Dressed for the weather on the set of short film "Girls Who Say Yes"
I remember when I
was at film school in New York. I took a workshop at the New
York Film Academy and later that same year I took courses towards an MA in
Media Arts at the City College of New York in Harlem. When I would tell New Yorkers that I wanted to be a director their response was always some variation of
“What are you doing here?” “Isn't Toronto Hollywood North?” It’s no doubt that
we are world class in every way when it comes to cast, crew, production services
etc. The biggest challenge we often face is a combination of two things that
are beyond our control: weather and seasons. Creativity rules the day and
having a great first AD doesn’t hurt! Shout outs to George Assimakopoulos and
Sorcha Vasey. With the exception
of my stint in New York, some interviews I shot in LA for a BET special, and
shooting for my own doc Looking For Dawn in
LA and Barbados, everything I’ve ever directed has been shot in the GTA (ok
I’ve gone as far as Hamilton and Caledon). So I’ve learned a thing or two about
what it’s like to shoot in this area.
Here are some of the things I’ve learned in regards to shooting in the GTA.
1. Don’t Be Afraid to Break The Rules
I wrote my first
feature film Devotion as a story that takes place over the course of a school
year. The idea of shooting an extremely low budget film that takes place in
several seasons goes against just about every low budget rule there is. If you
haven’t read these rules, check out Colin Brunton’s great article here. http://www.online-communicator.com/scriptip.html But I knew that by
shooting in spring I had a shot at getting weather that I could sell (in establishers if necessary) as many different times of year (also with the help
of very talented production designer Diana Abbatangelo). We had one snowy day
in March when DOP LUX volunteered to drive on icy roads to get to our exterior
location in North York to shoot the house with snow on the ground. We also
spread dead leaves on the ground to sell “fall” (though real pumpkins were
impossible to find). The rest of the seasons we did with wardrobe. Visual
effects are common and I've heard of productions where snow is added digitally
and/or artificially because as we all know, you can’t count on snow in this
area, even in winter. But writing a low budget film with such a long time frame
and season specific storyline breaks a low budget production rule but I did it
anyway and it worked!
2. Dress For It
There are times
when I aspire to be a fashionista but when I’m on set is not one of them.
Before I went to my first music video night shoot I searched high and low for
something that I never had before – a rain and wind resistant jacket. There is
a reason a portion of your wardrobe expenses are tax deductible if you are a
self employed person who works in film and television production. You need to
dress properly for the weather. There have been times when I’ve had to wear
three pairs of pants and two down jackets with a down vest over top. I may have
looked ridiculous, but you know what? I was comfortable and ready for anything. And remember, the sign of a true professional is having an extra pair of socks.
3. Have a Plan B
Ok, so the ideal
exterior location has some kind of alternative for rain cover but this isn’t
always the case. So, having a plan B is useful and often necessary. When I was
shooting Wilderness I had to learn
this lesson again and again. I had a scene where the main character Linda Michaels, played by Penny Eizenga, finds her son in
an alley and scouted the location to the hilt. We shot for four days in August. It was a hot dry summer and from what I remember they called for rain, but not the heavy downpour that hit us that night. At first, I
refused to accept the obvious. Finally the rain got harder and harder,
and I continued to work with the actors until the safety of the equipment was at risk. Producer Foad Almassi found another
location under the Gardiner Expressway where we could find shelter and it ended
up looking better than the alley. So remember to have a plan b people!
