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Introduction

The following posts are intended to be a guide and a help for aspiring hobby filmmakers aiming to bring their movies to the next level. Each post will cover a chapter / topic in filmmaking and will hopefully familiarize you with some rules, tricks and techniques.

Every aspect of filmmaking is a language - camera, light, costumes, acting, pacing, music, locations - similar to our spoken or written languages. It follows certain rules and it gets meaning through a certain combination of elements, and changes it's meaning if these elements are switched or changed.

Always remember: These rules are guidelines to help make your movies more "professional" and easier and more pleasant to watch for your audience. If you know why, you can break them - but you need to know them first in order to break them.

All the examples I use are from my own experience while shooting the independent feature NightCast, so I'm trying to aim at a level that can be achieved on a lowbudget basis by independent filmmakers.


Content List

Pre-Production

Introduction
Script
Scriptwriting Tips
Budgeting
Casting
Scheduling
Locations
Costumes
Technical Planning


Production

Introduction
Camerawork
Lighting
Acting
Additional Elements


Postproduction

Introduction
Editing
Sounddesign
Music
Grading
Visual Effects

Last edited by Sollthar on Sat Jan 06, 2007 12:41 pm; edited 15 times in total

When shooting a film, obviously the first - and I'd say by far most important stage - is the preproduction. Here you decide what your film will be about, write your script, create your characters, story, assemble cast and crew, figure out how to actually pull off what you've just written, how much it will cost and where to get everything from.

This phase is absolutely vital if you want to get your film to a higher level. While the "hey let's go out and shoot something" attitude is great for fun, it'll hardly bring you anywhere when it comes to actual movies. Moviemaking is - while great fun of course - hard work when you want to do it right.
The preproduction usually already determines much of the quality of your film, even before you've had your hands on the camera or anything else.

The following steps are usually involved in a proper indie preproduction - no matter what genre your film is or how long it will be.

The first part of your movie is obviously your script. It is the heart of your film, it's what you want to tell.
The script is also the most important part of your preproduction, since you have to base the other aspects of preproduction entirely on the written word. To keep this easy, follow a layot similar to the one you can find in my example.

HERE (I prepared a Worddocument you can use, if you want - assuming most of you don't intend to buy actual scriptwriting software)



Every scene starts with the instruction "CUT TO", "BLEND TO" or any other transition instruction followed by the scene number. It's absolutely vital to have proper scene numbers in a script, otherwise, both planning and shooting get more difficult than they should.

Usually, a new scene begins whenever the location changes - so the next transition to a new location would be scene 36 in our case. Should scene 36 be intercut by another scene (maybe a flashback or an insert etc) the number is usually STILL changed, making the intercut scene number 37 and when we go back to our prior location it's scene 38.


The next thing following is a description of the location, "Hospital Interior" in our case. Again, the layout is quite important, as it makes it easy to hover over your script and see where a scene begins/ends and what kind of locations you need.
(It's quite common to add tags like "Interior" "Exterior" "Day" "Night" etc to your location should that be of any importance)


Usually, what follows is a short description what the location is like - in our case, describing the lack of people. Depending on what makes the location unique or what is important about it, this description is longer or shorter or even left out completely, if the location is already familiar from the movie or simply not worth describing.


Then characters in that location are introduced. It's quite common to write the name of a character in CAPITALS on his first appearance, so his name can easily be spotted by readers. Obviously, you write what they're doing and describe what happens in the scene.


Then the dialogue is usually written in a form similar to this, so dialogue bits can be quickly spotted and/or marked by actors (also leaves them room for possible notes). The name is BOLD followed by the actual text. The formatting is different from the rest of the text.


-----


After you have written your script (for ideas and more general rules/suggestions have a look at the "scriptwriting tips" section) you need to prepare information sheets from it. Apart from what your story is about, you now have the following information:

- Number of scenes in your movie
- Name and number of characters / actors
- Number of locations

Ideally, you create an "overview" kind of paper where all this information is easily accessible. The one we made in NightCast looked like this:



And like this for EACH character:



Last edited by Sollthar on Fri Jan 05, 2007 4:03 pm; edited 1 time in total

All of these tips are only of a technical nature. The creative part of it is your job...


STRUCTURE

The most important part of your script - technically speaking - is it's structure. Always think of your story as an assembly of "moments". The better those moments are placed, the more pleasant the experience will be for your audience.
Never forget your audience when you write a screenplay. Always remember they don't know everything you know about your story; your characters, your locations etc. They want to be able to follow your story from A to Z and you need to make sure they can.
So divide your story into these moments, as many as possible, like:

main character is introduced - love interest is introduced - they meet, relationship is explained - main character's motives are introduced - major twist point is prepared - love interests motives are introduced - twist happens - relationship changed - etc. etc.


SCENES

You divide your story into scenes. The basic rule is, the more scenes, the better. Instead of having 12 longer scenes, it's much better to have 36 shorter scenes. So try to chop your script into really small parts!
There's many reasons for this. The main reason is pacing: An audience adapts quite quickly to anything these days. So in order to keep the interest, don't remain on the same thing for too long.

The "average" guide is that a scene should be 1 page. Of course, there can be longer or shorter scenes, but in the average, try to have them about at that length.

Example: Instead of a long dialogue in the living room, have your actors move into the kitchen at one point, or on to the balcony. Or find a scene to cut in between, as scene in this example:



Within a short time, you have 5 very short scenes with 3 entirely different locations. This moment needed to be a bit more fast paced, that´s why we have scenes that only last for one single shot.
That way the viewers interest can be kept for a longer amount of time as there's new visual information for him to interpret. Which brings me to the next point:


LOCATIONS

Locations are where your storyelements takes place. Try to have as many different locations as you can. As mentioned above, if you have the location "house", think in smaller parts and make several locations out of that, "living room", "kitchen", "stairway", "bedroom", "balcony" - you name it. And use these consciously and often.

