Saturday, March 19, 2016

The joys of nearby construction.



My friend owns the house that we are using as the house for our film family and it is marvelous.  He has done an incredible job decorating and putting some beautiful touches on his home.  We shot several scenes indoors and I wanted to get the outdoor scenes done.  To make matters worse, it was supposed to snow later.

So, about 10am, we went out and got the drone setup and got the home-made dolly track setup.  We blocked the scene and was ready to do the first part of it.  then we heard it... Boom!  "What was that?"  in my friend's neighborhood, they were doing some construction on some new houses.  And it was noisy.  Of course, our Director of Photography said, "It's coming through the mike really loud."

This scene is probably the most important, and intimate scene of the movie.  So, we decided to scrap the scene and find another location.  The construction was going to go on all summer long.

It actually may turn out to be a blessing in disguise.  I wanted Manfred to look out the window to see Sarah come home to have their reunion.  In the movie, both have gone through their separate arcs to show the affects their daughter's death has had on them.  My friend's house doesn't have such a windows and I was trying to figure out "how does he know she came?"  Does she honk the horn?  Does she call him?  just go to the door?

None of these really work because it isn't how someone would do it.  You wouldn't come home after a year away and just "honk the horn".  She would stand there for a moment, however, trying to gather the courage to go knock.  Especially since she took his car before and now has a huge scratch in it?  How does he react?  Does he freak out?  Will this be a repeat of how he acted before?  Has he really grown?

With the "Bang, bang, bang" of automated nail guns, and shouts and bulldozers playing their construction symphony in full blast in the background, we would never had known.  So, now we need to add another item to the to-do backlog.  Find an outdoor location...

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