This blog will give you an inside look at a few of the issues we have had with this film and how as the founder of the company and director of the film I have handled them ...
The first day on set everyone tried to play director and tell me how the movie was going to go.
One of our locations (The main shooting location) burnt to the ground the day after the first weekend on location .
My one scene cameo turned into me playing a major role in the film and series moving forward .
We had too many campers and not enough tents .
No one learned their lines most of the movie was improved .
We went over budget about half way through shooting .
We had many late nights that were supposed to be shorter night shoots .
We had a cast member forget to show up to shoot the majority of her scenes on the last full weekend of shooting causing a major rewrite to the script very late in shooting .
Those were things that happened and we all stayed the course and finished the movie on time and well over budget but we FINISHED the movie and released it on time :)
This time around I'm much smarter with my reaction to issues when they pop up we are only two weekends into shooting Sins of Man II : Vengeance and even during pre production we had issues with cast members work schedules for their real jobs causing us to make late changes to the shooting schedule.
Do I get pissed off when things like this happen? Sure I do but if there's one thing I have learned in the last year it's that it doesn't do anyone involved any damn good to be pissed off about this stuff because if I bring that attitude on to the set with me it INFECTS everyone else on set that day and it brings everyone down and no one is focused on what's important and that's putting the best movie we can out there for YOU the horror fans .
The best advice I can give to first time or new film makers is ALWAYS make the best of a bad situation because if you get pissed off at a cast member for "messing up" the schedule it will become an issue for the remainder of the shoot and will sour relationships between cast and crew and that isn't needed or helpful to anyone so get the bad news about the needed change and act as quickly as possible to make the changes and move on, don't dwell on it, don't let it rent space in your head handle your business and move on, you will be much better off in the long run, trust me ...
I will admit that all things considered looking back at the shooting of Sins of Man : Rise of Mortis and all the chaos we dealt with to now shooting Sins of Man II : Vengeance and even with the issues we have had it's been a complete 180 degree change in attitude, my ability to manage things better on set and even between shooting days when these things pop up out of nowhere and I handle them quickly .
My confidence has really been boosted by the level of commitment of the cast members and their belief in me and my vision from day one and we are all working together to make this move as awesome as we can make it with no fighting or arguing about how things will work on set it's amazing when you are all working towards the same goal :)
STAY HUMBLE, STAY HUNGRY MY FRIENDS :)