What to Do When Your Projects Come Apart: Crisis Management
This week, some crazy random happenstances have occurred that threw us off our plans for both productions of Sweeney Todd and ACTION!, and which had not only me scrambling for solutions for an entire week.
And while you would not want to wish this upon your worst enemy, I quickly had to realise that these occurrences were not that crazy, but will most likely be a natural part of our job as filmmakers within the industry. Thus, I furthermore realised that crisis management and flexibility will become big feats for me to learn, not only in my role as a producer, but first and foremost in my role as a cinematographer.
But first things first: What had happened?
On Monday, within half an hour of each other, we received bad news for both productions I’m currently a part of. Firstly, the Sweeney Todd production had to learn, that we would definitely not get that perfect Victorian shop set that we had set our eyes on and that had been the basis for all our plans, especially for my cinematography.
Since this set seemed to be the perfect setup – its design fitted the storyboard marvellously, it was easy to light and offered not only enough space for cast and crew, but also came with all the needed props and decorations – our producer Chloe negotiated fervently to get this set for at least a couple of hours. However, the location manager finally decided that we would not be able to get it and thus, we went back to square one, having to settle on another inside location in the Victorian style.
Secondly, the production of ACTION then received news that we would not be able to match up the actor’s schedules with the location’s schedules and that our back-up location for bad weather would not be able to accommodate us when our schedule required us to film. So that required me to redo the schedule entirely and see what we could achieve with the little means and time that we’ve got at our disposal
So, problems galore!
The Sweeney Todd Production
As I’ve blogged about in last Friday’s blog, we somewhat anticipated the inside location to be a possible issue already last week, which is why Chloe, Hannah, Has, Nathan, and I did an additional location recce at the Historic Hartlepool Quay to investigate the Victorian street there. However, this location failed us in regard to its interiors, so we established that Chloe would look around the North East to find a Victorian set that we could use alternatively.
However, as of this Monday, it was settled that no establishment within a two-hour drive would permit us to film on their premises. And since budget was already tight regarding the acquisition of Victorian style props and costumes and would not allow for the ensuing amount of petrol costs, we knew that we had to do something.
Chloe’s idea, which was the first we contemplated in our production group chat, was to rewrite the script so that it only requires exterior locations. While that was a plausible suggestion, I – as the scriptwriter of the idea – found myself to have troubles envisioning an alternative to that. For, in my scripts in general, the locations are usually closely tied to a character, an issue, or the entire conflict of the film, and they are usually a silent reflection of the issues portrayed in said film.
So when the question came up on whether we could rewrite the script, it sent me spinning and blanked my mind, as I could not envision it to exclusively take place outside. The entire idea was based on a shop setting, and now it was supposed to be reduced to… what, exactly? Our director Has had less of a problem, since he was not as attached to the script as I, naturally, was, but he also struggled to come up with a solution to the rewrite.
Since both Has and I were stuck on finding an immediate solution to the script, I looked for another alternative and had a different idea: How about we forfeit the entire idea of Victorian style and set the advert in modern times? Like BBC drama did with the Sherlock series.
I thought that this might help solve the issue along with a couple of other ones, as we would not have been limited in our choice of modern style shops to ask for permission, could keep the storyline as it was, and also save on the budget regarding the acquisition of Victorian-style costumes. It would have also put fewer restrictions on the actors we could take for our piece as modern hairstyles, for example, would then again become plausible. And since we’ve had major issues acquiring the two remaining actresses for our ad, I’d thought this might be a good solution.
However, as we were all overwhelmed by the situation and did not fully know what to do this late that evening, we decided, that we would go and talk to our lecturer’s regarding viable alternatives first before making any rash decisions.
So on Tuesday we collectively met with both our lecturers and discussed our issues with the location. After a bit of debate, our lecturer conferred with the head of production design and both came to the conclusion, that we would have pieces of a set left that we could set up and use for that purpose! Hooray! So while we were happy now, that we would be able to receive a set for our purposes, I also realised that – along with that – a lot of other things would change for me, and my role as a cinematographer. And I realised that I had to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
Cause, while we solved the issue with receiving a location at all, it was now obvious that other elements of my planning hitherto have been rendered obsolete and that I would have to quickly detach (both mentally as well as emotionally) from my previous plans and make new ones, along with the required research for that.
Since we now moved from a) an exterior location and an interior location flooded by daylight, to b) a purely internal location, I will have to make accommodations for our daylight film stock. While it might be a more controlled environment that won’t be bothered as much by weather, temperature or the public, I realised that I would have to read up on the proper lighting for filming inside with a 250D film stock.
I would also, most likely due to the colour palette of the new set and the interior setting, be unable to stick to the sepia colour palette that I envisioned and fleshed out together with Has, but rather have to work out a new one that aligns with what the set would be able to give us.
Furthermore, we would be highly limited in our shot choices now, as the set itself does not measure more than eight feet in width. I would have to create new lighting plans that will be more advanced and challenging than the one I envisioned for Preston Park. Furthermore, we will need to put up the set in our studio, which we can do at the earliest next week and lastly, but not least, we would have to double-check whether we would be able to match up the interior set with a totally different outside location. And I haven’t seen the set yet.
