Film Threat » A Year Without Rent

A YEAR WITHOUT RENT: DAY EIGHT OF “THE STAGG DO”

Lucas McNelly — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 05:01:34 +0000

Between Day 7 and 8 of THE STAGG DO was a day off. Being filmmakers, we obviously all got drunk the night before the off day, then spent that day hung over. This will surprise no one in the film world...

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A YEAR WITHOUT RENT: DAY SEVEN OF “THE STAGG DO”

Lucas McNelly — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 05:01:25 +0000

There's a lot of things you can do wrong as a film production, and if you've been paying attention to our coverage of THE STAGG DO, you'll notice that they've pretty much ticked off all the boxes, save one: we've had good turnarounds...

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A YEAR WITHOUT RENT: DAY FIVE OF “THE STAGG DO”

Lucas McNelly — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 18:12:57 +0000

Today's challenge is to light a tree fort (yes, a tree fort) on the other side of the river, about 100 yards downstream from where we lit on Day 3. Downstream means closer to the barns, which is theoretically a good thing...

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A YEAR WITHOUT RENT: DAY SIX OF “THE STAGG DO”

Lucas McNelly — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 05:32:08 +0000

It's easy to think of quitting as a singular action, a "fuck you" to whomever you feel has wronged you. After all, no one quits because they're slightly annoyed...

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A YEAR WITHOUT RENT: DAY FOUR OF “THE STAGG DO”

Lucas McNelly — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 05:30:35 +0000

One good thing about a justified bit of yelling is that sometimes things get fixed...

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A YEAR WITHOUT RENT: DAY THREE OF “THE STAGG DO”

Lucas McNelly — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 04:30:33 +0000

For the 3rd day of "The Stagg Do," we move to night shoots, and naturally we don't have nearly enough lights for what we need to do...

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A YEAR WITHOUT RENT: DAY TWO OF “THE STAGG DO”

Lucas McNelly — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 04:30:32 +0000

Few things in micro budget indie film are easier than being the gaffer when shooting a field far away from electricity...

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A YEAR WITHOUT RENT: DAY ONE OF “THE STAGG DO”

Lucas McNelly — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 04:30:31 +0000

In the original planning for A Year Without Rent, I wasn't supposed to leave the country. It just wasn't in the budget...

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A YEAR WITHOUT RENT: DAWN MIKKELSON ON “SMOOCH”

Lucas McNelly — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 04:30:30 +0000

It occurred to me recently that A Year Without Rent was missing an opportunity by not letting the filmmakers we profile speak for themselves...

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A YEAR WITHOUT RENT: DAY EIGHT OF “FAT KID RULES THE WORLD”

Lucas McNelly — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 04:01:39 +0000

There's something strange about life on location...

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A YEAR WITHOUT RENT: DAY SEVEN OF “FAT KID RULES THE WORLD”

Lucas McNelly — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 04:01:38 +0000

It's 1am and I'm sitting by myself on the sidewalk at the corner of 3rd Avenue & Seneca Street, 4 blocks from set...

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A YEAR WITHOUT RENT: @THEIPHOTOGRAPHR

Lucas McNelly — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 04:01:36 +0000

For every film I work on, there's usually a Twitter hashtag or account dedicated to the film (What if there's no hashtag or account? That's a red flag.) where people will post stuff that's going on...

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A YEAR WITHOUT RENT: DAY SIX OF “FAT KID RULES THE WORLD”

Lucas McNelly — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 04:01:27 +0000

Yesterday, there was a car parked on the street near craft services. In and of itself, this is not unusual. Craft services is on the sidewalk and we're shooting in a neighborhood...

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A YEAR WITHOUT RENT: DAY FIVE OF “FAT KID RULES THE WORLD”

Lucas McNelly — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 04:01:26 +0000

I come from a basketball family. My Uncle Dale was a 3rd team Parade All-American and once beat Bill Russell at HORSE...

