In part two of our exclusive interview with The Scenesters filmmakers, they talk about shooting the movie in less than three weeks, filming in Los Angeles, and working improv into the movie.
Shooting the whole movie in 17 days with 6-day weeks, the filmmakers were able to work at a very quick pace. “The whole movie is this found footage movie where it’s supposed to look like hand-held HD cameras…80 percent of the movie is shot documentary style” so not everything had to be perfect when it came to shooting the scenes. It allowed the filmmakers to just go in, shoot the scene, and move on to the next.
They have scenes at the LA river, famous for its place in Grease, Terminator 2, Gone In 60 Seconds, as well as many more films. There are also scenes they have in Griffith Park, as well as some at a courthouse. Surprisingly, they found it very cheap and easy to shoot in public places once they had the correct permits. “It’s when you try to go to a private business, or a home where they really gauge you.”
Though most of what you see from The Scenesters is taken from the script, there were some times where they incorporated improv into the scenes. For instance at the courthouse “we had a free jail cell and a free interrogation room, and so we said ‘well we have like four hours still in this location. Why don’t we just make up a scene?’”
Thus, because they filmed on HD cameras and didn’t have to worry about film stock, lots of extra footage appears on the dvd that fans will enjoy, along with the hipster murder-mystery that is The Scenesters of course.
