“It’s a Rental” – A Production Experiment

Last week, Jared posted about the new Zacuto Scorpion rig. To give ourselves something fun to shoot for the demo that night, we put together this little short film, in the course of a day.

It was actually a really cool experience throwing something together so last minute. From a producing standpoint, it really emphasized that “get it done, no matter what” attitude. We picked up a rental for the day from the Airport. I wrote the script several hours before the shoot. We knew the location would be downtown, and we ended up paying a valet 20 bucks to let us shoot in a parking lot for a few hours (which has to be the cheapest a location has ever been paid for in this town). Finding the actress proved more difficult than I thought–there was something about that particular Sunday that made everyone suddenly unavailable. Finally, Lindsay was recommended by a mutual friend. She ended up being a sweetheart who loves to drive with reckless abandon. The music was provided very generously by The Mulhollands. It all sort of fell together, as these things tend to do.

Directorially, I’ll share only one anecdote: to get Lindsay to deliver the money line, the suggestion I gave her was “pretend you’re telling him he has a small penis.” Interestingly enough, I really bought it on that one. Makes you think…

Oh, and for your future car-shooting reference, the Mitsubishi Eclipse in burnt orange is NOT the most picture perfect car

Hope you enjoyed, talk to you soon.

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Jared Abrams is a cinematographer based in Hollywood, California. After many years as a professional camera assistant he switched over to still photography. About two years ago a new Canon camera changed the way the world sees both motion and still photography. He just happened to be in the right place at the right time.