We began the journey on the 21st of March 2010. It was a placid Sunday. Omission was launched at the local bowling club in Erskineville as we enjoyed $9.40 jugs of beer. I say we because I already have a friend who has signed on to make this film with me! Kate Vinen will be the Production Manager for the film and I couldn’t be happier.
We’ve already had two production meetings (each over 5 hours in length, but we were drinking beers through them, and one of us was playing rough with codine) and it looks like we’ll be the most organised short film in history. I knew that making a short was going to be complex but the list of tasks and milestones that have already is in the 100s. It’s a gargantuan task, but both Kate and I are so passionate about it at the moment that it hurts.
What’s happened so far?
Organisation
Two weeks worth of milestones, and two days worth of work for one of the 9 projects
At school, or university (or any of my past jobs) organisation hasn’t been the thing that I’ve been commended on. I didn’t have a good enough system to really keep track of my tasks, and often when things got really busy I’d be overwhelmed. This time we’re doing it right. We’re using Basecamp to manage our tasks, and messages online. I’ve learnt the hard way that if something isn’t written down then it doesn’t exist. This is especially the case when you’ve got multiple people working on the project, and you can’t always meet in the one place.
We currently have a number of projects in Basecamp: Producer, DOP, Manage Project, Script and Storyboard, Market and Promote, Cast, Locations, Equipment and Props. Above is a short view of two days in the Producer project which is tracking our search for a kick arse producer (if you know one, email us!). We use milestones to track and assign tasks and comments on those milestones to track how they are going. We also use messages pretty heavily as a writing or scratch space. So for example, every potential producer we identify gets a message which lists who they are, how we found them, what they’ve done, why we want them, and how we contact them. Phew! We can also use to-dos (milestones without the due dates) to breakdown milestones further.
All of this is presented to us in a upcoming two week table for every project and overall and it’s great. I wish we had better reporting tools, but really, done tasks don’t matter a whole lot, Basecamp is all about getting the next things done.
We write down everything, all conversations, messages, phone calls, extensive notes from meetings etc. I’m sure all this organisation will pay off in saving us a heap of time when things get even more complex than they are now. I really don’t know how else you would manage something as complex as putting a film together if you didn’t have this.
One last thing, the email notices from Basecamp are excellent. It allows everyone to be up-to-date even if they aren’t logging in often. Kate said the other day ‘it’s so much fun, It’s fun to log in.’ Sweet.
Trying to Find a Producer
For a first time filmmaker it’s always difficult to find Producers: you’re a risky bet. Communicating why you’re different is difficult to do.
What we’ve done is create a nice ad that we can put out on various channels: email lists that friends have, online newsletters, facebook groups, friends, forums etc. The response hasn’t been huge yet, and the best options we have is from our networks. The ad went from asking a lot to being more humble about collaborators, we’ll see how that goes.
I’m still keen to get a producer on board as there is so much to do in organisation and later marketing that I feel like I’m being distracted from the script and visualisation of the film because of it. Wesley told me to just suck it up and do it all myself, that’s what being a filmmaker is all about. I agree with him in principle but I think with the right producer things will go even more smoothly.
Rough Overall Schedule
We’ve established that we want to deliver the film by the middle of October (a week or two before the Metroscreen ones are due. Oh spite!) and we want to shoot the first couple of weeks of July. It will be a 5 day shoot broken up over the 2 weeks. That gives us just over 3 months for preproduction and 3 months for post production. It seems like a long time, but with all of the tasks around finding management, finding crew, finding actors, rehearsing, locations etc etc it’s not going to be very long at all!
Production Meeting 3 on Wednesday will be our film scheduling meeting. I’m reading up on it right now. We’re going to set rough dates around when we want crew locked in, cast locked in, rehearsels. I’m a little afraid as there are so many things that are up in the air right now, but I know that as more people get involved the more it’ll come together.
Trying to find a Director of Photography
I’ve just spent 7 hours in the AFTRS library going through every film made by the class of last year. And surprisingly I liked the work in many of them. The long cast list on them is daunting, I feel like Omission is going to be made by a team of 3, but it’s nice to see how people got better as their time in AFTRS progressed.
I’d had some cinematographer’s in mind already from talking to Kate who seems to know everyone, but I added quite a number today. It will be great to talk to them having seen the work that they’ve done.
I’m writing the contact letters to them now and I hope I can meet with a number. So many of them have already launched into careers that I hope they’ll want to work with me.
There are also some personal friends who are excellent candidates, but there’s always an extra level of care when working with friends. The contact with the DOPs begins at the end of the week, and we’ll see what we come up with. I want to contact them with an introduction of some sort so I hope we’ll be able to manage that.
Finessing the Script
Throughout all this madness, I’ve had close friends keeping me honest by rereading the script and really questioning me about my reasonings, choices, and motivations. I’ve had to really consider whether I’m being clear (even when I’m being obscure by choice). Do I really know what this is about. Is it important work? Is it new work?
I’ve written a new draft of the script and will really set some time aside tomorrow to think about whether I’ve solved the problems that have been raised. I also need to flesh out the supporting material with this justifications.
Script (pdf), Supporting Materials (pdf)
Propaganda
We have a website: http://omissionfilm.com
email: mail@omissionfilm.com
facebook group: http://goo.gl/TlRx
and twitter account: http://twitter.com/OmissionFilm
Next we need to link all this together, and start a blog on the website (so I don’t have to use this personal one, but I’ll probably cross post somehow). I also need to connect these things up so that I only have to update one spot to get updates everywhere.
The real thing is coming up with an appropriate logline, and synopsis and visual ad that you can spread around the place. I’ve just created a task for this so it should get done.
Next
There’s still a lot left to do in finding a producer, and a DOP. But towards the end of next week we need to get serious about finding locations, and reaching out to actors in the Bengali community and acting websites.
I’ve never been so focused or dedicated in my whole life. I can’t wait to go out and shoot this film and then edit it and see it finished.
If you can help in any way please contact mail@omissionfilm.com and get involved.
Posted 4 months ago