The more different locations you have in your list, the more visual variety you have e.g. the more interesting your film already appears on a visual level (Switching time can already help, one location on a bright day, in the golden hour, dusk or dark night already makes ONE location look very different).


CHARACTERS

You need Characters in your script, obviously. There's certain archetypes of characters you'll find in almost every film: Good guy, bad guy, sidekick, funny-man, love interest etc. You characters are what drive your film, so focus on them!
Have an exact psychological image of who your character is, how he is, how the thinks, speaks, moves, what he does etc (write it down even!).

It might be usefull for you to write a short 'biography' for your characters - what are their histories? What has happened in their lives up until the point where the film starts? The audience don't neccesarily have to learn all this information, but knowing it whilst writing the script will be useful. You will have a better understanding of who your characters 'are'.

Ideally, your characters go through different states. Interesting characters develop during a film. Develop means that they change in some ways. If your main guy was the super dooper fighter at the start and is still the super dooper fighter in the end, it's boring. (Except of course, he somehow lost his super dooper fighter position and has to get it back). Show these changes and states your character goes through.

Every character needs to drive for something. There most be something a character wants. Make sure your characters have a clear motivation and characteristics during the whole film. (And of course, to make for an interesting conflict, make those motives contradict or collide with something)

DIALOGUE

The most convenient way to give information to the audience. Many unexperienced filmmakers largely depend on dialogue, because you can literally explain everything to your audience (and be aware of that, that's all you have to do really. EXPLAIN it all to your audience!).
If your starship doesn't look like a starship, you can have someone say "oh, what a nice starship" and the audience knows. If your character doesn't feel well, you can have him say "Geee, I don't feel well." and the audience knows. Obviously though, there's better ways. Alternatively, you can use other filmic languages such as body language, camera angles, light, color, music, sound whatever you can think of to convey information.

Still dialogue is important. Basically, every sentence you write should have a meaning and a purpose. There's common things you want to do with dialogue: Explain something you think the audience wouldn't get, define a character by the way he talks, drive the story on by, define what a character know/thinks, define the relationship between two characters. Do this subtly, if Romeo says to Juliet "give me some sugar baby" it reveals different things about his character and their relationship, than if he says to her, "shall we dance, princess".



In the script example you see, we tried to keep the sentences as short as possible. "Hello, I'm a police officer. I've called you." already conveys loads of information - the character is a police offer and he has obviously already called the woman behind the desk (The reason we did it that why was basically because I didn't want him to EXPLAIN now what kind of files he wanted, because the audience already knows or just doesn't need to hear it. So the receptionist already knows and I slipped the info in why she knows: Because he called her)

Yes, I know. The BIIIIGGG problem with independent films or nobudget movies: There's no money.
Make no mistake though, filmmaking does cost money. I assume you have a camera? A computer? Neither of those grew on trees, did they?

So the important questions you need to answer now you have your script are these:

- Which elements of my story WILL cost money and how much?
- Which elements can I get for free?
- Where will I get the money from I need for those elements I can't get for free?

In your classic Lowbudget Production you'll have about 5 different aspects that might cost you money, which I'll go in details here:


EQUIPMENT

It's very possible you might need new equipment for your movie. Invest in a lighting kit? A dolly maybe? New battery? Well, you'll need tapes for your camera no doubt.



Our version looked somewhat like this. It's always good to make an excel file that automatically adds things up so you have a good overview.

As you can see here, I added in the camera and the computers we needed for postproduction since we actually bought new equipment to work with. Don't hesitate to actually put those into your budget, because obviously, they need to be bought in order to use them - even though you might continue to use them for your next projects.

By going through your script, you can then decide if there's some special equipment you need - in our case, we needed pyrotechnical devices for some of the action scenes, which again cost money.


PROPS AND COSTUMES

This part is very dependent on your script. The best thing is to go through the script scene by scene and write down all the special props and costumes you need and then write down a list of each scenes prop and costume needs.

As in the example scene:



Props

- Filing cabinet with a file in it
- computer plasma screen
- keyboard
- drawers, files, pencils for background

Costumes

- White shirt for doctor
- Suit for BRIAN
- Dark top for RECEPTIONIST

Now all you need to do is figure out if you need to buy any of those props or if costumes actually need to be bought.


LOCATIONS

If your locations cost money or not depends largely on what you need and what your recources are. Locations that usually cost money are either sets you build from scratch (greenscreen rooms, or actual set constructions), locations you need to rent or pay a fee to be allowed to shoot there.

Usually though, with a bit of social abilities, you can get to a lot of locations for free by simply asking people. Don't ask, don't get anything. We actually managed to get a real military base for free, including a troop transporter. It can never hurt to ask.


MISCELANEOUS

Here you can find everything that doesn't fit into the former cathegories. For example: What do you use to travel to the locations? By car? Who pays for the gas? By train? Who pays for the tickets? etc.
Or one of the most important part on a shoot: The catering! (Yes! A hungry crew and cast is always a bad thing. INVEST enough money there! It'll be worth it)
We had things like phonebills, insurances, gas, hospital costs, paper etc in there. Things do add up quickly.


CAST / CREW

How the heart of your shoot: The people. Every Lowbudget production has to resort to either using friends or not paying people, or only paying certain people or only paying people partly... Whatever you decide on, it needs to be noted here.

In each case, what you need to do is a first shooting overview so you can tell, WHICH actor / crewmember you need WHEN and for HOW LONG shooting WHAT and WHERE.

Our overview sheet for the actors looked like this:



The crosses simply indicate if the character named on top has to be present that day or not. So we could extract vital information like

Actor "Fabian Ramseyer" playing "NightCast" needs to be present on 15.8, 16.8, 18.8, 19.8 and 20.8. etc so has a total shooting days of X - An information you'll need during casting anyways, even if you don't need to calculate how much you'd need to pay the actor if you were paying him or her.

