Scene shot in Glen Park Rhode Island 2018

We shot this scene in Glen Park in Rhode Island and frankly it was VERY PAINFUL for me in my lower back/hip, and I was in excruciating pain the entire time. The actors were behaving very cantankerously, unruly, and were wildly misbehaving, and even often refused to take direction, or didn't take it seriously.  We also had several reschedules and this entire project was dominating my life putting everything on hold, but all the actors kept suddenly flaking out last min for 2 years and went through several reshoots, and recasts, as well as different crew. I'm not a cruel Director, but I have my limits of what I will put up with especially when it comes to trying to stay professional while I'm in sever spinal pain, and I've repeatedly given direction but the actors refused to follow. Add all of that to the constant noise, and interruptions of dog walkers, strollers, and people on horse back all day long in the summer heat. Actors and crew were drinking and high, and often treated it like a party, and laughed at me, or would disregard my direction claiming they were directors or photographers when then had no idea what a prime lens was.

I had purchased a mini jib camera crane, and we rented a $1000 lens for several scenes. I also used many lenses, filters, reflectors, and purchased all kinds of equipment JUST for this scene. I'd made the stupid mistake of leaving my equipment at the Director's house thinking it would be safe, but the following day my budget faux GoPro (Akaso) was gashed in the case and my stuff was scattered ALL OVER my equipment case. I felt betrayed and I WAS LIVID, and irate. I also provided costuming and makeup.

Also, there was no rewritten script, and the director just kept up changing things as we were shooting every time, and kept adding unnecessary things and details which did nothing to advance the story-line. Since we didn't have a script supervisor for the shoots, it was even further mayhem, which added to the crazy wild party behavior of the actors whom treated it as a party. The crew was mostly good, but the actors would at times incite them go go wild as well.

After a while I started to feel sympathy towards the former DP, whom probably had to deal with similar behavior, however, my situation was off the chain.

Despite the wild antics of the actors, their performance on camera is rather good quality.

Many of the actors would up and decide not to show up, or repeatedly things would come up EVERY SINGLE TIME we scheduled the shoot from May-October 2018, this also occurred with the first time we shot stuff in 2017 with the previous actors and former DP.

Due to this issue, many scenes were shot completely without the other actors, on completely different days and times of the day.

Believe it or not this kind of thing can happen to many films at TV shows, and since it happened to me I actually NOTICE it in a lot of mainstream media shows so I don't feel so bad about it anymore, but I was mortified when it went down during my job as a DP. I felt so embarrassed because I wanted good quality and not good enough, or just passing. I'm also not cruel to actors and give them breaks, and listen... but I felt completely taken advantage of, and no one was sticking up for me, or backing me up. I was often laughed at, mocked, which came off as bullying, even tho I was supposed to be in charge. It was very stressful, and I didn't want to continue working on that scene anymore after being subjected to so much abuse. I felt unappreciated, and under valued, and my stress level was too high that I had insomnia and a severe psoriasis flare up, as well as digestion problems.

To this day, I refuse to shoot at that location anymore.

So if it looks like the eye-lines are off, it's because of the various production issues, the lack of a script supervisor, no updated scripts because the it was inside the Director's head, and all the other issues on top of that. I also refused to edit the film in this scene because of all the problems with it, and I was so embarrassed by them. So, the Director edited this rough cut.