Quoted from Shelton Make sure that you take the lens cap off.

A touch of genius Mike. I remember filming a scene for a short in media studies once and forgot to take the lense cap off. Haha what an idiot.

Fortunately most cameras at this stage in history show you what the lens sees, so if you forget to take the lens caps off, you'll see it immediately.

My primary suggestion is echoing the planning. Not only know what every single shot will look like, but know what it will look like all cut together. This will allow you a perspective no one has and let you shoot to the movie, and not the shot. Don't shoot the movie in order. And if you are good with words and describing a scene in painstaking detail, storyboards are optional.

Remember how your shots are going to go together when you shoot them. It sucks to set up a match cut between two locations to be shot hours apart and then learn the only way to make the cuts match is to mirror every single shot of a location because you did it backwards.

Prepare for creativity in the editing process since you'll discover all kinds of stuff when you review the footage that you never noticed on set. You may think take 2 was better than take 1, but when you see that blasted mike hanging in the frame of take 2, you'll find yourself using take 1's footage with take 2's audio. You may also have planned and shot a certain sequence just so, but when you see what you have to work with, it doesn't work at all forcing a workaround with existing footage.

If you do some ADR at the end of your shoot using some raw footage, but BEFORE some final shots that have no audio, be sure and set the tape at the end of your existing footage. Otherwise, you find yourself creatiing a workaround to what you just recorded over and can't go back and redo...oops.

Finally, watch the outside of every frame because you never know when a mike stand is going to show up.

Ooooh. More useful tips. I'm actually writing al of this down in my notebook. Sadly George, I think we're are going to shoot the movie in order due to continuence. Thanks again for all the tips and keep'em coming!

It's actually a good idea to shoot the movie in order if you only have one or two locations, which I remember your script having. The only time you should film out of order if there are several locations and many actors. On our latest film we shot all of one actors scenes the first four days, then another on seperate days and so on. Using the days in between to shoot the scenes they had together. We just pieced this all together later in Post.

But, like I said, if you have one or two locations and just a few actors its fine to shoot in order. And if you plan to shoot this in just a couple days, it will also help keep the actors in a certain state of mind with their characters.

Another thing, you should really try reading the book "$30 Film School". It's has some very helpful chapters on equipment set-up, camera shots, atmosphere lighting, etc.

EDIT: Also, ALWAYS watch and rewatch all your shot footage at the end of the day or right away if possible. That way you will know early on if you need to reshoot the scene. You don't want to tell everyone that they are finished filming and then call them all back. Some things to watch for in the dailies are - like George said, visible equipment, but also actors looking at camera, smiling when they shouldn't be, jerks in the camera or mic (popping sounds from the audio), no shadows from the camera man (others as well), etc, etc.

Randy Robinson.

Oooh yeah, George and Randy bring up a big point about equipment, actors, and even harder, shadows.  Inexperienced actors in particular have a big problem not looking at the camera.  One technique that I use when possible is if someone is having trouble with it, I'll tape a bullseye on the wall where they should be looking when not in the action or dialogue.  This helps in keeping focus as well as the smiling problem as well.

The worst time I've had with equipment was when there was a mirror in one of my shots.  It was terrible by reflecting lights and microphones.  To be honest, I haven't read your script as of yet, but if there's a mirror and it doesn't need to be there, drop it.

Shadows tend mainly to be a problem on my shoots whenever the camera moves during a shot, so if you have any dollying or moving shots, make sure you test them first.  Going hand and hand with this, watch the 180 degree rule.  If you don't know what that is, it's not having you camera shots going past an invisible 180 degree line from the first shot otherwise perception gets all jumbled and things with change direction.  The only time it's okay is when the camera is physically moving during the shot.

One more side note which goes along with the lens cap, is if the mics you're using need phantom power, make sure they get it.  I lost all the mic'd audio for a movie of mine once by plugging the mic directly into the camera and that would've meant a lot of looping in post had the movie not turned out to be junk anyway (one of the benefits of not having a budget for movies is it's okay to trash really bad projects).

-Pat

Quoted from Chris_MacGuffin Remember, most people adopt a "stage voice" even when on camera.  Look at most student films, there's often an odd inflection in the actors voice. Try getting the people to sound natural. This can be acheived by underacting. A lot of times the inflection one wants come naturally but it is instinctive to force it. If that makes sense.

I read, somewhere, that this is why stage actors have problems at movie/television auditions.  They're trained to project their voices and exxagerate their every movie so people in the back rows can appreciate them.  This doesn't translate well on film.


Phil

I agree about the stage voice thing. Make sure they aren't yelling or sound like they are reading cue cards. Have a lot of rehearsals. Allow some room for improv. Don't allow them to improv the entire scene, just maybe a word or two. Incourage them that if they forget to say a word or line, keep going. Unless they completely goof lol.

Everyone has made some good points. Hope all of this helps you out. Keep us updated on the progress.

all this has gone down in my little note book. Thanks for all the tips! I was thinking for the storyboards, can I just take pictures of each location? Anyways, shooting begins May7th and ends on May 11th!

A disadvantage I had in my shoot was it was only a few hours long in a single day. This means I had one chance to get everything with no chance of reshoots.

With mine, I had multiple rooms in a single location. The advantage of out of order shooting is that you can hook everything up in a single place and leave it there for every shot before totally tearing it down and moving to another room. Once there, sure, shoot it all in order, but I toted a bit of equipment around with me which would have been a pain to move from room to room for chronological shooting. I also wanted the outside shots to be at a certain time of the day, so we did the indoor stuff first, even though the first shots are outside. I also did the most dialogue intensive scenes first so everyone was fresher for them.

Another consideration I had when shooting out of order was who was in the scene. I had 3 people, and I arranged the scenes to maximize their time so that we had (to use initials) D & P for the first group, D, P, & L for the second set, D & L for the third, and then just L for the fourth in the first room. P could have gone home if she wanted, but since her husband was D, she stuck around. One shot I did where I did it just because the actress was already in the position for that shot at the end of a different one.

There are lots of reasons to shoot out of order. I was just throwing out that you shouldn't be afraid to do it if you find the need to do so. If you can go chornological, by all means. You have a rare script where this would be the most efficient method of filming.

Thanks George, the school has already given me permission to film after hours. My theatre tech teacher is making the fake blood, my photography teacher is letting me use some of his equipment, and my drama teacher is playing the role of Steven. I'm getting all the other equipment that i'll need from my friends step dad. Hopefully all goes well.

Production is under way. here is a link to the first poster.

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f275/Corruptkiss07/DVD-COVER.jpg

That is me in the chair.

The poster is cool. Are you playing the character in the film or just for the poster?

I have a character in film, although I'm not the one who gets tortured. The actor wasn't avalible for the poster, but i still like it.

Oh. It's still cool none the less.

When do you plan to have a trailer up?

Actually,... shooting begins May 7th. I know I should have waited to do the poster, but I had some free time in photography class. Shooting will take place from the 7th to the 11th. I'm guessing the trailer will probrably be out around the 18th.