BACKROADS production report: Day 2
The second day of shooting posed a unique challenge: we were to shoot all of the film's dialog sequences, all of which take place inside the farmer's truck. While this may not sound especially difficult, filming inside of a moving vehicle is much more taxing than one would imagine. Your camera must be securely fastened to the car so that there is no risk of it being jostled or broken while moving, and you have to fight the wind, road noise, and other sounds to get a crisply recorded conversation. Additionally, you have to strap any lights, flags, or bounce cards to the vehicle if you want to achieve a nicely lit interior. Added to an ever-changing lighting scenario that can dramatically shift with a single cloud, tree branch, or turn in the road, and you've got the recipe for a tough and potentially frustrating day of filming.
Fortunately, our production team was on the ball and we had a fairly solid plan for how to get the shots we needed. We decided to tow the truck on a trailer rather than drive it (that way our actor can worry about acting rather than where to steer, and it allows for myself and other critical crew to ride together in the towing vehicle). We used a hood mount for the master shot through the front windshield, and what is called a hostess tray for the two-shot and close-ups through the side windows. We covered all three dialog scenes with the same shots, then hopped inside to get close-ups specific to each scene. Here are a couple pictures of the truck and the towing vehicle all rigged up (thanks to Alli Tondre for the set photos):
The truck rides in the back of trailer (talk about a tight fit). On the front we have a "speed bar" clamped that we can either attach the hood mount to for the front shots or lights for the hostess tray shots through the side windshield.
The towing vehicle has a generator strapped to the top to power the lights. We cover the back half with sound blankets to keep it from ruining our sound recording. We also run cables from the camera to the inside of the Tahoe, where I, the director of photography, assistant camera, and script supervisor watch what is being recorded on a video monitor. The sound recordist also rides along in the vehicle, so things can get a little cramped. The 1st AD and his posse of PAs ride in a caravan of vehicles in front of the tow truck, with a PA stationed at either end of the long road to control traffic.
Here's another shot of the truck as the grip department works to secure the hostess tray based on where PJ and I have lined up the shot.
Here's PJ discussing the shot with 1st AC Alex (left) and key grip Ryan.
Here I am anxiously awaiting the shot to be ready and discussing the day's progress with Tracy. We ran about an hour and a half behind, due mostly to initial set-up time on the truck. Lighting adjustments, transitioning the hostess tray from one side to the other, and having the necessary crew on hand at any given moment also proved to be challenging.
Ultimately, we got all of the interior footage and dialog coverage we needed for the film. We had to push the film's final scene, originally scheduled to be shot that evening, until another day. Much like the day before, we knew we were being overly ambitious when scheduling how much we wanted to accomplish every day, and that everything would have to go perfectly in order to make it happen. Like almost always when you're making a film, everything did not go perfectly and we were forced to postpone those final shots. But the upside was that we got a ton of great footage and got some terrific performances from the actors. The truck interior footage looks great, as evidenced by the still photo below:
By the end of the day, the crew had really begun to hit its stride despite the minor set backs. It made the third day (originally thought to be the most difficult of them all) look both challenging and exciting, because at this point we knew we were working faster and faster as a team.
Thursday, October 11, 2007 at 9:42AM | Filed under: Filmmaking
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