Space in a Garage - Two Friends
In September, I had the opportunity to work again with Tyler Falbo, the director of Immoral Compass. This time, we collaborated on a super small-budget promo video featuring Two Friends in a dark-comedy sketch that takes place in outer-space. It was really fun to go back to our low-budget roots, and it brought back memories of some of our no-budget film school projects.
Our biggest budget items were definitely the spaceship set and spacesuits. It turns out that authentic spacesuits can be quite expensive to rent! We didn't even have the budget for a studio space, fortunately, our performers Matt and Eli volunteered their garage as a substitute.
The spaceship set we found was actually used by Brad Pitt in the film Ad Astra. We were excited once we secured the budget to rent the spaceship, but we had no clue how we were going to transport it to the garage. The set weighed about two tons and was roughly the size of a compact car. After searching for various box trucks and trailers, many of which were slightly too small, we thought, "Hey, why don't we just get a tow truck?"
Perhaps not so surprisingly, when we called tow truck companies asking them to move a spaceship, we got a lot of rejections and strange responses: "You need to transport a what?” Luckily, the day before the shoot, we finally found a tow truck driver who agreed to transport the set. While following behind the truck from the prop house to the garage in our car, we couldn't help but feel nervous every time the tow truck hit a bump or turned sharply, afraid that the ratchet straps might break, and the set would be sent flying across the road. Thankfully, our tow-truck driver was a professional, and he safely delivered the set to the garage, in one piece.
With the spaceship safely in the garage, we immediately got to work prepping the set. We started by pre-lighting the interior using LiteGear LiteRibbon, which allowed us to have full RGB control over the instrument panels and built-in fixtures. It was a great solution that gave us the flexibility to quickly adjust individual fixtures on the fly. As for the sun source outside the window, we chose the Aputure 150D for its bright output, small current draw, and ability to keep heat to a minimum, which was important for the comfort of our actors during the long shoot day.
The cockpit was extremely cramped, and our actors, Matt and Eli, had to crawl on all fours to get in and out of their seats. Despite the challenging conditions, they remained patient throughout the long takes while sweating profusely in their hot spacesuits. Additionally, obtaining the required coverage proved to be a difficult task due to the limited space. Fortunately, the set was designed with removable walls, allowing us to dismantle parts of the set to get all the necessary angles.
Despite the challenges we faced, we managed to pull off an amazing shoot thanks to the dedication and hard work of everyone involved. Working alongside Tyler, Matt, and Eli was a great experience, and I would jump at the chance to collaborate with them again.