I did decide to go with the plan from my last blog for a while, but have since changed the plan and ditched the track zoom due to time and the unlikelihood that we will pull off a track zoom that looks really good. I will now just use a track, in the same position and extremely sped up in post.
In my last blog I was expecting to have to move locations, however it seems this is actually impossible due to the difficulty of getting permits in the city, so we will have to stick to that particular location. This is a pity, as on my most visit to the city I found that I actually preferred a different crossing about 200 metres down the road, on the corner of Quay St and Queen St, or even on a different corner of our same location. But never mind, I still like the spot we've got.
Speaking of permits though, I'm beginning to worry. Even though we had positive responses from both locations neither of them has given us the final word that we can actually shoot there, and there is less than a week to go!
Last Friday we had our first pre-production meetings for the TVC. I have had a tendency with past projects to be quite defensive in pre-production meetings. I think I have habitually walked into these meetings with the expectation of getting hammered, and haven't always handled this with the maturity it calls for. For last Friday's TVC however I was determined not to let this be the case. One of the things I really want to focus on this year is having people actually like working with me, as this was not always the case last year, and so a big part of this is not acting like a bitch in pre-production meetings. So as I got onto my bike to ride to Friday's meeting I started whispering a little mantra to myself; "don't be defensive, don't be defensive..." and kept saying it all the way to the meeting. I'm a weirdo; I know. But hey, it worked! Maybe I'm actually starting to grow up a bit. Normally because of my defensive attitude I get my back up when people raised concerns that I am already aware of. I think my internal reaction has always been, "Do you think I'm stupid? Do you think I didn't realise that? Don't you think I'm working on that?" The truth is that that reaction IS stupid. This time around I took the comments much better; instead of getting annoyed about people stating the obvious, my reaction (internal and external) was to say, "yeah I agree that's a problem, and we're actually looking at options x, y and z to solve it at the moment." I left the meeting feeling reaffirmed; it felt good to know that I was already dealing with the most important issues.
Also since my last post, Ben and Lisa and I went on another tech recce to our forest location. I really thoroughly enjoyed this recce. Lisa stepped in patiently as an actor for our test footage, and Ben was very very easy to work with. I think we must have a similar communication style and temperement, and we tend to agree on what we think looks good, or what we think is important. The test footage we got looked really good, considering it was handheld, and the location and the natural light were gorgeous. I am just desperately hoping that we have sun on the shoot day, as the sunlight made everything stunning. The weather report is not very supportive at the moment though; showers apparently :-( But there's plenty of time for that to change between now and then.
I was thinking about what I would do if it were raining on the day though... there's no doubt that grey skies will ruin our sweeping view almost entirely. It's a good thing we're shooting it at sunrise though, as even on a day of showers, out best chance of capturing that view in the sun will be at sunrise. In case it does rain I am thinking I will take my rainbow umbrella and incorporate it in, to add some brightness and joy, because the lighting will be very grey. I will have to change the shots a bit to accommodate this though, but there is not point fighting the weather. I will have to make a call on this very early in the day though; if she's going to have the umbrella then she's got to have it in every shot.
Casting has been finalised for the TVC, which is very exciting, but I am paranoid something will go wrong and one of the actors will drop out, as I have learned from experience that actors are not necessarily to be trusted. My big worry now is getting costumes sorted. All hopes are pinned on the actors having something appropriate in their own wardrobes, as the costume store at school has virtually no contemporary clothing and no children's clothing whatsoever. Plus we have no budget at all for wardrobe :-(
I'm also a little bit concerned about getting a good plant. We were hoping to get one from nursery near the Arataki Centre, but haven't been able to speak to them to organise a time to look at their plants, and tomorrow afternoon will be my last chance to go out there before the shoot. If worse comes to worst I will just have to get one from Plant Barn.
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