Tommy Kraft's Blog

Hey, all

Things are getting busy with the film shooting going on around here! I just wrapped my second day of shooting for Light yesterday (Wednesday). We shot all of the car scenes for the first ten episodes. It was a great (and incredibly long) day of shooting. I got to meet Liza Perricone, the wonderful actress playing Ellie Jasinowski (the female lead) as well as work in-depth with some of the other wonderful actors on the show.

I was supposed to continue onto the third day of the shoot today, however scheduling issues arose and I had to postpone. I was upset, but life goes on. While on this scheduling topic, just let me say that scheduling for an indie project of this scale is absolutely insane! This is a low budget indie production, that means everyone is working for free, which also means planning around people’s schedules! Let me show you my basic workflow for setting up a shoot day:

1. Call the actors, see when they’re available
2. Call the crew, see when they’re available
3. Call the location, find out it’s not available when the actors and crew are available
4. Find another time with the actors and crew
5. Schedule with location
6. Schedule with actors

I’m sure you’re thinking “that doesn’t seem too bad!” but imagine doing that for 5-10 actors and crew or more. It’s especially difficult because much of my cast is driving in from up to 3 hours away in all directions. One of the big challenges I’m facing right now is gaining permission to shoot at Albion College (my current place of education). I’ve been emailing back and forth and calling between at least three different people trying to figure out if I can get the okay. It’s madness! However, once that is all worked out, life should hopefully get a lot easier. Once everyone is on set and filming, everything is hunky dory, it’s just the scheduling to get us there that’s a killer!

All that being said, episode 1 is nearly completed (save for a sequence that can’t be finished until I wrap principal photography). We’re making steady progress and I’m SO excited for this series!

In other news, my main website has gotten a major facelift. It’s so much prettier and easier to navigate now! Go take a look at any of the pages, it’s gorgeous! Alas, this is about all I have for news this time. I’ll be releasing promotional photos and behind-the-scenes videos soon to gain interest for Light. That’s all for now, thanks for reading! Until next time…UNDER AND IN (the reverse of “over and out” for the people who don’t understand my warped sense of humor!)