Producer Productivity

I don't know how many of you guys stopped by because of my film ties, but if any of you haven't been completely run off by all the makeup stuff, this post is for you.

I'm not really sure how detailed I've been about the film stuff, so to recap (or tell you for the first time. I can't remember): My darling Thomas, started an indie film company called Fighting Owl Films. I helped. He handles the writing, directing, and all the technical jazz, and I handle the actors, extras, and organizational stuff. I also act, take care of a lot of the makeup, and we both work on wardrobe and props and whatever else has to get done. That's definitely the Reader's Digest condensed version, but there you go. We've also collected a small group of insanely talented (and probably just plain insane) artists who fill in the gaps with pure awesome. They compose, act, choreograph, write, film, apply false eyelashes, and sometimes just try to keep things calm. They're the folks who have allowed Fighting Owl to grow so that we can accomplish our goals, and we count them among our closest friends.

Of course, with growth comes the need to organize. A lot.

So I got an iPad.

Flip me!

Now, if you have an iPad or an iPhone ('cause this'll work on either) and do any sort of filmmaking, I have to recommend that you download the Pocket Call Sheet app. It's not free. You'll have to shell out $6.99, but it's completely worth it.

This app allows you to cull together a real, honest to goodness call sheet from your contacts list, and then emails it out to everyone involved. Before, I had to go into Google Docs, set up a spreadsheet or table (depending on what I needed at the time), and manually cobble together something that sort of resembled a poor representation of a call sheet's third cousin four times removed. Then, there were the emails. OH! The emails! Call times, locations, instructions, reminders...we're talking tl;dr of epic proportions. With this, I simply input all my information for the entire day of shooting--from pick-up times to wardrobe to set, including props and scenes--and it goes out to everyone on the list. You have no idea how much happy dancing I've been doing over this one little app. It's a fantastic organizational tool, and one that will immediately create at least the illusion that you know what you're doing. Good luck!