#1stad

[assistantdirector]

Production during the Corona virus:

[k-m-k]

PICS #GreysAnatomy 1406 Come On Down To My Boat Baby . #actor #KevinMcKidd #JasonGeorge #GiacomoGianiotti #JustinChambers #JesseWilliams with #director #LisaLeone - #DP #BobbyLaBonge - #writer #KristaVernoff - #1stAD #AnnetteSutera - #ScriptSupervisor #Lindsay

[jjday10]

Just a Monday night...I'm yet again an award winning filmmaker. 😜Our team also won 5 more awards! Very proud of this group. 🎬🏆🎬🍾🎬 • • #wildhearted #adored #cincinnati #filmmaker #filmlife #filmfestival #48hfp #cincinnati48hourfilmproject #cincygram #cincy48hfp #ADforhire #1stAD #parisherewecome #bestfilm #setlife #teamworkmakesthedreamwork #free #inomniaparatus #connected #filmblr #filmstagram #wemadeathing (at Eastgate Brew & View)

[katieqnmr]

Keeper? I hardly know her…

Apologies. I can’t help but echo the stupid joke that ping-ponged around the set of Keeper…Dumb enough to laugh at every time I heard it. (Wonder whether the folks working on Popper had the same issue…)

I think being a 1st AD on set was a very different viewpoint from any other I’ve had on any set. (Okay I techhhnicallly 1st AD’d Nat’s ‘about that one time’ documentary but I really had no clue what I was doing… I think I booked some kit…(?) (sorry guys) ….

So this was a BIG STEP UP. And a key difference…Ben actually asked me to 1st AD Keeper, I didn’t even think I would be a part of his film!

But Ben ended up explaining his vision for what a good 1st A.D. was…and I kind of felt like I could manage what he was describing. Also, lots of what he wanted was a good attitude, patience and clarity. Things I felt I could manage okay. But…. I could feel the ADHD demon stirring within me at the idea of… organisation(!!!) now… it’s not that I can’t be organised… but I know that I am easily distractable. I mean I actually struggle keeping these blog posts coherent a lot of the time, always wanting to start new thoughts in between old ones, which means I lack a … level of detail. Which I think is quite important as a 1st AD. However Ben assured me I would be fine. And I think generally I was!

^ We had meetings where I arranged the strip board for scheduling (which would inevitably change as days went by and we had to re-assess some things 😃😃)

I also was in charge of call sheets, which I’m afraid to say went out pretty late each night… but in my defense I got home at 11-12 each night..! But I should have had them all ready to go so I could send them out from my phone… lessons learned. The thing is, we changed so many timings each day that any pre-prepared call sheets would become rather irrelevant so I’m not sure what the fix is there.

Also the main difficulty of this shoot: we had for almost all days (pitch days) we had from 19:00-21:30(MAX) to shoot all our footage for the day, as the venue needed us OUT by 22:00, and we had to shoot at black for the shots to all match (and for Ben’s vision). This was a huge challenge for everyone, and Alex and I discussed at one point any alternatives- more shoot days possibly? But with good old British Summer Time approaching and the clocks going forward (yayy!!!) there was bad news… the darkness that we so needed would be another hour gone. Realistically I knew we could get everything shot in the days we had allocated, and we did. But I do feel bad that I had to really be on everyone as though they weren’t being fast enough, when it was actually just the parameters of the shoot.

What did I do right?

I think I was generally keeping to task. If I hadn’t been there, they would have overrun by miles… there were a few times Ben and Alex gave me this face when I told them the time…

I think it just goes so fast! Especially when it’s not your job to keep track of it. So it’s good that I was there, I made a material difference whooooo!! 🥳🥳

I think I also was pretty encouraging to everyone, and was able to call all decisions that needed to be. There was one time on day 3 where we had shifted some times around and basically Ben was hoping we would get way more shots on that day. I had been observing the last few days, felt pretty well acquainted with the patterns of shooting and thought ‘hang on, that’s never going to happen.’ But I didn’t crush Ben’s dreams and we talked about how it might work. I promised we could try his plan, because if it didn’t work out we could shoot what we hadn’t in the next 2 days, and there was plenty of time for them. As the day went on I was becoming increasingly stressed, and I had to pull Ben aside at dinner and tell him that we could not get those shots done. He at first was determined we could, but eventually I think he realised that it wasn’t possible. He very gracefully promised to trust my judgement in the future, and apologised which was really kind. I know it’s not easy at all to cut things from the schedule especially when you’re in a creative mindset. I know in Saint Catherine’s I was always asking for a a bit more time where I could.