And all that with the additional role of producer on another project that started to crumble as well. But I will get to that now.
The ACTION! Production
Coming to the ACTION production now, as a producer, I was extremely challenged this week by creating a viable schedule (aka a viable call sheet) that would survive enemy contact. Our problems here consisted, firstly, of the fact that both our back-up locations and our actors’ schedules were mutually exclusive, and secondly, of the fact that one of our actors could only do the very last weekend within our term, giving us no chance to go and reshoot the commercial, in case anything went wrong, such as e.g. camera issues, weather issues or an actor getting sick last minute.
While our actors would only be able to film during the weekends in general (one of them being a student and the other two being filmmakers themselves), the back-up locations I addressed in case the weather would turn foul (it’s now quickly moving up to winter and filming in what looks like an outside location will become more uncomfortable by the day), would only be able to offer weekdays for filming, due to their own schedules and programmes they have put up. Thus, Winter Gardens in Sunderland, while being extremely supportive of our production, fell through because of their Christmas markets taking place. And the location at Butterfly World, which I wanted to acquire, was already closed for the season at the beginning of November.
Don’t get me wrong; we did have an external location secured at Preston Park without further notice! However, with the weather turning cold and more and more unpredictable, I wanted to have an alternative ready just in case.
Which is why, on Tuesday, I asked our lecturers whether we would be able to get access to the studio during the weekends to film there. The idea behind that was – given permission was given – we would then be able to film the commercial using a green screen, being able to experiment more with the technology and skills needed for that and keeping ourselves and our actors warm, rendering us furthermore independent from the weather.
However, we were unable to get permission to film in the studio on weekends, since it puts in motion an entire avalanche of paperwork and would furthermore require a lot of staff to come in an be paid on a weekend, that it was not a feasible solution. So it was obvious that we would have to film outside, come whatever may.
So it’s no stretch to say that I was overwhelmed by the amount of changes to both our projects and the time we would have left. It’s not that I don’t want to go the extra mile; I personally don’t mind a challenge. But at that point in time, I felt so overwhelmed by the amount of changes and tasks piling up, that I did not feel confident to solve that with my current time management skills.
Crisis Management is Time Management
To those who know me personally, it does not come as a surprise that I am an adherer to self-improvement and self-optimisation. I sincerely believe that our full potential can only be reached with a lot of hard work, determination, perseverance, and a dose of good planning. But I also know that I am far from perfect, and that despite a lot of determination and good planning, some things will inevitably fail or at least create complications and not go according to plan.
So I thought that I use this situation I perceived as a ‘crisis’ to improve my learning curve and read up on the social and personal aspects that are entailed in filmmaking, namely, crisis management. But while crisis management is usually understood as pertaining to major enterprises being involved in a scandal, and subsequently in dealing with their possible loss of reputation, I mostly equal crisis management with time management.
For the best plan does not help, if it crumbles apart and no one is adept in managing the crisis while it is happening. Two helpful sources for me that I found, were these videos that helped me gain my level-headedness back and sort out my issues. It furthermore reminded me of lessons that I had already learned in the past.
To quickly summarise these videos, these steps were:
Creating a to-do-list
Identifying what is not important (or has been rendered unimportant by the crisis)
Prioritising my tasks according to importance
Breaking down the tasks into bite-size pieces
Blocking out time in my calendar to accomplish these tasks
With that guideline, I sat down for an hour on Tuesday evening an created a new plan of action, which now leads me to the following:
My Solutions of the Past Week
ACTION!
Finally accepting the reality of a cold and possibly rainy/snowy film shoot of ACTION, and with my new plan in mind, I was glad that I had ordered and received the emergency blankets and thermal flask to keep our actors warm, and set about tackling the remaining tasks.
With the possibly low temperatures in mind, I also created a call sheet and incorporated a schedule that has almost no downtimes for our actors but would keep them engaged, and thus hopefully warm, during their required time on set. I furthermore scheduled them to arrive in a way that is most economical in regard to their time. Thus I managed to schedule most actors for the last hour to 90 minutes, ‘only’ requiring our main actor to keep it up for the entire duration of our shoot. This is an extract of the schedule on the call sheet I devised for Sunday 2nd, updated as of today:
I’ve also talked with Adam as the producer of the third commercial ‘Builders’, that is also going to film a part of their advert outside. As it turned out, he had made a preliminary deal with one of our lecturers to purchase a gazebo and get the college to buy it from him later on, provided that all was passed on in good shape. So I tapped in, and made the deal with Adam that he could get access to our emergency blankets if we could use the gazebo as well, in case of rain and/or snow. The deal was made and I’ve got one less issue to solve.
After that, I then decided that I would look into the issue of our actors’ schedules. Since we were currently restricted to only one weekend close to our Christmas break, I also asked another applicant of the role for their availability, hoping that this would solve the issue and not overcomplicate it even more. For, if the latter was to be the case, we would then have to audition and recast as a last resort, for which the remaining time would be running out.
