Producers Journal – Summer 20110

Making a large dance production shine on the silver screen is harder than it looks.

So it’s the last day of the new feature film. It was a hectic trip and my brain, body and personal life were pushed to their limits. Looking back on the last 23 days and 123 pages I can honestly say it was a unique experience.

This dance movie, which was directed by the same guy who did You Got Served, had hundreds of logistic and casting challenges. It was the largest project I’ve worked on by far with hundreds of people on board and mostly sixteen hour days, six days a week.

I’m proud to say my personal team of 55 talented men and women endured many of the hardships and contributed massively in time, blood, sweat and tears to this project. I truly applaud and thank them for being such a quality group of individuals.

The film itself is based around amazing child actor/dancers their ages ranging from 8-10. It was truly a sight to see. These kids were busting out with extremely advanced moves, and every performance was jaw dropping. There were also a whole slew of talented dancers flown in from all over the United States, and even places as far as Japan, for the purpose of background and non-principle cast duties.

Shooting took place across ten different locations, included hundreds of extras and even a few celebrity names I’m not at liberty to mention at the moment.

Being that Dance is a three dimensional art form capturing the excitement is a tricky thing on a two dimensional platform.

There is an art to producing footage that gets the audience to feel the action. So, to accomplish this type of filming, we decided to employ three cameras which I have to say helped us achieve some breathtaking shots.

The craziest part of this whole production was that in size and quality we produced what will pass as a major motion picture. But we pulled it off at a fraction of the cost. When I first viewed the numbers we had to work with I couldn’t believe what we were planning to do. Honestly I’m still a little stunned at what we accomplished.

But we did it, and now the entire team must be as anxious as I am to see the final product on the big screen!

…Until next time

Zeus Zamani