The next step is commonly to find and assemble your cast. There's one rule that must guide you through the process:

There's always people able and willing to act in your films, you only need to find them!


If you followed the steps so far, you've already done the first step of casting; which is to have a CLEAR idea who you need. We used the character summary from the scriptwriting phase as a base:



That way, you already have an idea what the actor should be like - look like 50 - 60 years old, be able to have that wanted "worn out" look, be relatively thin and have some white hair (of course, that could also be achieved by a makeup job)

A good idea is to make a casting call in places where you might find willing people - in this first search for actors, it's not important if they're trained actors or not, you can find talent everywhere.
Find out if your town has a stage actor club, a school of actors or anything alike. Create a little advert with all necessary info (Need actors for movie, contact here: ..... - maybe some SHORT info on your project), print it out and hang it anywhere you might get peoples interest.

In our case, we solved the casting through the website and people had to email us pictures. In the end, that gave us a fortunate 200 people to chose from!

Be aware: The casting is 50% of someone's acting job. You're dealing with a visual medium here, so if you find people who LOOK the part and are well cast, you've done a lot of work in favor of the film already: Don't cast a 20 year old to play a part from someone who should be 50, don't take a chubby mate and make him play an action hero, or a not-so-attractive girl the love interest. Casting is a cruel business, you need to be "BRUTAL" in chosing the people to actually play the parts. As brutal as you can within what you got to work with.

So from all the pictures we got, we had these people to chose from for the above part of chief Willem:



You guessed it, all of the above are great actors (who actually ended up being cast for the movie). For the role in question, number 4 and 5 are obviously way too young and immediately are out of consideration - number 2 has a great look, but certainly doesn't look like a police chief. Leaving us Number 1 and 3 - both at the right age and both having the required features to even play the part.

It's common AND advisable you take more then one actor into consideration for a part. After you've first got rid of everyone who's out of question and reduced the contestants for each role down to a handful, you should do some reading with them.

Get together and go through some lines. Let them actually PLAY the part. All of them. Watch them, better, record them while doing that - then go back home and sit through that footage until you're sure that THIS is the guy for the role!


Once you've done those steps to each of your characters in the script, you're done with the casting.

Again: Take time for this step, don't take anyone who comes along just because they're close to you. Make an effort to LOOK for people, it's very worth it.

Scheduling your film is a part that depends on a lot of variables that are sometimes difficult to work with. Basically, what you need to do is define exactly when each scene of your film will be shot, who needs to be where at what time, what equipment, props or costumes need to be there and when will everyone be wrapped.

Our schedule plan, as simple and short as possible, was like this:



Doing a schedule for your film can be difficult depending on what you base your schedule on. In our case, some dates were fixed because of a certain location that could only be used at that particular time - other dates were fixed because certain actors could only work on a certain date and so on. Putting all that in a schedule that actually works for everyone can prove to be a real test of your organisational abilities.


What usually makes sense is this order:


1st priority - Locations

Whenever possible, schedule your shoot according to the locations. When different scenes play at the same location, it makes the most scenes to plan it accordingly. Travelling takes up time and since you're already at your location, it makes perfect sense to shoot the rest of the scenes there too.

2nd priority - People

Obviously it can be necessary to plan around people's already existing timeschedules. If that's the case, then you have two choices left: Look for someone else or plan around it. If planning around it should prove to be too difficult, I'd always advise you to look for other people.
But there's always good reasons why you might have to plan according to people, not locations.

3rd priority - chronological order

As a third priority, try to keep things in chronological order whenever it is possible. Skipping around back and forth within your script does make work more difficult for everyone involved, especially the actors. But also whoever is in charge of what has been shot already and what still needs to be shot will have quite a difficult job on set.



This filming schedule should also include details of special shots and irregular equipment needs. When you have such a schedule for each day prior to shooting and hand it to your cast and crew, everyone knows already what's going to be done and can prepare accordingly, which will always help both the mood and the working output of your cast and crew.


As with everything in preproduction, this schedule can of course be adjusted during shooting. Most likely, it will. There's always reason you can't finish in time, it starts raining, something breaks or whatever else can kill a shooting day. Make sure to plan in "empty days" the people just need to keep free for the case of a PICK-UP (continueing a scene that needed to be aborted for whatever reason).

Locations are a vital part of your film production. Similar to your actors, the places where your story takes place are absolutely crucial to make it a believable movie.
While your own backyard is alright for fun, it's more often not the place to shoot a film

When chosing a location for your story, there are certain things to look out for:

REALISM

The locations need to feel "real" and "believable" to the audience, that's not necessarily the case just because they ARE real.
You have to work with prejudices! If your scene actually plays in a backyard, don't be surprised if people don't like yours, even though it IS a backyard. Because there's more appealing backyards then others.

So when you chose a location, look for VISUAL FEATURES that make the place work.

Social context

Your location needs to fit the social context of your characters. It needs to fit the person owning it - A poor Junkie will most likely not have expensive Art on his designer table, a lawyer will hardly have a cheap desktop PC in a garage. A big mobster will hardly have his meeting in a forest and your jedi will not have his training in an average backyard.

In our example in NightCast, 4 different people had "offices". However, all the offices are destinguishably different from each other, reflecting the background of each of the characters clearly:



The colonel's office

We went for quite a tiny office featuring cold blueish colors. The size of the office reflects the fact the character is "only" a commanding officer placed in the facility, not the actual highest man in the army. The background was filled with items that would show the fact this man's a war buff: Old rifles, pictures of soldiers, generals, tanks and general war pictures. The only computer in the room is a portable laptop, because the character is more under way then actually sitting in his office.