Other good things:

I was able to reunite with Monica the 2nd AD!!!^

And a tonne of people on Saint Catherine’s were also on Keeper, so it felt very homely when I was missing the set of Saint Cats.

(Sorry this photo just makes me laugh)^^

Some things I could have done better:

I was pretty distracted (mainly Monica’s chats were pretty enthralling, and sometimes I forgot where I was(!!) but luckily we had so much prep time (arriving on set at 3pm). Constantly hounding them to be ready felt really patronising and uncessesary, so I would check in with them to see their ETA’s but there really wasn’t much I could do besides that. I would remind them of when would be good to start, but basically we were constantly chasing time when 7pm rolled around. It was quite frustrating, I think I wonder what it would be like to AD on a set with less of a shooting time constraint!

I also was not hugely confident, I think I don’t command an air of respect hahaa but the crew and supporting actors/cast were all very good at listening. I also wasn’t hugely keen on running the main meetings because it felt like all the words disappeared from my head as soon as people were looking at me. But I did manage them okay……..

Also the weather did not play nice on the 3rd day particularly (wow that day was hard) - it was raining hard and it was the sort of cold that stopped your fingers from moving. I wanted to make sure all cast and crew were safe and dry (especially those cast/SA’s who were wearing shorts!!) so this meant we lost a lot of time having to usher them in and out constantly for each different shot.

I think overall it was a really fun experience, and I’m really glad Ben trusted me. Everyone was so lovely to work with, and the film was looking (and sounding) beautiful! Even through freezing rain and darkness, everyone’s spirits were up.

Thank you Keeper,

From Katie xxx

[vitelle]

About last night… drove up to ATL from SC & started making my calls from the road to let folks know I’m in town & to “book me while the bookins good” 😜… Ended up getting invited to an impromptu premeire of @blackhamptonsbet with @lammanruckerofficial & @karonjosephriley 🎭🎬 It was good to see so many familiar faces & meet some great new friends as well! Y’all know I love supporting my #AtlFilmily & so proud of the actors, writers, producers, directors, & everyone who worked together to create this project! 🥰 Make sure y’all stream “The Black Hamptons” on BET+ & tell a friend! It’s all about support & I just LOVE seeing my people come up! ❤️🙌🏽 PS. Still taking bookings in ATL for a couple days so hit me up. When I leave next week you’re gonna have to cover travel expenses to get me back. IJS I’m in town. Let’s work! 😉 ⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ #1stad #actor #bet #betnetworks #betplus #blackentertainmenttelevision #blackexcellence #blackhamptons #blackhamptonsbet #carlweber #eliseneal #entertainment #film #flashbackfriday #greenleaf #keeppedaling #lammanrucker #lifeoftheparty #madea #vitelle #tbt #theblackhamptons #tylerperry #whydidigetmarried #womeninfilm #Atlshottest (at Atlanta, Georgia) https://www.instagram.com/p/ChuWIvwOptE/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[cfurdi]

Thank you @alicedumitrescu for this amazing opportunity and for your trust. LOVE!!!🎬 #justwrapped #greatexperience #goodvibes #thankful #1stAD #amazingcrew #greatCast #humbled #lovingit #grateful https://www.instagram.com/p/Cdvkg9dKOy4/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[cfurdi]

Start Day 3 #onset #awesomeproject #lovingit #havingablast #1stAD #funcast @hbmediaentertainment (at Dobroesti) https://www.instagram.com/p/CckctfvKUX0/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[cfurdi]

It’s a wrap for Day 1🤙🏻#thankyouforthetrust @alicedumitrescu #greatteam #funday #lovethejob #1stAD #humbled @hbmediaentertainment (at Dobroesti) https://www.instagram.com/p/CcgA8iMqxHa/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=