How It Happened: "Sleep"

Hi there and welcome to our brand new series of blog posts called “How It Happened.” In this series I’m going to take an interesting project we’ve done in the past and break down how it came about. For most of you I think this will be a fun look into the world of film, but for those filmmakers among you, I hope you’ll be able to gain some new skill or technique or insight to help you improve your craft. I know I learned a lot making these, and if my mistakes and learning opportunities can help you grow then this blog will serve its purpose.

The first film we’ll be “Sleep.”

The Occasion

So how did this slightly comic, slightly not, experimental short film come to be? Well back in 2016 we took part in the 2nd Act Film Festival. For those of you unfamiliar with the format, the festival chooses a handful of filmmakers to create an original film in a short timeframe, usually around 1-2 months. The biggest caveats are: 1. it must be under a certain length (I believe 6 minutes was our cap this year) and 2. It must include the first and last lines that the 2nd act film festival provides to all the filmmakers. So essentially they give you the beginning and the end and you write the middle.

Now I’m not going to go into much detail about the 2nd act film festival, but I will say this, as a beginning filmmaker, festivals like this are a great way to start building a reel and getting in the habit of making a film. For more experienced filmmakers the festival provides a good opportunity to experiment with your craft or even bring in new crew members. All in all I highly recommend participating in something like this if you’re just getting started or just looking for a change of pace.

The Resources

With that out of the way let’s begin. I got the brief and immediately started working, within about a day I had taken the beginning and end that was given to me and fleshed it out into a full story. At this point my goal was to make something simple, something that could be shot in a single location, in a single evening, with a minimum number of cast and crew. What I had in my possession was a nice camera, some decent lights and sound equipment, a good crew that I had been developing through my corporate work, an apartment, and a budget for pizza.

The Script

At this point in my writing I was playing with the ideas of parallel lines and circles (quite frankly if you’ve ever read any of my scripts you’ll see parallel lines and circles all over the place, that’s part of what makes them tight). You first see this in the blocking, when the wife wakes up one of the first things she does is sit up in bed, then when the husband wakes up he sits up as well, mirroring her movement, but with a little different take (parallel lines). Later in the film as the argument escalates they actually physically circle each other through exchanging of positions. Both of these physical patterns mimic the patterns of conversation. Initially the wife is distressed because of the snoring, then the husband is distressed because he can’t stop snoring. Then a little later in the script, as they’re circling each other physically the arguments become more and more circular. This pattern continues until the end when the argument breaks. At this point both characters return to the bed, and the pattern of movement and the positioning of the bodies is exactly opposite of what it was in the beginning of the film, with them moving through the exact same physical beats, but because it’s opposite, rather than falling apart and starting another argument they end up coming together.

For any aspiring writer out there, I encourage you to find threads in your script and develop them. Things like what I put into this film might not be something anyone will notice on first viewing, but that sense of tightness and harmony will stretch through the film and create a general sense of wholeness for your project.

The Production

So earlier, I counted my crew that I had been cultivating as part of my assets. Unfortunately on the day of the shoot almost everyone was either out of town or otherwise occupied, which really stripped the crew down to me, my sound guy, and my makeup artist who could only be there for about an hour. Given the tight deadline we were under for the film festival we were more or less locked into the shoot day so it was time to get creative.

As a director, I plan things meticulously. This can be a positive or a negative. Sometimes it locks you into executing a vision that should change with the challenges and collaborative nature of production. However in cases like this when you need to move fast and you don’t have the crew you need, that meticulous planning can be a life line. Prior to the shoot day I made a detailed shot list with every camera angle, every lens, every action beat etc. I believe I even storyboarded most of it. What was on paper is exactly what we shot.

I also tested out rigs that I knew would work in theory, but needed to test in practice. The most particular of these was the overhead camera rig. Being it was an apartment with popcorn ceilings, attaching the camera to the ceiling was impossible, as was using a jib (space was limited and I’m not even sure I had access to one at the time). So I mounted the camera to small shoulder rig sled. I used two boom arms screwed into the bottom of the sled to attach it to a c-stand, which then allowed me to raise the camera high enough to cover the bed. Funny story, I would later use the same setup when shooting “Bound.”

The other challenge was the lights. In order to save time I preset all the lights, but this too was challenging because the first part of the film is lit by moonlight and the second part by lamp light… different color temperatures. Today, I literally tap two buttons in an app on my phone to make that happen, but back then, that technology didn't exist so it mean having multiple lights with different bulbs hidden all over the room. The moonlight itself was a challenge because my apartment butted up against woods, so it had to be simulated. I was able to hit my bedroom window with my most powerful light from another room in the apartment. From there I put multiple CTB gels on it to get that strong blue look and played with the blinds until I got the right shape for the light. In the end I loved how the moonlight turned out :).

Post Production

Post production was pretty easy actually. I found an audio track on one of the stock sites I subscribe to that basically did the trick. The editing was simple, as I knew going into it which shots were going where (have all that meticulous planning to thank for that). The only real challenge was some of the movement in the bed. It really just came across as mic noise rather than sheets rustling. So I took an audio recorder into my bedroom and flopped around a bit and used that as foley. I don’t think I ever fully removed the offending noises, but it’s a ton better with the noise I recorded later.

Reception

This film actually won some awards. Not bad for one night of production, right! We didn’t win at the 2nd Act Film Festival, but it was well received there, and most of the reviews I saw were very positive. While the scope of the production was small, taking the time to put as much care into the film really paid off and paved the way to other films down the road. You can really see my approach to filmmaking start to solidify in this film. It was a wonderful learning experience for me, and I hope hearing this story was beneficial to you as well.

Let me know if you have questions about this or any other film in the comments. I’ll be happy to answer anything I can. Also, was this beneficial to you? Should I do more? Just let me know!