Lessons from Producing Our Proof of Concept

We don’t believe in waiting for permission at HONEY CHILE . So for our first feature film project LOOK BACK AT IT, we produced a proof of concept to use as a tool to attract producing partners and financiers. It also serves as a standalone short.?

As the proof of concept is making its way in the world, we’re reflecting on what we’re learning. And we’re learning so much!

Some takeaways:

WORKED WITH FAMILY

We know working with family can be… hit or miss, but for us it was a hit. We felt so supported and that feeling really translated on set. And now we want that feeling on every production we do moving forward. Granted we may not be able to work with family on every project, but we can infuse the same level of grace and warmth.

WORKED WITH A CASTING DIRECTOR

We didn’t work with a casting director on tender, which made sense because there were only two roles to fill. So we went into this one thinking we were going to cast it ourselves. HA! Our casting director Amanda saved our behinds. We still hit actresses up via DM and you-don’t-know-me-but emails, but our casting director Amanda really managed the process and helped us secure folk in a short, short timeframe.

DIDN’T HAVE A FIRST AD ON SET

So the First AD is a crucial role in production. They develop the shooting schedule and manage set to make sure that everything that needs to happen, happens. We worked with a FIRST AD remotely. Taylor was a Godsend for scheduling our days (and moving things around when stuff came up), but we could have benefited from having an AD on set to manage our time better. But the larger issue was crewing up in Baltimore. We worked all our connections, but crew is more limited than in LA (and there was a big production happening the same weekend, so folk were booked and busy) so moving into the feature, we have to take that into consideration.

WERE OUR OWN SCRIPTY

It was also a challenge finding a script supervisor on the ground. The script supervisor helps to ensure continuity across shots, tracks takes and setups, and can be incredibly helpful to save time and money. But because we jump in wherever we’re needed, our very own Toni took up the charge, took a script supervisor course beforehand, and saved us!

TRACKED ALL CUTS AND POST NOTES IN ONE DOCUMENT

For tender, we did not have a very organized post production process, because we didn’t need one. But this time around, we had a document where we kept all of our post-notes by date and all of the various cuts so we could easily refer to them.

HELD A TEST SCREENING

We did not hold a test screening for tender for the team to see and hear it on a big screen. So this time, we did. It was great to see it before everyone else and to catch last minute things that you just can’t see or hear on a computer monitor.

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