Dear Backers’ Club Members,
View From the Top
Day 2 of filming on Corner Gas: The Movie and, once again, we’re on location. The difference between yesterday and today is that we aren’t moving. It’s just one location – a large hall in Regina called the Ukrainian Cultural Centre. The hall has one wide open space, and a small loft on the second floor. I spent most of my day up on the second floor shooting the action below and preparing for our first interviews with cast.
Hurry Up and Wait!
To be perfectly honest, shooting an entire day in the same location can be tiring. It’s an exciting business, but when you have a complicated shot like we did today, you can spend hours and hours in the same humid, hot location being quiet and still while the crew films the same scene over and over again. Some scenes are more complicated than others, and even though we were in only one location, today’s scene was certainly complicated. See all those empty chairs? They were actually filled with many people saying many different lines from many different places. In order for the editor to put together the scene, we need to shoot the delivery of each line from a few different angles. You can spend an entire day on a shot like this one and only get a few pages of dialogue.
Tiring yes, but boring? No way! When you are on a film set, you have to be extremely focused. Everyone has a distinct and important job, and even though there may be long stretches while you are waiting for your turn to jump into action, you have to do so at the drop of a hat! It’s like a series of short sprints, all wrapped up in a marathon. It’s very impressive to watch 30 talent people rush about preparing a shot, and then stand in perfect silence while the camera rolls – and do this all day long. The phrase that best describes this strange combination of rushing and waiting, bustle and silence, is “Hurry Up and Wait!”
Together Again
Despite the hard work, what made Day 2 really special was that today EVERYONE WAS BACK! The whole gang was shooting in the hall. Brent and Wanda. Lacey and Hank. Karen and Davis. Oscar and Emma …even Mayor Fitzy Fitzgerald! It was real pleasure to watch these amazing actors get back into the roles we’ve all come to love, and there were definitely moments when they were making the crew crack up! It’s going to be a really fun shoot.
Lighting the Hall
We filmed a timelapse of the crew as they prepared to film the Dog River Town Hall. Pretty interesting to see how it all comes together! You can check out that video in the Backers’ Club right now!
OK Backers, that’s it for today! See you tomorrow when we are once again on location, but moving all around the city! I hope I packed my mosquito spray 😛
Davin and the Digital Team
2 Responses to “Day 02 Blog – View From the Top”
Patrick Wolfenbarger
Hey, Love that CG is “back in town!” My wife and I can’t wait to see the movie. Wish we had the coins to be “up there.” For those who may see the blogs, but not the video (I had that trouble as well!), try this: On the “Video link” place your cursor and right click. Then, in the new window, click on “Open in new window.” At least in Explorer, the “new window” opens the blog page, then a black screen, then the video opens. Hope this helps!
RMPage
Loving these updates and features, guys! I wonder if it’s just coincidence that this is a Ukrainian site to film at… Perhaps Oscar would know.