"Corrado" - A production blog

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Wow, what a great topic. I'm glad someone brought this up.

I don't really adhere to most of the conventional wisdom when it comes to production. I know myself, and I don't have any problem having confidence in myself.

I'm not really a team player, if you must know. I like things done my way.

Here are some topics that were mentioned:

Micromanaging
Doing everything out of necessity is not micromanaging, sorry people. Doing everything because you feel no one else can do the job well enough is. I've long complained about needing a UPM. I can't afford one. Or I'd have one. David Fox is my DP. He is rounding up the entire crew. A few I've worked with, most I don't know. I trust him implicitly to work his magic below the line. He neither asks nor needs approval to hire of fire people. Three projects and one business partnership builds that kind of trust.

I figure we'll have one prod. meeting before the shoot. Which is one more than we had on previous projects. When you've got good people, you let them do their jobs.

I will arrive on April 26th to a complete, competent crew.

Storyboarding / shot lists
Short answer? I don't do them. Long answer? I wrote the story. Corrado has been playing in the repertory theater in my head for two years, amigos.

I've envisioned every shot, every glance, every mannerism for months. Now all I am doing is replaying the scenes in my mind based on what the locations look like. It's pretty easy.

Now I used to draw a lot and was actually a draftsman for 5 years out of high school. I could draw my own storyboards, but I don't want to. I know what I want to get and I'll get it.

If I was not shooting my own script I'd look hard at storyboarding for complicated sequences.

Shot lists????? I've no use for them. If you do, more power to you.

Rehearsals
Did quite a bit of these on my TV pilot. It did a great job of guaranteeing a stale performance. Besides, a day is a day for these big actors. It would literally cost tens of thousands of dollars to hire these guys to rehearse. You want to talk micromanaging? Grind your cast down with rehearsals.

Let the actors do their thing.

This is not to be confused with choreographing some complicated stunt that needs weeks of prep. Big studios do that all the time with pyro, fight scenes, car chases, etc. Those have a place.

Sound Tests / Music Tests
My sound man was nominated for an Oscar and won an Emmy. Nuff Said.

Makeup
Got a great makeup guy, Alex Noble who is big into effects like gun shot wounds and gore. He has an assistant.


**********************************************************************************
I know a lot of people are going to read this and say "He's an idiot" - but I don't do things the way other people do things. I've always been different. I have my own little way, and that's how I roll.

If people don't like it, they can pound sand. Cause I never was much into caring what other people think of me.

Some people like to turn that into "You can't take criticism". Well the way I see it, I don't have to take criticism. And neither do you.

You might be thinking that this eentsy, teensy measure of success has perhaps gone to my head, making me into a stubborn mule, a cavalier maverick who takes all kinds of risks.

I'm here to tell you I was that person before any of this ever happened. Just ask my wife, friends, and family.

Bullet point pep talk:
  • Go out there and get it. No one is coming to give it to you.
  • There is no trying. There is only doing.
  • Study the conventional wisdom, then reject it.
  • See all those people going that direction? Go the other direction.
 
See, that was at least two phone calls right there.

Some poor talentless schmuck out there in Redondo or Valencia or Hawaiian Gardens is sitting by the phone waiting - praying - for a "you're perfect for the lead in Corrado" phone call... that will never come.

At least not from Adam, because he's too busy writing his virtual book on real independent filmmaking here.

It's a good read and worth the effort.

What you say about recognizing and responding to the differences between delegation and wreckless obsession is spot-on. I am a big fan of surrounding myself with talented people who do what they do better than I ever could and then allowing them the room to fulfill my vision.

At the same time, there are things that demand a director's personal attention. For everyone it is different and you can only discover your own style by working forward through a few productions.

e
 
More meetings with actors:

The script has gone to work again. I decided to make another guy an offer. This guy is about equal in status to Marsden with the difference being that he is got quite a bit bigger fan base.

I made his agent an offer a few days ago, and he wanted to see the script. After the actor saw the script, he "wanted to meet me".

This will be my third such meeting. I wasn't really aware that actors and directors did this prior to inking a deal. It's almost like a joint job interview, with each side taking each other in and weighing pros and cons. Interesting.

It has always gone the same way with each actor:

1. Submit the offer.
2. Barely enough money to get the guy's attention.
3. Reads the script.
4. Wants to meet me!!!

I don't know what it is about this script, but it has generated more meetings than a union. Amazing.

Are we coming down to the wire....YES! Should this have been handled two weeks ago? YES!

Oh, and today I got a great second choice of an actor submitted to me. Actually, his agent called me and pitched him. He's got a star meter of about 4000 - but it has been as low as 98! Been in a bunch of big flicks, a great Irish actor (yes, he could pass for Italian. He's dark) Would love to get the part.

I probably fielded 25 calls from agents today pitching their guys. And probably that many e-mails.

I'm now reduced to not calling or e-mailing them back if I don't like the guy. It's rude, and it's not the way I operate, but what can I do. I just can't respond to them all.
 
Thanks for the detailed answer, Adam. So it looks like logistics and resource acquisitions were the main beasts you needed to slay before production begins. As far as planning the film, you're so close to the material that it isn't necessary or you've delegated certain tasks to people you trust and know that they'll take care of it.