However, my attempt was to be rewarded with a much better option, as the actor immediately came back to me with a lot more free weekends to cover. Happy, that we would now somewhat have a contingency plan in case Plan A fell through, I was now tasked with another difficulty that forced me to get out of my comfort zone:
How do you turn down an actor you have previously taken on, and who came by recommendation of your lecturer without being offensive or embarrassing the actor in the process?
I had a hard time thinking of a polite solution to this. The actor had kindly offered to help us out despite their full schedule and had already received a confirmation, after all. I believe that I would have been shattered or furious, if I’d been in his position. And I don’t like being the messenger of bad news.
Well, regarding my role as a producer, I realised that this would be a task for myself to grow personally, so I did. I devised an email to him, politely explaining the scheduling issues and thus his subsequent layoff, apologising for his inconveniences and ensuring him that it was not due to a fault on his behalf. Finally, I pronounced that I would still be looking forward to working with him in the future and wished him well.
After I send that email, I not only felt exhausted but also a bit relieved, that I managed to deliver bad news with what I think to be a graceful solution. I then informed our lecturer about the layoff of his recommendation to keep him updated and proceeded to finalise the schedule on the call sheet as you have seen above.
Sweeney Todd
Regarding the issues with the location and the limited access to the new set as of now, I then tried to tackle all the tasks I could as a cinematographer at this point in time and focussed on the tasks with the biggest priorities first. Since Has already had a glimpse at a photo of the set, we both decided that he would take on the amendments of the script as he has already seen with his own eyes on what possibilities and limits the set held for the story.
In the studio on Wednesday then, Chloe, Has, Hannah, and I (in our individual job roles for the project) proceeded to hold auditions for the remaining roles of Mrs. Lovett and the street vendor to be filled, and spend about 1.5 hours recording all the applicants not only with our script, but also with additional monologues they’ve prepared themselves.
Uploading and rewatching the clips – and more importantly their performances on film – we finally settled on two actresses that fit their parts marvellously, and we were happy that we finally managed to tick that issue off our to-do lists.
Today, looking at the measurements I was given of the set (eight feet of maximum length), I then proceeded onto the studio with my tape measure and – following the tip of a lecturer – sectioned off a part of the curtain to get a visual impression of how wide eight feet essentially are. And it was a good tip to follow. Cause, while a tape measure expanded to eight feet and laid onto the floor gave the impression that that was already plenty of space, the curtain made it more visible to me how limited of a space it actually is. And I realised that I would have to take lenses with a longer focal length to make it work within the space we had.
I then proceeded onto the stores and enquired our technician demonstrator about the store’s lens options in regard to the SR3 we will be using. Given that the new lens kit for the SR3 I planned on using only goes up to a focal length of 50mm, I wanted to know whether we would have anything higher to retreat to, in case even 50mm would not be enough.
I’ve thus learned that we would have the choice between an older 85mm lens (that still needs to be found in the stores), a 100mm, a 120mm, and a 200mm one – all for the SR2. While this would not be an issue to put on the SR3 with the lens adapter ring, the lens adapter ring was missing at that time to be found as well.
Another issue with them lenses would be, that these lenses – compared to the newer lens kit – might possible have a reduced image quality due to more imperfections in the glasses. Furthermore, the lenses with the longer focal length would not be as fast as the newer ones, with an aperture of f.4 at the lowest. So we would technically have the equipment to make it work, it was just a matter of getting it out an experimenting with it. Which was not possible at the moment since the studio was already booked out today and also partly on Monday.
Since there was nothing more that could be done at that moment – with the studio being booked out, the set not ready yet, and part of the equipment missing – I thus decided that I would schedule to take out the equipment and experiment with it next week when we would have carried over the set as well.
Conclusion
Although this week had been a crazy adventure in regard to crisis management and brought me to my limits more than once, today I was relieved with the current outcome. While there is still a lot to redo in regard to my role as a cinematographer (decisions on the cinematic style, framing and lens choices, and lighting plans), I felt that I managed to get back on track with my tasks. Looking back, it was not as crazy – and will most likely not be that uncommon – for two projects to fall apart at the same time. However, while I still feel that I have been thrown back about one week in my ‘perfect’ schedule, I’ve also learned that I can accomplish quite a lot in a short amount of time, if I just accept pressure as a apart of the job and ‘just do it’.
Or, as my vision board at my desk at home states: ‘If I cannot bend Heaven, I will raise Hell.’
References:
Markel UK (2013) Ten step plan for crisis management [online] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqrUpJai45U&frags=pl%2Cwn [Accessed on 20 November 2018]
Lavendaire (2017) Simplify & Prioritize (Interactive Exercise) | Back to Basics [online] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwfNykCHTV4&frags=pl%2Cwn [Accessed on 20 November 2018]
Lavendaire (2018) How I Plan & Organize My Life to Get Things Done [online] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLraf2_Fyo8&frags=pl%2Cwn [Accessed on 20 November 2018]
Rowena Tsai (2018) Productivity: How I Plan & Organize My Life to Get Things Done [online] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_i7bpaPLEY&frags=pl%2Cwn [Accessed on 20 November 2018]