It’s Tuesday morning, first day of production is Friday.

We’ve got the cast, the crew, we’re picking up our camera package and getting ready to head up to the mountain.

My phone rings; it’s my co-writer and all-round partner in crime, Vincent Catalina.

“Hey, so I just heard that there’s a forest fire on the road going up to our location. It’s small so far, so hopefully they can contain it and it won’t be a problem. I’ll keep you updated.”

Of the million scenarios I’d thought could stop us from making Wild Boys, a forest fire the week of our shoot was not on my radar.

What followed were intense hours of constantly refreshing the fire department’s website, making worried phone calls, and trying to answer the question on everyone’s mind:

WHAT DO WE DO NOW?

This week I want to talk about how to deal with unforeseen circumstances:

• The fire that almost ruined Wild Boys, and the town where we were filming
• What to do when everything is falling apart and you are losing all control
• A blessing in disguise? How it all turned out

When life gives you fire, get the hell out of the way

As the hours dragged on and the updates started ticking in, the news got worse and worse.

The fire was growing and there was no saying if or when the firefighters would be able to stop it.

My first reaction was to freak out. Months of planning, organizing, and begging favors were about to be flushed down the drain.

Everything was slipping out of control.

To give you some context, the town of Springville was the key to making the production of Wild Boys work. We had free locations, locals volunteering to cook food, act as extras, and open their homes to house our cast and crew.

Wild Boys would not be shot if it were not for the generosity of this small community.

By Wednesday morning, things turned from “are we going to be able to film?” to “will the town that’s welcomed us so warmly survive?”

Our film became insignificant compared to the life-and-death questions faced by the people and the town of Springville.

We still held out hope that the winds would slow down, and the fire would come under control by the end of the week.

Best-case scenario, the town would be fine, and we’d only lose the first couple of days of shooting.

By Thursday morning the picture became clearer.

There was no way we were getting to our locations any time soon.

We would have to reschedule, or worse - cancel the whole thing.

After the initial freak-out, I knew we needed to calm down and start thinking of solutions to our problem.

While we held out hope until the last minute, we also started working on a backup plan.

I knew we had to pay for some of the equipment rentals no matter what, even after our vendors gave us a break. I needed to find a way to shoot part of the film that Friday.

We had some scenes at the police station that we’d saved for later, since we hadn’t found a location yet. I talked to my bosses, and they agreed to let us build a police station set in their office.

Big productions have a “weather cover set,” where they can shoot in case of severe weather. We had come up with a “fire cover set.”

When the cameras rolled on our first scene, it was nothing like what I’d imagined at the beginning of the week. Instead of being up in the mountains, far away from people, we were in my office in LA.

But the important part is, we were rolling.

Luckily, the firefighters got the fire under control a few days later. Although it devastated a lot of the surrounding nature, the town of Springville was safe.

When we finally got back to location we saw what a close call it had been. Just 30 feet behind where we filmed the Wild Boys camp, the ground was burned to a crisp.

What to do when everything is falling apart

I’m not going to lie, the fire blindsided us completely. I’m a control freak by nature, and I had approached this project with a “nothing’s going to stop us” attitude. Having to deal with a fire that was totally out of our control felt extremely unfair and frustrating.

But our situation wasn’t unique, or even that uncommon for film productions.

Shit always happens.

It is our job to deal with it and find solutions.

Looking back at our experience, there are a few things we did right that saved our film during those chaotic days.

It’s natural to focus on the bad when something like this happens. Your plans go out the window, you’re losing money, your potentially losing cast, crew, and locations. All the things you had nailed down are up in the air.

The first thing we did was not dwell on our losses. We knew we’d lose some money, and we’d have to plan a whole new shoot. But that was out of our control.

Instead, we focused on finding workable solutions right away. It was about saving what we could, not saving everything.

We came up with a backup plan and prepared as if we were going forward with it. But we also held off on canceling the planned shoot until the last moment.

We essentially had to plan two productions at the same time.

On top of that, we made sure to communicate clearly with all our cast and crew, our vendors, and our other partners. We were open about the situation we were in, and everyone seemed to appreciate that and helped us in whatever way they could.

What I want you to take away from this story is even though you might not face a forest fire on your next film, there will be something. Something unforeseen that throws a spanner in your works.

When it happens, remember to take a step back, accept your losses, and get into problem-solving mode as quickly as possible.

The aftermath: was it a blessing in disguise?

Looking back, I’m still bummed we didn’t get the production we’d planned, but some things aligned to make the shoot we got pretty friggin' great anyway.

We got to shoot for a day and a half that first weekend. Our main cast got to test the waters of what our production was going to be like.

To make sure the fires were out for real, we pushed our main production by a month. Because everyone involved was donating their time and talents to the project, we lost a lot of crew, one cast member, and had to downsize from a two-camera shoot to a one-camera shoot.

For me, the downsizing meant I would only be able to get half the amount of footage I was planning on. Which meant I had to rethink and reprioritize my coverage.

One thing we hadn’t planned on was the change in weather. Because we were high up in the Sierras, what was supposed to be a mild-weathered shoot turned to freezing when we pushed. Considering two of our main cast walk around in loin cloths for most of the film, this was not great. But with thick blankets between takes, and an impeccable attitude, the boys got through it.

On the plus side, we gained more time to rewrite and polish the script, rehearse with the actors, and plan even better.

The main cast also got some time to digest the experience from the first shoot days in LA. Our lead actress, Kate, came up to me after production and said she was so grateful for the delay. It allowed her to let that first day sink in and prepare mentally for the 10-day shoot.

Our shoot ended up being smaller than we’d first planned, but that also made it easier to manage. Which I’m extremely grateful for because managing our shoot was hard enough!

I learned so much from this experience, and I’m proud that we didn’t let this disaster stop us from making our film.

We adjusted, adapted, and made our film the way we wanted to.

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