A typical call and shot sheet for the film
The film was shot guerilla style over the first few weekends in September 2006. We allowed some pick up shots for late November to film the change of seasons in the epilogue of the film. One nice thing about Chicago is not having to wait long for weather to convey the passage of time. The film was shot entirley on location in Pleasant Priairie and Kenosha, Wisconsin and Chicago, Illinois.
We shot the film primarily hand held using a Panasonic AG-DVX100b at 24fps and natural light. We recorded stereo sound direct to tape without overdubbing.
For better or for worse, I did not use a crew. All technical aspects of the film were handled by myself. This led to a much more increased sense of intimacy among the actors but certainly resulted in technical challenges for the film.
Directing a performance while monitoring sound levels and framing might not be ideal but led to a rawness and documentary sense of immediacy to the story. It also helped foster a primacy to the actors and their performance.
Some of the (many) editing notes as we whittled down the rough cut
I have collated some of the production notes and two versions of the script below as either image or pdf. files. I would love to tell you how I include these to show off my own immodest genius or how closely I stuck to my original idea and outline. Of course, neither of these would be true. If you have attempted to do anything, especially with other people involved you realize very quickly the long distance haul between your conception, their ideas, and the final product. This does not have to be a bad thing. The problem is it does not have to be a good thing either.
Finalized script (about 30 pages in pdf)
Original Outline
Character sketches
First project notes