When your picture reaches the post production stage, and the film is getting edited, and you finally get to see how all those scenes that you filmed in a non-linear order fit together and tell your story, it’s important to not get too comfortable admiring the work you’ve done like, “damn, we really shot this movie”, and not to cling on to alright and subpar footage, just because it’s already filmed and because of the tight budget. We had quite a few scenes that were complete and fine, but we knew that if we re-shot them, we could get them to come out better. If your picture has room to improve, and you have an opportunity to make it happen, don’t hesitate. Our movie is not perfect by any means whatsoever, but for the budget and opportunity we had, we stopped at nothing to make it the best possible picture.
When the film was finally fully edited and colored, our post sound guy dropped out last minute, and we were planning to release the film in a few days at this point. I had some experience with sound, so I took it upon myself to do sound editing & design. I was determined for us to put the movie out by our target date, so I did the whole sound top to bottom, in two straight days with no sleep.
Being that the producer is in charge of the production and all responsibilities fall on you, you have to constantly handle problems and maintain serenity on the set. Me producing this film all by myself, there were seldom any moments when I wasn’t either on the phone, or politicking with someone in person. Obviously, for a production to flow as smooth as possible, the communication between everyone has to be immaculate. There were moments when certain actors were late to the set, and I’d be calling them and they purposely wouldn’t answer the phone, I guess because they thought I’m about to be an asshole to them. But in reality, as I’ve clarified with them, it’s only so many hours you have each production day. So if your presence is crucial to the next scene we’re about to shoot, and you’re not here for it yet, you need to let me know if you’re either around the corner, and we should wait on you, or if something unexpected came up, and you’re not gonna be able to be on set for at least the next 3 hours, so we can adjust our plan, and figure out if we can shoot something else until you arrive.
The final budget for “Bompton Had a Dream” was around $45,000, and the initially planned principal photography (between Feb. 2nd – Feb. 18th) cost us about $27,000. But the above mentioned rain robbed us of about 7-8 of those days. The very first day of the shoot completely went to waste because the DP forgot that the lense we were using blurred up the image at the top, and that ruined majority of the crucial storytelling shots, so we had to reshoot all the scenes from that day.
We had back-to-back days scheduled for a scene in the park, and a couple young G’s from the area didn’t know anything about our film shoot, so when they saw a dude who was playing a Crip in our film outfitted in all blue, with blue rag around his neck and two more hanging out his pockets, they pressed him. By the time the situation got resolved, the actor decided to quit the project because he feared for his life. So all the footage we got with him had to be re-shot, and his character had to get re-casted. Because of all of the above mentioned struggles, and so many more things that I haven’t mentioned, because even the “good” days weren’t problem-free, probably about $13,000-$15,000 from that initial $27,000 went to waste.
I think it’s great that we challenged ourselves to make our first full-length feature film for $45,000. We had to get creative with how we approached certain situations, and the rookie mistakes cost the production a lot less financially compared to what it could’ve been if we had a bigger budget. From the producer’s eye, I really got to see what matters most for the production to function like a well-oiled machine.
One thing that stuck with me that an industry person said to me, was that the ability to finish is one of the things that matter most when assessing you and your accomplishments. Many people get stuck with an idea and struggle to take it off the ground because of the fear of taking a risk on their endeavor, many give up half-way through the process, because things get too stressful and too challenging.
After intensely preparing and making sacrifices for this project for months, during the very first day, when we were falling behind schedule, this rain was only getting crazier, the efficiency and preparation wasn’t meeting my expectations, and, of course, as a producer, I felt like most of that was to blame on me. I remember for a brief moment, I put my head down, and Rah caught that and said to me “Don’t let all of this stuff get to you, man. No matter what happens down this road, just remember that we’re gonna come out of any situation back to back. Just like we always have. Come on now. Let’s get to work.” One of the days on the set I was on a phone talking to a friend in the industry, I told him about some of the problems we were experiencing, and he said to me “every time you speak of something negative, you give it a heartbeat. You can’t give negativity life on your production.” And he was right, you gotta make sure everyone on the set remains positive, especially the leaders. Even if you’re an optimist by nature, like I am, you’re still human, and problems can get to you sometimes. We have invested so much of our heart and energy into this project, from driving to sets at 5AM, coming back home past 10PM, being on the phone with Rah and the DP going over the game plan for tomorrow, making sure everything is in order, checking the weather forecast, and so on and on, and now it’s 2-3AM, I gotta be on the road by 5AM again, so there’s really no room to rest, especially considering how much is on my mind. So Rah and I really went days and days without real rest and sleep during the production. All of that, combined with all of the problems results in some level of mental fatigue, no matter how tough you are. But that’s what comes with the territory when you’re trying to do something great. Regardless, you can’t give negativity any life, or let it be seen in your presence or communications with your team, especially as a leader. Because nobody wants to follow a pessimist.
