It’s the day before we start principal photography, and I feel a bit like a kid on Christmas Eve.
A ton has happened since my last blog post - we’ve rounded out the cast, solidified locations, finalized our equipment list (after many long but fun conversations about focal lengths), made a shooting schedule, re-made the shooting schedule, re-re-made the shooting schedule, broken down color palettes for primary locations and color arcs for characters…
Oh, and we had a reading with Austin Film Festival, and I did a big round of rewrites. (Which definitely contributed to how many times we had to make the schedule.)
It’s been awesome. I can’t believe I get to do this.
Part of me wishes I had done these rewrites much sooner; they’re clarifying the arcs of the main characters, and giving more story arcs to the rest of the ensemble (who were previously seen in more episodic flashes than their own subplots). A core value of this film is to show addicts in community, which means we need to see them save each other, and we need to feel the moments when they build each other up.
But I also don’t think I could have done these rewrites sooner - the process of preproduction, my collaborations with the cinematographer, art department, and the actors, have completely evolved the way I think about the screenplay and the way we’re telling this story. These eleventh-hour rewrites are fully informed by the work my incredible colleagues are doing.
We shoot for 18 days. We’ll have 80 people or so on set at a dozen-ish primary locations. Two actors will be wrapped 36 hours from now.
I am so, so ready.
Lane
