I
had a lot of difficulty choosing a scene to shoot for this project. I read through 4 or 5 screenplays to find the
one that I wanted. The one that I really
liked (Steve Jobs) was already taken by James, and I wanted to try something
different. I looked at The Big Short,
but I couldn’t find a scene that would work in only one take. I eventually settled on Foxcatcher because I connected
with the main character’s sibling insecurities and I liked the creepy
relationship dynamic between John du Pont and Mark Schultz. I thought it would make for some interesting
drama, and I wanted to show a character who is trying to act powerful,
knowledgeable, and in control, but in reality is socially awkward and clueless
about wrestling. I really wanted to use contrasts
in color, tone, and shape to separate Du Pont and Mark’s world and show that
they come from different backgrounds and are struggling to get to know the
other.
This project came with an extra
limitation for me. James had informed me
a few weeks prior that he would be out of town from Wednesday to Sunday, so I
only had 6 days to prepare and shoot for the project before he was gone. This ended up not being as big of a problem
as I thought it would be. We shot James’
project on Saturday and mine the following Monday. In fact, this limitation was kind of a blessing. I had to find my actors quickly, so I cast
two actors who I had worked with before and who I knew could turn in stellar
performances. Even luckier, my actors
are currently in a 2 man play together, so they had already had plenty of
rehearsals together and had good chemistry.
I gave them the script 5 days beforehand, and like the pros they are,
they were completely memorized by the following Monday. Also, we were lucky enough to receive
permission to shoot in the De Jong foyer, which really helped with the overall
look of the film. With this project, I
really learned how to have faith in the people involved in the project. I had to have faith that my actors would come
prepared and I had to have faith in my DP that he would be able to pull off the
blocking and camera movements. If anyone
of them had come not knowing what to do or expect, the project would have taken
much longer to shoot or may have failed altogether. I also had quite a few people help me out as
grips and PAs, and that made a huge difference on set.
If
I could do it again, I would have tried to find a steadier rig for the
camera. James did a great job, but since
the camera was so low for so long, he couldn’t put it on his shoulder and tried
balancing it on his hip, which made it a little shaky at times. Also, I would have brought some tape or
something so that we could mark focus.
The focus was close in a lot of places, but it left me wishing that it
was a little more on point, and I think spending a couple extra minutes to mark
the focus at each camera position would have helped. I also would have tried shooting on a
different camera. I feel like I use the
5D a lot, and I’d like to try shooting on a different camera to see how it
feels. I also forgot to get room tone
(whoops) and it was kind of loud outside the foyer, which affected the overall
sound quality of the film. Overall, I
was quite pleased with how it turned out, and I’m super grateful to everyone that
helped me with this project.
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