How not to shoot an Apocalypse :: The Life of the Traegorn

How not to shoot an Apocalypse
Posted Mar 22, 2010 - 15:59:51	Tweet

Sunday morning a bunch of us woke up in the wee hours of the morning to attempt to shoot the third plot video for No Brand Con 2010. I've talked about this before, and anyone who has watched the first two episodes knows our 2010 theme is the "No Brand Apocalypse." The short films we're doing with our mascot characters this year take place in an alternate, post-apocalyptic future. To shoot his type of video means waking up at the crack of dawn on a Sunday to take advantage of the empty streets.

Our intentions were good, our motives genuine, and the script actually written this time. Sadly, the universe would have none of this.

First off, on Saturday I got a message from Tyler who was supposed to be our camera man saying he couldn't make it. He was still lending us his nice HD video camera though, so I found myself only having to locate a new camera person. On the upside, Tall Katie answered the call, and agreed (begrudgingly) to get up with us and work the camera. I called the other performers and made sure they were able to come (as I was nervous), and they told me they were.

I thought we'd adverted a crisis. I was wrong.

I picked up Katie early in the morning, but Erika and... ummm... "Duct Tape Boy" were late. It turns out "Duct Tape Boy" had forgotten to get his costume together the night before. More importantly though, they couldn't find the tripod we needed. Normally I would just go hand-held and not worry, but in this case I want to do a couple of digital matte shots, which require the camera to be locked down.

After too much time had passed (and an hour of daylight wasted) we gave up, and decided to drive out to Walmart to just buy a cheap tripod. In an attempt to not waste the day, we also took some driving footage on empty roads... or at least we tried to. Upon turning on the camera, the battery failed. It was dead, as it turns out Tyler had forgotten to charge up his camera for us.

This did not make us happy.

We sent Erika back home to charge the camera, and bought the tripod anyways. We met back at Zombie house, and crossed our fingers. When we thought we had enough power, we drove out to get the shot which was crucial for the entire production in the hopes that getting up this early wasn't for naught.

We arrived at the campus, got Katie into position, and just as we were about to get the shot... the camera gave up the ghost. Dead battery.

It had been two unproductive hours at this point... and we were frustrated and wearing stupid looking costumes. We decided at this point to do what any sane person would do: Go to McDonalds and get breakfast.

So with that we ate breakfast and bemoaned our waste of a morning. We're going to try again next weekend, and hopefully things will work out a bit better.

At least it should be warmer.
- Traegorn