Part 3: All Things Great and Small

Casting a film is the most important step during pre-production. It's said that eighty percent of directing film comes from casting. If you cast just right, you're work is already mostly done for you. In any event, your film can be made or broken in the casting process alone. Thankfully, I didn't do any of that, because I didn't direct this film. Those decisions were left up to Matthew. All I had to concern myself with was the photography of the film. Of course, this presented it's own set of problems. You see, Corinne is really tall, and Katie is really not...tall.

Seriously, the girl once hid under a frisbee. Craziest thing I've ever seen. I laughed so hard I cried for about an hour. Matthew had to calm me.

So, the problem was this: how was I going to film a serious scene between these two without it looking comedic to viewers? In the comic, it's not an issue. Terry seems to be able to draw most anything and make it look convincing. Capturing it on film is something else all together. Katie and Corinne have a few really powerful scenes that could be sabotaged by the height difference. But there are two tricks of the trade that I will now share with all my loyal readers. Both of you.

The first is the sitting trick. Whenever I could, I (following Terry's lead from the book) had one or both of them sitting during a scene. First scene, Katchoo sitting in bed as Francine walks around. Next scene, after Freddie leaves, both of them sitting on the floor. I'm telling you, works like a charm.

The second trick: forced perspective. This is done by putting Corinne in the background and Lawson in the foreground. For the best example of this, look at the promotional poster. This trick was used a couple of times throughout the film. Sometimes we used the height difference to our advantage. There's a scene in which Katie is facing me down and being very intimidating. Katie comes up to my chest (and that's when I'm on my knees...just kidding Lawson!), but the scene works and is a testament to Katie's acting ability because even though there's the obvious height difference there, and it should be funny, Katie comes off as very intimidating. A very "Katchoo" trait.

The other main asset to our photography of the film was our equipment. We had two lights that we "borrowed", and a bounce board. Anyone planning on making a movie should have a bounce board. Essentially, it's a wood board with aluminum foil on one side in which to bounce the light from the source onto the actor's faces. A very handy device indeed. Our equipment may not sound like much, but we achieved every shot we attempted and they were well lit. My theory and sole belief as a director of photography is this: If you can't film the scene with two lights and a bounce board, you have no reason to be allowed to use fancy equipment. What would you do with it if you can't use simple equipment?

Anyway, this is the most technical I'm going to get about the mechanics of film photography. This is mostly because I don't want to bore people reading this and because I wanted this to be a chronicle of my impressions on the film and the process of making the film. Those who have questions or specific interests in the mechanics of what I've done on the film, please email me and I will reply. Especially you hotties out there.

To be continued...

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Note: Any hot women should especially take the opportunity to email Dave with ANY questions they might have. Much love, ladies.

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