smelni
Veteran
Having read many of the boards relatively to filmmaking at the low budget independent level and listened to lots of podcasts I have a bit of a rant to get off my shoulders.
Many people seem to talk about the "proper" way or "better" way to do things. They get on a soap box about it (much like I am doing now
). The thing is, I think if most low budget indies could do things "properly" they would. They dont throw caution and convention to the wind just because they like a rough ride.
For example, people from all departments give the "critical" advice to get their dept involved early in preproduction. You hear this from art, sound, wardrobe etc. Now, before I continue - I fully believe that you should involve all depts as early as you can and "properly" preproduce every day. But, the reality is, unless you have enough money you simply cannot. So it is not feasible and of course something gets lost because of that.
Take sound. You should involve them early on- take them from location to location and talk through every scene. But you show me a team of sound mixers that will do that for free - there arent many and truth be told, their skill set is so valuable they should not be doing it for free. So what happens. They are not involved in preproduction, sound suffers, post costs rise etc etc. Whose fault is it? Certainly not the sound mixer. What about the producer? Well, what are the options? Dont do the film until more money is found which might never happen. Take resources from another department. Or perhaps (and most often) just plow ahead. Work through it. Make the sound mixer's life harder (just and example - dont take it personal sound people - it could be any dept). And then the dreaded "deal with it in post".
The reality is - you, as a producer must cut corners all over the place. The key, in my opinion, is being researched enough to know what those corners will cost you and what issues you will need to deal with in post and beyond. And for Pete's sake - do not blame the department head - its not their fault they didnt get the prep time they needed or the 10 extra minutes on the set. Work with them to get the best with what they got and move forward from there.
So this is a 2 sided rant - I think its enough of the rhetoric about what is "proper" and "right". Every project is different and will cut different corners so we all as filmmakers need to learn that is part of the process. On the other side. As a person cutting the corners at least take the time to understand what those corners mean and make an educated decision as to which corners you choose - then understand and communicate your understanding of that with the people who owned those corners in your project.
It always seems that the camera dept is the dept that gets more of what they need. More of the equipment, more of the preproduction effort and more time on set to setup. In a perfect world all depts would get this. So why the preference to the camera dept. Thats a tought question (or maybe a tough answer) - perhaps its because film is a visual medium. Its arguable that other depts are there to support that visual medium and without that visual medium there is nothing to build on. (Again not belittling any dept - they are all important and extremely complex) So that is the dept where most effort and resources go.
Ok - I feel better now - any opinions.
Many people seem to talk about the "proper" way or "better" way to do things. They get on a soap box about it (much like I am doing now
). The thing is, I think if most low budget indies could do things "properly" they would. They dont throw caution and convention to the wind just because they like a rough ride.For example, people from all departments give the "critical" advice to get their dept involved early in preproduction. You hear this from art, sound, wardrobe etc. Now, before I continue - I fully believe that you should involve all depts as early as you can and "properly" preproduce every day. But, the reality is, unless you have enough money you simply cannot. So it is not feasible and of course something gets lost because of that.
Take sound. You should involve them early on- take them from location to location and talk through every scene. But you show me a team of sound mixers that will do that for free - there arent many and truth be told, their skill set is so valuable they should not be doing it for free. So what happens. They are not involved in preproduction, sound suffers, post costs rise etc etc. Whose fault is it? Certainly not the sound mixer. What about the producer? Well, what are the options? Dont do the film until more money is found which might never happen. Take resources from another department. Or perhaps (and most often) just plow ahead. Work through it. Make the sound mixer's life harder (just and example - dont take it personal sound people - it could be any dept). And then the dreaded "deal with it in post".
The reality is - you, as a producer must cut corners all over the place. The key, in my opinion, is being researched enough to know what those corners will cost you and what issues you will need to deal with in post and beyond. And for Pete's sake - do not blame the department head - its not their fault they didnt get the prep time they needed or the 10 extra minutes on the set. Work with them to get the best with what they got and move forward from there.
So this is a 2 sided rant - I think its enough of the rhetoric about what is "proper" and "right". Every project is different and will cut different corners so we all as filmmakers need to learn that is part of the process. On the other side. As a person cutting the corners at least take the time to understand what those corners mean and make an educated decision as to which corners you choose - then understand and communicate your understanding of that with the people who owned those corners in your project.
It always seems that the camera dept is the dept that gets more of what they need. More of the equipment, more of the preproduction effort and more time on set to setup. In a perfect world all depts would get this. So why the preference to the camera dept. Thats a tought question (or maybe a tough answer) - perhaps its because film is a visual medium. Its arguable that other depts are there to support that visual medium and without that visual medium there is nothing to build on. (Again not belittling any dept - they are all important and extremely complex) So that is the dept where most effort and resources go.
Ok - I feel better now - any opinions.
