hey guys, my photography teacher is helping me produce A sacrifice To Pass,(was Because I Can). I already have the entire crew and cast, which consists of 12 students and 3 teachers. The school is letting me use their equipment. I'm in the directors chair, but I have no idea what the hell I'm doing. Any tips would be extremely helpful and appreciated. Thanks! ;D

Make sure that you take the lens cap off.

Noted...  :P Any serious tips Mike?

That was a serious tip.  You don't want to spend all day filming something, only to realize you forgot to take the lens cap off, do you?

Honestly, I don't know what to tell you.  I focus more on writing.  The only thing I can say is, point, shoot, and have some fun while you're doing it.

Having fun is our number one goal. Thanks. ;D

Always have a detailed, mapped out plan of what you want to achieve each day of filming. This includes storyboards. Even if you can't draw, have storyboards. Just use stick figures and lines if you have too. That way you will have a sense of what you are going to be seeing in the film. Remember, even the one second shot of somone just looking at another character, coming through a door, etc can help a lot.

Use a good ammount of lights. You can darken the image in editing but you need a lot of light to capture all the details. Don't just use overhead lighting, sit some lights off to the side or something (just keep them out of shot). But never put lights in behind the actors (unless you want them in complete darkness) or behind the camera.

Always make sure the sound is on. Lens cap off. And all the appropiate exposures set. Always use MANUAL FOCUS. This will take a little longer to adjust all the time, but you don't want your video blurring at all the wrong times.

Use a tripod. Nothing will give an amutuer production like a shakey image.

And always work with your actors. They don't see your vision like you do. Take each person involved in the scene off by thereselves and discuss what you expect from this scene and from them. They are actors working for the director. Direct them.

Hopefully all of this helps you. Feel free to ask more questions if you need.


Randy Robinson.

Thanks a lot Randy! Should the director be the one to draw the story boards? I have someone else doing them, but I can change that. Since this is a student film we don't have a bunch of lighting equipment, but I think we have enough. In case you haven't read the script, a good majority of it takes place in a darkroom. Any tips on how to light that? Also, I have a cameo in one scene. Do I direct the scene I'm in, or do I have someone else stand in for me?

Quoted Text Should the director be the one to draw the story boards?

Usually you have someone else do them, and then I'd think the director would view them and tell the storyboard artist any suggestions that he or she has.

Quoted Text In case you haven't read the script, a good majority of it takes place in a darkroom. Any tips on how to light that?

Without that light, all we're going to be hearing is voices. You may want to have a very dim light going on so we can at least see who's talking. But would the audience know that it is a dark room? Beacuse if they don't, then you can have enough light to see the character's faces. Now if it were in a cave deep underground (like in The Descent), then unknown light would be confusing and wouldn't make sense.

Quoted Text Also, I have a cameo in one scene. Do I direct the scene I'm in, or do I have someone else stand in for me?

And that's where the Assistant Director comes in. :)

By the way, your display picture creeps me out. I saw that when I typed in "Disturbing" on google, and that was the first thing to pop up. I couldn't sleep well that night.

Sean

The darkroom I'm talking about is the room were you develop photographs. I have an assistant director, so that works out. I also have a storyboard artist, so that works out too! :) As for my avatar, I think it's beautiful.

I have aspirations in becoming a director. But I do not have the time to do so. So, I'll offer what I've watched and heard on tons of extra commentary.

Be creative with what angles you are going to use as u direct since it is important for your overall story.

IMO, regarding actors, I suggest offering them some advice on what the scene really entails and then allowing them some admitance for putting their thing in as well. No body likes being told what to do. If you can't do it screenwriting, you cant do it in acting. But thats my opinion.

Be considerate to others input within the movie. They might come up with items that you haven't noticed before. Creativity comes out of anywhere

By the way, congrats.

Gabe

thanks for the info gabe. It's much appreciated. Keep the tips coming.

I should have been more specific about working with actors. But like Mr. Ripley stated, allow the actors to give you ideas as well. You can try them out and if they don't work, leave them in the editing room floor.

With storyboards, I think it's better for the director to do it. But if you have someone else doing them, make sure you have a big hand in whats goes on. I have always done my own storyboards. I have also seen many behind the scenes featurettes where other directors do them as well. Either way is fine though, just make sure you have the most input.

With the darkroom you could shoot in reguliar lighting and then mask it in editing. Adobe and other editing programs have some really good color filters.

It is possible to direct the scene while you are also acting in it. Just make sure everyone behind the camera knows what you want since you can't be with them at the time. But since you have a AD, it will be much easier.

Hope this helps!


Randy Robinson.

For tips, I can't really tell you how to do things well, as I've never had a successful directing experience (lack of motivation on other people's parts).