The crimelords's office

The exact opposite of the above. His office has to convey power and money, therefore it needs to be a large space - well designed, but not filled to the top to actually give the impression of lots of empty space (leaving empty space communicates power and wealth). The office has high contrasting elements and has clearly been professionally designed - different to the office above or the one here:



Brubakers office

This office belongs to one of the underground rebels. It's actually located in a basement and this guy is kind of a geek. Hence the office needed to look entirely improvised and dirty: There's dirt on the walls, part of the plaster falling off, loads of random posters haning about and the entire place is filled with junk and notes - to convey the feeling he actually collected all of the parts from... wherever.
The computer he uses is an old model - but since the character is an underground rebel again, he uses what he finds.



The policechiefs's office

We wanted a typical working office. It has some personal items on the desk, a modern day computer and generally just looks like this guy sits there most of the day and does his job.
The picture on the wall has been placed there on purpuse to make the wall look more attractive and give it a bit of a "home" feeling, conveying again that the character actually spends a lot of time there.


mood

This is the most important, the one many amateurs fail at. The location needs to fit your mood - If the scene is thrilling, dark and exciting, the pink flower curtains will most likely not leave the best impression. If you have a shootout between an Alien commander and a Marine, your backyard won't be the best place. Why? Because it doesn't feel right. So many aspects need to be considered to get a right feel - And your location needs to satisfy ALL of them.
Even if your scene actually plays in the middle of a street - believe it or not, there is better and worse street corners for that. If you have a pink house on your street, the whole scene will suffer, even though that house has nothing to do with it. Even if it's just in the background. If your scene needs to feel epic, go look for the ONE PLACE in your city that reflects that.



Having followed the guide, let's go back and remember the Location overview we wrote during the script phase:



Using this, it's now your job to go on the look out for places to film in. Again: TAKE YOUR TIME for this and ideally, choose more then one possible place for each location. Go there, take some pictures and then compare them. Do the same thing as in the casting: compare the images and take your pick according to the above points.

Finding locations is usually the smaller problem then actually being allowed to film them. There's a few points you need to keep in mind:

If you don't ask, you don't get anywhere!

Simple and obvious, yet most location problems in indiefilms die et exactly that point already. Ask your friends, parents, relatives, your teacher, boss, working colegeas etc if they KNOW a place matching your criteria or if they can help you get one.
When it came down to find a military base for NightCast, we simply called the actual military and imagine what, they said "Sure, come over" and that's exactly what we did.

be honest, but not too honest

Always be straight and honest with your requests. Most people will want to know what it is you're doing. Tell them about it. It's important not to try to come off as something you're not, because most people are bad liars - and it won't help you.
Especially when you go out shooting guns or something, make sure to say that.
But then again, don't be too honest: When it comes down to a film shoot, think very well what to mention and what NOT to mention.

In NightCast we had a scene where a bomb goes off at an industrial estate. Unfortunately, I mentioned the word "explosion" and the problems began - even though the explosion was going to be entirely digital. Keep in mind, you're not talking to filmmakers. They don't think like you.

Inform whoever needs to be informed

If you're shooting on a private property and you're by yourself, it's usually less of a problem then when you shoot on a public place.
If you're doing a nightshoot within a place where loads of people live, inform them of what you're doing and what will be happening.

We had a shoot right in the middle of block. So I hung out papers on each door, quickly explaining that there will be a film shoot, that we'll try to keep noise to a minimum but that there will be loads of spotlights and people carrying guns. It was no problem.

Inform local authorities if necessary. Especially whenever guns are involved. If someone sees your actors carrying guns, but doesn't know you're shooting a film, they're probably going to call the cops. Happens all the time.

First off: Everything anyone wears in a movie is a costume. Don't think of "costumes" just as some exotic pirate clothing or an alien armor or stuff like that. Even everyday clothing is a costume and needs to be treated just the same.

Costumes need, as locations or actors, great care. Greater care then I've seen in my indiefilms. Your costume is like an actor: It does communicate to the audience. Jedis don't wear jeans...

When it comes to clothing, you need to be well aware of the simple fact, people think in stereotypes. If your characters wear a "metallica" shirt, people will automatically assume certain psychological details about your character. Imagine Agent Smith from the Matrix wearing such a T shirt, it just wouldn't be the same, would it?

Again, the base for chosing costume is the characters psychological overview:



Your job is now to think, what kind of clothing could convey this psychological image best. And again, use the stereotypes: Dorks wear glasses, bad guys wear black, people wearing leather jackets and metallica t shirts are rebels, sunglasses are cool, smart guys always wear suits etc. without overdoing it.

It can always be helpful to draw some sketches of costume designs, especially when it comes to more exotic ones. In NightCast for example, the character of "Colonel Red" went through quite a range of different styles in preproduction:



All those uniforms are REAL uniforms for commanding officers, yet again, as with the locations, REAL doesn't equal "fitting"...

As you can see, the one thing those designs have in common is the fact the character smokes cigars. Again another stereotype: smoking cigar would A make the character look more relaxed and "on top of things" and B give the actor something to do and C look good on camera (I'm a vivid nonsmoker, but yes, smoking does look good on camera...)

Nr 1 - We liked the general slick appearance of this costume version, but I wasn't too fond of the tie which made him look a bit too formal. I did like the fact he's wearing a cap however.

Nr 2 - This gunhoe kinda look got dismissed quite quickly, as it made the character appear to agressive and hyperactive. I wanted someone who looks like he's a brain guy who can fight, while this costume made him look like a fighter too much.

Nr 3 - We tried using more details on his uniform, apply batches, medals and stuff but then decided against it because it we thought the character wouldn't "show off" like that. He has his men's respect without medals and having medals on his uniform just didn't sit with the character. Also, the longer top made him look less like a field officer and more like someone sitting in an office.

