Learning from our Mistakes

WE FINALLY SHOT OUR FILM. I REPEAT, WE SHOT OUR FILM IN ONE WEEKEND. I cannot put into words how much better I feel. I am ~glowing~.

Obviously we made mistakes this weekend, some of which could have been prevented early on. If we don't learn from our mistakes, how are we going to get better at anything? So, I compiled this list of some issues we ran into and how we can fix them (for next time).

1. Insufficient budget - Our third day on set was very low budget when it came to crafty, and when the people need crafty, they need crafty. Perhaps we could have set up an Indiegogo campaign like Stopover City did. Then we wouldn't have to worry about paying for food.

2. Poor(ish) location - I threw the 'ish' in there because there were some great things about our location. For one thing, it was a two minute drive from campus--this made it super convenient to haul equipment, cast, and crew there and back. It was also Connor's friends apartment, which made coordinating times to shoot fairly easy and we didn't have to pay for it. However, Danby is a highway where cars drive by at 40 miles per hour and I could hear every single one. This is going to make my life a living hell when I try to edit the sound. I tried to prepare for the damage by putting lavalier microphones on our actors. Next time we'll have to look for a place in a quieter neighborhood, far away from any main roads.

3. Bad timing in the semester - Due to group members' commitment to various other projects, this weekend was literally the only weekend that worked for everyone. What sucked was that it was Cortaca weekend, which meant people's friends from home would be visiting, loud music would be playing, and people would want to take a post-game nap (understandably so). There were a number of times we had to hold for people moving in and out of the house, and I felt terrible keeping these people from sleeping at 3:00 in the morning. Next time we'll have to figure out more than 3 long shooting days and break it up.

4. Bad time of day - We shot our exteriors at Connor's house in the morning and it was cloudy, which was a great thing. But the next two days we were seriously rushing to get in all our daytime shots because there are only so many hours of daylight this time of year. This gave us ample time to shoot our night scenes because the sun went down by 5:00 PM. Next time we should definitely make sure that the call sheets have sunrise and sunset times on them and factor that in to the shooting order.

5. Production design - This also goes along with location scouting issues. Most of the walls in the house are white, which made production design a bitch. This kind of went along with our story though, because our antagonist is supposed to be obsessively clean. If we could do it again, it would be better if the location had different colored walls; this would also make lighting much easier.

6. Call sheet errors/lack of info - Our call sheets looked super professional and that's just dandy, but they were lacking information. Maybe it was because we were trying to accomplish so much in such a short amount of time, but for me they were hard to follow. I would like to see the specifics of what we're shooting on them. Instead of the scene number and a couple word phrase explaining it, I want to see the page number in the script that coincides with the scene, the exact actions the actor takes in the scene, and which actor(s) are needed for that scene. We realized after arriving on set that the call sheet for our first shoot listed both actresses, but we only needed one to be there.

I don't mean to be a negative Nancy, I just want to make sure that I or my group doesn't make the same mistake twice.

Prepping to Make a Horror Film: Insidious 2

Over the weekend, I mustered up the courage to watch Insidious: Chapter 2. I am not an avid horror fan. I'm not a fan of horror at all, actually. Usually I see a trailer and then make a snap decision which is, "Ha! I'm never watching that!"

I have not seen the first of the Insidious movies, but my roommate told me that I didn't have to. Insidious: Chapter 2 is very similar to the first movie and picks up right where the first one leaves off, so she gave me a brief summary.  The first two Insidious films are about the Lambert family, who are connected to the spirit world through one of the sons, Dalton, and his father, Josh. In the first film, Dalton  falls into a coma and is tormented by evil spirits in another realm called The Further. The family seeks the help of Elise Rainier to bring Dalton back to reality. At some point in the movie, Josh goes into The Further to bring Dalton back, but an evil spirit follows him out and continues to haunt the family throughout the second film.

There was a lot that was visually scary, but if I had watched the movie on mute, I'm sure I wouldn't have been as scared. The sound was so powerful. The score sounded like it had a lot of strings; I expected that. But I think what was most scary was the pairing of a quick, jarring sound with a striking or strange image.

This short scene is great for sound design analysis. Specs and Tucker, two ghost hunters, are in the house of Parker Crane, a man who died many years before that is connected to the Lambert family.

This scene is very short, but it's clear the sound sets up the audience to be spooked. The first line of dialogue, "Let's get out of here," is accompanied by silence. Then you hear the floor squeak for a second, until the sound grows and you realize it's coming from the rocking horses behind the guys. The rocking horses rock faster and faster until a little boy runs across the frame yelling "This is my room!" This is paired with a jarring, non-diegetic sound. These non-diegetic sounds inserted at key moments let the audience know what they should be scared of.

