Those funny/painful/aggrevating moments.

BlitzKrieg

to stop another thread going very far offtopic (shocking state of irish industry) I starting this thread so we can share and laugh at those troubles we had during filming.


the post that started this idea was the following by dead jack

black jack wrote:

Yup, sorry it was on my mind it was on sky movies yesterday, thats how it cast my mind back

It is however not the worst shoot I've been involved in, my student film days involve five pigeons stuck in a shower for five days, some ketamine, horse sperm, a milk churn filled with liquid nitrogeon, the sodomising of a stable boy (consentual) in front of three classmates trying to sleep, and my getting shot at during the location recce (during breakfast).

DCAD students can **** about the superiority of their course, you've not lived someone shot at you before breakfast.

so lets share the pain...


My third shoot in university, involved a torture scene, i kindly asked my next door neighbour to play the victim and in the process of experimenting to get the correct setting for the torture we somehow decided that my shower would be the best. Therefore we stripped the man down to his boxers, gaffered taped him to the shower rail (ouch) and because we were too cheap to buy fake blood started experimentating with any red substances to create blood. So the final image was a man strapped to my shower covered in ketchup, milk (mixed with ketchup) food colouring and squashed tomatoes, then his girlfriend came in. *sigh* happy memories. Course no one stayed around after filming to let him go, and after we did come back for him, i never did get the red stains out of the walls of my bathroom.


My first attempt in 16mm everything went wrong. First time filming we had a studio booked, an actor selected, and the proper lighting. First thing to go wrong was the actor pulled out (due to too much work) so i had to use my housemate to replace him. Filming went fine and we sent the film off. Only to find when it returned that something had gone wrong with the gate and the entire film was ruined except the first 10 seconds. So we had to reshoot. First problem, the studio was no longer available. So we took our sitting room and threw out all the furnature to get a empty white room. Then we got two red heads to light the scene. Everything was set up. Started filming...5 seconds in the first light blew. replaced it with the spare bulb. 20 seconds later the second light burst. HAd to rush back to uni for a new bulb. We started at 10am, preparing the room, it was 7pm when we started filming. New bulbs worked and we were well into filming. Using a bollex we had a scene set up to use super imposition (rewind bollex put f stop down, film again) but we forgot to put f stop down and created a seriously messed up scene. Came to the final shot and *bang* out of film, the new roll they gave us was only 80 feet, leaving us without our ending. We then had to put all the furnature back into the room. it was pretty much after 1am when we were finished. Sent film off to the lab. And during editing we decided to use one of the earlier coverage shots to create the ending.
The original ending had a character closing a door and a slow fade to black. So we used one of the earlier shots of a door opening for the ending except we cut it up and put it in reverse...the effect is quite funny. First time using steembeck so i accidently stuck some frames upside down and others backward...so the door starts closing, then flips upside down, then opens again and finally closes then it flips back around the right way. (couldnt fix it we were already a week behind everyone else)

My recent filming in New York was a nightmare.
As i was staying closest to the school (school of visual arts) i had to store equipment, which required my carrying a arri 16mm S box (with lenses) 3 flag stands, a box of 500k lights, a sun gun, tripod, flags, battery belts and bouncer boards. This was in July, the middle of the recent heatwave. Then 6am next morning we set off to the location (a friends apartment) thankfully this time someone brought a pick up truck. Despite being reassured of the location again and again, none of us except the producer had seen the set, and all we knew was that it was a *apartment* What we got was a small box room for the kitchen and sitting area, a smaller box for the bedroom (and no bed, just sheets on the floor) the shower taking up one corner of the bedroom and a toilet that required you stand on the toilet to open the door. None of us had planned for this sort of apartment (despite my earlier request to see the apartment before the day of the shoot) started filming but the wrong sort of filter was requested for the camera, causing my footage to go bright orange (needed the filter to tone down the lights). The second load of film was eaten by the camera (though about 40 feet of it was saved) after that we simply moved on, but everyone was exhausted and we lost the matte box to the damn camera. Gave up filming at about 6pm. I had to lug the equipment back again the next day. Still had a large chunk of the film to shoot so arranged to pick it up again on thursday. School didnt tell me the matte box was missing until thursday. Had to go and find a replacement (not pay for one...actually find one ourselves buy it and give it to the school!) Did so but now the rest of the crew had run away, leaving only 2 of us to finish the film. One of the crew ran away with the f*cking film, so all we had was the broken 40 feet spool and one complete spool. Again i had to lug the equipment to my place in extreme heat and back, shot what little we could and handed it in.


Despite these painful events, i still loved the overall experiance, though my wallet didnt (esp. the new york shoot. $360 for matte box $200 for processing, then add in all the equipment rental i already paid.)