Nr 4 - Was an attempt to design a slicker version of Nr.3. The medals are gone and the short sleaves made him instantly look more like a "let's do it" kinda guy. We liked that approach, but decided against it because the short sleaves and lack of cap made him look less smart (heh, notice the clichee's here?).

Ultimately we ended up going for most of Nr 1, but with losing the tie and adding some details in from Nr.3



Generally, you can sum up criteria for costumes in these aspects:

psychological image

First and foremost, what a character wears in a movie most reflect his personality. Even a detail as long or short sleaves can have an impact on how the character is perceived. Think exactly about what your character should wear to convey exactly the profile you have. A good costume is when you can take one look at a character and can immediately tell something about him.
Remember, that even colors make someone appear different. A person wearing a white shirt, a blue shirt, a red shirt and a black shirt appear differently.

social background

The costume should also reflect the social background of your character. Are his clothes massproduced? Or is it an armany suit? Is it something leisure? Something bought in the store around the corner? Does the character have a taste when it comes to clothing or does it look random?

visual appearance

Ultimately, film is a visual medium so costumes also need to WORK visually. They need to have good structure, details for the camera to work with. Generally, the more details your costume has, the better. So a unicolored shirt or coat will only work if the cloth itself has some good structure or if you light it correctly - leather or any other reflective material works nicely because it does reflect light and surrounding colors.
It's always good to add accessoires to any costume too. Just think of things you could add. Afterall, a costume is something to LOOK at so make it look interesting.

"Technical Planning" is basically preparing for the shoot. Now you have your script worked out, you got your cast, you got your locations, you know what needs to be done in your film.

It's always a good idea to plan out aspects you're not absolutely on routine with.


Rehearsals

Always take the time to do rehearsals with your actors. Go through the lines, through the scenes. Explain how you want them delivered, what your idea of the scene is and go through them many many times. If possible, over the course of several days.

This is especially important with untrained actors. Where a trained actor can pull off a great performance from scratch, untrained actors need to rehearse what they're doing. A lot. This time won't be available on set, so they need to do it beforehand. If you take the time to talk to them, give them advice, input and direct them properly even before the shoot, the perfomances will improve noticably!


Testing new technical items

If you use any new technical item on your film, such as a new camera, a dolly, a crane etc. test it extensively until you know exactly how to handle it and where it's strengths and weaknesses are.
Every item in the world always has strengths AND weaknesses, nothing is the uber-tool from heaven. Knowing those strengths can help you put the stress on them during production, knowing the weaknesses allows you to avoid them as often as possible.


THE FILM LOOK

Got your attention now, ain't I?

First of all: There is no such thing as a film look. Films look different depending on a lot of factors. It's very important to try out different looks, both during the actual shooting and with means of postproduction.

For NightCast, we did this with the concept teasers available in the fxhome cinema:

http://fxhome.com/cinema/movieinfo.php?id=704&preview=1

http://fxhome.com/cinema/movieinfo.php?id=1313&preview=1

http://fxhome.com/cinema/movieinfo.php?id=1418&preview=1

As you can see, the look evolves in these tests. While the decision to make those kind of "tests" public is questionable really (since usually, these tests are for YOU to test out stuff. An outside audience will never quite get to that) it can still help to get some feedback - see what works and what doesn't.

And as you can see from the images and the final teaser, the look of the final film is again quite different.

How a film looks is commonly determined by these factors:

The Camera

The camera you use is obviously making a difference. Wheter you shoot with a handycam for 200 $ or a 35mm ARRI camera will get you different results, there's nothing you can do about that.

The quality of the CCD's, what kind of film stock you use, how the camera reacts to light, how it picks up the light, what lense it uses - all of that changes the look of your footage massively.

The Lens

Part of the camera, makes an utter difference though. If you have a camera with interchangeable lenses, it's a good thing to invest in those.
The famous "depth of field" as seen in the image below is largely a matter of the lens you're using.



The Lighting

How your scene is lit makes a big difference. And I'm not even yet talking about using different lighting equipment, but merely if you use light consciously or coincidentally. Lots of indiefilmers don't seem to be aware of light at all and just point and shoot. That'll always look like that.
The color of the light, the use of the light, direction, density etc has great impact on how your image looks and is received.



One single, strong spotlight placed directly above NightCast supported by some fog (to actually catch the light in the air) makes for a dramatic mood here.

The Postproduction

And of course what you do to your image in post eg, the grading. With such fantastic tools available as VisionLab or CompositeLab, you can largely influence the look and feel of your images to fit your needs.

Test a variety of different grading methods and techniques to find the one look PERFECT for your movie. Find a look that matches your story. I'm sure you've noticed that a family comedy, an 80s action movie, a fantasy epic a horror movie or your daily soap look very different - even with the sound off, you can pretty quickly tell what you're looking at.

So don't slap your standard grading on everything you do, or randomly fiddle with the controls until your image looks different to what you shot.

So you've succeeded preproducing your movie and finally get to the production!

Usually, the production is the shortest period, but even so definately one of the hardest. You'll be glad of every bit of work you did in the pre-phase, because it'll lay off your back during shooting and you only have to worry about all the typical problems one faces while actually crafting the movie.

The declared aim of the production phase is simply to get you all the stuff you need to make your movie in the postproduction, eg: All the footage.

Apart from all the technical problems you'll have to deal with, as a director, your main job will be one that appears to have little to do with filmmaking at first glance: Taking care of people!

