On Set Stories

cheeseandachallenge

cheeseandachallenge

There must be a thread for this somewhere, but I couldn't find one...

Anyway, just somewhere to share your more *interesting* filmmaking stories.

I don't have much, but I'll start:
I was filming my first sex scene the other day (with two actors who'd never done one), and we were all pretty nervous. My directing went out the window, and I became complacent, and indecisive - but somehow we got a pretty good scene out of it.
Anyway, it was to take place in a public bathroom. Being new to this city, and not knowing anyone to call in favours from, I asked my university to close a bathroom for us during the holiday - which they kindly agreed to do so (though apparently people don't read several signs saying "toilet is closed" and tried to come in). The scene relied on some heavy *vocal work* from the female, which took us about 10 minutes to get.
However, as we left the bathroom, we realised the lecture theatre attached to the bathroom was full (odd because it was holidays). We had a friend hanging outside the toilet, after people kept trying to come in. He informed us that it was incredibly audible outside the bathroom, and it had clearly disrupted the lecture.
Later we found out it was a holiday program for under 14's...
 
I was about to finish principal photography for my film, when my main actor starting getting very... difficult. First he told me my script was "too Hollywood" and left for ten minutes, walking off with his head high and a pretentious look on his face. We went back to shooting, and I promised him we would shoot it the way he wants it if we finish my original script. Again, I was "too Hollywood". We began shooting the scene, and he began to do it his way, and improvising. Shot ruined. Later I found out he had gotten fired after telling a director to re-cast the film, and make him the lead.

Another time I was shooting a scene at night, and there was a black-out. We all stumbled around the room, trying our best not to knock any equipment over. 5 bulbs broken.

I was shooting a zombie film, and well... I didn't use washable blood. The actors were pink for the next few days :lol:

Anyone else?
 
ChimpPhobiaFilms said:
I was shooting a zombie film, and well... I didn't use washable blood. The actors were pink for the next few days :lol:
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When i lived at home, i ruined a few of my Dad's old shirts and jeans with fake blood (he has a lot from over the years that he never wears or throws out). I didn't really get permission to do so...
 
As I said in my own set experience thread recently (don't worry your thread isn't it a repeat, this was a documenting my own set experience thread).

We were shooting in an old house with a 9 year old boy. The film was set in late 1800s so he and the other actors were all dressed up in many layers of clothing. On top of this they had been waiting a few hours to actually get on set while we were shooting scenes with the lead actress in another room. Anyway the boy had heard something about it being bad to breathe in old houses, so he was doing his best to either, not very at all or to minimalise it. We start to rehearse and suddenly his acting goes a little weird. His eyes are kinda rolling strangely and it escalates to him holding both arms out and rocking sideways. (Extremely freaky to watch though it happened in a matter of seconds). Fortunately other crew members saw it and ran out, caught him before he actually fell and began helping him and stuff.
 
In 2008 a guy knocked on my door (we lived in a rural area) and asked if he could burn down my barn. This barn actually belonged to my neighbor and was in poor repair due to having been partially deconstructed by a tornado. I told him the help himself but to check with my neighbor first and gave him the number. He then told me he was making a film that he had written, was directing and starring in. He had noticed my military vehicles parked in the yard and he asked if I could get him an armored vehicle to use in a scene that involved a raid on a "illegal drug warehouse". I told him I could but that it would not be cheap due to the cost of moving armor but that he could use one of my 2 1/2 tons (Deuce and a half in military speak). He rewrote the scene and my son and I ended up as extras. I drove the truck and my son was the co-driver. We shot the scene at night and since it was the last one to be shot we ended up not shooting until about 2 am. The scene called for the truck to crash through the large door in the rear of the building but there was a fence around the property so I only had about four feet to get a running start. We had raised the real door and constructed a false door out of sheet metal and styrofoam blocks. This was a one shot deal since we could not film once the sun came up and there would be no time to rebuild the door if we didn't get it in one take. I backed up against the fence, put the truck in Low Range, third gear and nailed the throttle. There was a small step up outside the door that caused the front wheels to go airborn and the truck plowed through the door at about 15 MPH. It looked like the door exploded from the inside and we got it in one take. I was listed in the credits as "DEA Sergeant".The producer, Ken Wheeler, and I are now good friends and if he makes any money from the movie we are going to do another movie based on a story I have written about the testing and use of chemical weapons on US Soldiers.
Ken's movie is "Dixie Times" and you can check it out at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1276949/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
That was my first experience with indie films and I'm hooked.
 
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$20k USD funding, short film shoot in a good location - everyone is there on the first day. Alexa sitting there proudly on its tripod, sound guys bitching about the environment, cast, crew, the whole 9 yards. The director scraped the cash together for this (just under $20k USD) and had sorted out the camera gear himself, personally. He wanted to ensure it all went smoothly and as he has recently shot a low budget horror feature ($3m USD), he believed he was a consummate professional.

DoP turns round to him and says, 'where the f@ck are the lenses? You did remember to hire the lenses didn't you?'

Erm, erm, oops...
 
gorillaonabike said:
$20k USD funding, short film shoot in a good location - everyone is there on the first day. Alexa sitting there proudly on its tripod, sound guys bitching about the environment, cast, crew, the whole 9 yards. The director scraped the cash together for this (just under $20k USD) and had sorted out the camera gear himself, personally. He wanted to ensure it all went smoothly and as he has recently shot a low budget horror feature ($3m USD), he believed he was a consummate professional.

DoP turns round to him and says, 'where the f@ck are the lenses? You did remember to hire the lenses didn't you?'

Erm, erm, oops...
Click to expand...

And this is why gear prep is so freakin important.
 
gorillaonabike said:
$20k USD funding, short film shoot in a good location - everyone is there on the first day. Alexa sitting there proudly on its tripod, sound guys bitching about the environment, cast, crew, the whole 9 yards. The director scraped the cash together for this (just under $20k USD) and had sorted out the camera gear himself, personally. He wanted to ensure it all went smoothly and as he has recently shot a low budget horror feature ($3m USD), he believed he was a consummate professional.

DoP turns round to him and says, 'where the f@ck are the lenses? You did remember to hire the lenses didn't you?'

Erm, erm, oops...
Click to expand...

If that happened to me, I think I'd go all out Hulk and punch a hole in the wall.
 
my indietalk project said:
Everyone showed up two hours late, one girl didn't show up at all. I was banging on her door for 30 minutes (literally :no:) with her dog barking until she finally answered and told me to F off.

It was starting at 10am and she showed up at my place 5am that morning on xanax wanting alcohol (I live in a highrise). Could have seen that coming that she was a flake but I figured I knew where she lived and I would get her there one way or another.
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So to continue this story, on the drive to the set I had to quickly figure out what to do.. and I decided if I couldn't find a girl to replace her, I would just play the role as gay man instead. All the lines would stay the same, we would just change the subtext. Fortunately it didn't have to happen, we were able to get a girl to fill the role. Dodged a bullet there :lol:
 
I was filming a music video for a video contest in the Boston Public Garden, and I was toting my gear around in a backpack. I had set my backpack out of one scene, and then I kept the actor in the same spot and moved to get a shot from a different angle, which left the backpack all by itself (but still in my sight to make sure nobody snatched it up).

Just a few minutes go by when Boston PD showed up on bicycles looking at the backpack. In a stern voice: SIR, is this your backpack?

I told them it was and they moved on, and it didn't occur to me until later that this was on the heels of the Marathon bombing and they were probably very much on edge about unattended bags.

From now on the backpack will never be left unattended, so not to cause unnecessary concern. Kind of a boneheaded move on my part.
 
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