It has now been several weeks since we finished shooting Conductor of Earth. It was a big 6 days made smooth and fun by our lovely cast & crew, who really stepped up to the challenge.
Many people have asked me how the shoot went, and if I'm happy with the footage. I have mostly replied with an empty non-answer ("Yeah, good") because I don't currently feel equipped to judge it. I'm not really going to feel confident in our footage until he have a working edit.
But by the fact that extremely little went awry, the shoot was a good shoot. Only some props were damaged and we mostly didn't go too far overtime and we only had one really tough shoot (finishing around 4am in extreme cold with patchy rain is not fun for anyone).
I felt incredibly lucky to direct such a dedicated and independent crew. As much as it's great when the crew ask me questions about things, the fact that each department was cool and confident enough to make decisions and keep working on their own propelled the whole production forward. The lighting team and production designer were so important and efficient throughout the shoot that I was allowed to consider the action and characters. From the inspiring actors to the diligent script supervisor to the ARRI ALEXA camera, it was a treat to be a part of such a professional film production.
It was certainly surreal to see scenes come alive which I've imagined so much for nearly a year. I'm delighted that so much of it looks just like I imagined it, and some even better.
At this stage I'm pretty excited about having a working edit by the end of the month. Then we can start putting in magical dressings like music. It's usually when I add music that I start to admire my films. I'll write about that in a few weeks.