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A YEAR WITHOUT RENT: BRENDON FOGLE’S “SYNC”

Lucas McNelly — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 04:01:41 +0000

There's a day off in the FAT KID RULES THE WORLD schedule, and the last day before the day off wraps at 5am. By the time I make it back to where I'm staying, it's closer to 5:30am...

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A YEAR WITHOUT RENT: DAY FOUR OF “FAT KID RULES THE WORLD”

Lucas McNelly — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 04:01:26 +0000

In the world of micro budget indie film, the term "G&E Department" is a bit misleading. The only time you can make a distinction between G & E is when the two people in the department have names like Gary and Ethan...

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A YEAR WITHOUT RENT: DAY THREE OF “FAT KID RULES THE WORLD”

Lucas McNelly — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 04:01:24 +0000

I like to say that I believe in 2 things: God and the Auteur Theory, which is really just one thing...

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A YEAR WITHOUT RENT: DAY TWO OF “FAT KID RULES THE WORLD”

Lucas McNelly — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 04:01:22 +0000

I often describe the lighting kits on indie films as "5 lights and 4 c-stands." It may be an Arri kit or a couple of LEDs or even some work lights from Home Depot, and it might even be 6 lights, but the concept remains--there's never as many as you'd like...

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A YEAR WITHOUT RENT: DAY ONE OF “FAT KID RULES THE WORLD”

Lucas McNelly — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 04:01:17 +0000

One of the questions I get a lot on A Year Without Rent is "where do you find all these films?" Well... there's a lot of ways...

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A YEAR WITHOUT RENT: DAY SIX OF “CXL”

Lucas McNelly — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 04:01:07 +0000

I almost never read the scripts for these projects. Not because I don't want to, but simply because it isn't practical. On probably half of them I don't even get a script, so that makes it easy...

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A YEAR WITHOUT RENT: DAY FIVE OF “CXL”

Lucas McNelly — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 04:01:18 +0000

When we last left Sean Gillane and his merry band of San Francisco pranksters, they were shooting green screen footage on the street...

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A YEAR WITHOUT RENT: DAY TEN OF “FAVOR”

Lucas McNelly — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 04:01:46 +0000

All through this production, I've heard tales of our "seedy motel" location, a place so vile and disgusting, they couldn't even bring themselves to put me up there...

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A YEAR WITHOUT RENT: DAY NINE OF “FAVOR”

Lucas McNelly — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 04:01:28 +0000

Previously, on FAVOR: Paul Osborne drove us out into the desert with a shovel and told us to dig (what could go wrong?). Well, now we're back at his house for a day of filming (it's a scheduling thing)...

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A YEAR WITHOUT RENT: DAYS SEVEN AND EIGHT OF “FAVOR”

Lucas McNelly — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 04:01:27 +0000

We're combining days here for the first time on A Year Without Rent for one very simple reason: nothing happened on day 7...

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A YEAR WITHOUT RENT: DAY SIX OF “FAVOR”

Lucas McNelly — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 04:01:51 +0000

The one big issue with using soft lights as your primary lighting source is that they don't do a whole lot when you take them outside...

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A YEAR WITHOUT RENT: DAY FIVE OF “FAVOR”

Lucas McNelly — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 04:01:49 +0000

When a crew is as small as the crew on FAVOR, you really notice when people are gone...

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A YEAR WITHOUT RENT: DAY FOUR OF “FAVOR”

Lucas McNelly — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 04:01:47 +0000

There will be blood. Maybe. Or maybe not...

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A YEAR WITHOUT RENT: DAY THREE OF “FAVOR”

Lucas McNelly — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 04:03:44 +0000

All through Day 2, one of the chief topics of conversation was how to shoot a scene with prop glass...

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A YEAR WITHOUT RENT: DAY TWO OF “FAVOR”

Lucas McNelly — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 04:03:42 +0000

You know how I said it's generally a bad idea to film where you live? Well…here we go again...

