Practice makes perfect

D

dvdguy

Hi!

As an aspiring filmmaker, I wanna hear some recommendations on how to organize my practice schedule. I mean, whats probably considered the best way to efficiently increase my experience in filmmaking (lighting, composition, sound etc.) How should I divide these crucial factors into a schedule? :D p.s. the thing is, my brain is so filled with information that I gathered over the last month or so, I feel like its in overload so thats basically why I'm asking.
 
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Well if you're not worried about story at tis time, you could always take a classic script, by say, Hitchcock, and try to recreate a scene with the equipment you have. You'd get a lot of practice with set design, lighting, editing, etc. The reason to do this is you have something to compare it to. A classic. Let the scene be your teacher.

As for a schedule, not sure what you mean exactly. I hope my answer helps.
 
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The schedule for practice time should be "whenever you can." Spend your available free time setting up lighting scenarios and playing around.

If it helps, you can do what I did to test my 7D and just write a short little script, no more than a couple of pages, and shoot it.
 
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Hey Indie, thats a great idea! Other than that, yeah, Im kinda worried about my story. Ive come to the phase where I have to scout for locations around my town that have to be of attractive for my commercial(story). Its taking forever to finish it, because I have to find good locations, and THEN I can finally describe whats going on in that scene. Hope ya see what I mean? :) Where can I get one of his scripts?
 
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little script huh? :) nothing too fancy then, got it :D Thanks. Well, "whenever you can" is really hard for me, cause Im so hyped into directing, I want to practice like every day, and the bad part is, its messing with my school. So im gonna have to consider doing this stuff in my free time then :D
 
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A lot of scripts are on the net. That would be for practice only you can't recreate without permission.

Or do Shakespeare. That is public domain. Make it modern and put your own twist on it.
 
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Oh, thanks for the warning! ;) Im not planning on recreating them, this is just for practice, thats all. Shakespeare? Isnt that more theatrical? But yeah, great idea, Ill try to adjust it with my own taste. Thanks! What about composition and camera movements, angles, how can I practice that in combination with lighting and all?
 
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dvdguy said:
What about composition and camera movements, angles, how can I practice that in combination with lighting and all?
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The best way to gain that type of experience is to make a short film that requires all of that. Shoot a couple page script. Shot list it, get the necessary equipment, light it, then shoot the shots you have planned for - then edit it...and from there you will notice things you wish you had done or will do next time.
 
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dvdguy said:
Shakespeare? Isnt that more theatrical? But yeah, great idea, Ill try to adjust it with my own taste.
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Many of Shakespeare's works have been adapted for film and TV. Romeo and Juliet has been filmed at least 10 times. Even Kurosawa adapted Shakespeare. And you don't have to use the formal Old English, just "translate" it.
 
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dvdguy said:
Shakespeare? Isnt that more theatrical? But yeah, great idea, Ill try to adjust it with my own taste.
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People have been adapting Shakespeare for generations.

My personal fave is Forbidden Planet, a film that broke a lot of ground in the sci-fi genre... while staying very close to one of Willie's works. :cool:



dvdguy said:
What about composition and camera movements, angles, how can I practice that in combination with lighting and all?
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Just get out & do it.

Maybe by yourself, or maybe with other people.

While you can read a lot of books, there's no substitute for hands-on experience.

.
 
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I agree with everyone, just get on and do it, if possible with people that will cope with stress, and losing time. The first times you might get many things wrong, on the technical side. Once you have mastered that a bit you can focus on the direction side more.

In terms of schedule, whenever we film we try to minimize the number of locations, using imagination you can achieve a lot. The back of a building might be on the other side of the city from the film point of view. In our "films" we basically use one single location, so you don't have to move more than 5 minutes to get to the next set. Also check sun daylight times! Depends where you live Sun moves quickly, mainly in winter.

After the locations are selected, figure out the layout of the scene, what angles you will use and where the actors will be placed. You will need to setup the scene, props, lights, power supply, and camera. Schedule that the actors (if not helping to create the set) come some time before you are finishing, but not at the beginning, because they will interfere on your work.

Also ask actors to have make up in place (unless that you have a make up artist).

Then film. Always take into account the schedule you have. As actor I have been iin a few projects where we spent 2 hours just getting into the room... when you have only 5 hours to film a 4 minutes scene, you can't waste 2 hours on 10 seconds! So the end result wasn't as good as the team expected initially.

Also check what other film students are doing in the area, and ask them if you could help them and get a feeling on what they do right and wrong.
 
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When I was starting I was making two short films a month.
I couldn't keep up as a writer so I used one act plays. As
others have said, you can't legally use plays that are still
under copyright but I never showed these films to the public.
Though I did show them at school, so technically I was in
violation. I didn't have an outlet like YouTube back then.

I shot my own version of "Waiting for Godot" - not a one act
and it took me several months. Can you imagine that play
with 15 year olds? I shot Albee's "Zoo Story" - to actors in
a park. Twain's "Down the River". There are so many great
one acts and they make great practice because the story
and characters are already in place to as a director you can
concentrate on working with the actors.
 
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dvdguy said:
Shakespeare? Isnt that more theatrical?
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Actually, Shakespeare is one of the most cinematic playwrights. His plays encompass multiple locations - both interiors and exteriors, oftentimes employ huge armies of extras, blood and gore, special effects, etc. In fact, most Shakespearean scholars agree that, were he alive today, he'd be writing for Hollywood, not Broadway.
 
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2001 Productions said:
Actually, Shakespeare is one of the most cinematic playwrights. His plays encompass multiple locations - both interiors and exteriors, oftentimes employ huge armies of extras, blood and gore, special effects, etc. In fact, most Shakespearean scholars agree that, were he alive today, he'd be writing for Hollywood, not Broadway.
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Ok, thanks for the update on that :) Appreciate it! :D I should also find some Shakespeare plays then. :cool:
 
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dvdguy said:
what do you mean "tehnical" and what "direction"? :)
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With technical I meant all the things that have to do with lighting, camera, and sound. We was lucky enough to film our first shorts with someone that knew all about that, so we learnt a lot. Still it wasn't enough as we made quite some mistakes on the first short that we filmed without him. Hopefully the next will be an improvement.

And for direction, from the actors perspective, you want to indicate them their motivations and be specific about the things that are really important (i.e. positioning, or how to do certain gestures). Remember that actors have a life on their own, so they will rarely do exactly what you imagined in your mind. Still if you leave them enough freedom they might surprise you. I have done a few filming projects for students as actor, they always fail on this area. Mainly because they think that their script is amazing (which never was) and I had to say exactly the words in there, even if they would sound unnatural to the person saying. If the actor doesn't feel confortable with a sentence, that will be shown on the screen.
 
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