New York Bound

New York, New York...

Long ago and far away in a town I lived in for a bit along with 8 million of my closest friends, I worked in the film industry. I started as a script supervisor, moved to continuity and did my last film as an AD (assistant director). Never anything from the studios, all of them were independent films of varying sizes.

One will be released soon, I'll put a link to 'The Apostles of Park Slope' (you can find it on youtube) when it's out and ready. A few were put forth as projects that went no where... and one, my first film, is ready to finish up filming.

I was fortunate that I became friends with the director, KB... she's talented, driven and a sweetheart. When I first talked to her, she'd just sent me her script to be 'timed'... Timing is when the script supervisor takes the script and her trusty stopwatch, and times how long she thinks the film will run. You have to figure out action sequences, dialogue, simple shot of silence and a static camera. I'd also taken on another script I didn't like...but, had agreed to time.

KB called me, all light voice and laughter and asked how long her film timed out to be...and I said, "I have it at 90 minutes."

You could hear crickets.

"90 MINUTES?? For a SHORT??" I've never heard a woman's voice crack before that time. I realised I'd given the wrong time to the wrong director, and quickly backtracked to a rough 22 minutes. Her sigh of relief was audible for six blocks around me.

We shot in Greenpoint in one of the hottest weeks in the early summer of 2007. We were miserable. We shot in stairwells, in the street at night, in an airless room that was pivotal to the plot.

We worried about budgets, feeding the crew and finding the Terrier a comfortable place to stay. She went to every shoot, and never made a sound. She's to be listed as 'Crew Dog' on the credits, proving her worth.

It's a tight little film, well written, well acted... and the crew was tight, all of us giving our time to make this short one that can go to festivals in the fall and winter of this year.

I've been bumped up to Assistant Director, which is swell for me. I like the calling out of my shots, of keeping the call sheet tight, and working with a director who never stops smiling. She is excited about our new shots, how we'll tie it all together. The film in existence is rockin' she said.

So, Quin Browne of Hard Cold Cash Productions (a division of Nepotism, LLC) will be back on the set the 22nd of April and will follow up with the editing and final paper and wrap-up work until the 5th of May. Quiet on the set. Action. Oh, I love those words!!

After that, festival season, where I get part of the swag.

And, I could use a pair of Uggs.