Baby Items Needed

I'm filming a short film this weekend about a high school girl who is pregnant and has to go shopping for a crib with her boyfriend/baby daddy. The problem is that at some point in the film, the guy needs to break a crib railing (or break something large and baby-related). It's a critical plot point.

Turns out, however, that a cheap baby crib is a really hard prop to find. Really hard.

I should have thought of this before writing a broken baby crib into my script. Because now I have to either A) change my script, B) buy a baby crib to break-- which I don't have the money for, or C) pray for a miracle. Having no pregnant friends in the near vicinity, praying for a crib to suddenly appear on my front stoop doesn't seem like a viable option. Unfortunately.

Lessons Learned From This Project:

(I feel like I should scream this because I did sooooo many things wrong on this short)

1. Don't write expensive items into your script until you have the money to buy them. Because if you don't have the money to buy them in the first place, then you sure as hell don't have the money to buy them and then promptly break them.

2. Don't require your film to be set in one specific, set-in-stone, can't-change-now location until you've maybe called them first and requested permission to film. Because otherwise it's inevitable that they either aren't open on the day you need to film, or they don't want you there in the first place. 

3. Have a back-up plan for EVERYTHING (especially locations).

4. Reserve equipment further in advance.

5. Make things easier on yourself. Don't write more than one location into your narrative. Maybe even limit it to one character. Simplicity is best when you only have three weeks to pull the project together.

But as they say, hindsight is 20/20.