HOW TO SHOOT AN APPLICATION MOVIE

Partly for the reason of applying all the still-fresh knowledge I had just acquired at the EFC, partly because the deadline for the Filmakademie Wien is on the 29th of August, I decided to hit it off as soon as possible, leaving me with a rather short break of only a week or two between leaving Denmark and getting my production going. My task was to produce two short films, 7 and 10 minutes, within the next two and a half months.

And that's when the whole maelstrom of questions and confusion breaks in on you: Where will I shoot? When? Who will be in my crew? Where do I get equipment, and cheap? How will I finance it? Who will be my actors and where will I find them?

This is where your previous stay at the EFC comes in handy. After I had settled on a crew (all fellow EFC students, surprise, surprise) and a country to shoot in (Denmark, for obvious reasons, since almost the entire crew lives there), I was able to start pre-production together with my producer and AD.

(photo: on location during the application film shoot)

Pre-production:
Probably the largest and most time and nerve consuming part of a film production. It means above all that the phone is going to be glued to your (or your producer's) ear for the next month. Calling people, writing e-mails or letters, applying for support, checking locations, getting props together, hiring equipment, etc.
We started off with setting the dates for the shoot (which is a task in itself, if you have to combine the schedules of a dozen working people) and then moved on to finding actors. Which is a good thing, let me tell you. Leave as much time as possible for the casting of actors, you will get a lot of no's and even more maybe's, which don't take you anywhere. Unless of course you can offer payment. Which we couldn't.
Anyway, it took me until the actual week of shooting to complete my cast, same with the locations. I had all the locations plus permissions ready before shooting except for one, and that gave me a lot of headache. But a quick call to one of my fellow EFC mates and ta-dah! Location problem solved!

With crew, locations and dates down we were left with one more, major, task: the equipment. Fortunately my DOP (director of photography) has his own camera, so that problem was solved but considering the insanely high prices for renting equipment, I turned once more to the EFC for help. They supported me with almost the entire equipment, and what little else I needed I got from Medietek in Aarhus, where I was able to score 60% students' discount. You can call me lucky.

Concerning financing your project:
Try to apply for as much support as possible. In Denmark there are Film Workshops in most of the bigger cities, and you can also find film funds online who might support you financially.

Shooting went extremely well. Surprisingly enough we had no problems whatsoever, even the weather played along.

(photo: Klara Veegh and her crew shooting outside)

The first movie, Circles of Confusion, we shot mostly inside, with the exception of one night shoot at a bus stop in Aarhus, which was the biggest challenge. Since we only had my car, we were forced to drive around quite a lot with all the equipment, which included an unbelievably heavy generator, massive Kinoflo lamps and a wheelchair. Not to forget crew and cast. But still, other than a minor delay of 1 ½ hours in the schedule the night shoot went smoothly. Due to very thorough preparation we even got to finish ahead of schedule most of the days, which left us with a well-needed day off to recharge our batteries.
The second film, Wine of Ages, was shot entirely outside, I had a dog in it, as well as a gang of hunters with guns. But even here we were lucky. We had sunshine all three days. Since I had the hunters in it, I had to have a special permission from the Kommune and to inform the police in advance, which we did and it payed off. The dog handling was not as chaotic as I feared it would be, due to the fact that it was a very well-trained police dog, it's owner was present and we also had enough material to shoot on (P2-Cards)– you can never predict what an animal might do, so keep rolling .We also managed to pull off an improvised dolly, plus got to shoot some very nice locations just by knocking on doors spontaneously. Also, treat your cast and crew well with home-made food on location and at home – believe me, it pays off!

Now I am in the middle of post-production. My films are being edited at the moment by another student of the EFC and a professional editor that Søren Høy suggested to me. It's looking good, and I am already looking forward to handing them in in two weeks.

I believe that these amazing results are due to a great crew, thorough preparation, support in the right places, a good network and an overall devotion and sincerity when it comes to working on a film – and I am thankful for all of it.
I am a happy bunny.

Klara Veegh
(Writer/Director of Wine of Ages and Circles of Confusion)