Film Production

For the past three weeks I have been part of a film crew that shot 15 commercials in 15 days. This was exciting. This was fun. This was exhausting. This was frustrating. This was challenging. This was educational. It was a tough pace with a small crew, but we succeeded and I am excited for the results. The commercial are almost more like short films in a web series comedy which follows an engaged couple through a series of disastrous, hilarious and terrifying meeting with various wedding vendors. The commercial are part of an internet promotional campaign for VEILTV.com a wedding resource website already launched in Vancouver and Launching in New York this fall as well as San Francisco and possibly Dallas next year.

In the course of production I learned a few new things:

Clothes pegs - may be referred to as C47s because back in the day producers didn't like knowing that they were buying clothes pegs for productions and so the name was changed on the budget line.

The last shot of the day - is called the window shot. (I already knew this but had forgotten.) The explanation for this name is that back when crew was paid cash daily after this shot you went to the window to get paid. The last shot may also be called the martini shot. The explanation for this is that "the next shot will be out of a glass"...

The second to last shot - was called the abbey window shot by our director but I can find now corroboration for this. The second to last shot is the called Abby Singer shot on wikipedia after an AD who was famous for saying "this shot and one more..."

We also had some other some other somewhat flexible terminology:

The master/establishing shot - this was the shot that included all characters in the scene

The artsy/money/establishing shot - the overlap of the word establishing occasionally made this confusing. This was also often the last set up of the day and usually involved a jib or slider move that would be intended to bookend the commercial.

It was great to busy on set for three weeks... but I am looking forward to returning my hyper flexible schedule with minimal commute and lots of LLDs (Little Lie Down). Hooray school starts soon!