The Real Heroes
May 17, 2021 marks the day I finished packing up my car to the brim with production knick knacks and set off to a much needed R&R in NOLA with some of the cast and crew. This is after spending almost a month at 'film camp,' deep in the swamps of Louisiana, shooting a creature feature adventure action film in 11 days. It was a bittersweet day, one filled with both exhaustion, relief, and most importantly pride. I had the honor of going to battle with a motley group of talented individuals against a lot of odds -- unpredictable river levels, killer mosquitos, a VERY insane timeline and an even tinier budget, and still coming out victorious. I am now much wiser, with a lot more white hair, and incredibly humbled.
The biggest question I keep getting asked is "how did you do it?" Though, the question should actually be “how are you doing it?” since I am still very much deep in post production. Anyway, I digress. As many of you may know, this film has been far from smooth sailing. Our funding fell through a month before our shooting dates, yet we still managed to be greenlit (raise the minimal amount of money to pay for production) by our deadline of April 1. When we were greenlit, we were still about $30K over budget due to some unexpected expenses. While we were on location, half of the days were filled with rain and the river did not care that we had a schedule to abide by. Despite it all, we made a film on time, within our production budget, and it is even roughly assembled and looks like a million dollars!
I credit it all to the following:
Creative problem solving
Compromising through flexibility
Building a strong team & surrounding oneself with supportive people
Photo by: Matt Stryker, 1st AD
Creative Problems Solving.
Writing around your problems
Number 1 and 2 go hand in hand. When you do not have all the resources, you have to be very innovative to work around the roadblocks. Making a film at the micro budget level is all about compromise and sacrifice. You really have to delve into understanding what is the absolute minimum that is needed in order to tell a compelling story. Luckily, being one of the co-writers of the project… a lot of our work arounds happened through the writing, while we were deep in production. In short, we wrote around our problems. If a location changed, we wrote around it. If we ran into scheduling issues, we wrote around that. To my 2nd AD's annoyance, there was a day I even finished a rewrite 5 minutes before call time for a scene that would be shot that very same day -- due to the river being too high and not being able to ensure the safety of the cast.
Photo by Christine Regusa
As a director, I often find that these limitations help to test the limits of one's creativity and more often than not, the solutions that come from working around the issues actually help to add to the overall film. Some people see compromising as lowering the quality and value of a film. I really disagree with this. I think as long as you are able to stay true to the storytelling and the essence of a script, writing a scene with simplified stunts or adding lines to fix unexpected weather or a plethora of other problems… really does not kill a film.
At one point, a location we had been promised was taken away from us at the last minute and I had to rewrite the entire scene to fit a slightly altered location. And several locations we had blocked at during prep were flooded. Watching the rise and fall of the river as it ate our beach became a common daily occurrence. So many of our scenes took place on the beach and unfortunately the river did not care if you had blocked your entire scenes on a specific piece of land. It was gone in a matter of seconds. This ever changing negotiation with nature added character to our scenes. It forced me to think outside of the box and rework scenes on the fly. Nature challenged me to be a better director.
Photo by Matt Stryker
Creative Fundraising
The great thing about being both the director and the producer is really having a complete understanding of the limitations of the budget. Unlike many directors I have AD’d for, I knew VERY clearly that reshoots and additional filming days were not an option because I controlled the budget. To bullet proof this, I was very diligent about watching dailies, no matter how late we filmed until or how tired I was. Having an onsite editor was also key (I highly recommend this for all film sets) because I was able to look out for spots that needed pickups or even cut out scenes that were no longer needed to help us save time and money. There was one day when I showed up with a list of 10 different pickup shots much to the alarm of my entire team. According to them, I had “gone rogue.” I hope after they watch the movie, they’ll all know there was a method to the madness!
When we were over budget, we again worked around our limitations creatively. At one point we had no money to pay for snacks, so we started an Amazon registry and asked for donations and purchases. I started a "Adopt a crew" and "Adopt a cast" campaign. It's crazy how some well-written funny content can inspire your friends and family to support you. Simply asking for money and trying to stay relevant above the many other projects that are also asking for money means having to be creative about it all.
