Hi guys!
So we're in the middle of shooting a TV series pilote episode that we're actually financing on our own dime because the TV network that wants to pick it up said that they need a proof of concept before they sign up for anything. Which means no money yet but we decided to shoot.
So a couple of days ago we were on our first shooting day which was stressful but productive and thanks to a really great and enthusiastic cast and crew we pulled it off with only minor setbacks.
Anyway we were shooting a scene where the two lead actors who are in the narrative a young couple who just fell in love and the scene called for some affection between the two of theme which was scripted anyway.
So during one of the close up takes where they were being affectionate they flat out kissed or should I say made out. Don't get me wrong it looked great on camera and the shoot is definitely going to make the final cut even though it was not scripted. I just didn't expect it and I must admit that it threw me off a little but not in a bad way, I just needed a second or two to process it.
Now the two actors know each other very well they're both experienced actors in some other field and have roll played together may times which is visible on screen since their acting is sincere and natural.
My question is to other people who have directed stuff before. Has something that has surprised you on a shoot ever happened, what was it and how did you react and deal with it?
In any case it was fun for me because the actors and crew made my job so easy since everyone remembered all my notes from rehearsals and incorporated those notes into their characters so basically we only needed to do blocking on set and often got the money shot within the first three takes of a scene.
Anyway stay safe guys and hope to hear about your experiences about being surprised on set.
Regards to all
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Yes, gifted actors can be a wonderful surprise during filming. To find them, ask them during auditioning to first read your scene lines as written, then to put the script away and simply improvise. Some fail miserably while others will amaze you.
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Best of luck to you VItal. I truly wish you all the best in your venture. You are inspiring me to pursue my own dream, although, I have no idea where to start. I digress....best to you.
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i was blessed to work with Eva Longoria and I stayed the hell out of her way. She made my dumbass scenes believable :)
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Improv is all about saying "yes", so it's possible it happened because one of them went for it and the other allowed it. As director, I would check in on them individually, see how each feels - cool with it or not cool with it - as a matter of HR, and if they were cool with how the moment unfolded, then you can tell them that it looked great and you may end up using it.
Yeah these two are definitely good actors Erik A. Jacobson .
Thank you Abdur Mohammed .
Oh waw that's amazing Dan MaxXx ! I hope you can tell me more about this.
These two are really nice and they did make my job a lot easier.
Well Karen "Kay" Ross I deliberately left out too much intimacy in the screenplay because I was not sure who would be playing the parts so I only hinted at intimacy with the actors touching gently. But then we got these two who are good friends in real life and had even acted together before and obviously don't have a problem with this kind of intimacy on screen.
And don't get me wrong I had absolutely no problem with what I saw on screen because it looked amazing, I was just surprised because it was a little unexpected but on the other hand I will use this on the next shooting day since I now know that I can make the scenes we'll be shooting more intimate.
Anyway very interesting.
Vital read: "I'll Be in My Trailer: The Creative Wars Between Directors and Actors" -- by John Badham & Craig Modderno
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I'd like to offer up this article on the growing need for Intimacy Coordinators to expand this conversation. Thoughts?
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/oct/06/safe-sex-on-screen-...
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Sorry, I don't mean to hijack this thread, but if a network wants "to pick it up," what do they need a POF for? Do they believe in the show or not? Sounds a bit off to me.
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Good luck out there!
Damian Lloyd very interesting point. Well like I said these two actors are friends in real life and from the get go they said they signed up for it and that they were willing to put everything they could into it. And they did, after wrapping with them I can honestly say they were awesome and I'm glad that we chose the right people for the roles. All the cast told us that they had a really great time and they actually can't wait for us to work together again and if it's next week even better. I guess that's a nice thing to hear that apart from working hard people actually had fun.
Thanks Karen "Kay" Ross ! I haven't gotten all the way trough. But as far as this project goes me and the other cowriter intentional wrote affection into the screenplay but not intimacy for two reasons. The first is obvious since we didn't know who was going to be cast and the second was because of the series target audience. We're not targeting children but the target audience for this series is definitely somewhere from 16 to 70 or something like that.
John Ellis don't worry about it. Happy to answer. The thing is it's kind of a different world in our parts of the woods. Since the country is so small and all the people (I'm not one of them) that have been filming stuff for 20+ years know each other personally. So our producer who actually got the original idea for the TV series is a good buddy of an executive at a local TV network (local as in very small for any view) and once told him about the idea for this TV series and the network guy said that it sounds great and that if he can get him a pilote episode in his hands that they would probably pick it up since they need fresh and new stuff all the time. The problem like everywhere is that our producer had a hard time finding a young team that would be interested in the idea and that's how my team and I came to this project and in less than a couple of months (sooner if it was not for the two month lockdown) we had a screenplay, cast, crew, locations and everything preaped for shooting. Now we just need to edit everything together and pilot episode done from A to Z.
Thank you very much Erick Freitas .