Who wrote the screenplay? I did. I had written a feature length script over the summer of 98, which wasn’t really happy with. It was pretty boring, too autobiographical. So basically, I took one of the scenes from that screenplay and started from there and worked outwards. It turned out to be a completely different screenplay. It took me about 2 months to write Cicadas and then about 3 months for revisions.

Did you storyboard your scenes? Yes, we storyboarded every single shot of the movie. That was one of the most time consuming aspects of the entire process but it was totally worth it. Both Jim and I would get on set with our storyboards and just go.

What did you use to storyboard? One of the producers, Scott Bate, is a wonderful artist. We met through film classes and he had storyboarded two shorts that we worked on together. So, it was Scott, Jim and I having these storyboarding meetings four nights a week for two months. And each of us had a lot of input with the shots. It was very collaborative between the three of us.

How did you find your actors? Lindsay Broockman who plays the lead, played the lead in a short I had done the previous year called, "Avenue K". Lindsay’s just very sweet, extremely professional and incredibly talented. I adore her. The rest of the actors we got through auditions. We put a call for headshots in the local papers and on the Texas Film Commission hotline. We sorted through a whole lot of headshots and made appointments for auditions. I liked this a whole lot better than having open casting calls. It saves a lot of time! I was very fortunate to find the actors that I did.

What kind of pay was there for the actors? We didn’t pay anyone. When we set out to do Cicadas, we knew we wouldn’t have a very big budget. None of us had made a feature before, besides Jim. We made it very clear to anyone who accepted a role in the movie or worked on crew that there would not be any pay. The unfortunate thing about film, unless you’re in LA or NY or Canada, is that there are few paying gigs. However, I wouldn’t go this route again. I feel like I did it once and there’s no excuse for me to do it again. I plan on raising enough money next time around to pay everyone union wages.

Did you create a budget? Yes. We detailed everything we could think of, from video stock to office supplies. We used other independent budgets as a guideline.

Did you stay on target with your budget? For the most part, yes. I’m so glad we had a firm grasp on how much food would cost. That is one area you DO NOT want to skimp on. If you’re not going to pay your people, feed them and feed them well. My boyfriend actually came out quite a bit and prepared home cooked meals for everyone. He became quite popular on set.

You used the Canon XL-1, rented or paid for? Shawn Higgins, one of the producers actually bought the camera a few months before we started shooting.

How many cameras did you use? One.

How did you handle set-ups, coverage of shots? We learned the first day of shooting that you have to get your master. Without it, you’re totally screwing yourself in the editing room. We learned very quickly about entering and exiting frame during each shot, covering all the dialogue in each shot. We started off with pretty thin coverage, which I struggled with later in editing. There were certain cases where we really could have used two cameras but it was rare. We made the typical mistakes and quickly learned from them. We screwed up some eyelines and crossed the line a few times. It was to be expected. It’s all one big, fat learning process. It’s like, you have to make those mistakes. And when you do, you’re careful not to make them again.

What lenses did you use? We used the standard lens that comes with the XL-1 the majority of the time. For one week, we rented the wide-angle lens for the XL-1. The wide-angle lens came in handy when we were shooting scenes in a classroom. We had planned some setups that included twenty to thirty extras. The standard 16x lens that comes with the XL-1 just did not have a wide enough field of view to compose some of the shots we wanted, considering the dimensions of the classroom. Even though the wide-angle lens only widens the horizontal angle of view to 70 degrees (the same field of view using a 24mm focal length on a 35mm still camera), it was invaluable for the days we spent shooting in the classroom. Plus, the wide-angle lens provided a "bigger" or more of a "landscape" feel to some of the exterior establishing shots during the week we had the lens. Overall, we used the 16x lens 90% of the time. The 16x is essential for medium to close-up compositions, if trying to create a look to your video that is cinematic. --Jim Eastburn, Director of Photography

Did you record the sound directly to the DV? Yes, we used a separate microphone and mixed it onto the tape itself. I used the Shure SP31. We had it connected the entire shoot.(mic to mixer to camera) In theory this allowed us some flexibility so that the sound man would not have to be constantly monitoring the meter on the camera however, since the mixer was old and didn't really work properly, we still had to keep our eye on the camera meter a lot. --Shawn Higgins, Sound Engineer