A filmshoot is mostly quite an extreme situation, in which loads of different people work together to achieve a common goal. This work is often fun, but as often tedious, difficult and hard. 50% of your job on an independent feature will be to keep your crew and cast happy during shooting. You will have to fulfill needs, be a leader and best friend in one person, give everyone the time he needs and wants and still lead a whole production - Personally, I think that's the toughest job. While obviously I can't teach you how to deal with people, what I'm trying to do in the forthcoming chapters is help you with the technical side of a shoot with a few tips:


Shoot as much material as possible

Shoot all material you might be able to use in your postproduction. There's nothing worse then when some little snippet is missing in the editing room.
Shoot all your scenes, all your actions and all your lines from SEVERAL DIFFERENT angles so you can easily intercut between them and have all the liberty you need.

Declare your rules on a shoot to everyone

It's important that you declare certain rules for everyibe on a shoot and make sure everyone actually does obey them. The most important three would be:

- Be on time!
- Come prepared, know what your job is and how to do it
- Even though a film is 80% waiting, always stay focused on the task

The first one is vital on a tight shooting schedule. If you plan to start at 8, make sure people are there at 8.
The second one is especially important on an indieshoot. You need actors and crew who are prepared to do what they're supposed to do. There's little time for questions and answers on a shoot mostly and if everyone knows what they're up to, both the work and the mood will improve.
And I know from experience how annoying it can be if you have to look for certain people constantly, because they wander off as soon as they have a short break: Pauses are natural, but staying on task is important.

keep your equipment in order

Having to look for certain items during shooting is a killer. So think if somekind of order / system within your equipment. Use the green bag for the camera stuff, use the red bag for the lighting, the blue for the costumes - whatever. Just make sure your gear can be quickly grabbed and is easily recognizeable by anyone who looks for something.

ALWAYS have food and water on set

Yes, this one is a lifesaver. Don't save your production money on catering. People need food and drinks, often. A well fed cast and crew is a happy cast and crew and I can assure you, having enough catering on set is going to be worth every single penny you invest.
Even if it's just small things like bread, meat and cheese with some coffee and juice or whatever.

The images of your film are the most important technical aspect of production. The camera are the eyes of your audience. And you control them. You decide what your audience is supposed to see and what they're not supposed to see.

The first thing to do is familiarize oneself with certain rules and techniques of camerawork. While there's always a high matter if taste involved in what sort of image people like or dislike - technically spoken, there's quite a range of points where you can divide good and bad camerawork. GOOD camerawork always has a connection to what your current emotional state is. You need to be well aware of what exactly you want to communicate with your shot, then chose what that shoot is supposed to look like.

First, there are obviously different sorts of shots:

EXTREME LONG SHOT



A wide shot that shows a very wide angle, where actors are usually small dots. These shots are commonly used to introduce a location. The viewer is able to get an overview of where he is, what is where. Emotionally, the viewer is distant. He's a spectator. Just watching what happens.

LONG SHOT



The angle is wide, your actor is full in frame, from his feet to his head. And there's a great deal of background visible, but not as much. These shots are commonly used to introduce an actor/object, but still leave details aside. The viewer sees more of the actors/objects and has an overview of them. The location becomes less important, the actor becomes more important. Emotionally, this is a bit closer, but the viewer is still a spectator that gets an overview.

MEDIUM SHOT



This closer shot shows your actors from waist or chest upwards. This is commonly used for all kind of character situations. It's the most used type of shot. You get closer to the actor/object, and the viewer gets more and more drawn into the action/emotion of what's happening. Emotionally, you get more attached.

CLOSE-UP



This focuses on a detail, a face, an object. This is commonly used to draw the attention to something very important. The one ring, the fist of the angry boy, the eyes of the loving woman, the wound of the hurt soldier etc. Emotionally, this is very close. This can be both pleasant or unpleasant, but as a viewer, you're forced to watch a specific detail.

EXTREME CLOSE-UP



This is the closest you can get. Focus on an eye, a mouth, whatever. This is so close, it's very uncommon for the human eye and therefore should be used only in a short sequence where a detail is either very small or you want to attach your audience very close to a character or emotional reaction.


Then we have different types of motion of the camera itself. Theoretically, there's only 3 different sorts of motion you can achieve with your camera:

PANNING



Obviously, you pan from A to B in one shot. Which is your basic tool to show your viewer something, then give him another information later on, by panning to something else/additional. This is different to having both A and B be visible from the beginning. It's a more dosed information control. Control your viewer!

In the example shot, the camera follows the running actor, revealing the mercenaries firing on him in the very last second. This way, the feeling of "running into a trap" has been enforced by the camerawork.

ZOOMING



If you change your zoom throughout a shot, you want your viewer to change his focus. For example, you start in a SUPERCLOSE of an eye, then zoom back up to a CLOSE. You want to start with full emotion, then giving a bit of distance to see what's happening (Could be a shock effect, or whatever). Or the other way round, you start in a TOTAL, then zoom into a CLOSE or even a SUPERCLOSE, you want your viewer to get an overview, then suddenly focus on the eye.

The example video is a scene, where a very slight zoom has been used to draw the viewer closer to the bad guy talking about revenge - this way, we want to make the viewer feel unpleasant by bringing the mencae "closer" to him.


ROLLING



If you move your camera while filming. This gives a different result to just pan or zoom to something else. You force your viewer to change his position. For example in a horror movie, if you move your cam slowly towards the evil creature, you communicate to your viewer, then he can't escape, he's in fact coming closer! Always good in actionsequences too, as it enhances the feeling of "energy".

In the example video, the rolling shot was used to force upon the feeling of threat - as well as enhance the motion of the earlier shot, where the two protagonists are running towards the camera.


The rule of thirds

There's a number of different sets of rules on how to frame a shot. The most commonly referred to is the so called "rule of thirds".
Why exactly the human brain seems to divide images into thirds isn't yet fully clear, but it has been scientifically proven that images that follow those rules are generelly much more pleasantly received.

