Why do we enjoy film shoots so? Why do we bond with our fellow crew and cast and feel depressed when it’s all over, even if it’s been hell?
I asked myself this question last week, when I found myself on a major downer after coming home from Shelf Stackers, a three day short film shoot with Light Films in Derby. This is the fifth short I’ve done with Light Films and although I’ve greatly enjoyed them all, I’ve never had a downer like that at the end of the shoot before. Normally I only get that feeling after feature shoots, when I’m thrust cruelly back into the real world after three or four weeks of eating, breathing and sleeping film.
I think the common thread is adversity. Shelf Stackers is set in a shop, but – not for the want of trying – the producer was unable to secure a location, so the art department was forced to build a set. I don’t think any of them really had any prior set-building experience, there was no money to speak of, and a supermarket is a pretty tough thing to replicate anyway, so it was an uphill struggle for everyone. The day before the shoot started, they had nothing but a few bags of recycling to use as products on shelves, but when we came to shoot the shop – there it was. (Well, one aisle of it anyway.) As if that wasn’t enough of a challenge, we ended up shooting until 1am one day after falling behind schedule.
It seems a fact of human nature that we bond in the face of shared adversity. That’s why many of the cast and crew who’ve worked on my films say they really enjoyed it – even though (let’s be frank here) the shoots were complete cluster fucks.
Well, that’s my thought for today. There’s nothing tangible to report. We wait with bated breath for developments on Dark Side. We wonder whether I’ll be able to get financing to go to Cannes. We speculate on the possibilities of a Dark Side TV mini-series. We debate how best to fend off 3D with a stout stick. And we write abstract blogs.