A few weeks ago we captured the footage for the short version of Domestique, intended to be used to try and get investors onboard the project. My wife captured some behind-the-scenes pictures and videos (at the very bottom is a link to more pictures) and, after the usual dilly dallying, I finally put them on the web.
Last Sunday I met with the DP (Austin Reeves) to get ‘background plates’ (e.g., ‘stock footage’) for the racing scenes we shot on greenscreen. It was quite hot, but, thankfully, not terribly humid. He has a little camera (that can, nonetheless, capture 4K imagery) that’s mounted in a computer-controlled gizmo to stabilize the video it captures. Held on by suction cups to the car, it wirelessly connected to his iPad so he could see and control it.
Then we drove around looking for places to shoot. We found a few hills that seemed quite steep when we wend down, but weren’t even noticeable when we went back up. Eventually we found a good place and got what we think we need.
The final shot we took, which I think will be perfect as the final shot of the short, Austin (thanks for suggesting this) felt I should drive away from the camera until the car goes over the hill and out of site. That’s what I love about movie making, the collaboration and serendipity that allows amazing things to happen. We (or, likely, Austin) still need to capture a cafe-like scene as well as a hotel-like scene. At least these are stationary and, once the right location is found, should take no more than 10-15 minutes.
Then it’s all on Tony, the editor, who has all the footage. All 700 GB of it, captured in 4K resolution and log mode (I only think I know what ‘log mode’ means). He had to buy a new hard drive and it took more than a day to download. To get a copy, I had to also buy a hard drive, but I formatted it such that it’s incompatible with Windows, so need to try that again, soon.
Next up for me on this project is to work on the second draft of the script (I’ve been given lots of good ideas) and start hammering out a budget. That way, ideally, when the short is done I can quickly begin my efforts to locate the right investors.
