I signed on to do DREAM LOVER mostly sight unseen. Actually, I backed it on Kickstarter pretty much sight unseen. I was online as the campaign neared the end, and word got out that Mattson Tomlin's new project needed to raise $800 in the final hour or so. I did what I imagine lots of people do in the final hour of a Kickstarter campaign--I pitched in $5 without really knowing what I was backing (I know for a fact a number of people ended up backing A Year Without Rent in the exact same way).
Being a backer, I knew Mattson was looking to film at around the same time I was looking to start A Year Without Rent, so it made a lot of sense to make it the first project.
And really, it doesn't always matter what I'm helping out on. A talented filmmaker is a talented filmmaker. There's some filmmakers I'd volunteer to help film their kid's birthday party, if they asked. (But only if I was promised cake)
Long story short, that's how I ended up in Purchase, NY, on a college campus, volunteering on a short film that I thought was a feature.
I imagine that'll happen a lot on this trip.
DREAM LOVER is a short, directed by Mattson Tomlin (SOLOMON GRUNDY: BORN ON A MONDAY) and photographed by Filipp Kotsishevskiy. We're actually filming in the same building as BLACK SWAN, which at least for today is rather fitting, as we're on a stage with lots of dancers and female leads dressed in a black vs. white motif.
This is the biggest day of the production, as we started the day by applying some rather creepy makeup to a cadre of dancers. Beyond that, it's a pretty small crew: director, cinematographer, producer Nicole Favale, two grips, a sound operator, and the composer, who's playing back a temp version of the score for the dancers.
Well, he was. But he had to leave, so now I'm manning the iPod, which is how I'm able to write this during filming.
Tomorrow: more of DREAM LOVER. More dreaming. Fewer dancers. Or so I'm told.
