THIS IS WHAT IT TAKES

The making of a broadcast production in 2 weeks and all the BS that goes with it.  

14 days till shoot day

When we were first tasked with the opportunity to produce two 1 hour programs for one of the broadcast networks, we were excited to participate. Then we found out we only had 2 weeks from initial talks to first production day. The next few weeks began a whirlwind of scouting, designing and planning within the schedule of 2 nationally known talent…thank god we did not have to cast.

So we began by constructing an estimate of costs and outline of requirements associated with what was described to us. No scripts. We would need to design, build and prop a Christmas set and locate a studio to build it in as our space was too small to handle a home setting. With now only 12 days remaining before principal photography was to begin, we discovered there were no studios available to fit our schedule. Did I mention that we needed to produce within the state of Pennsylvania so that appropriate tax credits could be utilized?

After a 2 day search we finally found availability at a local studio that was embedded in an old factory space. We utilized the look of the exposed brick and designed, built and incorporated a new 16 foot wall with a fireplace to accomplish a modern loft space that once propped served as a cool, contemporary living room set. Simultaneously, we needed to contract and scout one of the largest malls in the US to shoot our second script. Next issue: how do we prop a large space within the mall to look like Christmas 2 months prior to Christmas?

Knowing we needed large mall size props, we decided to go directly to the folks that do that for a living. We were hooked up with the exhibit company that warehouses, builds and decorates malls. We are talking large scale stuff here…300 pound Christmas trees, 8 foot tall Santa Throne, huge life size wire frame reindeer (complete w twinkle lights) huge steel frame wreaths, 75 large artificial poinsettias and enough 10 inch thick garland to wrap four, 2 story pillars. A forklift was THE tool of choice. All this propping had to be completed in 6 hours on the day of the Mall shoot, which was scheduled the day after the loft shoot.

So, two major production days back to back with building, propping and planning that should have taken a month, all in 8 days. Stress level was up there.

Did I mention we still did not have scripts 

4 days before production was to begin, our team of a director, 2 producers, prop stylist and gaffer met with the clients at the Mall location to finalize the areas we were to shoot in at the end of the week. A marathon meeting between all including the mall staff and the exhibit company hammered out all of the details of the mall day. The propping needed to be massive. As I mentioned earlier, the shear amount and size of the exhibit was daunting and seemed impossible to pull off. We sat together and worked out all of the details for the mall as well as the style of the ‘loft” space we were shooting in on Friday. 

On Tuesday we gave the green light to the set builder to construct the wall, incorporate a fireplace and build a few 12 foot molding cases to essentially cover existing ugly pipes and electric that ran along the base of the brick. They would need at least 5 hours one day before the production to load the flats into the second floor space (which did not have an elevator) up the steep staircase, build, seem, tape and paint so we could start propping later that afternoon. We needed to clear out of the space by 7pm to avoid any OT and stay within the budget…at least on the set day. All of the grip equipment, HMI’s, jib and assorted accessories needed to be hand carried up 2 flights of stairs. God bless the best crew we could ever work with. They managed to bring everything up the stairs, blackout the ceiling to floor windows and set a majority of lights on stands in less than 4 hours. We were ready to start lighting and finish propping at 10AM the following day to prepare for a 4PM roll time.

Shoot day 1 Loft Space

Call time for our team was 10AM. We began by setting lights and building jib with prompter. Simultaneously, all set propping was being done within the shooting space. We needed to be hot to roll at 4pm. We hung a countdown sign revising hours til hot beginning at 11AM. Clients had not arrived so no approvals on set look were coming anytime soon…we were in charge of our own destiny….for a while. 

By 3 pm we were 95% lit and propped. We waited on final touches until we saw talent in position and clients approved what we were doing. Because of the talented prop stylist and confident electric and camera departments, we never had to second guess our choices. At 3:30 PM, clients arrived w talent and thankfully were impressed with our set and lighting decisions. With minor tweaks we were ready to roll by 4pm. That’s when we received final scripts.