What you basically do, is divide your shot - no matter what format - into a grid of thirds, like this:



Now you use that grid to place all your objects. The example shot is a close up of police chief willem, looking like this:



And now with the grid of thirds applied:



Now I'll explain why this is - according to the rule of thirds - a pretty much perfectly framed shot:

The matter of attention is the chiefs face. Points of interest in a face are eyes and mouth. As you can see indicated by the yellowish grids, the important part of the frame lies EXACTLY within those two squares. (An other option would be, to have the eyes EXACTLY on the upper horizontal line and the mouth EXACTLY on the lower horizontal line, resulting in a bit closer framed shot).
The middle of the face runs exactly through the first vertical line, again immedieately drawing intereset to it and therefore placing the object "policechief" exactly on that first thirds line.

The blueish grids are left empty (again: 1/3rd of the whole image is left empty for the background. Notice the thirds pattern?). The fact they're on the right side enforces the line of sight of the chief - he's looking to the right of the screen.

Knowing where your actors look is absolutely vital when it comes to the next rule that is often violated in amateur movies:

The "Crossing the Line" rule

This rule is technically very easy, but it's the one that can cause the most headaches. Simply put, the rule goes like this:

In each scene, you have to establish a line of sight for each character (or sometimes even motion of objects) that is NOT ALLOWED TO CHANGE during the scene.

Let's start with the easiest situation: Two people talking to each other:



In the example, you have my character JACK talking to his father, the CRIMELORD. It's the simplest setup. As you can see from the video and the screenshot below, JACK and the CRIMELORD are talking to each other. The line of sight has been established in the first shot: My character Jack is looking to the RIGHT, the crimelord is looking to the left.



So when you combine two shots into one, you see - indicated by the arrows, that these characters are looking at each other. In ALL shots where JACK is visible, he MUST be facing in the same direction whenever he talks to the crimelord. He always has to be facing right and the crimelord always has to be facing left - IF they are supposed to be looking at each other.



This version has the characters NOT looking at each other. Jack is looking at the crimelords back and the crimelord is looking away from his son.

The rules is then broken, when those imaginative arrows don't match to what is supposed to be happening in the scene.

Clever as you are though, you noticed that the line of sight changes in the video above. You can always change the "line", but you need to do it visually. In one shot, my character gets up and walks a few step. In that process, he visibly CROSSES the crimelord and goes to the other side of the image. Now, those eylines are reversed, but must again remain the same in all following shots - until the scene is over or someone crosses someone else.



The rule gets increasingly more difficult with the number of eyelines you have. In the above shot, we have 3 people talking to each other. This shot has the eyelines set to this:

NightCast is looking to the right, whoever he's talking to.

Lynn is looking to the left when talking to NightCast, but to the right when talking to Jerry.

Jerry is looking to the left, whoever he's talking to.

Now, wherever you set up the camera for other shots of the conversation, those line of sights must remain exacty that. So you can't set up any closeup where NightCast would look to the left, or Lynn would be looking to the right talking to him.

As a guide, when setting up shots, you can use this basic idea:



Imagine your actors from the top and draw lines right through them. The camera then can only stay on ONE side of this line. Indicated withe blue area. Both the black camera shots would be valid and remain with the same line of sight. If the camera was placed anywhere in the yellow area, the line would be crossed and the shot invalid.



With three actors however, the placement of the camera is even forther reduced. Placing the camera anywhere in the yellow area would break the rule (because it would change the line of sight of actor number 2).

Now imagine doing a scene with 10 people sitting on a round table...

Another handy piece of advice is is that when you have two characters having a telephone/radio conversation in two different locations and you're cutting between them, it's a good idea to use the same rules as if they were in the same room - this is because it helps the scene flow better, as it establishes the relationship between the two characters.


GENERAL TIPS

Shoot lots of material!

The best idea is to divide your scenes into sequences, then shoot each sequence numerous times using different angles and shot layouts.
Shoot a wide shot from two angles, shoot a closeup from 2 or more angles, shoot a medium shot from 2 or more angles - all through. That way, you are free to do whatever you want in the editing room, because shooting a film and editing it go together.

Only shooting those shots you think you might need is a bad idea, because there can be a whole set of reasons why they might end up not working: Continuity errors, one shot is not usable because you crossed the line, you decide later to change the visual mood of your scene etc.

Make your foreground and background seperable!

Film is a 2D media, so you need to make it easy for the viewer to decode a 3D information of it. Make sure your foreground (usually an actor / actress) is easily seperabla from the background. Either use depth of field (foreground in focus, background not) or make sure the background is noticably darker or brighter then the foreground or has a different color.

Shoot the whole Framing Range!

To make your movie interesting visually, make sure your scenes contain different framing sets. Make sure to actually have Wide shots, closeups, medium shots - the more variety, the better!

Light defines the mood of your scene. Use it wisely, then you'll get there with no problems.
There's many different light setups if you work with a lighting-kit, which you SHOULD! Even if it's just a bunch of 10 $ do it yourself spotlights. But even if you have to work with Daylight, use it to your advantage, don't just accept it...

Generally, it's light and shadows that make your images interesting. Have you ever noticed how certain objects just look a lot more 3D when the shadows are all over them? Shadows lets us determine the surface / structure of an object. Suddenly, an uninteresting looking object can look fantastic, just because you can make out structure. The whole image will suddenly look much more "real" and "3D".

A very good example is the NightCast suit in the movie:



The left picture is the suit from an on set picture taken with a stills camera with flashlight. The light is coming from the exact point where the camera is, resulting in almost no visible shadows. While the structure of the suit is still visible, it looks flat, washed out and quite frankly, very uninteresting.

The picture to the right is the same suit from a movie still with a 2 point lighting setup. As you can easily see, the surfice looks very 3 dimensional, features loads of structure and is just generally a heck of a lot more interesting to look at.

