I’ll Spread Your Sheets
On Being an Admin Top (™)
Sorry/not sorry for such an evocative title this time around, but in the intervening time since we last encountered one another I have a) begun planning the short in earnest, and b) moved my entire life from LA to San Francisco. Both have been joyful and difficult and sad and hard and good and weird and here we are.
Happy May Day, by the way. Workers of the World unite. Free Palestine. Let Gaza Live. Do anything you can to end the genocide.
In this phase of pre-production on the short, I live in a land of theoreticals. As such, I often think of that scene in RUSHMORE when Max is putting up his first theater production at a regular school (he’s really making a go of it at Grover Cleveland). His stage manager (I presume) shows him two knives and he chooses one, while multitasking on a few other things at the same time.
It’s a great walk and talk scene, which at the time I first saw it I loved in the abstract; now as a director myself I love it in the very real sense of “this is what it's like.” Being a director is just making a series of choices and hoping they work out, then pivoting when they don’t. Take that to the bank, kids.
Right now, my film is a series of spreadsheets, a shooting script, and conversations about logistics including:
Production insurance
Production scheduling
Shot listing
Meal planning for 10 people for 3 days
Making a short film with only 10 people (due to location restrictions)
Finding an extra $5k so it doesn’t look like shit
Prosthetics???
Some of the tabs on my spreadsheets include:
CREW
CHECK LIST
PROP LIST
CRAFTY LIST
PRODUCTION RENTAL LIST
PRODUCTION SCHEDULE
I prefer my tabs to be in CAPS so it always feels a little bit like I’m being yelled at. It has also helped immensely to work with my wonderfully talented friend/manager/producer Christina who is a font of wisdom and practically. She’s both hopeful and realistic in measures that keep me grounded but striving and I thank her for this.
This part is fun for me, believe it or not, because I am what my partner refers to as an Admin Top (™). I’m the one who likes to pay the bills, track the things, put the things in motion. In a less patriarchal society I would be a great admin assistant (and have been one, in some sense, in some jobs). But I don’t want to be told what to do by some man or THE MAN (generally), so there’s the rub: I only like being my own secretary. Eat your heart out, Maggie Gyllenhaal.
It is, despite my sweaty jocularity, all coming together. We have a cast, most of a crew, a location (a property just outside Big Bear, which we may not be able to scout until we arrive…eeee), and the outlines and growing semblance of a production plan. We have 3 weeks. We have creativity and know-how and some brilliant people doing good work for very little money. We have chutzpah.
The next time you’ll hear from me, it’ll be a full BTS report on how we got from this point to production, and I’ll share some templates and other info to help you with your project, too. Catch you soon, kids.