Back in October 2020, at the height of the pandemic, Ryan Dickie and I co-directed the feature film Blow Up My Life, a comedy-thriller about a reluctant opioid whistleblower on the run, starring Jason Selvig and Tony-Winner Kara Young. The film played in theaters in fall 2023 and is now available on AppleTV, Amazon, and Tubi.Even though the circumstances were incredibly specific, the filmmaking lessons learned during those tough pandemic times feel incredibly valuable in today’s creative climate. Adaptability and resourceful thinking can be our greatest assets as the film industry continues to rapidly change. Pulling Off Production on $90K As Ryan and I started to conceive of this production, we weren’t sure if it was possible to pull off an ambitious script (Car chases! Explosions!) for our shooting budget of $90K. Digging for hours online and finally finding concrete evidence of a film that had done it successfully (Sun Don’t Shine by Amy Seimetz – shot on film, no less!) gave us the confidence to charge ahead: we weren’t the only crazy ones. Small Flexible CrewFilming during the pandemic forced us to be very selective with how many people we could have on set because we would need to quarantine and test. Many crew members did multiple jobs, and we helped each other out all the time. Director/Producer/WardrobeDirector/Producer/DPProducer/AD Gaffer Key Grip/Steadicam AC/DIT Production Design Sound/CarpentryPA/Covid Compliance As you can see, we didn’t have a Hair & Make-up artist. Some actors did their own make-up, some didn’t wear any (they...
Published By: NoFilmSchool - 6 days ago