What I've learned from Filming Dollhouse

So throughout the semester, as the weeks went by and we time and time again had nothing tangible to show for our efforts, I knew that on the day filming Dollhouse was going to be a little hectic. I'm not averse to things getting a little hectic on set, as long as the group is working well as a team and stress levels are fairly low. However if I had to go through this whole process again there would definitely be a few things I'd do differently.

1. Get the Script finished faster:
I like writing a lot, but I've never really written a horror film before so this was perhaps the biggest challenge for me. I've grown to like horror movies a lot over the past few weeks, but I still feel as though their not really in my wheelhouse creatively. That being said I do think that our final script was leagues above the one I originally drafted up, and I have Sam and Anna to thank for that.

2. Get a solid budget together:
We've put a budget together fairly early on, but we had to make some cuts due to a few issues with funding. We wanted to stray away from crowd sourcing since we'd were thinking that we'd like to reserve asking for money from our friends for our thesis films, or if we ever become homeless. I thought that using venmo as a way to move money around would be easy as I could track everyone's contribution and make sure that we never spent more than we needed to . Venmo turned out not being such a hot idea, as only two of our group members actually used it to contribute, and the rest of the groups money came to me through cash. I think in the future I'm going to insist that we use cash exclusively for budgeting, things just get too complicated when I have to track two different accounts at once. That being said I really appreciate that everyone participated in lending some cash. It definitely made crafty a lot easier on me, and I'm just now working up how much I can pay back those who spent some of their own money on the project.

3. Better Group Communication:
The first thing that I got whenever I landed on a set in LA was a detailed rundown of what scenes we were shooting that day, and the shot order we were shooting them in. That did not happen on our set and I think our communication definitely suffered for it. There were times where I wished that had all met to talk more about the creative decisions we were looking to make, there were times when things like a storyboard would have definitely come in handy.

In Conclusion:
I hope that it doesn't come across that I didn't have any fun shooting over the past weekend, or that I don't think we put together a successful project, because that was absolutely not the case. I think everyone, no matter how tired, or frustrated, or hungry they were really brought it on set, and I think our final project will definitely reflect that. Though I didn't play a huge part in shooting the actual film, I had a ton of fun on set  and I hope everyone else did too. I can't wait to see the final cut, and I 'm really happy that this is the last film I'll be a part of here at Ithaca College.

David Fincher: The Don'ts to Filmmaking

“Everything seems really simple on paper until you take a camera out of the box.”

                                                                                                                       -David Fincher

   Every filmmaker has their list of dos and don’ts and David Fincher is no exception. Producer and director of countless films such as Seven, Fight Club, and this year’s highly anticipated Gone Girl, he has honed a skill that has arguable been very influential.

   And if you want to understand his craft, you need to ask yourself this: what does David Fincher not do? To put it simply, there are three things he does not do: handheld shots, close-ups, and camera movement. But it’s not a matter of casting these aside, but using them when the times calls for it.

   In terms of handheld operation, Fincher is notorious for having as little to one shot not placed on a tripod or Steadicam. The reason for this is the way he wants the camera to act in any given scene. Camera shake (the most well-known trait of handheld) puts the audience in the scene with the character but a smoothly gliding shot drags us out of the scene. Normally, most filmmakers want to avoid this as they don’t want their audience to become separated from the story they’re trying to tell. But to David Fincher, this is exactly what he wants. He wants the camera to be this omniscient character. It forces you to really look at everything that’s happening on screen. Without the camera shake, you’re eye has nowhere to look but at the action. It’s subtle but a very powerful technique when executed properly.

   Close-ups are similarly a need-by basic sort of deal. Excessive close-ups will distract an audience and can potentially exclude too much for to hold their attention. Yet, having only a few close-ups in any given film is a crafty way to tell the audience that they need to look at something. It’s similar to grabbing a person by the face and physically shoving their attention at an object. It’s the equivalent of shouting, “you need to see this!” It’s a subtle way to tell an audience that what’s happening on screen is about to impact the movie in huge way.

