Best of Times, Worst of Times

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

When Charles Dickens wrote those words, I wonder if he had any idea how many times they would be repeated by people who related to them at one time or another.

Last night was one of those best/worst times for us.

It seems like every time The Director makes a film, the whole family gets involved. Last night around 2:30 am, we finished up “Day 2” of a 5-day shooting schedule for a short film, and we really believe this one has the potential to compete in film festivals around the country. I’m currently running on 3 hours of sleep, with my next best chance for a good night’s rest being sometime on Tuesday. (So this is the caffeine talking.)

It is inspiring to watch The Director work, especially when things are going well on the shoot. Last night we were filming our starring couple in different locations in downtown Denver with our cast and crew of twelve (including two camera operators and several others to hold portable lighting). We hired a street performer to come out and juggle for one of the scenes. We have some of the best actors on board that we’ve ever worked with, and to watch them work together has been at times nothing short of magical. As long as the night went, and as tired as we were, last night was by far one of the best film shoots we have ever had.

Aaaand then the worst-of-times part.

Our cinematographer/director of photography was a film student who had come highly recommended by Joshua’s filming partner, and he is genuinely a nice guy–but something about this film shoot has apparently tapped all his insecurities, and as a result he became progressively more difficult to manage. It was one of those things where he was both anxious to prove himself and insistent that The Director trust him with all of our expensive equipment, without having earned that trust, and all the while while making an increasing number of mistakes with it. My personal opinion, based on what I saw, is that this guy saw the potential of this film and his part in it, and the stakes became so high for him that he began making mistakes and sabotaging himself.

Long story short, at the end of this amazing shoot, the cinematographer did something stupid and mindless, and broke The Director’s camera. Killed it dead. As in, unusable.

This is a horrific blow to the film shoot, because we have thousands of dollars of our own money invested in it, as well as a couple of thousand from backers through a successful Kickstarter campaign. A lot is now riding on this film. We are scheduled to begin filming again at 4pm today, and instead of sleeping in, we now have to scramble to find some way to get another Canon 5D into The Director’s hands by this afternoon. (Not the cinematographer’s hands–we obviously had to let him go.)

If we had an extra $2400 to go to the camera store and replace it, it would be a done deal–but we don’t. The cinematographer (who is genuinely a nice guy) is understandably devastated and has promised to replace the camera–but he doesn’t have that kind of cash lying around, either, and it may be months before he has it, if ever. So our crew (even the actors) are scouring around Facebook, calling friends, trying to find a loaner, or a camera to rent–some way to get the filming going again by this afternoon.

As of this moment, I don’t have much in the way of answers–just a splitting headache brought on by sleep deprivation. It’s too early to get anyone on the phone. We’re taking the broken camera to a camera shop at lunch time to see what the damage actually is, to see if repair is an option, and to see if (hope against hope) they might have one available for rent in the meantime. Otherwise, we’re just waiting for an answer to present itself.

We’ve obviously been through worse stuff than this, and placed into proper perspective from the events of last weekend (which I also blogged about), this is certainly a minor issue compared to what some other people are going through. But it still feels very painful and uncertain when you see the potential of a dream coming to pass, and something happens to cause that dream to hang in the balance. It isn’t about how good you have it, or how bad you have it–it’s about hope. The Director could use a little of that right about now.

Thanks for “listening”–for reading, and for putting up with me as I vent. I’ll keep you posted.