A Week to Render: A LaMarcable Production

For those of you who haven't heard, my brother Ryan and I started our own production company this year called LaMarcable Productions. We've been on a roll lately, taking meetings with CEO's, making short films for executives and business owners, and on it goes. This week was the most epic week in LaMarcable Productions short history. Here is our story of making an entire short film (from start to finish) in less than one business week.

MONDAY (October 18th, 2010)

As I took the train from Boston's South Station to New York's Penn Station, I couldn't help but feel as though I was living something I always dreamed about. About two days prior, Ryan asked me to come down on a limb to create a short film for a certain show that I am not allowed to expose of (as of yet). Our mission was to write the script, cast it, shoot it, and edit it all within five days. It was going to be a challenge. I had three words for that: BRING IT ON.

I arrived to Ryan's apartment in Brooklyn around 8pm. Without wasting anytime, Ryan had already written a rough draft of the script. We worked all night on re-writes, and around 3am, we finally created what we thought was the final draft. Along with that, Ryan played Producer and dealt with casting all day. We had a whole day of auditions lined up for the next day, looking for the talent that could bring our film to life.

TUESDAY (October 19th)

Auditions all day. Unfortunately, many canceled (as they usually do), but we were lucky enough to find our cast. The stage was set. 10 hours of casting was over, and for the first time in two days, Ryan and I took a breather.

We watched (as I re-watched) Joaquin Phoenix's epically outrageous documentary I'm Still Here. When I first saw it, I was still unsure if it was real or a hoax. Seeing it a second time knowing the latter, I couldn't help but appreciate it even more. Was Joaquin Phoenix that sick and tired of playing the Joaquin Phoenix character? Or was the Joaquin Phoenix character sick and tired of Joaquin Phoenix? Anyway, next day was the shoot. Here came the all-nighter. Little did we know we were going to receive a curve-ball on the first pitch.

WEDNESDAY (October 20th)

First (and only) day of production. The cast was set to arrive at noon. At 12:30, we got a call from our lead actor saying that he could not make it. We responded with a respectful, "Oh, I see." Then we hung up the phone. Ryan and I looked at each other with that same look of doom. But not to fear. We were able to shift our cast around to make it work. We filmed all day, took a break before the night shoot, and then headed into Manhattan for the crescendo of production.

Fish Restaurant (in the village) is not the biggest restaurant in the world, but it captured what we were looking for. With only one boom microphone, a couple of cameras, a bicycle for a dolly, and lights made up of what we could find lying around in Ryan's apartment, we were ready to do work. Take after take, hour after hour, we finally wrapped around 3am. We headed back to the apartment, knowing that we still had an epic day ahead of us.

THURSDAY (October 21st)

Now you would think that the hard part was over, right? Scripts, filming, handling schedules of our cast, yada, yada, yada. Well, think again. We started editing at 12pm (after I edited another film I was already working on) and did not finish until 6am on Friday. Sitting in front of a computer monitor putting the pieces to the puzzle together is both the most frustrating and rewarding thing on this earth for me. Luckily, we got through it with smiles on our faces.

FRIDAY (October 22nd)

Our smiles are still hanging tough. It was 6am. Ryan and I sat down on the couch with quite possibly the biggest sighs in the history of the world. Those sighs quickly turned to laughs when we decided to watch the 6am showing of the movie Black Dog with Patrick Swayze (a B-movie classic from our childhood). I forgot how bad this movie was, featuring some of the worst chases in the history of cinema. The term black dog is related to the myth that when truck drivers are on the road too long, they start to see a black dog running straight at their vehicle. We now share the feeling of that myth, only instead of a road, it was with a computer monitor.

At 3pm, I took the bus home. I should have arrived home around 8pm. Due to Friday night traffic, I strolled in far past 10pm. I am writing this now at 2pm on Saturday, having just caught up on some necessary sleep. So, what's next? It all starts again next week when I go back down on Monday night for another shoot. The black dog is waiting for LaMarcable productions to swerve. That will never happen, because like I said earlier... BRING. IT. ON.

FREEZE!
-Casey LaMarca
Co-founder and head of productions for LaMarcable Productions