Compromising through Flexibility.
My biggest strength is my flexibility and my ability to pivot. Having produced and assistant directed so many projects, I have seen all sorts of unexpected problems arise on film sets. Everyone deals with stress differently, but I pride myself to be able to make lemonade from lemons time and time again.
Compromising through flexibility and creative problem solving go hand in hand. I think because I have had to operate on a shoestring budget, all raised by myself on all the projects I have written that I have learned to not be precious about what I have to have. Fortunately, when you learn to work with limited resources, you become a macgyver of sorts and the ability to think outside of the box is amplified.
One time on set, for example, we needed a mailbox at the last minute and sadly there were none to be found. I quickly found an outdoor oven that if cheated at the right angle could look like the door to a mailbox. No one in the world, except those who are reading this blog right now and my team, would ever know that it was an outdoor oven and not a mailbox. When time limited us, I thought of creative ways to reblock things to cut down on the number of setups or the amount of lighting we would need. I believe it is this flexibility that has been one of the biggest reasons for my continued success. Hopefully, one day I’ll be able to “throw money at my problems,” but until then I am thankful for my resourcefulness.
Building a strong team.
The only reason Erzulie was possible in the 11 day time frame was ultimately because of the team I had been building from day 1 of my career. I collect people along the way and it helps being a 1st AD because I get to work with a lot of different people. I say time and time again people will always remember the way you made them feel, so always be nice. And boy, do I remember. Rest assured, the only people that are welcome on my sets are those who have treated me well. I do not care how skilled you are at your job, if you are a dick, mark my words, we will not be working together again. I will find someone who is nicer, who may not know as much, but together we will figure it out. This is my motto 100%.
I love people who are curious and excited to learn and who I can at the end of a long stressful work day, still hang out with. A few people on this set are people that I knew when we all did not know anything. The reason why this is important is because even when we had zero money in the bank, some of these department heads still prepped for the movie -- designing wardrobe, building props, discussing makeup looks, the list goes on. This is a very rare case. They did it because they trusted me, after the many years of us working together, that I would somehow figure it out and it would happen.
On most film sets, no one thinks to start prep without a contract in place and a promised payment for that prep time -- myself included. But the first people I had committed to this project believed in this project and in me, that much. For that… I am ever thankful. And this is something money cannot buy.
So in reality, even though the shoot time was 11 days and we had 1 week of onsite pre, in reality we had been prepping for 2-3 months already. Obviously, it wasn’t 2-3 months of non-stop prep for most people, but we were already kicking around concepts and talking through character development and other things.
I got asked on my podcast by my co-host what my favorite part of the set was and really my favorite parts were when people came out of the wood works during my ultimate time of need. It was inspiring. And their generosity and support is literally what got me through this project. I remember when I arrived at my friend’s doorstep in Baton Rouge to collect “a package” and showed up to a tower of gifts from friends and family and I cried and cried. My favorite part of the day was often when I opened up packages on camera for social media or after a long first week, seeing a wave of new gifts arrive. All of this kindness and generosity really encouraged me to not give up. It was incredible to feel that support from all over.
On set, I remember the gaffer who bought ice cream for the entire team, just because. I remember my production manager cleaning up the kitchen by herself because she didn’t want the production to get in trouble. I remember the AD who woke up early to look at the river levels and tell me what it was doing. I remember the ACs who constantly checked in and asked me how my day was going or pointed a fan in my direction. I remember the PAs who BUSTED THEIR ASSES. I remember the actors who gave me a card congratulating me for making it through a very tough first week. I remember the producers who tried to make sure all the problems were solved before I heard about them. I remember the investors who told me to hire the crew because they were giving me the money to make it.
For all of these wonderful memories and where I am today, I credit it all to you guys. I am so lucky to have incredible people in my life who love and believe in me. I am so excited to share this film that we made together. I hope you will all be proud of what you have collectively helped us accomplish. I thank each and every one of you that made this possible (you know who you are) from the bottom of my heart. Thank you.
