The re-shoots for 'Like the Penguins' went well and we picked up some much needed coverage of the whole thing - now that we'd overcome the growing pains of the production and seen some of the footage edited together. Lighting setups were the same, although the re-shoot weekend was much sunnier than our original shoot weekend. We called in one of my very talented friends, Tim Swaan, to color correct the finished film and you can't even tell which shots were from which weekend. He also gave a little oomph to the existing color palette, which was just icing on the cake. I was lucky enough to have a professional audio mixer consult us on how to approach the final audio mix.
Because we were shooting near the Van Nuys airport (and we did not have a production sound mixer), it was determined that we would ADR all of the existing dialogue and build a soundscape that more accurately depicted where the scene was taking place. We even added some soundbites that acted as aural memories of the main character.
The ADR did wonders for the finished product and allowed an audience to focus on what the actors were saying, rather than be distracted by inconsistencies in audio editing. 'Like the Penguins' is currently submitting to festivals.
'Awake' was a small project that a previous collaborator (director/writer of 'The Runner') brought to me. He informed me right off the bat that this shoot would be quick and dirty - with almost no budget and only practical lighting. It was a short dramatic/horror film about a young woman in a post-apocalyptic world. We shot the entire thing over a weekend in and around my apartment in North Hollywood. The only reason I did not insist on a budget for lighting was because most scenes were to take place after dark and a minimalist approach to lighting suited the story (and production schedule). For the night scenes, I used primarily 3 china balls of varying sizes gelled with CTB.
I shot the entire thing handheld and many of the shots went on for minutes at a time, with me following the main actress through the apartment, reframing constantly. There were lots of opportunities for me to play with the visuals. A few silhouetted shots called for the addition of some work lights from Home Depot (probably equal to a 1K) but other than that it was whatever light the china balls threw out, which was just enough.
Following the actress through the story, rather than cutting one together, allowed me to dress entire houses as sets, and glimpses into rooms proved to be a more effective storytelling technique rather than backstory or narration. The challenges of attempting to shoot North Hollywood as devoid of human activity were many, but the results look very good. We had to shoot at sunrise to ensure the most minimal of traffic, and this, of course, led to some beautifully warm light on our actors (we cheated it for sunset). The project was fun but also incredibly frustrating at times. It was a great experience attempting to shoot with no equipment or lights, but one which I think I have learned enough from to never do again.
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