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I can tell you exactly what this ultra-low-budget movie has cost me thus far: $2,052. When you’re a university student, this represents a lot of money. And it is.

Consequently, I’ve dropped out of my only Fall class at the university. Starting this Tuesday, I’ll be working full-time at FutureShop (electronics retailer.) There’s more reasons to this than pure finances, but that’s a pretty big factor.

Simply said, if I didn’t do what I’m doing now, I wouldn’t be able to afford the much more important Winter semester. I’ve transfered that one Fall class to some equivalent in the Winter, and I’ll be better off for it. So it’s win-win.

The only thing that will be affected is the shoot. Though given the current progress, it shouldn’t be a real issue. I’ll try to do a shoot Monday, and if that works I’ll be in an even better position.

Today was the last “everybody together” shoot. I was going through the script, and we’re pretty much all done. Now, it’s pretty much down to individual people, getting lines here and there done. There’s also a series of individual scenes featuring extras that I have to shoot myself.

The shoots are coming to a close. Sure, I’ve been saying that for a while, but I mean it now. This is a good thing, as this is a movie pretty much entirely set outside, and it’s starting to get pretty damn cold out there. This time a few years ago there was snow on the ground. I’ve been fortunate, to say the least.

Today was the last “everyone together” shoot. From here on in, with the exception of one particular shoot, it will only be individuals that I’ll record saying lines of script here or there. If I’m on the ball, I can finish this all within a week.

Yay!

Download the PDF.

Today’s shoot was all about the boss character in the film, as well as another secondary character. Apart from them and the lead, no other characters were on set. Yet through the magic of cinema, when you finally do see the movie, you’ll see that he appears to often be dealing with groups of people at a time.

We’re running into a bit of an issue here. People’s clothes, hair length, and facial hair are completely inconsistent from shot to shot. What can you expect? We have been shooting for three months, and I certainly don’t have the money to give people shaves/haircuts before each shoot. And to expect people to submit to one particular hair/shave style each time would be alot to ask of these people, esp. given how much I’m paying them ($0.)

Whatever. Nothing can be done about it now. Since this a comedy, we’ll make fun of ourselves on that basis. This, my friends, will be a great film to see while high.

Well on October 26 we had the “Docks” staff party. Everyone that’s participated on this movie has been quite accomodating, and working with them has been a pleasure. So last Friday’s party was a means to thank them.

I bought ten cases of two-fours (24 beers a case.) Those who worked on Docks got free beer, free pizza. Lots more people were invited; the idea being that they paid $10 and got access to unlimited beer. In the end, it helped recouping a bit of the money spent.

Since the “interview room” for the movie is setup in my house, I also got those done. And the footage of the party will be part of the movie’s finale. So while this wasn’t really an official shoot date, I got some very valuable footage taken nonetheless.

There’s a shoot tomorrow, and after that two more need to be done ASAP. At this point, it’s starting to get quite cold outside. It was even snowing today; so I got to do this fast. After all, this movie is set during the fall, not winter.

Internet is still out at my place. At this stage, it’s been out for 15 of the 30 days we’ve been with them. The tech support has been less than helpful, and after much frustration we’ve decided to switch.  Bye bye 3Web, hello Tekksavvy.