"Join This Group?" Preproduction

We are one week away from shooting. A lot of preproduction work has been done, equipment reserved, storyboards, master shot list, shooting schedule, shooting script. However, all the little details suddenly come swarming up, locations, props, costuming - and we're still waiting to hear back from one actor about whether or not he's available. A lot of emails needs to be sent out to cast and crew still. The biggest concern right now is probably the shots of Facebook. A good chunk of preproduction time is needed to create the fake Facebook groups and profiles. Our camera op has some pretty good ideas about how to actually shoot the screenshots.

One film professor had a good suggestion about storyboarding. The storyboards for "Join This Group?" were hand drawn, resulting in several oddly shaped people. The professor suggested instead taking pictures with a digital camera. While this is a great idea, being student filmmakers, time is crunched, especially at the end of the semester. The crew may be stuck with the storyboards about aliens commenting on Facebook.

Shooting starts Friday and goes for a few hours on Saturday and Sunday as well. The crew will be meeting for the first time on Thursday, the day before. Hopefully no huge concerns will be raised. Editing and post production work, including a narrator's voice over and maybe the screen shots of Facebook, is not projected to start until after April 18th.

"Join This Group?" Preproduction

Lives Agape's first production is a short mockumentary entitled "Join This Group?" detailing the (over) importance of Facebook within the collegiate setting. The first draft was written in December 2007, and the last draft was just finalized last week. The project was greenlit when camera operator/coproducer A. F. signed on board. Currently all crew and half the cast has been confirmed.

The biggest concerns we have right now are getting the last half of the cast confirmed and getting the production schedule finalized. Already we've run up against scheduling problems. We think that the interview-like style that dominates most of the project will help minimize needed shooting time. Once the rest of the cast is confirmed, we'll finalize the shooting schedule for sure and start constructing the few props needed as well a confirming locations.

We're going to rely on a three person crew, writer/director/coproducer, camera operator/coproducer, cinematographer/audio recording. As we start detailing shot lists, location surveys, and lightning set ups, we might need to call in some favors.

However, at this point in the production schedule, everything seems to be fairly on track.

Introduction - Lives Agape

Welcome to the Lives Agape Production Blog! Lives Agape is a production company started to support all sorts of video and film projects endeavored by students at the University of Michigan. This blog will host regular posts on the progress of the various projects. We hope you enjoy reading about the experiences we have during production and that you'll check out the finished projects on our website!