Script supervisor on the production of Zhenya Malakovich's "Three Aliens" short film

✦ Translated with DeepL

Summer is over, and I thought I’d write a few words about how I got involved with Zhenya Malakovich’s short fiction film with the working title “Three Aliens”.

I met Zhenya (I’ve never seen him sign his name Eugene anywhere) a year ago, shortly before the HLIADAČ festival. Now, a year later, when he was looking for people willing to help him work on his second feature film project, I wrote to him and got script supervisor duties.

It was filmed in August 2023, and in more detail:

Place preparation #

Aug. 8, 30

First of all, the day before the filming started, it was necessary to load all sorts of small things + a couple of bedside tables, a TV set and a refrigerator down from the fourth floor, move it all and unload all the props up one floor higher.

Then it was necessary to prepare the place: cut cardboard, glue magazines and newspapers on it, tape the windows, cover all the excess with spandbond or cloth.

During the preparation for the second shooting day (or rather, the twenty-four hours) I almost fell down the stairs. Well, how almost fell. I rolled down and landed more or less on my feet, leaving a couple of scratches.

Filming #

Aug. 9-10, Aug. 31-Sept. 1

While on August 8 the space was being prepared, on the day of the shoot all the equipment had to be brought in and the lights set up starting at 7:00am. The plan was to start at about 11:30 in the afternoon, and how nice that I could sleep in and arrive at about 10:00.

But as it usually happens, the command “action” was sounded an hour and a half late.

On this project, I had the role of script supervisor. I had to make sure that what was happening on the set was in accordance with the script and the scenes were shot in the right sequence, as well as measure the timing of the scenes, keep an editing sheet and try to catch all the little details of what was happening on the set.

In other words, I guess you could say I was doing what I’ve been doing for almost 4 years, what I do best - watching movies all day and taking notes.

Cleaning #

Aug. 10, Sept. 1

After the first day of filming I took a cab and went to bed at about 5am, woke up at about 9am because of the cat meowing, lay down for a while and slept until 2pm. I didn’t help clean up and move stuff off the set that day, but I did get almost 2 days of sleep.

September 1, I came home on the subway and fell asleep at 7 a.m., slept until 1 p.m., under-sleeping literally an hour and a half, after which I was awakened by a neighbor’s thud on the wall during the apartment renovation. I didn’t eat anything all day, and in the evening Zhenya called and asked me to help clean up on the site, where this time there was no one but the two of us.

The refrigerator and TV were safely taken to the dump. Besides, some guy needed a wire with a plug from the TV, which the three of us safely ripped off.

Afterword #

A tremendous amount of people, time, effort and finances went into the making of this short film.

For example, on the first shooting day the boom operators managed to change at least 3 times, and on the second shooting day the clapper was like a whore and went the same way in the hands of 4 people.

Words of gratitude and respect to Zhenya for bringing this project to life and uniting all the people involved.

Now we are looking forward to spring!