EXPLORING my LOVE for the game.

One of the most memorable 1stAD experiences that I have ever had was on a feature film called Exploring Love, which was shot in Miami Beach during the summer of 2006. The director, Brent Bambic, a friend of mine that I know from LA, hired me as his assistant director after losing half of the funding that he originally had in place. I had recently finished ADing Todd Freeman's Come Hell Or Highwater, which had an even smaller budget than what Brent was left with. CHOHW was shot on a SAG contract, with an insanely ambitious schedule, including a day with a shoot-out scene comprised of 60+ set ups. Brent thought that my low budget, DIY experience would be a good fit for his downsized endeavor. He was right, but it wasn't always pretty...

We had an eclectic crew, including a first-time DP flown in from LA, who would turn out to be my greatest test to that point as an AD (and as a man with an easily stoked temper). Every South American nation and Cuba was represented across all of the departments, and we had a very equitable gender distribution. At the first production meeting, the gaffer christened me with the nickname "Sapo", the spanish word for toad, which is what my first name sounds like when pronounced by a native Spanish speaker. I was a little put off at first, but they all assured me it was a term of endearment... I quickly learned to love the nickname, and a couple of those folks still refer to me as such. Like most of the things I have worked on, everybody was making a lower rate than they were accustomed to, and not thrilled with the ball buster of a schedule that I had created.

Over the course of that brutal eighteen day shooting schedule, I suffered two severe sunburns (one on the tops of my feet), and the DP and I nearly came to blows on an every-other-daily basis. At one point, the gaffer told me we should definitely get our fisticuffs over with, but not in front of the crew. It never happened, which is good -- because we may not have been able to find another DP on short notice. Haha. In fact, on the day that we wrapped, the DP gave me a fine bottle of wine, and a handwritten card containing an apology for being so insufferable.

This was the project that completely solidified what role I wanted to play, if I was going to work behind the camera. Previous to Exploring Love, I had worked in nearly every department. It was a true trial by fire, but I emerged from it only slightly charred, and fired up about being an Assistant Director - one of the true unsung heroes of the filmmaking process, in my humble opinion.

An assistant director blog? Why?

It seems like a silly idea, but I really think that the indie feature film AD is an under-appreciated and misunderstood beast. With this new blog, I want to try to illustrate the on-set life of the person who's job is to take all of the fun out of the process...

Until the next feature I am ADing starts on June 10, I will be documenting interesting events from the pre-pro phase, as well as recanting some favorite anecdotes from productions past.