The film shoot for Snow Globe at the Semoran Skateway was going until late in the night. It would be past 5am before equipment would be packed back up.
At this point in the shoot, the two actresses, Grace Violla as Teen Birdie and Payton Hubert as Liv, Birdie’s best friend, were being shot skating around the rink.
Writer and director Tracey Jane was in the concessions area watching the shots on a monitor. Rather than a luxurious directors seat with a megaphone, she sat on a humble packing crate. Most of the extras were also seated in the concessions area. These were die hard skaters who were itching to get back out on the rink. The rink house music was no longer playing and they just sat chatting at the tables. Interest waned since they couldn’t sit passively, and they started heading for the door. Each walked over the Step Down warning tape and past the Power Roll machine on their way to the exit. Tracey realized she was loosing her extras who wanted music and the rush of skating. There were other shots that required skaters in the background. There was no way stop the exodus.
The next shot that required extras had teen birdie fall and skaters rolled past her as if she didn’t exist. To accomplish this shot the few remaining extras simply roller skated in a tight circle around birdie and the camera. This kept the few remaining extras in the tight shots on birdie. The rink felt crowded on the monitor. That is movie magic right there.
Tracey Jane had two of her other short films at the Love Your Shorts Film Festival in Sanford, Florida. Those films are Life is Torture ( A Simply Medieval Musical) and The Heatbreak. This was the Florida Premiere for both of those films. It seems to me Tracey Jane is on fire, and I am so happy I got to witness some of the creative magic first hand. I loved making my animated short film, but that was a solitary effort. Tracey works with a creative army and manages to keep all the demands and emotions of everyone involved in check. That is no small task.
