“Chopsticks” is a 4-page short film that I wrote some time ago, re-wrote it for my scriptwriting class, and storyboarded for my storyboarding class. Well it just so happens that we decided to make it reality, and after a late night last monday night we’re more than halfway through shooting. Check out more!
We shot the interior restaurant scenes at China Panda restaurant on East State St. in athens. This was the first time that any student film had shot there, so it was definitely a struggle to lock this location. My producer, Jess Kardos, broke the language barrier and some understandings about the location release, and after a few days of back-and-forth, they signed the paper and we were in. The restraunt had recently re-decorated, and the walls were beautiful rich colors, great for a film set. They also put in a big shelf display behind the sushi bar that is really cool looking and again, perfect for a movie background.
Photo by David Jeffries
The gear I used for this shoot was a combination of equipment from the university and equipment that I borrowed from a friend. One major piece of equipment that I got to play with was the Canon 5D mkII DSLR camera, which was the first time I had shot video with. I borrowed this camera and some beautiful L-series glass from a good friend and photographer Sam Saccone. And let me tell you now, this thing is really cool. People dog it for only shooting 30-frame progressive, but I’ve personally gotten used to it with my camera and I don’t see enough of a difference to care.
Photo by Sam Butt
So we showed up at the restaurant at 9:00pm on MLK day, only to find that a few customers were still enjoying their chinese food. So right off the bat we were set back an hour on an original wrap time of 1:30am. On a school night. At one point during the wait the manager came out to talk to us, and asked me “how many people do you have”. I responded “around 10″, which caught him off-guard. They really didn’t know what they got themselves into. And once we started bringing in equipment (including a bunch of c-stands, lights, the doorway dolly, the jib, etc.) the look on their faces was shock. Luckily we stayed professional, didn’t break anything, and cleaned up quite a bit before we left, and everyone seemed happy.
The shoot went fairly smooth, despite the mass confusion in my brain trying to act as director and director of photography on the set. Luckily I had an awesome crew behind me. Assistant Director Kristin Raimondi, Camera assistants Sam Butt and Icebox (Katie Allen), Gaffers Pete Gaglio and Red (Allie Gottlieb), my audio team Maurice Tarver and Davis Chambers, Script Supervisor Hannah Kersetter, and my jib supervisor David Jeffries. Everyone kept my night a bit sane because I could trust them to do things right the first time and I don’t have to keep checking back on every little thing. I’d also very much like to thank my cast, Ryan Myers and Laura Ornella, and my extras Ali Myers and Anthony Fabiano for giving your time to this piece. Ryan and Laura especially thanks for a great performance with very little direction. I really need to work on that. So thanks to all.
Photo by David Jeffries
But everything went well, and quite quickly actually. Originally we were planning on breaking the restaurant stuff into two nights, but through some chats with my AD on set, and at the pace things were moving, we muscled through and shot everything in one night. We wrapped at 2:00am, and after returning equipment and getting home, I was comfortably asleep by 3, with a wake up at 7:00 for work the next morning.
So in the end, I’d like to thank my cast and crew for their hard work on this first day of shooting. The next one should be fun and hopefully not such a late night.
Thanks!
-Jeff
Photo by Sam Butt
Oh man that looks sweet. I would have come and helped. Post some of that good looking footage asap.
What did you record audio on?
We recorded with the new audio recorders the school just picked up.