The Premiere of ‘Like A Rookie’: A Noir Journey Through Shadows and Jazz

Behind the Scenes: Crafting Like a Rookie in the Footsteps of Giants

Our journey with ‘Like a Rookie’ began in the shadow of a titan—Frank Miller’s ‘Sin City.’ This groundbreaking film not only redefined visual storytelling but also pioneered the use of green screen and virtual sets in filmmaking. Inspired by its audacity and ingenuity, we embarked on creating our own narrative, aiming to explore and expand the boundaries of virtual production. Our homage to ‘Sin City’ was not just in spirit but a challenge to ourselves: to learn and leverage stylistic choices that make the virtual space not just convincing but compellingly immersive.

‘Like a Rookie’ unfolds in a jazz club—a setting rich with narrative potential but prohibitively expensive to recreate physically on an indie budget. Real-time monitoring transformed our set into a canvas, where every stroke of creativity was visible instantly, melding the directorial vision with the virtual environment seamlessly. This process wasn’t just about making do; it was about making better—economizing post-production, enhancing creative decisions on set, and ultimately bringing our jazz club to life with authenticity and flair.

Perhaps one of our most significant hurdles was coordinating the schedules of our talented cast. The traditional route would have us compromise, cut, or creatively circumvent their absence. However, virtual production granted us the flexibility to shoot each actor independently, on their schedules, without sacrificing the integrity of our scenes. By stitching together separate performances into a single, coherent shot, we showcased not just the technical prowess of virtual production but its narrative potential—allowing characters to share the same space, even when the actors never crossed paths.