Another example of this is when Dalton recalls a dream he had the previous night. At 0:42, a strategic jump cut to a wider angle, coupled with the jarring sound and scary image of the woman in the white gown makes the audience jump. I hope to implement this strategic and classic horror ingredient in our film, Dollhouse.

Skateboarding tool repurposed to help find locations

Another post about skateboarding! Kind of...

The other day in class, instead of doing my work, I was doing skateboard related things on my computer. More specifically looking for more hills to skate down. Arturo walked up behind me, and instead of criticizing me for not doing my work, he was interested in the website I was using. Its called "findhills.com" and its pretty simple to use. Its a topographic version of Google Maps,  and you can find the slope between two points on a road by simply clicking them. It will give you a detailed breakdown of the elevation, elevation change, average grade, steepest grade, ect.

And it also incorporates Google Earth and street view, so you can see your location more realistically while still at your computer. 

After I showed Arturo findhills.com he told me that I should write my next blog post about it. Originally I was super skeptical, because it really doesn't seem that useful in a location scout application. And truth is, its not. If I'm attempting to find locations I'm never going to use findhills first. There are few reasons to use it over Google Maps. But, that one time where you do need a location on a hill, its an amazing tool. So overall, don't use it, unless you need it. 

How to Get Arturo's Stamp of Approval: Short Film Edition

Since we'll all be spending the next few days thinking up the project that will control our lives for the next 2+ months, I thought it'd be nice to do a "Short Films for Dummies"-esque post on how to make a great short that we'll want in our portfolio.

As I'm sure you all expect me to say, a great short is nothing without a great story. Choose a story that you have a personal connection with. When the writer or director has a connection to the material, it demonstrates a powerful point of view--something that's much harder to find when you tackle big topics like space travel, the meaning of life, or an entire relationship. Then take your personal connection and tell a story of one character's or couple's journey, but no more than that. In a short film, there is little room for subplots and secondary characters and montages. Just a single dilemma that will be resolved by the end in some way. Short films are not about events, but the people those events happen to. While plot and twists are important, your film will be forgotten without memorable characters that your audience can empathize with. So you want a main character with a strong personality, including quirks, desires, and goals.

All great stories have three things in common: a beginning, a middle, and an end. Even if it feels like the story could go on or become part of a larger story, every short needs some sort of closure or resolution. Sometimes the hardest part is deciding where to start your story. You have a very short window of time to create a world that grabs the audience in. Mapping out your characters' journey is a good way to figure out where to start. You need to find the most visual and quickest way for the audience to get to know your character. Whether it be an image or action or line that makes the audience get where the characters are starting from, let that be your opening shot and scene. In a short, there's no luxury of 10 pages to set them up and tell us about their hopes, dreams, backstories, and all that little stuff you'd find in a feature. You've really only got your first page to make them interesting to your audience. In that first page, you want your audience to understand, connect with, and root for your character.

The last thing you want is predictable story. Audiences like when you set up their expectations, then subvert them. There should be twists in the first and last minute of your film. It's easy and tempting to use your film to say something cynical about human nature or relationships or society, but if you find a way to leave your audience with even the slightest positive impression, there's a much greater chance of it leaving a lasting impression on them and remembering your work. So if at all possible, end with a positive spin.

Let's move on from story to other aspects of making a short film. It doesn't take a great amount of money to make a great short, but it does take great production value. So how do you guarantee great production value? You start by choosing great locations. You want locations that add a visual element to your story and allow for great shot choices. When choosing locations, think about the tone and mood that each place creates and make sure it fits the tone and mood you have intended. In shorts, it's not just what story you tell, but how you tell it. The writer and director should always be trying to get their voice and style across. That includes having visuals and moments that show off voice, style, POV, technical awareness, knowledge of shot composition, depth, etc. You absolutely, positively must be prepared before you get on set. You should know exactly what you need to get from every scene, including what emotion, what action, what shots, what tone, etc.

Back to budget. As I said earlier, short films do not require much money. To keep your production at a low cost and on schedule, start by writing a project with only a few locations and a few characters. The fewer locations, the better. As for characters, try not to have scenes that call for a dozen extras. The more actors you have to manage on set, the more difficult your life will be. Quick side note. I'm only going to say one thing about the casting process. When casting, don't cast your friend cause they bought you beer or your professor's son out of convenience. Hold auditions like the young professional that you are. That is all. Another tip for saving time on set (and budget, if you're feeding your cast and crew as you should be) is to try to keep the times of days in your scenes as consistent as possible. Having all day scenes or all night scenes will condense the number of shoots you can film your short in. And the last thing you want to do is have a scene focused around a specific hour, like sunrise or sunset. You're practically guaranteed to not get everything you need in time and may lose a whole day of production.

