After the first part of the filming

Here I am ....shooting my first feature film! It's like magic..after years of dreaming, planing and struggling to make it happen.  Well, half of our movie is done! (I say 'our' as we are a big, nice, competent, talented  and professional team - so proud of having this opportunity to work with them all.)

 My colleagues came from Bucharest at night and started filming after 7 hours of driving.  I came two days earlier to Iasi and worked all day and all night: I had to prepare the costumes, the catering, the call sheet for the next day so I couldn't sleep either. Of course, it was the first time in my life when I had the chance to meet Ion Caramitru and work with him! Who would sleep in such a situation :)  We all were dead tired since the first day, but we did it!

Not sure how I managed  it - with one day before filming, I had no clue where I would accommodate my crew and actors (searched everywhere but no one wanted to offer a discount or partnership for this film). Furthermore, for catering I was in talks with a big catering company - to do a barter, but surprise - they changed their mind and I found myself, in the first day of filming, with no food for my crew and actors :(

Then, other expenses came: paying the deposit for the equipment rental (the lights), chargers, fuel, the places where we filmed, the taxi for the extras and volunteers,  I even paid for filming a wain for 20 minutes. Step by step, all my savings dissipated!  Some crew members asked me for money for cigars, some other for buying shoes!! Couldn't believe it!! Then I judged myself, why did I spent so much for the development stage, why so much for pre-production...I could have had cheaper conference rooms, cheaper accommodation, cheaper casting place, I could have a cheaper teaser for the fundraising campaign (anyway it was a shit teaser),  I could have paid less for the script writing, I could have eaten less and so on and so forth.

What to do now? Well, my parents sent me some money, some investors sent me some as well, some friends (and now I found out how many friends I have, haha) lent me a few thousand dollars. With that collected amount I could pay the food and half of the accommodation for my crew and actors, which was good.

The second day was fine, the third came as a storm: the main actor felt confused and didn't show up on the set.  So....call him, Victoria....meet his brothers, speak with his mum, convince the guy to come back and do the film. I imagined even filming 'Herman- the man behind the terror' without Heman, haha. But he is a good person and he came back. Then an actress complained I didn't take care of her sit in the village (cause we filmed in a village) and she got a cold.  She told me to bear in mind that without actors I can't do a movie, and they are the most important. She also complained because she was on the filming set since 7 in the morning and we didn't film with her in the first part of the day, she is tired and isn't in the mood for her role. I felt like going crazy. My brain was exploding!!!  (Of course, if I would have paid them, these things would not have happened, I suppose.)

Anyway, the filming went well. A lady from the village cooked traditional Romanian food for us and cheese pies and the day ended up ok.

The rest of the days were beautiful. People were tired as we didn't have any leisure day and we were on the filming set around 16 hours per day, each day. I was standing up in front of the camera dor hours, until I could not feel my fingers (my legs got numb). During the day we were filming, at night I sent updates on the crowdfunding campaign, twitter, linked in, facebook and e-mail. When we had night filming, I was dead tired; couldn't stand. My colleagues as well, they were so so so tired. But we worked until we finished.

We managed to get beautiful footage, but the sound is compromised (we had a very noisy electric generator and also the city noise was continuous: cars, ambulances, police van, etc.). The cherry on top came when we found out that our rack and hard drives are burned. We can recover the data, but this will cost me more money. Life is so wonderful!

After those 10 days of filming, I attended the Business Days in order to get more investors/partners/sponsors for our film. I planed everything out, of course, but surprise - there was an entrance ticket of 100 euros!! Just got lucky and entered for free after I explained to the organizer my honest intentions related to my project and the need I have. The event was amazing - I enjoyed it so much.

Now we have 6 days until we start the 2nd part of the filming. Need to sort out the food, accommodation, equipment, travel, make-up, costumes, choreography, props,  crew and actors honorary. Only 6 days to take care of everything. Will I do it? I have to. I want to do this movie!

Coming soon with more news :)

Kiss
Victoria


The first day of filming making off video  here
The second day of filming making off video here
(we are working on the next videos, stay tuned :P )