Details prove film is ‘Human’

A light pole, a car and two actors are the only items in the three-minute scene.
However, members of the “Only Human” film crew, made up entirely of IU students, spent nearly five hours the night before the shoot setting up the lighting and the equipment to get the exact shot they wanted, said director and junior Charlie Mattingly.
\
“Every detail is what’s important,” he said. “It’s really just coordination, down to the smallest detail of everything we’ve done.”

The scene filmed Thursday was a flashback to prom night and an emotional scene in the movie, said associate producer and senior Erick Cole.

The location, a lamppost in the middle of a residential neighborhood, was chosen when senior Kevin Domer,  producer, and senior Joey Mattucci, director of photography, found it while driving around, Cole said.

“The best way to find sites is just by randomly driving around,” he said.
Fewer than ten people were involved in the filming of the flashback.

“We try to run a minimal crew, but still run a fully structured crew,” Cole said. “We’ll allow random people to show up throughout the year. We want to give everyone the opportunity to see what it’s like being on set while filming.”

Field shots, such as the flashback scene, are filmed outside and are harder to shoot because the crew is at the mercy of the outdoors, Cole said.

“When we got here, there was a bobcat that wasn’t there last night,” he said, indicating a statue a few feet away from the lamppost. “We had to cover it with a black tarp.”

Set-up for the scene began an hour before the lead actor and actress were due to arrive. Mattingly said the last 45 minutes of that hour was spent arguing about little modifications.

“In our line of work, it’s all about experience,” he said. “When you start out, it’s all guess and check.”

Mattingly, who will direct about one-third of the movie, said he has never directed a film of this scale before.

Anything dealing with the camera is out of his hands, but everything else is under his control, he said.

“I’m like the manager on set,” he said. “I yell ‘action’ and ‘cut’ is the big thing.”

Getting the lights set for the shot can take a long time due to all of the adjustments, senior Kate Sickert, who is light specialist and photographer for the film, said.
Though she said she has been doing photography for quite a while, Sickert said “Only Human” is the first movie she has worked on.

“It’s really just coordination,” Cole said. “We have to combine everyone’s visions and match them on set. We try to bring the vision to fruition.”

With the scene finally in place the way the directors, producers and other crew members wanted it, they were prepared to start filming.

Mattingly said a lot of times directors use the one-to-20 ratio, – 20 minutes of filming for every minute in the movie.

“Everything we do is usually three hours,” he said. “Actually,  that’s probably on the low end.”