and now for the debrief....
Final Major Project Evaluation
This module has probably been the most
fruitful. Both in what I have
produced and in what I have learnt whilst producing it. In many ways what I will discuss in the
coming paragraphs will really be the tip of the iceberg as most of what I’ve
learnt through making my short film, is hard to put into words and is only
active at a subconscious and instinctive level whilst say writing or working on
set. Still there are a number of very
clear filmmaking lessons I’ve learnt, which on their own make the time I’ve
committed to this project more than worthwhile.
Firstly
one should (in a perfect world) never write, direct and produce. Certainly not on one’s own at
least. Seeing as writing can work
on its own schedule, that can be done along side directing or producing with
ease. However unless you have a
reliable person or group of people helping you direct or produce it is
foolhardy to be solely in charge of working with the actors and choosing shots and making sure that you keep to time and that
you have all your kit and props.
On set I could feel the quality of the film slipping a tad thanks to me
worrying about too many things all at once. Linked to this – and on the whole most of my big lessons
learnt are production related – is the casting issue. I have found that low/no budget films have the ability to
punch above their weight in two areas: quality of script and quality of actors
as these are two important elements that can very often be acquired for
free. Seeing as organizing a
casting that will pull a large crowd is an art in itself and seeing as good
casting agencies and actors can cost a lot, the wise solution is to simply be
on first name terms/have the phone numbers of the actors you plan on using. This also means that it’s possible to
write a part for a
specific actor –making the writing process a little easier. In my film the actor I found on cast
call pro was by far the least satisfying and the actor whose part was written specifically for him was by far the most. So for the foreseeable future
filmmaking will amount to two things; writing lots of scripts and meeting as
many actors as I can (that means going to lo budget plays and then going to the
pub with the cast).
Continuing
along the production lines now I’ve also learnt that unless you have a budget
for large scrims, flags and HMI lights, don’t shoot more than a small portion
of your film outdoors. Especially
in England the weather is erratic so for continuity and comfort’s sake (filming
in the wind is worse than going to Ikea with a hangover) film indoors. It also protects against “unwanted
attention” something that gave us all kinds of rude background noises and
unusable takes. Obviously if there
are a few outdoor shots
that’s fine but seeing as most of my film was shot outdoors over a number of
weeks, different weather conditions reared their ugly head and threatened
continuity. Leading on from that
is to do with actors’ availability.
This was (like most of the problems encountered) partly my fault, partly
the actors’. Immediately after I
cast them I told them the first shooting date, when we would potentially be
shooting up to and what was required from them and they all said how wonderful
everything sounded and that they were free. Then on various occasions, I planned a shoot or rehearsal
and the actors then said they weren’t available. I should have found out in detail what their schedules were like and then
laid out in detail what
the film schedule was like. In
fact in the case of this film that wouldn’t have done much good as the actors I
got were all I could get and the time I got from them was all I could get (they
were either tied up with other projects or parental responsibilities) so even
if I had known their schedules well from the word go, things still would’ve
ended up this way. The lesson
still stands though: for best results make sure your actors have a clear
stretch of time so that principle photography and ideally rehearsals can all
happen back to back.
Both
the actors and the crew should be nothing short of very enthusiastic. I think I was naive regarding people’s
commitment. What with camera ops
failing to show and actors giving wooly excuses as to why they couldn’t shoot
there were moments when the film really started to crumble. Because nobody’s being paid, as a low
budget filmmaker, one must ensure that the satisfaction of the work is just as
present in the crew and the actors as it is in the director and producer. Finally there are two small points that
need to be made. This is said and
heard everywhere but it’s very true: never say “we’ll fix it in post” when it
can be done in camera. Doing
things in camera may seem like a drag but quite often it’s cheaper, it’s easier
in the long run and it usually looks better. Finally, and this is really just common sense, when
producing low budget films, one should always have at least one car handy. As much as I’ve been good with the budget, I have certainly
not been careful when ensuring that I have a friend free to drive the crew and
equipment. A rather
annoying/embarrassing sum of money has thus been spent on taxis for actors and
crew. Anyway those are the core
lessons I’ve learnt about low budget filmmaking and believe me there are plenty
more! So many that I am now gagging
to make another film and put these lessons into practice.
