Robin Schmidt has been guest blogging here on PhotoCineNews about his experience filming an ultra low budget pilot for British television called “Ladies and Gentlemen”. All his hard work has paid off and the trailer for the pilot is ready for screening. Be sure to follow the whole story by clicking here and don’t miss the chance to meet Robin at the PhotoCine Expo. Rumor has it he’s coming over the pond to hang out with us at the show.
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LADIES AND GENTLEMEN – WEEK 7 DAILIES from Robin Schmidt on Vimeo.
We’ve wrapped, and I’m sad. Ladies and Gentlemen has become a big part of my life over the last couple of months, frustrating at times, infuriating at others, but what a thrilling journey. The unique challenges thrown up by shooting drama on a budget, coupled with the camera’s ability to deliver time and time again, have made this easily the most rewarding production experience of my career.
. . . . plenty of lessons have been learned which I’ll share in a future post, but if an opportunity like this falls in your lap, just say yes [and] get hold of a 5D . . . . We’ve shot a one hour drama pilot for $6,000.
Our final day was a night shoot, starting in a toilet and moving outside for the big climax to the show, a fight and a car crash that brings many of the cast together for the first time. As always, having no money means we … Continue Reading
Praise be, a good day, no, a very good day. After the debacle of the week five weekend that was only a day with everything going wrong we really needed this weekend to be a monster but things didn’t start too well with our gaffer finding paid work that took him off the shoot, and the permissions we needed to shoot in Soho for our grand finale being denied at the last minute… Nonetheless Saturday dawned bright and sunny, and since we were … Continue Reading
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN – Week 3 Dailies from Robin Schmidt on Vimeo.
Week 3 dailies from Disclosure Productions (disclosureproductions.co.uk/) forthcoming one hour drama pilot ‘Ladies and Gentlemen’. Shot on the Canon 5D using L series primes supplied by Canon. Directed by Robin Schmidt (elskid), Produced by Robert Lucas, Jo Defendi and Linda Taimre, written by Robert Lucas. Full blog writeups can be found on photocinenews.com, more info about canon DSLR filmmaking on the el skid blog: elskid.com/blog
Music: Nina Simone – ‘I put a spell on you’
Right from the outset we knew this project was going to be a guerilla undertaking. We always had minimal budget for hiring lights, equipment. Everyone on the project is working for free. This has major implications for how you work. When you are crewing up, you are at the mercy of whoever you can get hold of to give you their time while simultaneously considering whether they’re actually any good or not.
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