeks.. during that time, I halfway worked out a shot list with story boards, of course, again, I had no idea how or what to do, so most of it stayed in my head, which for those of you out there thinking of doing this, is not such a good idea...write it down.. I learned the hard way, I think Ben would agree with this statement, in fact, I KNOW HE WOULD.
I spent quite a bit of time "setting up shots" and building equipment to use during filming, I built a Jib/Crane, dolly track and a few diffuser screens. the one thing I will change in the future is LIGHTING.. that is the key, we had a few REALLY NICELY lit scenes in this film... I mean REALLY NICE.. I can't wait to see them cut... I am very excited for those...
We spent Saturday and Sunday filming.. two very long days.. VERY long.. The crew and Cast were awesome!!!! We had a small cast of three, Coby Stulman as Meg, Joe Ahlert as Charlie, and Anthony Thomas as "The Guy" and a crew of Four including Ben and I, Claire Romano who was also the screenwriter, and Evan Clawson who ran Sound for us... I can't say how proud I am of everyone, and how honored I am to have worked with each of them.. it was truly a Great experience.. one, I can't wait to repeat!