If you want this next short to be one that you submit to contests, then it should not be longer than around 12 minutes. Festivals need to fit numerous shorts into 90-minute slots, so they can't program a short that takes up one-third of their time. The average length is about 4-8 minutes, plus end credits, which could add a minute or so to your short.

In conclusion, keep your short, short.

It doesn’t take a great deal of money to make a great short, but it does take great production value. - See more at: http://www.scriptmag.com/features/notes-margins-elements-great-short-films#sthash.8wTX71zo.

It doesn’t take a great deal of money to make a great short, but it does take great production value. - See more at: http://www.scriptmag.com/features/notes-margins-elements-great-short-films#sthash.8wTX71zo.dpuf

It doesn’t take a great deal of money to make a great short, but it does take great production value. - See more at: http://www.scriptmag.com/features/notes-margins-elements-great-short-films#sthash.8wTX71zo.dpuf

Reenactment Shot Shoot- Quiet Riot

After our film shoot last weekend, I realized how important it is know your footage, actors, and location before shooting a shot as detail heavy as our recreation shot. I also learned that it is extremely difficult to find actors if you are not organized and ambitious. Despite all of our efforts we could not find enough actors to do the original shot we chose and had to change our shot at the very last minute, creating a source of stress within the group. I also learned that it is important to know upcoming events and activities dealing with your location to prevent conflicts in scheduling. Because we filmed in the commons for our original shot, we were unable to shoot there for the recreation shot due to a community activity that was taking place on our scheduled shooting day. It was also very difficult to film around the public and to capture the natural state of people with a  camera  present.

For the actual film shoot, I was the Director of Photography and we decided to use the Sony FS-100. I have not really used the camera before and it was much easier to achieve the look of the original shot by using picture profiles. Using profile pictures, allowed me to view the shot through several types of settings and help me achieve the perfect look for our recreation shot. It was also a great challenge to frame the shot the same as the original. I found it to be very beneficial to study the location of the actors in relation to their environment. I used physical attributes of the location, such as lines on the wall and staircases, to frame the shot within the camera.

As far as the directing was concerned, it worked the best to provide our actors with countdowns  for their actions and used verbal cues to move the actors forward in the shot. Using a countdown was very beneficial to our actors. In the end we got a shot that was almost identical to the first shot, concerning the physical and facial expressions of our actors. It was also very important that we used similar wardrobe choices and actors with similar physical features.

Overall,  I am really impressed with myself and my groups's ability to overcome the difficulties we faced during this project. I wished that our shot was much longer than it ended up being but I think we did an excellent job on our recreation shot. This was a very challenging experience but was a great learning experience and tons of fun.

One shot- director reflection

      

      Last Saturday, I shot my one shot film in my apartment and for the most part, the shoot went really well and I was pleased by the efforts of my group members and actors. Admittedly, I planned my first shoot at the last minute and my original location fell through. Because I was not able to shoot at Hammond Health Center, I was forced to find new actors, write a script, and find a new location within a few short hours. I was very disappointed that my first location fell through, but it was my fault on behalf of bad planning and last minute decision making. My new script was not a reflection of my best work. Fortunately, my actress was great and did an excellent job of bringing an emotional aspect to my seemingly cliche script and develop Liz's character. When it came down to the actual filming, my teammates worked really hard. I think that my lighting was very blown out and could have been more subtle. After color correcting in post, darker lighting worked much better with my story and the actions of the actors. 

        As i watched my film in class, I realized that I could have used more camera movement and that my shot was very static. I think that the strongest part of my piece was the acting. i was really pleased with Talia's delivery and think she did a great job of portraying Liz's character. The weakest part of my film was definitely the lighting. It was very weak and did a poor job of representing the high emotion involved in my production. I aslo think I could have chose a better location. My apartment is very bare and does not seem lived. I should have concentrated more on art direction to make a stronger character presence in the home. By using an off campus house, my location would have had more character and would have seemed more natural for the script. 

        As far as my role as a director, this is actually the first project I have worked on as a student that allowed me to fully direct my actors. I think that I did a really good job directing my actors. I realized it is extremely important to know your script and the types of emotions you would like your actors to portray. I also learned that blocking is important when directing. I found it difficult to make the actions of my actors appear natural and struggled to emphasize the importance of the actors physical interactions with the location and set. As a director, you need to know your script, how you would like your production to be portrayed, and the physical and emotional actions you want from your actors. I really enjoyed directing. 

    Overall, I am really pleased with how my production turned out and learned a great deal about production value, directing, and location scouting. I really enjoyed this project and look forward to using these skills for later projects. I learned that post production can greatly increase production value and that is extremely important to maintain the same settings you shot with while exporting. The production of Palmer, was the first time I have felt fully involved in each aspect of a production.

-Brie