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 Fortunate Ones: Only You.
Fortunate
Ones is a series of short films with one common theme – the main characters
wishes for or wants something, then suddenly they get it and realize it’s not
what they really wanted after all, which usually results in a dramatic twist in
their life. Only You differs
from this theme slightly because the two main characters don’t get what they
want, they get exactly what they don’t want – each other.
This wasn’t a script that I ruminated over and spent weeks or months
or years developing, it was something I came up with in a pinch, thought about
for a day, then sat down and spewed out the script in a few hours. Needless to say it’s not exactly a work
of art, but I really liked it in the end.
I think it’s funny and cute, and we had fun filming it so that’s really
all that matters. Really it
is. Really. And I’m gonna say really one more time.
Really.
About three days before
we were scheduled to shoot I only had two actors I was certain would available
to shoot on Saturday, November 17 and no script. So I took a look at what I had available, and wrote the script
to work with that. What I had was one guy, one girl, and a tipi. Yup. I made a movie out of that. 
Casting was very easy: the only available actress – Brittany
Ann Whalen – played the girl, Bethany, and the only available actor – Bryan
Kieft – played the guy, Jack. And
the Tipi played the tipi. I ended up having an extra actor for the weekend – Syndi Eller. I didn’t know she would be available
all weekend when I wrote the script so I had not written a part for her, which
meant I had assistant director for the day - which is always awesome.
Since the script was relatively short for a Yibble production – only 8
pages, and most of them a sit down conversation – I knew I could film it in day
and not need to rush things too much.
That meant the shoot didn’t have to start at 8am, which was nice. We arranged to meet at the MacLeod Farm
at 10am and start shooting by 11.
Since Brittany and Syndi were staying with me that weekend it meant all
of us could car pool together.
Which was a good thing because we had push the shoot back to 11am as we
dragged out sorry asses out of bed, still groggy from the previous night’s late
filming, hilarity, and general fun.
A call to Bryan made it clear he didn’t mind the extra hour to get ready
for filming. 
About 11:30 we finally arrived at the farm and were filming by
noon. Syndi or Bryan, I can’t
remember who, started the fire that Mark MacLeod had already set up for us
(Thanks Mark!) while Brittany and I headed out to the road to film the
“forlorn” sequence, ie Scene 2.
After some shaky camera work and many mishaps involving me not be able
to shoot a close up of a cigarette (don’t ask) we finally converged in the tipi
and start shooting the big scene, ie Scene 3 - the multi-page heart of the
script.
We began with a full read through – which the actors did using their Smartphones. That was a bit weird for me. I’m sitting there with a paper script
and two extra copies and they’re reading from a screen. I’m totally a murderer. I killed trees for scripts. I committed arborcide. Which strangely sounds like a holiday drink,
or a garden store…
Now the script is rather raunchy, so everyone’s minds were in the
gutter pretty much from the start, which gave the shoot it’s own brand of
hilarity. We were also cooking
hotdogs and yes, there are wiener jokes in the script, and so there were twice
as many in real life. There were
many escapes with burning wieners, falling wieners, wieners that didn’t
cooperate, and wieners that seemed to be attracted to a certain part of
Brittany during one difficult-to-shoot comedic bit. 
However, the most memorable part of filming that scene was when we got
smoked out of the tipi. At
one point I added a log to the fire that we figured out later was a little
damp, and slowly the tipi started filling up with smoke. We opened the door to try to air it
out, but the direction of the wind just blew everything into the actors’
faces. They were starting to cough
and getting a little hoarse and the camera was having focus problems, so we
stopped filming and went outside for a break. 
It wasn’t until we were sitting in the screened-in porch-area that we
realized just how toasty the tipi had gotten. The actors huddled in their coats and read over the rest of
the scene.
Syndi and I watched the smoke billow from out the top. By the time it had cleared out enough
to go back in, Brittany and Bryan had the rest of the script completely
memorized.
We finished filming the
scene pretty quickly, then hung out for a while roasting hotdogs and making
s’mores, since only the actors had gotten to eat lunch. When everyone was ready to go, we
packed up, doused the fire and made sure it was out, then headed in to town to
Bryan’s house to film the opening scene.
After the actors changed clothes and went over the scenes a few more
times, then we went outside to film.
Because the scene is a little more than a page and they had it
completely memorized, the filming when surprisingly quickly – even with
multiple takes from multiple angles. We were also rushing the sunset, so it helped that it went so
fast.
The final scene to be filmed
was the last one. In the script it
ends with Jack and Bethany going Go Kart racing, but there wasn’t one in the
area so everyone brainstormed a new place to end it, and considering the script
and our gutter-trapped minds that afternoon we came up with the perfect
one. I think it was Brittany who
first suggested it, but everyone readily agreed it would be perfect, all things
considered. 
After that we ended the day with dinner at El Toro, where everyone got
to warm up (I remember Syndi was especially cold), kick back and relax. We parted ways with Bryan after dinner,
then Brittany, Syndi, and I headed back to base camp (ie my parents place) to
watch footage and crash for the night.
Both Syndi and Brittany ended up feeling somewhat ill – probably from
too much smoke, too little sleep, and a diet largely consisting of marshmallows
that day. They both went to bed
early, which was just as well since I had yet to write the script we were
filming the next day.
Many thanks to Brittany, Bryan, and Syndi – without them this movie
would obviously not have been possible.
It was a really fun day and I will always remember it fondly.
And the movie is finally edited and online! Yay!
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