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A YEAR WITHOUT RENT: DAY ONE OF “FAVOR”

Lucas McNelly — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 04:05:40 +0000

I'm not entirely sure where the rumor originated that I wouldn't take A Year Without Rent to Los Angeles...

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A YEAR WITHOUT RENT: DAY FOUR OF “CXL”

Lucas McNelly — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 04:01:44 +0000

There's nothing quite like a really long day of freezing cold exteriors to make you appreciate the simple joys of filming inside...

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A YEAR WITHOUT RENT: DAY THREE OF “CXL”

Lucas McNelly — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 04:01:46 +0000

I never thought we'd be filming at the Golden Gate Bridge, but that's exactly what we're doing. Of course, we have no permit...

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A YEAR WITHOUT RENT: DAY TWO OF “CXL”

Lucas McNelly — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 04:15:10 +0000

If you've never been to San Francisco (or, at least this part of San Fran), it's important to know that a lot of people park in private garages in what's most easily described as the basement of their apartment building...

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A YEAR WITHOUT RENT: DAY ONE OF “CXL”

Lucas McNelly — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 04:01:44 +0000

I've never worked in front of a green screen before, so when Sean Gillane tells me that his film CXL (stands for cancel) is going to involve some VFX green screen work, I'm pretty excited. Maybe intrigued is the better word...

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A YEAR WITHOUT RENT: DAY THREE OF “TERMINAL LEGACY”

Lucas McNelly — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 04:01:07 +0000

It's so stupid, but one of my favorite things is when a grip or DP uses a c-stand to hold a branch. I have no idea why, but it strikes me a damned cool...

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A YEAR WITHOUT RENT: DAY TWO OF “TERMINAL LEGACY”

Lucas McNelly — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 04:01:06 +0000

Let's talk for a second about the little things. Thanks to the internet (maybe you've heard of it?), every day on every film set in the world people check the weather report...

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A YEAR WITHOUT RENT: DAY ONE OF “TERMINAL LEGACY”

Lucas McNelly — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 04:01:01 +0000

If you were to ask me what day in the calendar year would be the one where people are least likely to be doing yard work, one of my first guesses would be the day after Memorial Day...

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A YEAR WITHOUT RENT: DAY ZERO OF “TERMINAL LEGACY”

Lucas McNelly — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 19:15:03 +0000

I know they've already been shooting, so my Day 1 is really Day 10, with a bunch of locations around the city, including a morgue where the script supervisor may or may not have found a dead body...

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A YEAR WITHOUT RENT: DAY FOUR OF “THE SUMMER HOME”

Lucas McNelly — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 04:05:44 +0000

Assuming you're more or less on schedule, a short day is everyone's favorite day on a film. String enough 14+ hour days together and a 8 hour day sounds like a vacation...

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A YEAR WITHOUT RENT: DAY THREE OF “THE SUMMER HOME”

Lucas McNelly — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 04:42:18 +0000

When I was a little kid growing up on the coast of Maine, I distinctly remember having a t-shirt for the "Seattle Rain Festival, January 1st - December 31st." It was yellow. I have no idea where the shirt came from...

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A YEAR WITHOUT RENT: DAY TWO OF “THE SUMMER HOME”

Lucas McNelly — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 14:48:58 +0000

It's a sunrise call for the first shooting day of THE SUMMER HOME. The first scene, as we saw yesterday, involves a shoot at first light on a dock. Almost immediately it starts raining. Welcome to Seattle...

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A YEAR WITHOUT RENT: DAY ONE OF “THE SUMMER HOME”

Lucas McNelly — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 17:33:04 +0000

The schedule calls for our first shot on Day 1 to be a single person on a dock at sunrise, only the dock is a little different than we thought--chiefly there's a big huge post in the middle of it...

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A YEAR WITHOUT RENT: AN INTRODUCTION…

Lucas McNelly — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 17:28:58 +0000

Meet Lucas McNelly. He's been on the road for the last 4 months, traveling around the country, volunteering on indie film projects small and not-so-small, and documenting the process all over the place...

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