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  eight-ish

eight-ish started out as a 10 minute monologue by Gus Sacks and even won a table read for Gus. Jon Raymond teamed with Gus to expand it to a 28 minute film adding a cast of 10 more roles plus a few extras. Though most of those roles were part of the original monologue they were just voices on the phone. So, the story was conducive to an ensemble cast with a variety of easy locations, requiring only two to four cast members at a time and usually shot within a few hours. The production budget was around $3,000 including purchase of a DV camera, lights and sound gear. A SAG short film agreement was used to help obtain professional actors. Locations included Jon's apartment, and some public park locations.

   
       
  "Tripping on Wires"
One of the toughest things during production for the director was to also handle camera and sound. Budget constraints required using wired microphones including lavs which the actors repeated tripped on when on location. The worse thing about this was that the director was pretty much unable to give the cast direction unless they asked for it. But, the film didn't suffer much since Jon and Gus were careful to choose some very good actors. The actors nailed their roles in their auditions and so, they really helped to pull off the film. 		   
       
  "What Crew?"
For the most part, due to no budget, Jon manned the crew duties single-handedly occasionally with the help of two PAs. He spent hours before each shoot to set up and lights and get them just right. The outdoor scenes were scouted and tested before each shoot for the same reasons. Lighting was very important to maintain the "magic-hour" sunset look throughout the film. Jon did try to get a crew together but didn't find the right people he could either afford or click with. So, he ended up having to do his own camera, lights, and sound. 		   

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