All language subtitles for Dealing with unexpected weather

who weather can be a beast

and nemesis to unprepared filmmakers

certainly was on the assurance

as part of this training

I wanted to make a film

that was impossible to do perfectly

so shooting outdoors in springtime in Seattle

seem like the perfect opportunity

to invite unexpected challenges

and while it wasn't as bad as it could have been

it still was a challenge

in the world of the assurance

everything needed to seem bleak and dreary

so we are kind of under pressure to hurry up and film

while it was still spring time

before all the flowers and trees blossomed again

this shot right here

was taken about a month after we wrapped production

but you can imagine how difficult it would be

to make that look like a dreary world

when I scatter our location for the assurance

these were the sample pictures I took

this was early March

two weeks before production started

it was sunny

and a warm 75 degrees

flowers are starting to bloom

and I feared that we lost our jury world

then the night before production

there was an unseasonable cold snap

temperatures were below freezing

and it snowed

but we showed up to set this place

during our location scouting

now looked like this

now I had prepared for rain

it's Seattle

even with the fine sprinkling of rain we get here

that's not something you want your camera gear in

so we had borrowed tents

and they were ready

to go should we need them

but we weren't prepared for snow in late March

so when Eva and Natty went to act

I didn't realize that my sweet little 8 year old Natty

would be laying on a wood floor

that was as cold as it was

the costumes we had for the actresses

were not made with these freezing conditions in mind

so they were really thin

and it was bitter cold

neither the actresses could perform the scene at all

and even if they could

their bodies were noticeably trembling

because of the cold

what did we do

well Heather brought her some snow gear

that she could discreetly wear underneath her costume

that wouldn't show up on camera

we also got blankets

the actresses could use in between takes

and cover them up as much as we could

and some parts of some shots

you could see that

so I had to edit around it

but it was worth it

we were very short staffed

so we were very limited in our resources

I had behind the scenes producer

Stephen Heller

leave set and bring back a heater

and that really helped

we eventually warmed up the hut

enough to act out the scene

it took hours

but the actresses did amazing work

in spite of the brutal conditions

not only did I waste the time of the actresses

by not being prepared

but also wasted the time of the entire crew

so after we wrapped that day

I abandoned other assurance preparation duties

and bought all the space years I could find

ironically all of the winter stuff was gone already

so I only found two

but they helped

although you can see the heat waves in the footage

when you play it back really fast

all of the headache of setting these things up

and hundreds of unexpected dollars in heaters paid off

almost everyone in the casting crew

has such great attitudes

but I wish I had done a better job

of anticipating the cold weather

I was prepared to protect the equipment

but next time

I will do a better job

thinking about what I can do

to make the casting crew more comfortable as well

we also had several crew members

that couldn't make the commute to set

and just didn't show up

because the ice and snow where they were

and also many of our extras

who were just kind of

donating their time

and we're getting paid anyway

decided after the cold just did not come after all

which kind of limited how big the world seemed

that being said

it was kind of remarkable

how many extras actually did show up

in the cold weather

it stood there for hours

like champs

and they added a lot to our production value

I should point out

that we also had weather work in our favor

later that year

in the fall

it started getting foggy in the mornings

and I love me some dreary weather

it's kind of one of the things that inspired the film

so I monitored every morning for a big fog

and one morning

it looked perfect

so we got Natty in her Cartier costume

and packed up the family

went to a nearby lake

and got some

just gorgeous footage

so weather can work for you

or against you

the point is to be prepared

for everything