a rare dinner - the making of
A Rare Dinner is premiering at the Allentown Film Festival on April 14th at 7:30pm. See details here.
January 2022
At the beginning of the year, I was going through some old files on my computer and found a copy of “A Rare Christmas Dinner”. It was a script I had written over 10 years ago for my improv comedy troupe. It never got turned into a sketch and I completely forgot about it. After reading it again, I felt I had something here. So, I dusted if off and sent an email to my director of photography that said:
What do you think of this?
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His response:
Excellent script! Very funny and well written. The guys love it, too. When and where do you want to do it?
And so began the 8 month journey of writing, casting, pre-production, scouting, directing and post-production. This was by far the biggest production I had put together, and it was a little daunting to say the least.
casting CALL
I placed a casting call on reputable site in search of actors to fill the 5 speaking roles and the 15 non-speaking roles. The submissions began pouring in.
Most of the submissions were for background extras, which was expected since there were 15 spaces available.
The next most sought after role was that of the Daughter, with over a dozen applicants applying.
It was a lot of fun going through all of the submissions and watching the audition videos and reading the actor’s bios.
february 2022
In February, we had to finalize our selections of who we wanted to cast for our production. The mother and daughter were the hardest roles to cast since we wanted two actresses that could pass as being related. We had a diverse group of applicants, making this job even harder.
I arranged several callbacks with many of the actors in hopes of narrowing down this very difficult decision.
I didn’t realize how much I would enjoy the auditioning process. I’m looking forward to casting my next short film very soon.
FINAL SELECTIONS
With our shooting date closely approaching, we had to notify the applicants so they would have enough time to prepare and study their lines. We were shooting at the end of February and let the cast know the first week of February to give them ample time to prepare.
ENSEMBLE CAST
The D.C. acting community really came through for this production. Everyone on set was thrilled to be there and excited to be a part of the process. I am humbly grateful for the time they took out of their lives to participate in this film and be with us on set all day. It was a joy getting to know each and every one of them. I look forward to more projects in D.C. where we can work together again soon.
THE REHEARSALS
With our cast and crew in place, it was time to start our table reads. The primary cast members got together on several occasions via Zoom conference meetings to read through the script. We worked on timing, delivery, line recitation and even went through a few minor rewrites.
Georgia describes what our movie is about.
Tom suggests some changes to my precious script!
Most of our rehearsals started out like this while we waited for Noel to connect.
Georgia can’t decide which way to orient her phone for rehearsal.
The cast asks what they should wear on the day of the shoot.
Well, Tom did change my line and it was hilarious.
Josiah tries to provide some direction for the actors.
We had been rehearsing for 3 hours and I started to slur my words.
My wife thinks I’m a bit too old to be doing this.
THE SHOOT
president’s day, 2022
We had a one-day shoot planned for President’s Day in Washington, D.C.. Lucky for us, the fabulous la Betty restaurant was currently available to rent for events, meetings, conferences, and media shoots. This restaurant came equipped with a full kitchen, bar and restaurant. It is an absolute gorgeous space and we were so thrilled that the owner agreed to rent it to us.
There was only one slight problem with the space. The massive windows! These giant light boxes let in a ton of natural light. The only problem was our shoot took place at night. As such, we had to board up all of the windows in the space with custom fitted black foam board.
It took a couple of hours to cover all of the windows. Luckily, I had a helper and we knocked it out in the early morning before the cast started to show up.
Notice all the boarded up windows in the background of this picture.
production stills
Enjoy some production stills. I didn’t have time to snap many as I was directing and also acting and trying to remember all the lines I wrote for myself :)
FEBRUARY 21ST - 7PM - THAT’ S A WRAP
It was a long day. We started at 9am and worked through till 7pm. Even some of the extras stuck around for the entire shoot. I didn’t want the day to end, it was so much fun!
THE MOVIE POSTER
I have a long-standing rule that I cannot start editing a film until I’ve first designed the movie poster. This allows me to take my director hat off and put on my designer hat. I love starting with a blank canvas and creating something new. The movie poster serves as inspiration during the long and arduous task of editing. It’s also nice to send the cast and crew some promotional materials so you can start marketing the film and getting the word out.
POST PRODUCTION
Now it’s time to enter the belly of the beast. This is where the magic happens. This is where your script comes to life. If you want to dig deeper into my process, you can click through the steps below. Otherwise, just skip this section.
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Transfer all of your footage and audio to your computer and back it up immediately. The last thing you want is all of your hard work to get lost due to a bad drive.
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Log all of your files. This involves importing all of your clips (audio and video) into your editing software and categorizing and renaming them so they make sense. I usually do stuff like “TOM-AND-MICHELLE—WIDE_001”. Then I’ll have clips named MEDIUM, CLOSE and EXTREME CLOSE, etc.
This way I can quickly tell what shot to cut and who is in the scene just by looking at the file name. You can add comments too if you wish to help you in the future. Sometimes I put an * in the file name of a take I really want to use.
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After all of your clips are logged, it’s time to start going through the footage. Watch it all once or twice just to see what you have to work with. This obviously can be combined with Step 2 above.
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Now it’s time to open your script to page 1, and do a rough cut. Don’t worry about timing. Don’t worry about sound. This part is just about getting your clips on the timeline in the order of the script.
If you have storyboards, bring those out as well as a handy reference. This will guide you as to which shots to cut to (close, medium, wide, etc).
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To take a break from editing, sometimes I spend the day just listening to music tracks or sound effects that I know I will need for the film. This helps break up the monotony of editing, if just for a short while. I like to rough in all my music because I tend to time my edits with the beat of the music. This will help with pacing as well. Or hurt, if you fall in love with a song that is too long.
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Get feedback. Send your rough cut out to a friend that can provide helpful notes. This is crucial because when you are editing you are siloed in your own little world that you created. Let someone else peak in to make sure you are conveying what you want.
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REFINE. REFINE. REFINE. Take the notes and knock them out. Tweak the edits. Work on the timing and pacing. Cut scenes you don’t need. Cut dialog that doesn’t progress the story or get a laugh.
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TRIM THE FAT. I actually name my Scenes TRIM THE FAT. I start with the scripted version, and then start trimming and trimming until the timing and pacing feels just right.
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At any point you get sick of editing, shift over to working on the opening or ending credits for a diversion. This will also help inspire you to finish what you started.
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FINAL CUT. Premiere all of your hard work.
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Rinse and repeat. Take everything you learned from this film, and apply it to the next one. You will get better and better, hopefully. I still suck and have been doing this for 20 years.
This is a screenshot from Adobe Premiere, a program that I have used for over 2 decades to edit my films.
The Music
I’ve always loved music and musicals. My mom was a big influence on me since she was a music teacher and also a phenomenal pianist. I wish I hadn’t quit music lessons when I was 7 years old. Trying to learn the piano at 40 years old during the pandemic was not easy. In fact, I still don’t know how to play the piano or read notes that well. I’m a work in progress. However, I thought I’d be able to cobble together an original piece of music that could be perfect for a romantic dinner setting.
So one day, I sat down at the piano and came up with this tune. I worked on it for a bit, came back to it, worked on it some more. And eventually came up with the theme song for A Rare Dinner. You can listen to it below.
LISTEN TO A RARE DINNER THEME SONG BY JOSIAH JAMES
OUTTAKES
Here’s a few outtakes for you to enjoy.
Georgia loses her lavalier mic down her dress.
The DP calls out Josiah for moving around too much.
THE PREMIERE
We will premiere A Rare Dinner for the first time on Saturday, August 20th at 9:00pm EST. time. If you’d like to see the premiere live, please reserve your seat below.
