New York almost done

Well, I have only 5 more days in New York, until I start my journey back to Sydney. First stop, Hong Kong.

The past two months here after parting with my parents and girlfriend has been one sole purpose. To use the opportunity I have in New York to film at least one short film. This goal, I have achieved. 

I wrote a first draft of my Love themed New York story in a cafe in Greenwich village, S’nice on 7th Ave and W 4th St, during my stay in New York in the later part of 2007. That was during my feature film writing course. When I was stuck on writing a new scene of my feature, I opened a new document in Celtx (a scrīptwriting program) and wrote a five page screenplay.

Later on, I realized that this short film was doable. After several rewrites and then a 3 month break traveling the States and Europe, I come back to New York with equipment that my parents brought over and the pre-production process began with my Producer, Stine. A student of the Producers course at NYFA, which I met when I helped at other friend’s film shoots.

Casting was relatively easy. I wrote the character descrīptions and gave it to Stine. She placed an casting call on NYcastings.com for actors and she received a lot of replies. Even though this was a non-paying job. In the end, struggling actors would work for free, because they’ll never know if the project they sign up for would be a hit or miss. They just need as much exposure as they can get.

While she was locking down on which actors to get in for the auditions, I was scouting locations. I also cut a scene out of my film and replaced it with a different one. A scene I felt would develop my character more and also pushed the film to another level. Fortunately, Stine agreed with my decision.

So actors and locations were locked down. Stine helped me with getting the permits and organizing a shoot schedule. I also got some extra equipment for myself, the shotgun microphone NTG-2 by Rode and also the Manfrotto Fig Rig, which I was exposed to back in film school while watching “Timecode”.

The film shoot last four days without much hassle. The hotel room that I envisioned in my mind and storyboard didn’t look right, but at least the view had an iconic New York building. But the scene I filmed at the Financial District didn’t go as smooth. Although I got a permit to film in that area, building security of two different buildings kept hassling me that I was not allowed to film their entrance. So as you’d expect, I didn’t get the best shots I wanted. Mix this in with really cold and windy weather, it didn’t help.

Overall, the film is now cut to a tight 8 minutes with enough characterization I wanted in the first place. The film is actually on my Facebook page, but only people on my friend list can watch it. The main reason for this is that I have placed music of signed Indie musicians as the soundtrack. I need to deal with licensing issues.

Hopefully I can get the songs I want for a low price. Or else I’d have to rescore the film. Although, that’s not such a bad idea either.