    And the last don’t on this list, may seem like the strangest. It’s all about camera movement, or the lack thereof. David Fincher, if he can help it, likes to keep his camera in one place. This allows the scene to play out as it might be viewed realistically from a person on the outside (as he sets the camera up to be in the first rule).  This adds to the idea that what we’re seeing on screen is important and all of our attention needs to be focused on that specific thing. The lack of movement forces our eye, much like the lack of camera shake, to really look at what’s happening.

   All three of these techniques end up creating  the same thing: a movie we can’t force ourselves to look away from. They’re subtle, their powerful, and they’re not something to be overlooked. As Fincher said, “people will say ‘there are a million ways to shoot a scene,’ but I don’t think so. I think there’s two, maybe. And the other one is wrong.”

How the film boyhood was written

So we all know about the stunning movie that took 12years make known as "Boyhood". Well if you're interested in how such a story gets created, you've come to the right place. An exclusive interview with the writer of Boyhood, Richard Linklater, will let us learn the way to create such a film ourselves... or at least appreciate the creative genius behind it. Attached is a 9minute interview explaining how Richard wrote this film but I will divulge a few details prior to taking a gander. Richard knew the ending of the film 11 years before he was finished writing it, but he needed to know how to get to that end.

Initially Richard wanted to make a film about childhood but he did not know how to incapsulate but all the sudden wants his finger hit the keyboard the idea came to him. From the beginning he knew the idea was impractical but he decided to keep pursuing it. When he decided to start filming it he said he spent about 3 days a year filming it but it took about 2 years of preproduction before he could start filming. He also had the luxury of spending two years in post production so he had a lot of time to perfect his production.

When making the film he decided he did not just want to show content that built upon the characters but just to show daily life during the time of production. He believed that this build up of information would naturally be impactful. Richard tried to take those little forgettable moments and make them memorable. The child she chose to be in the film was someone from his town who he now views practically as his nephew. He told the kid to write down his life events when something significant happened and utilized those memories to write his script. At the begging of the film the now adult was 7 years old. Richard made sure to think about the current time period when writing the script rather than the future or the past. It took creative genius and determination to create such a script, for more details I urge you to watch the short interview which can be found at the attached link.

http://nofilmschool.com/2014/08/write-movie-12-years-richard-link-later-boyhood

Producing for Dummies

I'd like to state for the record that producing is not actually for dummies. Nor is this an attack on you, Diana. If anything, the dummy in this situation is me. I found myself sitting in my room this afternoon, and the question popped into my head: "What exactly do movie producers do?" So, I did my research and actually found that it's a whole lot more than what I originally thought.

A producer's job begins in preproduction. Psh, I knew that. What I didn't know is that the producer is the person who pretty much gets the project off the ground. First, he (or she, of course) needs to find material for his next project from either a script or a book. Then he needs to get a script in good enough shape to attract the attention of a possible director (and even a studio if a studio wasn't the one who started the project). After that, the producer's job in preproduction is pretty much done. HAH! Yeah, right.

Once the producer has a workable script and a choice of director, all he needs to do is secure financing for the film, choose a director and other members of the creative team, work with the director to cast actors, determine shooting locations and budget, decide on a cinematographer, hire the rest of the production team (including other producers), develop a shooting schedule, and create a detailed plan of action for the entirety of production. PHEW! That's one demanding job! Oh wait, the producer isn't even close to being done.

Time to begin shooting! Now it comes to the actual production; the fun part! Or at least it's fun for some people. Sorry, producer, you're on the clock. Production is when the producer offers creative suggestions to the director, handles any and all problems with the actors and creative staff, monitors the production timetable and budget, and reviews the film shot each day. Essentially, the producer has to watch over everything. If something goes wrong, the producer better find a solution, and fast.

And now it finally reaches postproduction, the time for most people to relax and wait to see what they've worked so hard on for so many months. Postproduction is really only horrible for the editors, sound, and special effects guys, right? Wrong. Believe it or not, the producer's job still isn't done. To begin the final step, the producer sits down with the director over a nice cup of tea and decides the order and selection of scenes that will appear in the final cut of the film. After that, he reviews each cut of the film until it's satisfactory. NOW all the producer's got to do is secure a distributor for the film and review the distributor's advertising campaign. After this, and only after this, is the producer's job finally complete.

