ErinLaing.com

It was a difficult week to say the least. Making a film is like giving birth (I think) and when it comes time to cutting shots, not to mention entire characters from the film, it’s a painful process.

There are three films that you make when you set out to make a film.

1. the film you write.

2. the film you shoot.

3. the film you edit.

The film I have right now is not the film I shot, and not the film I wrote but somewhere in between, and it’s better because of it.

Yves cut a third of the film out this week. It was an exercise which we didn’t think would work but we were both wrong. We had a screening on Wednesday for people who knew nothing about the project. They loved the short, concentrated version verses the longer cut. According to them, everything was clear, to the point and slick whereas the longer cut (which I thought would be the sure bet) felt uneven, confusing and not as moving. Sure it got more laughs but the overall effect of the film got lost in the ambiguity.

There’s another saying that editing is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration.

At least I’ll have a lot of extras for the DVD.

Erin and I just watched a brilliant Canadian short film called, The Saddest Boy in the World. Here’s the synopsis:

Timothy Higgins, picked last for the team, is the saddest boy in the world. Friendlessness, suburban complacency and prescription drugs have conspired against the youngster to make this his worst year yet. Musical Chairs and birthday cake can’t save him now—at his ninth birthday party, Timothy prepares for a show-stopping suicide.

Of course, Birthday Girl, is about a girl who chooses to lie in a coffin for her twelfth birthday party. We’re relieved to say that besides this element, the films have very little in common (except twins!). The tone of the two films are completely different.

Having said that - you must see The Saddest Boy in the World if you get the chance. The production design is out of control. It’s like the love child of Tim Burton and Wes Anderson and extraordinarily un-Canadian in its quality. It’s making the rounds in the festivals right now to rave reviews. Check out screening times and places here.

Erin is buried in the editing room these days, but we are already discussing story ideas for the next film. Something that comes up over and over again is the need for conflict in every scene. We identified three types of conflict in storytelling: No conflict, dishonest conflict, and honest conflict.

No Conflict - is a scene that breezes by without any tension or story-purpose.

Dishonest Conflict - is a scene where conflict exists only to drive the story forward, but is disrespectful of the characters or irrational in the context of the story.

Honest Conflict - is conflict that is true to the characters and the story.

I think Birthday Girl has moments of all of these.

Here’s a photo Matt photoshopped together for the film. Lindsay and Alice are supposed to be “old friends” in the film and we wanted a photo of the two to place on the photoboard Lindsay makes for her funeral.

Here’s one taken on the second day of filming.

The “evil” twins, Emily and Talya… or Talya and Emily. I never get it right.

I just uploaded 55 photos from the shoot to my Flickr account.

By the way, I know many people were taking amazing photos - if you have photos from the shoot, please upload them to Flickr and tag them with “birthdaygirlshortfilm” and we’ll feed them through this blog.

There was no Internet on the set and no time to blog, so I’ll have to do a quick recap here.

The shoot wrapped last night around 9pm. Everything went really well. The rushes will be coming in this week, which will give Erin and Shane (the DP) a sense of exactly how well things went.

Here’s a shot from the second day of filming. Erin is directing Emilie (inverted on couch) in a fun scene in the living room during the party.

The cast was truly remarkable during the shoot. Erin spent a lot of time casting this film - auditioning over 150 people - and getting to know everyone over time through rehearsals. The result was a cast that was natural and comfortable on set and could communicate clearly, while understanding their roles.

(Photo: Erin checking the frame on a driveway shot).

Today was minus 14 degree weather, probably minus 20, with the wind-chill. All exterior shooting; except the last four hours. The cast and crew so far have been stellar - exceeding high expectations on all fronts. Here are a couple photos. Many more to come. I’ll set up a Flickr gallery for the shoot very soon.

(Photo: Alex, the script supervisor, burns a hole in his glove.)

(Photo: Iuliana, production assistant.)

(Photo: That’s a wrap - see you tomorrow! )

Shooting runs until Sunday, March 11 (total, four days).

Inventor, entrepreneur and former Montrealer, Peter Roizen, read about our Scrabble woes and offered his word board-game, WildWords, instead.

Once we lost the use of Scrabble, we decided to use a newspaper crossword puzzle instead. I think it was Phil, one of the production staff, who observed how strange it would be to have a five-year-old filling in a crossword puzzle. Hmm… it also wouldn’t read very well on film.

Regardless, Peter sent us a gently used version of the game earlier this week and - fingers crossed - it will be ready for the art department tomorrow.

Thanks, Peter!