On Friday, June 17, 2016, John and I finished loading out my Subaru Forester for the early morning trek back to York, PA for the second weekend of on-location shooting of Kaishakunin at Gessha House. The load out for this weekend was decidedly easier as John and I had both overpacked the prior weekend – as we’ve learned in the past, better over prepared than under.
Kaishakunin Light ControlOne of the key items we were able to leave behind was a box of blackout curtain. We had decided the prior weekend to use white trashbags to diffuse light coming into the teahouse rather than cutting it off completely. As an added bonus I also picked up a couple of different flavors of bug juice to attempt to keep the bugs away.
The next morning, it seemed like 5 AM arrived earlier than it had last weekend, but we forced ourselves awake, picked up a couple of last minute items and then got on the road, meeting up with Jerry at 7:30 AM.
PLAN OF ATTACK
The plan for shooting this weekend was substantially simpler than for the prior weekend. We would only be shooting the two principal actors, Mike and Jeff. We had shot about two-thirds of the film then and were going to shoot the remaining third on Saturday, giving us enough coverage to edit together the bones of the film.
Sunday was designated as an extra day where we would try to get a number of “cool” shots as well as reshoot any scenes we felt we had to (we didn’t). As with the prior weekend, each day had a shot list that Jerry and John had put together so we knew exactly what we needed to do each day and also plan the shots around camera and lighting setups to try and limit the work required between shots.
Both days, Mike and Jeff arrived at 8:30 AM and they were in costume and we were shooting by 9:30 AM. On Saturday we finished up by 6 PM, allowing for a relaxing evening at a local watering hole, Quaker Steak and Lube. On Sunday we finished around 5 PM and were able to get the car loaded and us on the road headed back to Philly by 6:30.
All three of us are big proponents of pre-planning, as it really stops us from having to have all-day shoots running late into the evening because we’re not sure what we’re doing and when.
AUDIO – SANJ’S PERSONAL PAIN
As the weekend wore on, as I was monitoring sounds I became more and more convinced that unfortunately, we were very likely to have to need to book some studio time later in the year to dub in the dialog. This is what is called Automated Dialog Replacement or ADR and is very commonly used in large productions to get the most control over the sound for mixing.
As the teahouse was a small location, we couldn’t fit a boom pole and mic in along with the actors and crew. So I opted to use wireless lavalier mics hidden under the actor’s clothing. Unfortunately, although I turned the sensitivity of the mics down, the reality was that the audio background was comprised of a melange of birds chirping, weed whackers whacking, cars, trucks and motorcycles roaring by and airplanes buzzing overhead.
Not much we can do with that audio, except use it as reference when we have a dubbing session for the film. In our prior films, we have managed to avoid ADR, but it looks like Kaishakunin is the film where we will take the plunge.
Slider SetupSlider Setup
Jib SetupJib Setup
Three ProducersThree Producers
In The TeahouseIn The Teahouse
Directing JeffDirecting Jeff
RoninRonin
Slider SetupSlider Setup
Jib SetupJib Setup
Three ProducersThree Producers
In The TeahouseIn The Teahouse
Directing JeffDirecting Jeff
RoninRonin
WHAT’S LEFT
After two weekends of shooting, we have all the interior shots for Kaishakunin. We still have a day and a half of shooting left. One day will be devoted to shooting exterior forest scenes to provide some visuals to go with voiceover and narration.
The final half-day will be devoted to getting some green screen shots we need for some compositing we will be doing. Our current plan is to get those shots done later this summer.