The Inefficient Filmmakers Guide to Making a Movie in Six Years
Tuesday, May 5, 2015 at 3:14PM 
One of "Animal"'s incredibly evocative posters.
"Or, How to Have the Most Fun While Having a Nervous Breakdown"
-by David Dastmalchian
[ICYMI -the rising actor David Dastmalchian is guest blogging today! -ed.]
I have said this in jest many times – and will probably continue to joke about it again and again – but the truth of the matter is that I came dangerously close to having a severe nervous breakdown in the weeks that led up to the filming of Animals. For the uninitiated, Animals is a feature film that I wrote, acted in and produced. My close friend and Midwest compatriot, Collin Schiffli, directed the film about a homeless couple who struggle between the reality of their addiction to heroin (and one another) and the fantasy life that they imagine for themselves.
Although it’s not a “biopic” by any means, the film was definitely influenced by my own personal battles with the same demons as my characters. More...
The first draft of the script was completed some time around 2006 while I was flirting with the idea of making a return to my life as an actor and writer (a life I had left behind around 2000). Several years later my friend and oft-collaborator, Chris Smith (The Pool, American Movie) read the screenplay and was very excited by it. I began to dig into the rewrite process and soon Collin was on board.
Between 2010 and 2013 we struggled and fought to find the VERY small amount of money, resources and talent needed to make the film. My wife and a small band of brilliant, generous filmmakers slowly gathered around the project – and our kitchen table nightly - until we decided that it was a now-or-never moment in the genesis of this film. We announced our start date and began the official process of preproduction.
On my way to meet Collin in Chicago, I stopped at a family reunion in Vermont where my stepfather and I got lost in the woods. He fell down a hill and broke his leg – in half. I spent four sleepless days between hospitals, airports and highways and arrived in Chicago without any of my luggage, prepared to cast, schedule, permit, insure and all other manner of assembling the infrastructure of this film. And did I mention that we only had a fraction of our budget accounted for?
I had spent three years raising the financing through private equity and we were STILL not even close to what we needed. Our crew was beginning to arrive, our locations were falling apart and that looming start-date was fast approaching. We were trying to find a hospital where we could shoot a very important collection of scenes in the third act. It’s not a traditional hospital, mind you, but a state-run psychiatric facility and a very specific aesthetic which was difficult to come by.
a few scenes from the film
In fact, the only way I knew how to describe it to our marvelous production designer (Caity Birmingham) and equally marvelous first AD (Laura Klein) was to take them with Collin to a hospital that I was familiar with from my past. We had driven all day in a hot August afternoon and we were facing constant rejections and obstacles. Not only was my financing looking shaky – some of the investors I had counted on were bowing out!
I was sitting there in the back seat of a little yellow car and couldn’t catch my breath anymore. I had a kind of myopic swirling view of things and it was ALL swirling like a great big flushing toilet bowl circling the loss of my mind.
My phone rang and it was my wife (then my fiancé). She sounded tentative and nervous. But she was excited, too. She had called to tell me that she’d just found out… that she was pregnant. We were going to have a baby. I just started to cry. Collin started filming. Our PD and AD didn’t know whether to be concerned or celebrate. It was insane and it was beautiful. It was just like a miracle and something came over me that day. I decided that we were going to make this film – budget or no. We’d shoot the whole damn thing on 5D’s if we had to and Collin had done so much meticulous preparation that I knew he could pull it off.
At the SXSW awards ceremony with my wife
Needless to say – we shot the film in 24 grueling, magical, backbreaking, metamorphic days. We finished a cut with (barely) enough time to submit to SXSW and were accepted. The whole crazy Animals family ascended on Austin for the unforgettable experience and just two weeks after that – my wife and I welcomed our little boy into the world. Hell of a ride.
Just writing this story and reliving the memory of it all nearly gave me another nervous breakdown. And I’d gladly do it again. And again and again. If I may be so fortunate.
Animals opens in select cities and VOD on 5.15.15
Previously
David What?, What I Learned From Paul Rudd, and Films I Love
Reader Comments (8)
Amazing stories! We forget how grueling it is to make a film at every step of the way. Can't wait to get a look at Animals.
That poster is incredible!! I'm very very curious to check it out. So nice to hear a funding-nightmare indie film story with a happy ending.
That IS an amazing poster.
About the whole 24 day filming shoot, you hear about tight shoots like that all the time when it comes to smaller movies but I wonder if that has to be rough or liberating from an acting standpoint. Does the actor become more anxious about learning lines and delivering on a tight schedule or is it easier to just get it out of the way and does it push you to deliver?
Hi Everyone! Sorry if it seems weird that I'm commenting on - or even reading the comments - on a post that I wrote - but I couldn't help it. I just wanted to say THANK YOU to all of the wonderful and supportive notes people have been posting. I'm so glad that Nathaniel asked me to do this. Okay - that's all. I just wanted to let you all know how much it means. Thanks again.
That got my stomach churning, David. Can't wait to see the work!
Derrick, I've only worked on under-30 day shoots as an actor and I personally love the intensity, pressure and concentration demanded. On one shoot I actually got to leave for a week in the middle and bring renewed energy (and other stuff) from the outside world to the cast and crew.
paul & david - you always hear that indie shoots are hellishly difficult (well, all films for that matter) but when money is super tight as it is on most indies, i can barely imagine.
then imagine what it must have been like when people shot on celluloid and couldnt just reshoot everything!
Thanks for sharing this story, David. I'm so happy you were able to complete your film. Congrats about the father news too!
Nathaniel - shocker: I have never done digital (except really small projects recently that were either not released or theater/performance-related). Schwarfahrer (celluloid) had to be shot twice in its entirety because there was a problem with the processing of the negative. That may sound nightmarish, but insurance money made it possible to do it better the second time: the director was able to watch the original footage and make some important changes (in terms of directing, acting, camera and even some casting) before the reshoot. Since principal photography took less than a week anyway, it didn't kill the cast or crew to come back.