That basic principle works the same way with pretty much everything. Your aim when lighting a scene is to have a good mix of light and shadow to give depth to your images. The most commonly used lighting setup is the 3-point light here:



A lighting setup can be everything from 1 to 100 lights. This is the basic setup to light an actor or object: The 3-Point Lighting setup.

The 3 lights are setup relative to actor and cameraposition as indicated with the lightblue lines and angles. Keylight and floodlight come from the same side as the camera, but stand in 45 degree angle relative to it. The outline light is placed on the line from keylight through actor. Keylight and Outline should always point at each other.

Now lets have a look at what these lights actually do and what they're here for:



Number 1 - flatlight

A flatlight is the light that cames from the exact same direction as the camera, which is what you normally get when you take pictures with a flashlight. The fact it's coming from the same point the camera does makes shadows impossible and the whole object is evenly lit.

Number 2 - keylight

The Keylight is there to make the object appear more 3D. Since it's coming from the 45 degree angle from the camera, it still lights most of the object but also casts shadows - already resulting in a more vivid representation of your object. However, there's certain problems when only using a keylight:
For once, the shadows are really dark and harsh. This can be a desired effect, but in most cases, this is really unwanted and unnatural.
The second problem is the fact, there's whole parts that have no light on them. In our case even worse, since the background is black. So the left side of the actor disappears into the background.

Number 3 - Outline

This is what the outline is for, it's the strongest of all the three lights. Coming from behind the actor from the opposite direction, the actor now has an "outline", a brighter line defining his silhouette. This is especially recommended whenever the background is darker then the foreground to make them easily seperable.
The Problem with the harsh shadows is still not solved yet though:

Number 4 - Floodlight

The Floodlight is the weakest of the three lights. Coming from the front again, but from the other side then the keylight, it's job is to get rid of nasty shadowing by "flooding" the object with light.


Additional lights would then come in to light the background in an interesting way. In reality, all this can come together to look like that:



What's always a brilliant addition to any light setup is to use colored lights (Or simply buy colored film to put over the spotlights, like we did). With using different colors for different lights, you can make an image even more interesting and make foreground and background even more seperatable.

In the case above, the background was light with 2 lights with blue film on them, while the foreground is a classic 3 point light setup with a warmer, slightly orange film. Foreground and background are easily seperatable.



When working with daylight, you don't have the ability to move around the sun. That doesn't mean you have to take everything as it comes - because there's still several things you can do:

Move around camera and actors

You can always change the angle of a shot so that the sun acts as the KEYLIGHT or the OUTLINE. Floodlight you'll have automatically since each ground reflects light. So look through the camera and test out different positions for the optimal lighting condition.

Reflect sunlight using a reflector

You have the strongest stronglight of the world for free. You can use it to reflect it's light from any other place. Any large white objects can be used as reflector. Simply catch the sunlight and reflect it back to your actors from any point - So you have Keylight and floodlight as you want.
Reflectors are cheap to make with a bit of imagination, which I assume you have.

WAIT!

The sun moves. During the course of a day, the sun will change it's position dramatically. Positions that are perfectly light at 9 AM can look dire at 4 pm because the sun's position has changed dramatically.
Use that to your advantage, not to your disadvantage. When shooting an outside scene with daylight, you'll have to go to the location and take notes of how the sun moves. Then decide what shots to shoot at what time.
Sounds tedious? Yeah, but that's proper filmmaking for you.

We had a scene where we actually could only shoot one direction in the morning and had to come back to the location in the afternoon to shoot the shots in the other direction - simply because the sun made it impossible to do otherwise.

The acting is the part that makes your characters believable. It is often the case, that indiefilms can't afford casting professional actors to do all the roles in the movie and often have to refer to family and friends to play certain parts - it was no different in NightCast.

However, good direction on set can still improve on the acting a lot and take a performance to a next level. When it comes down to acting, there's certain things that can help you - both as an actor and a director:

Blocking

The first thing you do on a shoot with your actors is "blocking". Basically, you define who is going to stand where during the scene. Make sure to incorporate actual motion in your scene as often as possible. While it's obviously way easiert to shoot if you have a dialogue sequence and neither of your actors is moving too much, it is actually far more interesting if you have your actors move.

Not move constantly of course, but you can always have them say a couple of lines in position 1, then move to position 2, then have just one actor move to position 3, then the other to position 4 etc etc.

Subtext

Every dialogue has a two layers. The text and the subtext. As an actor, you usually have to focus on the subtext. You can say every single line in 1000 different ways, but the subtext is what defines how you have to say it. For example: Your text is "Hello, I'm John.". Be aware of what the subtext ist. Is it "Damn, I don't wanna see you here", or "I'm so friggin tired" or "why do I have to introduce myself now?" your intonation will change completely. A good trick is, to act out your subtext, then take that intonation, and now apply it to your actual text.

Body language

Same as unexperienced filmmakers, unexperienced actors fully rely on dialogue. They say their lines and thats it. Unfortunately, you still have a body. And when that one's in shot, it'll keep talking and talking, if you want it or not. So always make sure you're aware of your body language. If you stand up all tall, no one will believe your "I feel intimidated" line, no matter how well you say your subtext. If you're the strongest fighter ever, move like one. Always!

Give an actor something to work with!

The worst you can have an actor do is being in the scene, but not having anything to do. Always make sure, you're busy with something. Don't expose yourself to the "Damn, what should I do moment", keep yourself busy. For example, change your position, scratch yourself, play around with that jacket of yours, try finding that little piece of breakfast that's been sitting between your teeth since this morning, have a look at that beautiful bird that's sitting on that tree. Basically: Always busy yourself with something, you'll have it much easier. As a director: Always see that your actors have something to do. Fill the scene with details!
Of course, you can also have the occasional just stand there and do nothing moment, if the situation calls for it.

But the situation needs to call for it!

Urm yeah... As soon as I can think of something to put here... I will.