Style vs Budget
In the low budget world everyone is usually looking for the cheap solution to very specific tools. How can I replicate a stedicam with nothing, make a cheap crane shot, build my own car mount etc? One of the things that’s often overlooked is the way you shoot a project and how that can save production time and dollars, and in some cases, making many of these other costly “toys or tricks” possible.
But let’s back up to make my point.
A number of years ago I was given a great opportunity on a TV series. Before this show became a series though it had started out as 12 half hour dramas for a teen audience destined for school counselors to be used in mediation courses and such. But then a network got hold of it, liked what they saw and wanted to turn it into a weekly drama for television. The catch was, what we’d been shooting in 5 days per half hour for 12 episodes we now had to shoot in 4 days per, because of a lower budget overall and the sources of financing etc.
I was tasked with the job of figuring out how we were going to achieve this. Come up with a plan to shoot as much as we had done before in less time.
After a lot of discussion with the DP we came up with a solution. We had this idea that for all scenes we shot we would never come around and cover the scene in a conventional style. What this meant was entire scenes would be covered from a single side. All masters, MS and CU’s would be from the same position – sort of. I say sort of because we used the dolly for most scenes and were often – but not always - moving slowly. We had the luxury of two *cameras and mounted them together on the dolly (with two operators) in what we learned was termed the two headed monster.
There was always match cuts between takes and as long as you had specific CU action to go into, or extreme wide shots to get out to you could bury as many different sizes of the scene in the cut without too much effort.
In a nutshell, what this meant was we never had to light for a reverse. We could light the scene once, from one side and never spend the time to come around. We directors were forced to become really clever at blocking – figuring out ways to get decent CU’s on actors in a scene through blocking, not by bringing the camera around. So essentially we could shoot more in a day than we’d ever thought possible because once we were set up, we could “hose down” the scene quickly and efficiently – run the scene until you’ve got it, swing a lens and do it again, and often swing one more time in CU changing who we covered then move on! The camera never left the original dolly track
Now, to begin with, we just thought we were being clever and efficient, but what started as a way to save money turned into a style statement that generated it own acclaim in it’s time. Everyone saw us as on some sort of cutting edge. We were throwing out the rules and conventions and doing something fresh. Nobody understood that we were just trying to save a buck. And of course we rode that for as long as we could. The problem with a series though is that eventually the style thing can get stale and tired and after 5 seasons the show was canceled. But not before I learned a valuable lesson in style vs. budget.
The same rules can be applied to a feature or shorts as well.
Now this assumes we are coming from a place of at least a bit of money involved. Almost all films/shorts will have some sort of budget, whether it’s coming from the filmmakers pocket, time on the part of those helping you out or from outside sources. The biggest single cost on a show is a day of production. If you can find a way to minimize those days and still get everything you need without compromising your vision, you’re well on your way, and just maybe, if you have a bit of money left over you can afford to rent a toy or two.
This example was applicable to this show. It wasn’t promoting a particular style. Another friend of mine had a dramatic series that he shot like a documentary. He was able to make a half hour in 3 days of shooting as the style was far more forgiving allowing him freedom from the conventions that cost time.
I did a show were in order to cut days we had all of our scripts ready in advance. 13 episodes and scheduled the entire 52 day shoot like one big movie. Combining locations and even combining shooting days for multiple directors. As a result we were able to shave 2 days off the schedule and take advantage of single locations for multiple episodes. The point is not the show, but rather the fact that once we cut a couple of days (because of the way we were shooting it) we were able to afford more. In this case some extra high paid cast.
Again this is a series model but the lessons can be drawn from it.
Now many people are dealing with no budget shooting scenarios and perhaps won’t find this particularly helpful, but in all likelihood you’ll not leap from no budget to 10 million dollar budgets overnight. This is just something to take with you.
Consider the style of what you’re shooting and how it’s effecting your budget. Who knows, perhaps you can dazzle them with your solution.
* After many years of consideration on the subject I have found that a second camera and crew to go with it need to get me 5 points of planned coverage a day to pay for themselves. After that it’s all valuable extra material.
