Just finished shooting my first short! Things I learned.

drc

drc

Hey,

First of all, I wanna thank every one on the indie talk forum for the great and informative community you guys have built here. I don't think I would've ever gotten off my butt and started shooting if it wasn't for this amazing forum.

I just finished shooting my first short. Shooting took place for about 4 hours a day for two days (today and yesterday). The movie cost me $0.00. I rented the equipment from my school and didn't pay the actors. I'm in no position to give actual advice but I learned a few things shooting these past few days and maybe they'll be of some help to some one. Here are the things I learned:

- Check the forecast! An obvious thing to do but I overlooked it. We were supposed to shoot last Saturday and I found it in the morning that there was a forecast for rain and had to call all the people involved (who weren't getting paid) THE DAY OF and tell them we had to reschedule.

- Don't expect people working for free to be as enthusiastic and devoted as you. Asked everyone to come at 3pm. Earliest guy came at 3:05, latest at 4:30. One actress kept texting and was listening to her ipod the SECOND her scenes were done. A couple of other small stuff too. But I learned to not get upset and just try to get them to the best they can I can't expect them to be as interested as me.

- It helps to have an understanding of every thing. I've studied some acting theory. And it helped me TREMENDOUSLY today. I was trying to develop as complex a character as you can develop in a 8 minute film and if I hadn't learned about the different proven practices and techniques of acting, there would have been a HUGE disconnect between the actors and myself. When I was explaining to them how to act a particular role or what kind of character I'm trying to develop, I first spoke in very vague and every day terms.
We shot a few scenes and I realized that none of the actors knew what I was going for. The theme of the movie was looking different. The characters that were supposed to be three dimensional and complex felt like cliches. The dialogue was emphasized in the wrong places. I then spoke to each actor individually and was able to give them an in-depth explanation of the type of acting I wanted from them. I could refer to different techniques and schools of thought and we experimented with them. The second and third time around (after talking to them) I felt like the scenes being acted in front of me were an exact replica of the scenes I had been playing in my head for weeks.
I also knew a little out of school knowledge about cinematography and lighting and that helped me a great deal too when shooting.


Once again I wanna thank the entire indietalk community for all the knowledge and support. I'm sure this short is one of many to come. The film will be developed and digitized in 2 weeks and I will complete editing a week or so after that. I will be sure to upload it and post it here.

Thanks,
Zain
 
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Very cool. If feels great to have that first one in the can, doesn't it?

"in the can" can't really be used anymore, I guess. Most of you
probably don't even know what it means...

Just wait until you have the opportunity to work with "real" actors.
I remember my first time. I was used to doing what you had to do
on your shoot. Once you get dedicated actors with some experience
and talent directing them is so easy. Once you work with seriously
experienced actors you almost feel useless.
 
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drc said:
The movie cost me $0.00. (...) The film will be developed and digitized in 2 weeks
Click to expand...

How did you manage to arrange that? :hmm: That's almost always the zero-budget killer right there. Was that school equipment, too? Which school? :)

Sounds like you had an awesome time. Maybe take some Acting for Directors classes, on top of that Acting Theory.

Will check it out when it's uploaded.:cool:
 
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Zensteve said:
How did you manage to arrange that? :hmm: That's almost always the zero-budget killer right there. Was that school equipment, too? Which school? :)

Sounds like you had an awesome time. Maybe take some Acting for Directors classes, on top of that Acting Theory.

Will check it out when it's uploaded.:cool:
Click to expand...


Hey,

Yea, it would've ran me a few hundred dollars if I went to develop and digitize it commercially. The school covers development and digitization. The school is Academy of Art University. I am interested in learning about acting for directors. I don't like taking extra classes because they're very expensive but I just find the textbooks the professors of those classes use and read up.
 
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If you rented the gear, how can you say it cost you $00.00? You mean your borrowed it? And you say you're digitizing the footage? Did you shoot on 16mm? If so, I'm jealous. Or did you shoot an analog format like Betacam?

I'm also doing a micro to zero budget short. My biggest expense so far is make up. $130! Ouch!
 
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brianluce said:
If you rented the gear, how can you say it cost you $00.00? You mean your borrowed it? And you say you're digitizing the footage? Did you shoot on 16mm? If so, I'm jealous. Or did you shoot an analog format like Betacam?

I'm also doing a micro to zero budget short. My biggest expense so far is make up. $130! Ouch!
Click to expand...

Hey,
It was "borrowed" from the school. It's called the Equipment Rental Facility but it's free. I shot on Super 8mm, using a Kinoflex.

Good luck!
 
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drc said:
Don't expect people working for free to be as enthusiastic and devoted as you. Asked everyone to come at 3pm. Earliest guy came at 3:05, latest at 4:30. One actress kept texting and was listening to her ipod the SECOND her scenes were done. A couple of other small stuff too. But I learned to not get upset and just try to get them to the best they can I can't expect them to be as interested as me.
Click to expand...

Sure, you can't get too angry when people who aren't getting paid are late or whatever. But really you have to try to encourage people to act as professionally as possible.

I shot my feature over a year, shooting at weekends or when people/locations were available. One of the crew started to get a reputation as being late and generally unprofessional (ie not prepared). Unfortunately, this starts to annoy and undermine the moral of the people who are acting profossionally. In one situation, the actress turned up on time only to find some things weren't ready [because this person had had a late night and decided she would leave it until the morning].

Then of course, peope started to think 'well, if [so and so] is going to be late, there's no point me turning up on time' and so you have less time to get the shots you need because now everyone is late.

I tried everything I could to get people to be on time and behave professionally as possible (without being unreasonable).

There's nothing wrong with the actress switching off as soon as she's done her scene, as long as she's doing her job. Professional actors are often very good at swtichign in and out of character in a split second (depending on their method)
 
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directorik said:
Very cool. If feels great to have that first one in the can, doesn't it?

"in the can" can't really be used anymore, I guess. Most of you
probably don't even know what it means...

Just wait until you have the opportunity to work with "real" actors.
I remember my first time. I was used to doing what you had to do
on your shoot. Once you get dedicated actors with some experience
and talent directing them is so easy. Once you work with seriously
experienced actors you almost feel useless.
Click to expand...

HAHAH "in the can", I just finished reading a book about shortfilms that I got from my local library and it used the term "in the can"... I might also add it was published almost 20 years before I was born. lolol

And to the OP, I understand what it's like to work with what I call "volunteer" actors, but the good thing about doing that is you will eventually find some friends who are dedicated even for free work. One of my friends, I invited him to be in one of my films, loved acting so much that he now does work at the theatre project and is begging me to make more films! So keep doing what you're doing, sounds like your in good shape. And I look forward to seeing the film.
 
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ThirdContact said:
I tried everything I could to get people to be on time and behave professionally as possible (without being unreasonable).

There's nothing wrong with the actress switching off as soon as she's done her scene, as long as she's doing her job. Professional actors are often very good at swtichign in and out of character in a split second (depending on their method)
Click to expand...

A critical element is a good producer / organiser who can be trusted to get everyone there on time and keep everyone organised.

I have just been acting in a short which was a logistical nightmare. 'We' (the actors) were often informed about shoots the day before and in one case on the same day.

Last second script and character changes were normal and there is nothing that dispirits actors more than last second changes to the characters. We diligently and carefully prepared characterisation only to find scripts, backstory etc... had all changed when we turned up and we were only informed seconds before shooting. It was incredibly irritating and the inconsistencies meant I did not want to continue but turned up on time, every time.

A good producer with the job of organising is absolutely critical.
 
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