Definitely a unique way of doing things. Food for thought indeed. Thanks again for the insight.
 
Erik - man, do you and I agree on stuff or what. Your synopsis was 100% my opinion. This is the way I did it on my other prods and it works for me. Your mileage may vary.
 
People from the OC have to stick together. We're an inherently intuitive and intelligent tribe - it comes from a hard life on the streets.

We'll have to collaborate on something down the road. I'm working on some complimentary but not parallel projects that could eventually bring us into the same orbit.

e
 
taormina said:
If I was not shooting my own script I'd look hard at storyboarding for complicated sequences.

Shot lists????? I've no use for them. If you do, more power to you.
Click to expand...
I've agreed with a lot of what you're doing here, but I disagree 100% with this. Perhaps you don't know where I"m coming from, so let me say this clearly for you and for everyone reading this:

Storyboards aren't for you. They're for everyone else.

Storyboards let everyone see, at a glance, prepared beforehand, what's being worked on that day. This results in enormous time savings throughout the day. The costumer can have all their wardrobe ready to go beforehand. The sound person knows if they're doing a wide shot or a closeup next, so they can be prepared. The makeup person knows if it's a closeup, and on who, long before you even get to the shot. The gaffer has a clue as to what fixtures to bring in and prepare for the next shot.

Storyboards and a shot list = efficient happy crew. No storyboards and no shot list = an irritated, frustrated crew base and long unnecessary delays throughout the day. And eventually you will become the most frustrated, from having to repeat yourself over and over.

The #1 absolute worst part of filmmaking, for me, is having 20 people sitting around doing nothing because they don't know what's coming next, so they sit there and talk. It's phenomenally expensive and wasteful.

Sometimes directors say as you just did: "it's all in my head." Fine -- but everyone else needs to know that information! How is it going to get communicated to them? It can be done once, ahead of time, with boards and a shotlist. Or you can tell each and every department head, over and over, at the beginning of every shot, at which point they'll be frustrated for not being able to prepare ahead of time, and you'll become incredibly frustrated at having to do this over and over.

If you prepare boards beforehand and distribute them to the crew heads, and then your AD prepares a shot list and distributes that, then everyone knows what's coming next. Nobody has to bark out orders and wait 20 minutes while people get their act together for the next shot, because they already know what the next shot is. And they don't have to bend your ear asking you a million questions -- you can answer the question once, beforehand, by having boards and a shotlist. And you don't spend thousands of dollars in overtime pay on your big actors because people are having to run around doing work before the shot, which they could have done beforehand, if they just knew everything that was expected of them that day.

Okay, I've said my part, I won't belabor it further beyond this: I strongly advise you to reconsider, and at the bare minimum have some stick-figure storyboards and an A.D. who will prepare and distribute a shot list each day. And, hey, if you don't want to, that is of course your decision -- but everyone who's reading this should be made very aware of what the purpose of storyboards are, and that whether you choose to do it or not, they certainly should.
 
I agree with what Barry said above. What I try to do is a detailed walkthrough of every location with the department heads. Then I go through each scene pretty detailed and let them know what shots we'll be having (a general idea) I also make a detailed shot list, which is a gameplan for each day. This does change sometimes, but at least we have something to start with, and usually try not to deviate from it too much.
 
Interesting points. I noticed something Adam said earlier that caught my attention:
"Now all I am doing is replaying the scenes in my mind based on what the locations look like. It's pretty easy."

Perhaps the reluctance to storyboard comes from not knowing what all the locations look like yet. This is a problem I've definitely run into when making shorts. Either I acquire a location at the last minute or there's no time to do a location walk-through and figure out what all the shots are. I've found that I generally make up the shots as I go - on the day of production. This works OK for shorts, but I know that I can't work this way when it's time to do a feature.

A Hollywood production rarely shoots on location. They usually have sets built, and when they do actually shoot on location, they likely learn it inside and out, so they can determine what shots are possible.

I guess what I'm saying in all this is that filmmakers (myself included) tend to use pre-production time for logistics, scheduling, and putting out fires rather than shot-planning and other prep-work. I would personally love to get to the point where everything is taken care of and all I have to worry about is the film itself.

At the risk of hijacking the thread a bit, I'd love to hear what other's prep-processes are. Especially those who have are now making features. Brandon? Jack?
 
Even though I'm not done yet (still on the first page) I just stumbled onto this today bored at work and I got to tell ya this is a fun read. I'll easily spend the next 8 hours reading through your production blog.

One thing I gotta say is I hope for your sake you putting this info on a personal webpage or blog and not just here, you should get this out to as many people as possible, you never know who may stumble onto it.
 
Barry, Jack, and Brandon:

This thread is not about how to teach anyone to do anything. I've never said "hey, you have to do it this way"

To me , the purpose of this thread is showing people how I did things, for better or for worse.

I think most of you know that the way I do things is unconventional.

That's just me. I've studied the conventional wisdom, and I've rejected it. But that's just me. I don't expect anyone to copy what I've done verbatim.