We began rolling at 4:20PM with the puppy scenes. Oh yeah, segments 5 and 6 required us to have a 7 week old chocolate lab being held by our female talent in a bright red dress. After a few successful takes w the puppy and shooting around the rumbling train that ran overhead, we decided to give the puppy a few minutes to relax….and relax she did…right in the middle of our set….twice…god bless the cuteness.

With minor tweaks and re writes to the script all evening and a few minutes here and there to re light, we managed to successfully finish shooting the script by 10:15PM. We were extremely lucky to have talent who knew what they were doing and could get through the 6 segments in minimal takes. We needed to wrap out of that space as soon as possible that evening. Shooting everything on schedule was the easy part. Coordinating set breakdown and removal, set furniture rental pick up and wrapping all lights, grip equipment, jib and props down 2 flights of stairs was our next major challenge. The space had to be cleared out that night to accommodate another production the following day.

So after a 12 plus hour day, we still needed another 2 hours to wrap out of that space. Again, my hat goes off to the entire crew who broke down everything and humped it down 2 steep flights of stairs to the trucks below. I’d do anything for these folks.

Shoot day 2 the Mall

It was a dark and stormy night.

Actually, it was a gray and stormy Saturday morning, which added to the nightmare of short turn around. Wind driven rain hampered the unloading of all grip, electric and camera departments. Let’s not forget the 2 tons of Christmas props that needed to be unloaded from a large truck into the mall for propping.

Beginning at 9:30 AM, we began the process of moving into the Mall space for our “home base” set up. This was a large 3 story space within the center of the mall that we need to light and prop that same day for a 4Pm roll time. Bring in the heavy equipment. Our crew handled the electric and lighting stuff with ease, in fact had all of the lighting roughed out in 2 hours. Our prop stylist spent the next 4 hours supervising the placement of 6 huge 300 pound decorated Christmas trees, 6 large steel frame reindeer w twinkle lights, countless buckets of lifelike poinsettias, an 8 foot tall Santa throne, huge garland wraps, wreaths and a boatload of colorful ribbons and nutcrackers. We also needed to incorporate a large jumbo tron monitor above our heads that played back the show title animation

It was like working in a fish bowl…. a noisy crowd swollen fishbowl. As the day progressed, the crowds of on lookers increased. For the most part they were very respectful of us doing our job.

By 2 pm we were 90% lit and 80% propped. We would do final tweaks once talent arrived at 330PM.

345PM. Final scripts arrive.

The trick to shooting in a space like this was to be able to find at least 3 different looks (backgrounds) with the propped space. We had the overall center space of the set, a section that included the trees and the Santa throne and the right side of the set which included the reindeer and ribbon background. We planned on shooting the opening and closing segments within the center of the space. We also need to incorporate the large jib move down from and up to the large video screen hanging 2 stories above our heads. Here is where we were challenged. Lighting the talent to compensate for the brightness and color temp of the monitor took a little bit of extra time.

We managed to shoot 4 segments of the 6 segment show within this space. We now had to have a company move up to the second floor food court to shoot segment 3. We moved all of the necessary lights, jib and prompter up to the food court, propped it out with a few of the home base Christmas trees and ribbons, etc. and were hot to roll by 9PM. An entire company move, propped and lit in 45 minutes. The talent was so good that we were able to shoot the 4 sections within the third segment in less than 30 minutes.

Not done yet.

We still had another segment to shoot. About 100 yards away was an escalator that we needed to incorporate into the 4th segment. Another company move and total re light and propping. Biggest obstacle…it was dark…I mean the mall was dark and closed. We needed to pump up the ambience throughout the large area, shoot the talent in front of the escalator and finish off with a timed shot of the talent coming up the escalator and delivering lines. Remind me to tell you sometime about the pogo stick which almost ended the talent’s beauty as we know it. So again…we moved, lit, propped and shot an entire segment with rewrites and finally wrapped at 11PM….one hour behind schedule. However the work was again just beginning….to end. We needed to wrap out of the mall all of the lighting grip and electric gear, a few tons of large Christmas props and everything else we hauled in at 930 AM. Completely wrapped out by1230Pm

Incredibly flawless production on a large scale that we pulled off in just 2 weeks…. This is an amazing testament to the talent and cooperation between the producers, entire crew, props department, mall personnel and understanding clients.