Diane Rose-Solomon
Sep 2, 20202 min
Updated: Sep 20, 2020
Note: This is Excerpt #18 in Diane’s Diary. If you would like to read previous excerpts, you can find Diane’s Diary 1-17 here.
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My intention wasn’t to start filming the feature until I had more experience with the mini-docs and some funding in place. But, as I have mentioned in past diary excerpts, Erin and Kaitlyn invited me to share their journey getting a service dog and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.
Since this was my first time filming a feature, all of the details excited me. It ended up being way more involved than the single day mini-documentary shoots. And this is only one part of one of the many stories that will wind up in the feature! Since I have a lot to share about that whole experience, I will break it up into manageable bits each week. Here’s the first excerpt of me filming an Animal Magic Film’s feature segment.
If you recall Diane’s Diary #16, I had been scheduled to film Erin and her daughter Kaitlyn in their home in Florida when hurricane Dorian appeared and messed up those plans in August 2019. We decided to wait until October when the majority of hurricane season was over. We rebooked dates with the crew and the neurologist’s office and Erin.
Everything was scheduled and then a couple of weeks before I was set to fly, I got a message from Mike G (the Director/Tech person/right-hand man) asking me to give him a call. He had something to talk about. I took a deep breath and decided I didn’t need to worry. Whatever was supposed to happen would happen and it would all work out the way it was supposed to work out.
It turns out, Theresa, his partner, and producer got a job on a show that would take her away from Florida for months and she wouldn’t be there for our shoot.
Also, Mike M, the cameraman, couldn’t be there to film and Mike G was going to ask another quality cameraman to do the filming instead. I was sad that I wasn’t going to meet Theresa and Mike M after they had filmed Canine Commandos (also in Diane’s Diary #16), but just as long as we had quality people doing the filming that Mike trusted, I was fine with whatever he chose to do. Theresa, an incredible producer, made sure to set everything up before I arrived so that it all flowed smoothly. There are always hiccups in any production, but with a plan in place ahead of time, it's much easier to pivot in the moment.
A few days before the shoot, I got a message from the hospital that the doctor now had a meeting at 10, so we would have to be done by 9:50. That meant that in order to capture what we needed to capture, we wanted to be filming by 8:30. So we made arrangements to arrive at 7:45 am and have time to set up. More about how that went in the next blog!
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