smalltown Chronicle

smalltown Diaries: Day One

Every filmmaker knows it is best to avoid working with animals or children. I would like to add to that old adage — “never stage a brutal fight scene between children on the first day of shooting.” We kicked off our thirty-three days of shooting with a brutal fight scene between nine year olds. It was about a thousand degrees out, few of us knew each other and here I was trying to choreograph a fight scene between children with very short attention spans. The problem with staging a fight with kids is the kids just want to fight for real, so inevitably, one hits the other one for real, then the crying begins, etc. Also, kids just do not stand still for fight choreography, so getting the movements precise took hours and drove all of us to the brink of sanity. Still, we finished the day and have a nice brutal, bloody child fight to prove it. The kids were great to work with (as good as kids with zero attention span can be). Stay tuned for day two.