Water's Edge

The Lake has become Water's Edge Ok, most people have no idea what that means. I'll explain.


I had taken on production manager duties for an indie Digital Video movie called, at the time, The Lake. Yesterday, we decided to change that to Water's Edge for marketing purposes. The director/writer, Robin Nations, felt that The Lake sounded too much like a monster movie title. She really wanted something to emphasize the small town feel of the movie's setting, but in the end it was decided that fans of waterskiing would rather watch something with a more exciting title. After all, Footloose probably wouldn't have been such a hit if it had been titled Podunk or Bible Belt Blues, no matter how hot the girls (and boys) thought Kevin Bacon was.


In any case, I re-broke down the script. The script supervisor's (Mark) breakdown was good, but left out some details I wanted in my stripboard. I can't afford the outrageously expensive Movie Magic Scheduling software, and even some of lesser known programs are beyond my budget right now (read: my cupboard is bare), so I had to use MS excel to create a strip board. Man, it's hell trying to sort and move rows and columns in that program; and despite my efforts, I couldn't figure out a way to generate call sheets with it. Does anyone have any tips, or know of some really cheap scheduling (under $100) software?


Yesterday's production meeting was the first time the crew had gotten together. There's Robin, of course, who has done a lot of film work for the Short Ends project, which really sounds like something I should be into, given my deadline-oriented mindset. Her husband Kevin will be a camera assistant and has access to all sorts of nice things through his job, including post-production equipment.


Russ is the Director of Photography, and has worked with Robin and Mark before. His background is actually in art, and he did some copy writing for HEB. I need to learn everything I can from him, as I've never worked with digital video before.


Our location scout, John, is more than a location scout. He reminds me of my friend Joshua. He's a people person, and can get his hands on just about anything. John is also a bit of a genius, I think, as he dabbles in Theoretical Physics for fun, and holds a few patents. He also has done work on Maverick and Ford Fairlane.


The location coordinator Chris has been making backyard movies since he was a kid, and seems extremely determined to make a real go of it in film. I wish I had that commitment when I was his age. Instead, I was too worried about paying the rent.


Mark, the script supervisor, is just very quiet and observant. I used to be like him. I'm more outspoken these days.


Anyway, it seems like a really great, motivated group. I hope this movie goes places (like Sundance).