“Six months, ten grand,” I said like an idiot.
I had believers, not crew. Everybody understood that was what was required. Not all were with me for the entire process. Some got credit for working a day on the project. Some stayed with me for the entire three years.
Some gave nothing, some gave sweat and some gave blood.
The first of us sat down and scheduled it out, itemizing the script for necessary sets, props, costumes and personnel. Four locations: a therapist's office, an outdoor city scene, the robot cockpit and a soundstage for the fight itself. Each one had a different set of difficulties that were highly disparate. Without an experienced AD, I ended up doing all the scheduling, budget and production work myself. On any film, each of those are typically a job with one or more people dedicated entirely to that task alone. This was the first time I suddenly realized that the enormity of my project was far beyond my ability to completely comprehend.
Principal speaking actors would only be required for two locations with a day on each. I stacked the shoot days so that the most technically complex shooting would happen at the end, allowing costumes, stunts and set builders more time to get things in order. The fight would be the last shoot, as it had the most complexities.
