“I had three hours to shoot my Boot Camp scene, and my actors didn’t know their lines and had no idea how to play their characters. So I was taking 10 or 11 takes on every scene. Then Fidel, another film student, came along and told me to find the battery charger for the camera that I had borrowed over the weekend.
I just stared at him, dumbfounded. “What?”
“You have to find that charger, dude. Brian can’t shoot.”
I was exasperated. “It’s in the case!”
“All I know is that Mr. O says that you lost it, and he’s up there stamping around saying ‘Where is that little s—-?'” Fidel mimicked, and ran back up the long staircase to the editing room.
I just stood there. I couldn’t believe it. “Hasn’t enough gone wrong already?” I screamed to the sun. I told my actors and crew to wait and ran up to the editing room.
It took me about three minutes to get there, out of breath, and I found Mr. Oliver. He told me that the charger wasn’t in the case and I figured that the only place it could be was in my friend’s car trunk.
I jammed, and after swinging open about every door in the whole music building I found my friend, got her keys, ran another 10 or 20 miles, got the charger out of the trunk, ran back, gave it to Brian, took a short cut through a hillside of vines and got back to my set, dead. We commenced shooting again. I was so wiped out, I leaned against the closet, which, with my luck, was made out of thin tin, and collapsed. I had 40 minutes to spare and 11 shots left. Yeah, right. I got two of the shots done, and decided to shoot the rest on my own time. Then on the way out, I tossed the camera case over my shoulder and the $8 battery fell to the ground and shattered…
Film is really about patience. I don’t care who you are, just about everything goes wrong on a film set. It is really a test of your ability to work with people and not go crazy. Creating a film is mastering the art of organization: one must include a crew, actors, make-up, sound, director of photography, assistant-director, producer, script-supervisor, traffic controllers, and continuity supervisors. And besides all that, you have to direct the scenes with passion, energy, and the world of the story for the actors to work with and create.
Let me tell you truthfully, fellow peers. Being a director is the hardest, most agonizing thing I have ever attempted. Trying to have everything when you need it, and yet still being focused and aware—It’s almost impossible. And of the three short films I have made so far, all of them have sucked big time. But I’m still going, because I know no matter what the work, what the tasks and what back-breaking effort is needed, all of it will be forgotten when I see my creation on a screen.”