Q: Describe a basic day of filming on the set of C&C 3. What is it like to be Richard Taylor, the director, on the set of C&C 3?

A: Shooting this material for C&C 3 has been a terrific experience for me and a real honor. I love working with really talented actors who are playing roles they enjoy. A production like this is the collaboration of a lot of very talented people who are all experts in their fields.

The first and certainly one of the most important aspects of shooting live action is to have well thought out pre-production designs and planning. It all begins with the script and builds from there. Casting, sets, wardrobe and props, camera design and lighting all take a lot of drawings and meetings to establish the over all style of a production. Then it's necessary to plan every day on stage down to the minute. On this project I've been fortunate to have a really talented group of artisans working along with me to create the shots. In many aspects the scale of this production has been the equivalent of shooting a feature film. Our script was over 120 pages and that's about the size of most features. There will be well over an hour of live action and cg scenes.

Once we have all the elements ready we roll into the actual shooting. If you've never seen a live action shoot you'd be surprised at how much work it really is. I think there's a common misconception that it's relatively easy to be an actor, a director or a technician when shooting live action. That's really not the case. We begin at 6 in the morning and all day it's a non-stop process packed with pressure that has to come off on screen as if it's effortless. If it's a successful day we shoot roughly about 10-15 pages of a script. That means setting the actors’ blocking, the camera choreography, the lighting and rigging any special effects for 8 to 10 scenes. Some shots are very complex and take hours to create. We try to shoot the scene with as few takes as possible but that's not always that easy. It's a fascinating and often a fun process but it is very stressful. As the director it's my job to get the best out of everyone and to be the guiding hand on the creative rudder.