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'TRIBUTE' Is Completely Done... For Now!

For class it is complete, with plans for the future!!

By Marjorie RodenPublished 5 years ago 4 min read
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Three of the ladies that will be seen on screen in my short film TRIBUTE

When I wrote earlier about the problem that a certain parent gave me about photos taken on set, this was the film of mine I was talking about. It is called TRIBUTE, and for the most part, is set in Rural Saskatchewan.

Of course, this project has come with its fair share of lumps and bumps along the way, but as it is now completed for my Advanced Filmmaking class, there are certainly a few things which I learned along the way.

One thing was being very clear with the actors and actresses about the seriousness of this film. Though some directors deal with children and youth as if they have itty bitty, tiny brains that cannot handle "reality" and the not so great things in life, guess what? THEY ARE FAR SMARTER THAN SOME GIVE THEM CREDIT FOR!!!

Another thing is, no matter how much you may plan for something to happen, something else happens instead. Certainly, there was a particular scene that was supposed to take place at the end of winter and beginning of spring, with a scene that had taken place within the same day indoors showing my lead characters in their outdoor clothes. Thanks to a little thing called CONTINUITY, it meant that when we shot the part of the scene which was supposed to be outdoors in a rural playground, I had hoped that everyone would be wearing those slightly heavier clothes as had been worn in the other scene.

But unfortunately, we were not shooting in late winter/early spring.

We were shooting on July 11th, on a very hot day, where the temperature was over 30 degrees celsius.

This not only meant that we had to make the adjustments on the day, but there was also a scene that required a mud puddle to be present for a rather important part. But no matter how much water we poured into the spot where the mud puddle was supposed to be, the ground dried extremely fast. Comedically fast, some might say, to the point that I am seriously considering reshooting part of that scene in an Extreme Close Up (ECU) kind of shot and include it in a re-edit before I enter this film into festivals like TIFF, Cannes, and Sundance.

And speaking of nature, chickadees are annoying.

This took place when I had to shoot part of an outdoor scene between two of the adult versions of the child characters (myself and another actor), and the microphone I used proved how powerful it was in that it picked up every sound in the acting environment.

INCLUDING THE CHICKADEES.

The actor in the scene thought I was joking when I told him that we would need to do After Day Recording (ADR) for the scene because after all, "They're just chickadees, you're exaggerating!"

Their voices carry, however, and when they were doing their song over and above our lines, it made editing TRIBUTE all the more difficult.

So as I type this, I know I will need to make arrangements with my cast to do some ADR for some of the scenes, especially the ones where we were DROWNED OUT BY CHICKADEES, as I plan on having the final, more perfected version of the film completely done by the end of next month.

Yep, these little feather balls are ANNOYING!!! Please button your beaks!!! NOW!!!

Photo by the National Wildlife Federation

But, chickadees aside, I am happy with how TRIBUTE has turned out, especially considering that, even with what I see as obvious technical problems which I know how to correct, the kids did extremely well with their roles.

In fact, ALL OF THE KIDS who had lines have been nominated for their roles in TRIBUTE at the 2018 Joey Awards next month. I had originally submitted an entry for BEST ENSEMBLE IN A SHORT FILM, but the people out in Vancouver looked at the work they had done, and insisted on putting each of the kids (who range in age from 8 to 20 years of age) into the appropriate categories for their roles as well as for the ensemble award!

The Joeys are the Canadian Acting Awards for child and youth actors, from doing work in advertisements, short films, TV series, and movies. And my cast—my amazingly mature cast—is up for the hardware for their work. Whether you come home with it or not, I am so thrilled for each of you for earning your nominations. You all took on amazingly serious subject matter and breathed life into TRIBUTE, which was taken straight from my childhood, and played it realistically and in the moment as needed.

I am proud of each and every one of you. Thank you for telling this story, and for those of you who are able to make the trip out to Vancouver, I hope you each have a fantastic time while out in BC and also, that you are madly texting me telling me about how things turn out!!!

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About the Creator

Marjorie Roden

I make dramatic and documentary films, and have been known from time to time act and create visual art. And I also love hockey, hence why I write about it a lot! I also work professionally as a freelance writer and photographer in Canada!

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