What kind of lighting did you use? We used lighting that included tungsten (3200K) and fluorescent fixtures, with the exception of about 10 "daylight balanced" practical bulbs. We also used tungsten balanced practical bulbs. None of the fixtures rated over 1000 Watts. We had two (2) 1K fresnel cans and the rest were open face, mostly 650 Watt Lowell Omni lights. Some of the scenes were lit entirely with fluorescent light (not KinoFlo or any other color temperature balanced source). Since we shot video, we could white balance the scene to the fluorescent color temperature. All shots indoors were lit. All shot night/exterior shots were lit. Lighting was controlled in all day/exterior shots by some manner. Mostly, we used 4’x4’ reflectors, a 12’x12’ silk overhead and white bounce cards. When electricity was available, we augmented some of the day/exterior shots with lights, but, sometimes it is futile trying to use of 1K outside in direct sunlight after color correction.

For shots that were not locked down, we used a doorway dolly, the bed of a moving pickup, a C-stand, and a contraption that the DP and his father built that permitted the camera to do a 360 degree spin on the axis of the lens. We used the doorway dolly in the classroom. For high-speed, exterior tracking shots, we mounted the camera in the bed of a moving pickup. One shot required that the camera, pointing at the ground, move along a 90 degree arc parallel to the ground. To accomplish the arc, the camera was mounted on to the end of a C-stand arm. With the base of the C-stand as the center of the circle, the end of the arm of the C-stand creates the circumference of the circle when the arm moves parallel to the ground. The shot, from above a bed, moves from a nightstand in a 90 degree arc to a character looking up at the ceiling while in bed.

The equipment we rented was suitable for our production. The crew was small and we had to move quickly, so, low wattage tungsten lights were the way to go. You don’t need big lights for DV; you just need good ways to control the light you have. We didn’t have the time, the money nor the manpower to deal with a generator and higher wattage or HMI lights anyway. For a wish list, we could have used a very small light with easily adjustable output to mount on the camera for an eye light. It also would have been nice to have a more extensive grip package, like more 4’x4’ reflectors and junior stands, a bigger or additional silk overhead and car mounts. Last but not least, it would have been really beneficial to use a professional 16:9 monitor. It was difficult to compose shots when everyone and everything was squeezed into a 4:3 aspect ratio. You cannot trust the viewfinder on the XL-1 for anything, so, it is best to acquire the highest quality monitor that you can.

Making the day/exterior shots look good was hard. In a perfect world, we would have only shot outside when the sun was less than 45 degrees from the horizon (before 10am and after 4pm during the summer). Due to location availability and rain, our shooting schedule required that we were outside for complete days. The finale of the movie takes place over five to ten minutes in the lives of the characters, but we had to shoot over three days to get the shots for the scenes.

What kind of shots, dolly shots … did you use? We had a few dolly shots, some of which really didn’t work. We had a lot of do-it-yourself kind of equipment. We had a jib arm shot, which came out pretty nicely. For one shot, Jim and his dad built a gyroscope that the camera attached to in order to do a 360 spin. That shot came out pretty good. No cranes. God, I wish. Jim and I have discussed the next project we’re going to work on and I want it to be mostly moving shots. They just really suck you in. So, for the most part our shots are pretty straightforward … on a tripod. Oh, we did use the stabilizer that’s built into the camera for some shots we got off of a moving pick-up truck. They were completely steady. I was very impressed!

Is there anything you wish you had? Oh yeah. A really big crane!

What brand of DV tape did you use and were you happy with them? We used Panasonic tapes. They served us very well. There was only one instance where we had a bad tape. We had shot about three scenes, one of which involved lots of special effects make-up and was super emotional and it was ¾ of the way through this scene that we realized what had happened. It was the only time on set that I kind of lost it. I quietly went out to the porch with Scott and cried a few tears and went back in and started shooting again. And of course, we got better footage the second time we shot it.