You want to make shot lists - fine. Want to draw out the whole movie - great.


But I'm not doing that.
 
Ok, but it's just hard to see why you want to use neither storyboards nor shot lists if they will only cost you some prep time.

If you have a better means of communicating your intentions to your crew, I guess we'd like you to share it with us. We just want to understand.
 
Barry_Green said:
I've agreed with a lot of what you're doing here, but I disagree 100% with this. Perhaps you don't know where I"m coming from, so let me say this clearly for you and for everyone reading this:

Storyboards aren't for you. They're for everyone else.

Storyboards let everyone see, at a glance, prepared beforehand, what's being worked on that day. This results in enormous time savings throughout the day. The costumer can have all their wardrobe ready to go beforehand. The sound person knows if they're doing a wide shot or a closeup next, so they can be prepared. The makeup person knows if it's a closeup, and on who, long before you even get to the shot. The gaffer has a clue as to what fixtures to bring in and prepare for the next shot.

Storyboards and a shot list = efficient happy crew. No storyboards and no shot list = an irritated, frustrated crew base and long unnecessary delays throughout the day. And eventually you will become the most frustrated, from having to repeat yourself over and over.

The #1 absolute worst part of filmmaking, for me, is having 20 people sitting around doing nothing because they don't know what's coming next, so they sit there and talk. It's phenomenally expensive and wasteful.

Sometimes directors say as you just did: "it's all in my head." Fine -- but everyone else needs to know that information! How is it going to get communicated to them? It can be done once, ahead of time, with boards and a shotlist. Or you can tell each and every department head, over and over, at the beginning of every shot, at which point they'll be frustrated for not being able to prepare ahead of time, and you'll become incredibly frustrated at having to do this over and over.

If you prepare boards beforehand and distribute them to the crew heads, and then your AD prepares a shot list and distributes that, then everyone knows what's coming next. Nobody has to bark out orders and wait 20 minutes while people get their act together for the next shot, because they already know what the next shot is. And they don't have to bend your ear asking you a million questions -- you can answer the question once, beforehand, by having boards and a shotlist. And you don't spend thousands of dollars in overtime pay on your big actors because people are having to run around doing work before the shot, which they could have done beforehand, if they just knew everything that was expected of them that day.

Okay, I've said my part, I won't belabor it further beyond this: I strongly advise you to reconsider, and at the bare minimum have some stick-figure storyboards and an A.D. who will prepare and distribute a shot list each day. And, hey, if you don't want to, that is of course your decision -- but everyone who's reading this should be made very aware of what the purpose of storyboards are, and that whether you choose to do it or not, they certainly should.
Click to expand...

many great films have been made sans storyboards. And sans shot lists.

Some directors prefer not to work with a set outline of their shots.

I am a storyboard guy myself.. but they aren't always needed.
 
seunosewa said:
Ok, but it's just hard to see why you want to use neither storyboards nor shot lists if they will only cost you some prep time.

If you have a better means of communicating your intentions to your crew, I guess we'd like you to share it with us. We just want to understand.
Click to expand...

Says you they will cost me prep time.

I didn't say better, I said different. They will all understand what I need to accomplish. We've worked together in the past. It's a mojo we have. And I'll leave it at that.
 
Dizzy Gillespie could play great trumpet with his cheeks puffed out. Similarly David Sandborn could play great sax out of the side of his mouth. Both big nono's in terms of technique.

Maybe you can make a great movie and not get behind and not piss everyone off without a shot list. But, as a sax teacher of mine pointed out, Sandborn and Gillespie didn't play that way because they had screwed up embouchures, they played that way in spite of them. Sandborn, my teacher who worked with him told me, had a snaggle tooth and couldn't make a round shape in the center off his mouth so he had to play with that embouchure. But anyway you have all these young guys trying to puff out there cheeks on trumpet and play sax out the side of their faces thinking - "that must be the way to do it", rather than "that's just putting another obstacle in my way that I don't need".

Simillarly, if anyone pulls off a FEATURE AS OPPOSED TO A SHORT without out shot lists and doesn't get behind, and or piss people off, it will be in spite off, and not because he/she worked that way.

Anyway good luck, and of course as always looking forward to more. Even more so in fact, for now you've told us not only are you going to attempt to do one of the most difficult tasks known to man - make a good movie, but you adamantly intend to do so with one hand tied behind your back. Should be exciting.

Hope you can come back and laugh in our faces. And I don't mean that in a backhanded way at all. I would never want anyone's film, especially any DVXuser's film to fail in order to prove a point of protocol, but you've definitely added to the suspense factor.
 
I'm not going to get into a pissing contest about it. I've never used either a shot list or storyboard. And never missed them.
 
Pissing Contest? er .... :huh:

I think you missed th point of my post.

It was to say that like Gillespie or Sandborn, because you are making a movie with Tom Sizemore, people are looking up to you and may take your word as Gospel. My post was to reinforce what you have said that just because it works for you doesn't mean it's THE WAY.

Sorry if that came off as a pissing contest ... I also wished you luck and said I was looking forward to more as I'm sure we all are.
 
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