In the low budget world everyone is usually looking for the cheap solution to very specific tools. How can I replicate a stedicam with nothing, make a cheap crane shot, build my own car mount etc? One of the things that’s often overlooked is the way you shoot a project and how that can save production time and dollars, and in some cases, making many of these other costly “toys or tricks” possible.
But let’s back up to make my point.
A number of years ago I was given a great opportunity on a TV series. Before this show became a series though it had started out as 12 half hour dramas for a teen audience destined for school counselors to be used in mediation courses and such. But then a network got hold of it, liked what they saw and wanted to turn it into a weekly drama for television. The catch was, what we’d been shooting in 5 days per half hour for 12 episodes we now had to shoot in 4 days per, because of a lower budget overall and the sources of financing etc.
I was tasked with the job of figuring out how we were going to achieve this. Come up with a plan to shoot as much as we had done before in less time.
After a lot of discussion with the DP we came up with a solution. We had this idea that for all scenes we shot we would never come around and cover the scene in a conventional style. What this meant was entire scenes would be covered from a single side. All masters, MS and CU’s would be from the same position – sort of. I say sort of because we used the dolly for most scenes and were often – but not always - moving slowly. We had the luxury of two *cameras and mounted them together on the dolly (with two operators) in what we learned was termed the two headed monster.
There was always match cuts between takes and as long as you had specific CU action to go into, or extreme wide shots to get out to you could bury as many different sizes of the scene in the cut without too much effort.
In a nutshell, what this meant was we never had to light for a reverse. We could light the scene once, from one side and never spend the time to come around. We directors were forced to become really clever at blocking – figuring out ways to get decent CU’s on actors in a scene through blocking, not by bringing the camera around. So essentially we could shoot more in a day than we’d ever thought possible because once we were set up, we could “hose down” the scene quickly and efficiently – run the scene until you’ve got it, swing a lens and do it again, and often swing one more time in CU changing who we covered then move on! The camera never left the original dolly track
Now, to begin with, we just thought we were being clever and efficient, but what started as a way to save money turned into a style statement that generated it own acclaim in it’s time. Everyone saw us as on some sort of cutting edge. We were throwing out the rules and conventions and doing something fresh. Nobody understood that we were just trying to save a buck. And of course we rode that for as long as we could. The problem with a series though is that eventually the style thing can get stale and tired and after 5 seasons the show was canceled. But not before I learned a valuable lesson in style vs. budget.
The same rules can be applied to a feature or shorts as well.
Now this assumes we are coming from a place of at least a bit of money involved. Almost all films/shorts will have some sort of budget, whether it’s coming from the filmmakers pocket, time on the part of those helping you out or from outside sources. The biggest single cost on a show is a day of production. If you can find a way to minimize those days and still get everything you need without compromising your vision, you’re well on your way, and just maybe, if you have a bit of money left over you can afford to rent a toy or two.
This example was applicable to this show. It wasn’t promoting a particular style. Another friend of mine had a dramatic series that he shot like a documentary. He was able to make a half hour in 3 days of shooting as the style was far more forgiving allowing him freedom from the conventions that cost time.
I did a show were in order to cut days we had all of our scripts ready in advance. 13 episodes and scheduled the entire 52 day shoot like one big movie. Combining locations and even combining shooting days for multiple directors. As a result we were able to shave 2 days off the schedule and take advantage of single locations for multiple episodes. The point is not the show, but rather the fact that once we cut a couple of days (because of the way we were shooting it) we were able to afford more. In this case some extra high paid cast.
Again this is a series model but the lessons can be drawn from it.
Now many people are dealing with no budget shooting scenarios and perhaps won’t find this particularly helpful, but in all likelihood you’ll not leap from no budget to 10 million dollar budgets overnight. This is just something to take with you.
Consider the style of what you’re shooting and how it’s effecting your budget. Who knows, perhaps you can dazzle them with your solution.
* After many years of consideration on the subject I have found that a second camera and crew to go with it need to get me 5 points of planned coverage a day to pay for themselves. After that it’s all valuable extra material.