What kind of coverage did you get? Masters, close-ups … we probably averaged about 4-5 set-ups per scene. We didn’t get enough cut-aways or transition shots. So, Jim and I have to go back and shoot some transition shots to fill in here and there.

How many tapes did you use? We used 21-hour long tapes during the shoot.

What kind of editing system are you using? We are using Adobe Premiere 5.1 on a Mac G3. We’re also using Radius Moto DV to capture with.

What sources are you using for music? I went to college in Tallahassee, Fl where I was in a band for three years and worked as a deejay at the college radio station. I met a lot of musicians that way. Tallahassee has a really awesome music scene. So I used a lot of those folks … Flanders, Nel Aspinal, The Divided Body, Cream Abdul Babar.

I met with Cooky Goldblatt and Robert Kennedy, local musicians in Austin before we started shooting about composing for the film. I gave them a copy of some of the music that I knew for sure, I was going to use and made them a tape of the kind of music I wanted for the score. Also, the main character in the movie plays cello. Cooky gave Lindsay (Anna) several cello lessons before we started shooting. She was also on set every time we had anything involving the cello.

How much foley will you end up incorporating in the editing process? There are a couple of scenes where we have to start from scratch. We shot some exterior scenes at a high school which had this huge electrical thingabob about a block away that made this really loud and awful noise. It was just terrible. We basically have to reconstruct the sound for those scenes. I think there are four like that. We also have to add some footsteps and rustling of paper hear and there. It’s actually pretty cool, though. Sound always seemed like this daunting thing before but now that we’re breaking it down and stuff it’s really cool. Those guys are definitely the unsung heroes in the movie world.

Did you have any trouble with sound in the post-production? We’re just starting to tackle that, so give me a few more weeks to answer that one.

How is Film Team to work with? So far they’ve been like these guardian angels to us. We first met with Drew last April or May before we started shooting. He showed us their demo reel. It basically consists of using different cameras, different aspect ratios and the difference between progressive scan and interlaced. He talked with us about the advantages and disadvantages of the aspect ratios, progressive scan, interlaced … He was incredibly helpful. And then after our first week of shooting he asked if he could blow up some of our footage to include with his demo reel. And of course, we’re like, hell yeah. So, that was really cool because we got to see our own stuff blown up to 35mm and projected. The quality was amazing. It totally looked like we shot on 35mm. They’re the kind of guys that will do as much as they can to help you out. They even wrote us letters of recommendation for grants. We love them!

What kind of preparation is necessary for the DV to Film Transfer? Oh god, the one thing I remember is that we have to section the film off into 10-minute segments. Aside from that, I don’t remember.

What kind of total cost are you looking at to get your 35mm print? I’m laughing right now, cause this is the downside of it all. If you want to blow your DV up to 35mm, you’re basically looking at about $40,000 - $50,000. This is where investors come into play.

Quality of the transfer? You have to look really, really, really hard to realize that the original format was not film, but rather video. Film Team is always touring their demo reel around at festivals. I highly recommend that if you are shooting on DV and want to blow it up, to check out a demo reel. Ask a lot of questions. Really do your research.

What are your future plans for the film? I’m hoping to have the film completed by March. We have to find investors to finance the blow-up costs, which I think will be the grossest part of this whole process, but alas … We’ll start submitting it to festivals, get picked up by a distributor who loves us and thinks we rock and then have these super duper cool people who want to finance our next film and I will be blissfully happy … I already am blissfully happy.

What is your next move? To have my mom come visit me from Florida. She’s going to help me do research for my next film. I love my mom! She rocks.

What do you have in the works after this film? I’ve already started working on my next script. I’m hesitant to say what it’s about. People are sneaky about those kinds of things. It’s basically going to revolve around religion and sexuality, specifically Catholicism. I want it to be a period piece. Even though I’ve got all of these people giving me this god awful stare when I say that. And then they tell me, "you can’t make a period piece on an independent budget." So I just say, "Watch me." My parents taught me that I can do whatever I set my mind to do. I’m beyond excited about the next project. I’ve already started scouting locations and I haven’t even got a script yet. I’m crazy like that.

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