Pickup shots have a hidden benefit

We’re shooting some pickups this weekend for Rise And Fail, including an entirely new fight scene in the beginning, and it occurred to me that this would be a good opportunity to set up any jokes or action that didn’t “sell” later in the film. Now I can turn a random prop or martial arts move into something that actually has meaning by making it significant in this first fight. It’s tempting to do it with a bunch of things (“let’s reference the pitcher of water in the background at the end of the film!”) and make it hoaky, but if I stick to one or two things, I can come off as “witty.”

That is of course provided the new footage looks exactly the same as the rest of the film, which means renting about $600 worth of equipment for the next two days and hiring 7 people, a cost of over $1000. Continuity isn’t cheap, but the last thing I want is for the film to become disjointed at the 8-minute mark.

And also provided you forget about this blog post when you see the film.