We are now assdeep in pre-production, 9am to 9pm every day (at least--it's 1am as I write this), one month out from the start of shooting, and I am telling you: making a movie is no fucking joke.
I understand now why so many people work on a movie. The amount of effort that has to go into putting a film together is insane. I had no idea. I mean, I thought I knew, but I didn't really know.
Yesterday, Nils and I spent three hours sitting with the production designer, going over every fucking detail of the characters. What types of shirts does Tucker wear? Where does he buy them? What kind of shoes? What does he drive? Does he have air freshener in his car? Where does he live? What is his apartment like? What art is on the walls? It was like this for every character--we had to go over every detail of their life, because it all shows up in the movie, and the production designer is the one responsible for all of it. She gets as much direction and guidance from us as possible, then she has to pick out the general color palette, tone, etc for each character, the colors and tone for each scene and section of the movie, and then make them work with what we are shooting.
Once she has that all done, she has to give the instructions to each of the other department heads who actually do make most of the micro decisions for each part of the production design--the costume designer buys the clothes and picks outs the specific outfits for each scene, the art director designs the sets and finds the materials and furniture and decorations and everything, the prop master has to get the props, etc, etc, forever and on and on. The number and variation of jobs is almost endless.
It is a TON of work to completely conceive of and build an alternate reality, and until you actually sit down to think of it, you don't consider all the details. And the thing is--we can't just say, "Yeah whatever, you figure it out." We can't delegate our role in the process, because in a movie, everything counts. All the thousands of tiny little decisions--a color here, a line of dialogue there, a positioning here, a prop there--all add up to what the movie is. You can't take a decision off. Everything and everyone has to be on point as much as possible, or you fall victim to the tyranny of little things. It's not that any one thing is so hard, but there are so many things and you have to pay attention on each one. Like I said, if you want the prize, you have to focus on the target.
Another example: Locations. EVERY location in the movie has to be thought out and decided on (generally you shoot in real places, unless you build the sets, but that gets very expensive). You have to think up exactly what each location in the movie needs to look like, then communicate that to the location manager, who then has to find an existing place that looks like that, then you have to make sure the place can accommodate all the non-visual demands of the shoot as well (space to put cameras, etc), then you have to get the owner to agree to let you shoot there, then you have to negotiate a price. Only then can you think about starting to shoot the movie in that place, which is a whole new set of problems to be solved.
I could go on like this for pages. Making a movie is insanely complex and difficult and intricate. You just can't understand or appreciate it until you do it, no matter how much you think you get it.
I don't say this to complain. Yes, making a movie is hard fucking work, but it's a good hard. It's hard in a way you love. We had our first location scout today, and one of the problem locations was finding the right strip club. Well, we found it today, and it was fucking awesome. The location manager did a great job, and when it all comes together and you stand in the location and start to actually visualize the movie happening right there in front of you, it's like no other feeling on earth.
It was actually in the strip club location that I had possibly the most intense of the "this is really happening" moments I have had yet. Making a movie is such a long, laborious, painful process, that is is very easy to get lost in the details and never stop and think about what you are doing. I have written about this before.
But when we were standing in the strip club location, I had one of those moments where it all hit me. I was standing up on the stage, looking out at everyone spread across the club talking or doing various things. Sean (the lead producer) was talking to Darren (the line producer) about some budget issue, Eve (the production designer) was talking to Nils about the color scheme. Russell (the location manager) was talking to the owner of the place. Bob was running all over like a kid in candy store looking through his view finder and picturing shots. Jeff was milling around thinking about fighting people.
I was just standing there on the stage above them, taking a moment and looking at everyone doing their specific job to set up for this movie and for one of the first times, it felt real to me. This wasn't talk. This wasn't planning. This wasn't wishing or hoping or dreaming. This was it. This was us, standing in the place where we'd be filming in four weeks, figuring out about where we were going to place cameras, tables, stripper poles, and what the shots would look like. This was as real as anything had ever been in my life.
For that moment, I was exhilarated and frightened and nervous and happy all at once; for a brief second, I thought I was going to get legitimately emotional. It was a short moment, and it passed quickly and I got back to work. But for that brief moment, all the laborious details and agony were gone, and it was just me and my people and our movie. Those moments, even as brief and fleeting as they are, make it all worthwhile.
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