As I have mentioned in an earlier blog post, I had the opportunity this fall to be the assistant director for Knot For Sale, which is the latest project from UVic’s Writing 420 filmmaking class. I was also lucky enough to be given the reins to co-direct the 2nd unit of Knot for Sale, along with Rylan Gladson (with whom I worked to create Trust.) Either of these roles could have been totally overwhelming alone. I was involved in pre-production, first-in-last-out on set, literally ran from set location to set location, and I’m editing the “flat” version of the film. Unable to really ever push the pause button, I was in the exact role I needed to be in.

I got to work closely with director and executive producer Maureen Bradley and director of photography Daniel Hogg. As the AD, I helped out with casting, prepared and sent out call sheets for cast and crew, did last minute rewrites, blocked out the scenes and was the main point of contact for our cast. On set, the AD’s role is more or less to know everything: I had to know where every cast or crew member was at any given time, recalculate our schedules, know precisely who/what we needed for every scene that day. It’s also the AD’s responsibility to bring cast from the green room to set, and call the shots (roll sound, roll camera, etc.) It was all kind of a mishmash of the first AD, second AD and third AD roles. It might sound a bit onerous, but I loved this role. I like to be keep busy, and I loved seeing the impact my work had on helping this film develop. Something that stands out for me was that the first unit was filming everything with a 360˚ camera. This meant that, unlike most sets, I couldn’t actually watch what was happening as it was being filmed—everywhere was in frame.

 

 

On second unit, however, this wasn’t an issue. The second unit shot the exact same film—the difference was that we used a traditional “flat” camera, which means that Rylan, Scott and I were able to curate the frame and actually stand behind the camera. Directing second unit had a different set of challenges. One of the largest was time constraints. We usually had only 30-40 minutes for each scene, as we were working in between the shots from first unit. The first day was pretty rough, but by the end we only got more and more efficient as a team. Another challenge was that even while directing second unit, I still had to be first’s AD. I remember on day three needing to sprint from one set to the next as I had to immediately transition from one unit to the next.

I really loved working with the actors—pitching something out and actually seeing that play out in the next take was wonderful. We had an amazingly talented cast of children for Knot For Sale, and I was blown away by their responsiveness to such suggestions. It’s a fantastic feeling seeing one’s vision play out.

I’m also working as second unit’s editor, which means I get to see this project through to the finished product. It’s still rough yet, but I can’t wait to show you what we’ve created.

A far more self-deprecating catalogue of my AD experiences can be found on over on Twitter. Check it out if you want to read my dumb nihilistic jokes.