Movie productions are like juggling a million little marbles and trying not to drop one. While I've briefly alluded to financial challenges that needed to be ironed out, I thought I'd throw out a few other challenges to give you an idea of your average day in the production office. Here's just a sampling of issues that came up today for discussion...
* "Kit's" agent informed us that he'll be filming a T.V. pilot in L.A. and will therefore be unavailable for two very important shooting days that we need him to be on set. If this cannot be resolved, we may need to find ourselves another Kit. Which would be too bad, because he really made a perfect Kit.
* Due to an influx of bigger budget productions being filmed in Fort Langely, businesses in the community have started raising their prices for opening their doors. This means that all our locations are over-budget. Today we learned that the owner of our oh-so-perfect bookstore now wants $8,000 for ONE day of shooting (and we'd probably only need the store for maybe half a day). I think our producers were budgeting more around the $1500 - $2000 mark. Somehow I doubt this lady makes $8,000/day selling books and giftware... but what do I know? I think some people let greed overtake their sanity. So we may need to scout for another location.
As it is, I think we're already shooting all our hospital scenes in a school, because the hospital in FL wanted $5000/day for us to shoot in an unused, empty wing in their basement. Because we have a good full day's worth of hospital scenes, I think our producers were almost considering it, until they took a walk around and saw that it's really modern with all kinds of funky colours, which don't exactly scream "1994". (They've since been referring to it as "the Starbucks hospital".) So in that regard, the more affordable school option actually makes sense, since it has a few locker-free hallways that look very clinical. (Poor kids!)
* Because we have yet to find our perfect Maggie, we're calling one of little actors back in for a last minute third audition. Such a hard decision!!
We've decided that our Maggie #2 (the throaty-voiced runner) looks too old to play 11. She's definitely looking more like 13. So she's out of the running.
Meanwhile, since we've cast our perfect Sarah, we've started to reconsider our Maggie #1 (the pro crier), because the two look nothing at all like mother and daughter. Of course, we could just find a father that looks like her, since he'll only be shown in pictures anyway. Also, if we do cast her, we'd definitely like her to cut her hair and potentially lighten it. Not sure about the latter though... lightening hair on children is risky because it could totally end up looking fake. But she's so dark and Sarah's so fair... there's gotta be something more we can do, besides sticking tons of photos of an olive-skinned father in the background.
Finally, our Sarah actor said she felt the best connection with Maggie #3 (the future knock out). But the big question is can the young beauty cry on demand like Maggie #1? (Which is why we're bringing her back in today... to make 'er cry!! ;)
So anyway, that's just a sampling. There are a zillion other little snags that arise hourly and work themselves out through constant discussions. And I'm sure there are even way more problems that neither Jim nor I are ever aware of, because our producers want to protect us from the added stress.
Anyhoo, it's not all sunshine and lollypops, but it's definitely interesting and keeps us on our toes!
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