Production Diary - The Long Take

 Once a month I’m going to talk about a specific production, what it was like to film it, and what was involved in making it happen.  This month I’m going to talk about The Long Take. 

The Long Take is a short film that very few people have seen but it’s an important production because it’s one of only two films that are actually shot on film.  It was written and produced for a class project in film production at SIUC and wasn’t considered part of the SFF project list along with several other short films because it was produced as a part of some other project (in this case a class).  However, I realized a few years ago that they were filmed by me with mostly or entirely SFF cast and crew so I’ve included them now. 

The assignment was to make a short film that used audio and sound effects or dialogue but none of the dialogue could be in sync because that was something to work on in another class (that I was never able to take).  I purchased a 8mm film camera for the class and after filming my first two assignments I started working on my third and last – The Long Take .

I really liked the look of film and wanted to do a nod to the silent movie era so I chose to have the movie be set at the end of some dashing romantic adventure movie a la Errol Flynn.  But I also wanted it to be funny and decided to focus on the making of a movie like that (only modern, not 1920s because I didn’t have the money for period lights and props, etc.).  

The basic plot is that a harried director is trying to film the final scene of a movie and problems keep happening including crew breaks, flying donuts, divas, and drunks. 

It’s mostly one basic shot of the set with some close-ups as needed, and filmed in the upstairs lobby of the beautiful Virginia Theater in Champaign, IL. There was a great cast with actors able to ham it up in silent movie style including Ryan Segovich as the Hero, Chris Hutchens as the Villain, Margaret Olson as the Princess, and Genevieve Stasheff as the Director. 

The first day of filming actually had Genevieve Stasheff playing both the princess and the director (not sure why).  After shooting, the cast sat around and recorded the audio for the leads and generally hung out and had fun.  It should have only taken that one day to film it, but actual film requires good lighting and strong knowledge of the equipment and I apparently had problems with both. 

Film has to have enough light exposed to it for the image to appear.  It’s pretty much the same principal as a video camera, but the amount of light needed is a lot higher for a film camera.  Also I suck at figuring out exposure.  I suck at lighting in general. unlike video you can’t just go home and watch the footage because the film has to be mailed away to be processed which takes about two weeks (jeepers!).  When I got the film back I discovered my exposure problems (oh my!) and was dismayed to discover most of the footage was too dark to use or out of focus (focus, damn you, focus!).  I salvaged the shots I could and made a list of what had to be reshot which was pretty much everything.  Shots from the first shoot that made it into the film include the shot of the hero in the beginning, the actors taking the sword fight off the set and past the lighting equipment, and the close up of the donut being stepped on. 

Over a month later I returned to Champaign to reshoot the film and gathered the actors once again.  Most were able to return but Genevieve was busy that evening and could only be there for a short time to shoot the director bits.  Margaret Olson took over the role of the princess – a difference that really only changed one shot.  When the actress gets fed up and steps off set for a few minutes what she does is different.  Genevieve took off the wig and lit up a cigarette contrasting the sweet princess look.  Since Margaret didn’t smoke and was too young to anyway, we had to change it, so instead she pulls a cell phone from her bodice and calls her agent to yell at him. 

The first shoot was shortly after daylight savings and the second shoot was way after, so even though the time of the shoot was roughly the same (approximately 5pm-9pm) it was still light when we started filming at the first one and dark when we filmed the second which did actually change the lighting to be more contrasted.  I liked it in the end because I think it has more of that silent movie look with the sharp contrast.  Needless to say I over exposed it a bit too since I was paranoid.

The next day I gathered friends and forced family to record voices for the general crew (and I needed to get more adlibbing from them but didn’t – oh well).  I put it all together in the edit bay (actually cutting the filmstrips and taping them together – sweet!) and it looks great.  I added the titles and credits on a computer a while later.

And this quirky little film earned me a solid B on the project.  I didn’t have enough variety of shots so I got graded down for that.  But that’s okay.  I still had fun and I hope the actors did too.  This makes me all nostalgic – I need to shoot another silent film soon.



Want to watch the movie?  Here you go!