SETTING UP PRODUCTIONSetting up Production
The producers and I have been moving and grooving and looking for additional financing, deciding on a new director (we’re down to two…stay tuned for an announcement next month) and doing some PRE-pre-production. That entails doing the things you can do with the limited details that are finalized thus far. We know we’re going to shoot this fall; however we’re still inching the start date deeper into the season. I originally set the first day of PP to be the day after Labor Day. I did this knowing we’d most likely push the date as we got closer for a variety of anticipated reasons: money (of course), location availability, star availability, aesthetic appeal, etc. There is a method to my madness. I have known that we were going to shoot in the fall colors of the Midwest; however, if I had set our start date in the beginning of November, we would be pushing into the holidays and the first of the year due to all these same factors. So, I decided to start early and hopefully finish exactly where we always wanted to be schedule-wise. This is a minor victory in the war that is indie film production and I’m happy to say things are moving along thus far as expected in this one department. We’ve secured some “production resources” (aka props, product placements) and a few locations and we’ve got the bigger deals yet to come but I feel pretty confident that we’re upping the production value considerably. Catherine writes about changing gears as a producer. I’ve been on this path as a fundraiser for a year and a half now and I’m starting to transition back into the creative mode…but it’s not easy. I’ve become very comfortable working rooms and pitching strangers, talking money, demographics, marketing, websites, and money (did I say that). Now that we’re nearing the end of the big portion of fundraising, I’ll have to take off my money hat and put on my writer’s hat (hmm, what does that look like) and start work-shopping with actors, the director, and the UPM (all to be named later). I have to admit that making that transition has been more difficult than I anticipated. Speaking creatively with creative folks after 18 months of dealing with money folks and bottom-line types is a BIG CHANGE and my brain needs to re-tool a bit and reacquire the vocabulary and – oh by the way, some PATIENCE. So that’s what I’ve been praying for….a little patience…yea, yea, yeah. Catherine E. Rubey |