Anyway, Randy is right about storyboards, if you're not doing them you need to pretty much be sitting next to whoever is doing them.  It's your script and most importantly as director, your vision, so you can't have someone else drawing there own thoughts without you.

As for actors, two main things I've learned with them.  Keep 'em fed and never act like you don't know what you are doing or they will slack off.

For my movies, lighting is always my biggest challenge (I desperately need cinematographer).  What I try to do though when possible is overlight a scene and darken it later in Adobe or Final Cut.

My main suggestion is that you need to make sure you can see the movie entirely played out in your head before you start.  No one on set will enjoy it if you're not sure where you want the camera or worse yet, just randomly picking spots.  Before you start shooting, grab a camera or something with a lens and find everything that you are filming from.

-Pat

By the way, what kind of camcorders are you using?

Thanks Pat and Randy for all the help. I'll be sure to consider all your tips while shooting. Sorry Pat, I'm not certin about the name of the camcorder we're using. If any one else has any useful information for me, please share! Thanks! ;D

I recently shot a seven minute short called "Witness." I might be able to offer a few pointers.

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.

Tripod and a steady shot. In post make sure not to use flashy transitions and gimmicks such as sped-up action and what I'd call cheap looking video touch-ups. Such as negative effect and pretentious use of black and white.

Basically, use common sense and take your time. In pre in production and in post, take your time.

Anyone can be coached to act well. Witness was shot with non-actors in a 48 hour time-frame and I'm proud of what we acheived.

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.

Well done poster man.  Can't wait to see the finished product.  Good luck.

-Pat

Thanks Pat. If everything keeps going the way things are, this'll be well worth watching. Keep an eye out for the final draft of the script, which should be up soon.

I dig the poster and good luck with filming.

*Moderator note*
Keep us updated but we don't need to make this a 50+ post thread before filming even begins. I'd say that unless Zack needs more advice, lets not post anymore. I'm not trying to kill the thread, I'm not even going to lock it.
This is a suggestion to say that we shouldn't post again to filming begins or progress has been made.

Noted Topher. :)      

Any advice on the production is still much appreciated!  

The first day of shooting is complete! It's been a long day, and it'll be an even longer week! Today we shot all of the outside scene(which there aren't many of), but do to a limited scheduel we had to stop early for the day. Tomorrow we will hopefully get more accomplished. Any tips are welcome!

Shooting is complete! A few things were changed from the script, (most noticably is the armpit scene is no longer there), but all the changes were for the best. Now begins post-production hell!

Also, due to lack of motivation from my partner Andrew Derr, AkD Productions is now Black Star Productions.

How is post coming along? Remember constantly save everything! You never know when something happen (power outage, comp lockup, etc) and you will loose what you have already done!

Anyhow, let us know!

Just finishing up editing. The final running time is around 15 minutes. Sadly we had no boom mike to work with, so the sound quality is bad. Once all the tweaking is done I'll send it to who ever is interested. It'll be a quicktime video.

If you possibly can, ADR it.  One of the biggest tell-tale signs of no-budget filmmaking is the sound.  I promise you'll get a significantly better response if you loop the dialogue.

What's ADR? Is it easy to get a hold of?

Yeah, I'd like to know. And hey, I"ll even watch it with the bad sound.

Sorry.  Looping, ADR, dubbing, etc.  Get a good mic and a nice quiet room and record audio of the actors re-reading their dialogue for cleaner, better sound in a controlled environment.  Keep in mind the effectiveness of this is still limited by how good your mic is, so if you think it's worth it, buy a better mic.

If you've another got two hundred bucks to spend, grab Adobe Soundbooth for all your audio needs.

Nope. I never had money to begin with. This is a no-budget movie. It is to big for me to send it over yahoo. Is there some other way I can get it to you guys? Is youtube easy?

YouTube is very easy to upload your movies on to. Just start a director account and click upload. It takes a little time though. I think there might be some length restrictions but if there is you can always cut the movie into to two parts and upload it that way.

Good luck!

Cool. I'll probrably do that. Thanks Randy.

Yeah, YouTube no longer allows videos over ten minutes, unfortunately.

The final running time is 14 minutes and 15 seconds. I'll just cut it at 7 minutes.

Check out Atoms Films http://www.atomfilms.com/home.jsp unlike youtube they only show films, not just anything anyone feels like showing the world.

Maybe you can put it up there.

I use Veoh, I find it works and it doesn't have the time restraint that youtube has.

Thanks for the recomendations pia and Topher. If any one else has any, feel free to share.

What's the news on this? Is it up somewhere? I would really like to watch it.

Still stuck in eiti limbo. The editing guy can't seem to figuree out his program. Sorry about the long wait, but from what I've seen, it'll be worth the wait.

I'll edit it. I've edited independent films for the past four years. I use (for the most part) Avid Liquid.

-Rubix