Never before today did I truly appreciate the work of producers. I honestly believed they were just the piggybanks of the production team. I know it's difficult to believe, but I was wrong. Oh so wrong. Here's to you, producers!

Efficient Film Making

Probably about 90% of making a film work out in your favor is by planning ahead of time.
Never forget to plan for everything to go wrong most of the time it will.
Some things are unavoidable and unthinkable but unfortunately they do happen. It's always good to be willing to try and work with people rather than against them.
I think what helps me do well in any department is to have a little confidence in myself and my ability to figure things out, not being afraid to jump right in to something, over planning, giving myself enough time to do something that needs doing, and doing that part of film making as much as you can. I try to volunteer in the things I'm good at first and if someone asks for help on something that I know I have time for and can handle I try really hard to just do it. Helping hands that don't know all the ropes are better than no hands at all. When I was directing I always tried to just get people who are available first. In order to get anyone to do anything for you you have to plan out when you're doing things. Before that even It's a great idea to find locations first. Like an artist you have to think of the background before you can even begin thinking about the foreground. Think about what makes the scene possible first and then think about what makes it pretty. First, get your location and when it will be available and plan your schedule accordingly. Then think about the idea, what do we want the idea to look like shot-for shot. Again you want to over plan for this. Plan out every shot in detail! By the end of this pre-production process keep the ideas in mind but don't marry them. You can then decide what kind of equipment you'll need to make it look like it does in your head. Then you can think about the people available to you that can run all of that equipment, gather them and schedule them promptly. Then schedule back up people for them just in case your first person falls through. Remind those people that they are on-call. Then you should think about the talent. These people at some point will have a level of irreplaceable status. In order to progress and not work backwards you want to stress to these people how valuable they are to this production. Then you can start thinking about the Art-department aspect of it because then your art person(s) will have sizes of the actors to work with. It's ideal to assign a car+assistant/driver to the art department. Think of all the ways you can help them out by donating the clothes, props, make up, and set dressing you can offer to them. Don't be afraid of any stains (unless they're bleach stains) they can all be removed. Then think about all of the luxury items you will want of set; food, coffee, water, snacks, extra scripts, a screw driver, TAPE (ALL THE TAPE), etc.
Then shoot it and expect all of these things to not work out.
Then eventually you can sit down with someone fresh and have them edit all the crazy work you just did. Sometimes it helps to have someone who hasn't so intently worked on this project as much as you have editing the final film. You obviously shouldn't just leave it all up to them, you should watch and compromise and listen to their ideas too. Make some sacrifices  your audience will thank you because sometimes as much as you think it's the greatest idea in the world, others might see it differently and that's ok. 

Do we have time for this in a matter of 3 weeks. Absolutely not! There are sacrifices you will have to make. I'm not just talking about the pre-production and production stuff that you just planned out for either! Expect to lose money, expect to not eat, expect to have anxiety attacks, expect to have insomnia etc. Personal tolls. But also understand that this is all only temporary. A good film that you can submit to film festivals, that you can show to potential employers and be able to explain how you got to make this film, it makes it all worth the temporary hell you'll have to go through. Your film can last a long long time. Think about the films that literally almost everyone in the world has seen. Those films probably had all of the stress that you have! But they not only made a lot of money off of it, but they got to say hey, I made this and it's really going places! There is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Trust me if you plan like this, and even if everything that you couldn't have even fathomed went wrong, you'll probably most deff. have something worth bragging about. It will make you a better film maker. Your best work will only be your best film because you failed and learned in all the other films before it. Your first film may or may not be your worst. If you put in 100% of your effort, then that is literally all you can do, be proud of that and forgive yourself for being human. Just remember that you can always hug someone when you need to. Unless you're surrounded by cacti. In that case run!



Haven't watched very many films lately, I've watched some documentaries but nothing crazy good.

Grumpy cat