5 things that went wrong during production. Please share.

Ask_the_dusk

Ask_the_dusk

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I'm going to shot my first short in the second half of September . I pretty much prepare everything by the book and by what I learned in filmmaking workshops. But I think is always better to learn from experience, and since I don't have such , it will be nice if some of you share some of the things that went wrong during productions you've worked on.

How did you fix the problem? What would you rather have done differently ?
 
You can't plan enough at all, just keep going over your budget, expenditure and time schedule...... And, everything takes 2x as long as you think it will in your head. Plan for 3x as long.
 
5things that went wrong during production. Please share.

5things that went wrong during production. Please share.

I'm going to shot my first short in the second half of September . I pretty much prepare everything by the book and by what I learned in filmmaking workshops. But I think is always better to learn from experience, and since I don't have such , it will be nice if some of you share some of the things that went wrong during productions you've worked on.

How did you fix the problem? What would you have done differently ?
 
I could write five different things, but they'd all come back to one theme - not planning enough.

Casting - Have a clear idea of what you want and don't want so you can identify that in the casting process. This could be as specific as the type of person youre looking for, or the type of good/bad habits you think would work for or against you.

Rehearsals - Have a clear idea of what you want in your scenes so you can shape your rehearsals towards that goal.

Script - Have a clear idea of what your story is about so that when others challenge it, or ask you questions about it, you can clearly and concisely state what the story is about.

Pre- production - Have a clear idea of all the challenges you might face in production, and try to plan around these challenges in pre-production. For instance, do the homework on your location. What surprises could possibly pop up that you want to plan for? Have a clear idea of what you want to do visually so that your shotlist corresponds with this. also, the more you know your shotlist, the better you're able to make small changes the day of if you're running short on time or surprises pop up.
 
What is your crew like for the short? Location?

Make sure you have the proper gear for indoors, or location. If on location go check it out before the start date, don't trust someone elses opinion if it's a good place. Just remember it may look cool, but certain certain locations produce unusable audio.
 
I've seen the location, is a huge period apartment. High ceilings, mosaic floors.
The crew is 11, 2 of which sound. I don't know if that's sufficient . I have to shoot 5 pages in one day.
 
Before choosing a location, spend at least 30 minutes there at the same time of day that you will be shooting and listen. Airplanes, trains, traffic, steamships, alien transports, industrial work, Lama stampedes, all have a strange way of interupting a shoot. If sound if half the experience, it should carry half the weight when selecting locations.
The location you described is shouting for lots of sound blankets (which need C-stands or backdrop stands) to be hung in abundance out of frame to tame reverberation.
5 pages a day is doable, with an experienced crew and well planned shot list. 4 pages is more reasonable.
Have a contigiency plan for adding days.
provide PLENTY of water for cast and crew
What are your plans for restrooms? If there is none on location, have a PA arranged who only job is to transort ppl to a nearby BK, Mickie Dees, etc.
 
^
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Defintely, preparation is uber important.

I'll reiterate the importance of casting as well: Delay your shoot if you have to but make sure, at all costs, that you have the right cast. Don't mess around there!
 
1) Everything went wrong with my first shoot.
2) I tried to do 10 different jobs by myself.
3) I rushed it.
4) I didn't plan enough.
5) I didn't stick to the shot list.

Plan everything and then plan it again. Do make a shot list of what is important (storyboard if you're able). Do hire enough people who know what they are doing. Of all your crew; be prepared to spend the most money on your sound operator when you're starting out - you can blag your way through some things but not the audio department!
 
Tying up all the "planning" and "preparation" thoughts:

Make sure you know what you want your finished product to be before you ever shoot a frame. Not vague impressions, but exactly what you want it to be.
 
simonpwood said:
1) Everything went wrong with my first shoot.
2) I tried to do 10 different jobs by myself.
Click to expand...

I know when I started out one big mistake I made was having everything in my head and only my head. Get together with your key collaborators early and go over the WHOLE thing. They should be able to make decisions that fit your vision without having to talk to you. Go to each location with your DP and Producer and go over the logistics of everything from how you are going to pull off all your shots, to where you are going to stage gear and crew, to how you are going to feed everyone and get them to and from set. On the day you need to be able to focus on directing the film.
 
Something WILL go wrong (so be prepared mentally that you will have to resort to plan B at some point). Because everything has a real potential of failure then: when your scene ask for 1 light set-up - make sure you have another alight available just in case, have spare bulbs avil, spare lenses and (if you can) cam body. Definitely have spare batteries and other cam accessories. HAve back-up actors ready (especially if you never worked with a particular person before).
 
Well, I always start posts on advice on actual production with the advice to make sure that you wear a very comfortable pair of shoes. Now that IS actual advice, and please make sure that you wear a comfortable and appropriate pair of shoes. However, that advice is also a mind set. A low budget film shoot is a tremendous undertaking, and big part of it is just overcoming the physicality of getting it done. So, please, wear a comfortable and appropriate pair of shoes.

As well noted above, the vast majority of problems of production are due to the lack of planing. The first part of the planing is, as a director, knowing your script, and how you want to shoot it. Storyboards are nice, but I have had experiences with directors that have had whole scenes storyboarded, but then did not understand the difference between a shot and a set up. On a feature shoot once, we were in the middle of a bridge at night, with police shutting down the street, 20 extras, principal players and crew waiting and I had to give the director a filmmaking 101 class in the fact that we don't move the camera, and lights, from position to position based on the storyboards, but that we shoot the shots from the storyboard with multiple set ups, one set up at a time. So, once you have your storyboards, bust them up into set ups and try to get as much done as possible from each set up. I would suggest setting up three set up lists. The perfect, best possible coverage set up list, the really desirable set up list, and the minimum, absolutely needed to tell the story set up list. Unfortunately, you may find that just getting the absolutely needed set ups may damn near kill ya. Again, storyboards are nice, but when it is hot and people are waiting I find that well done set up lists (I hate to call them "Shot lists" due to the experience on bridge) to be the most helpful. You go down the list and check off the set ups (Prioritized as above) then call it a day.

To me, the start of all planning starts with a proper script break down. I use the method that is taught in the book, "Film Budgeting: Or How Much Will It Cost to Shoot Your Movie?" by Ralph S. Singleton.

http://www.amazon.com/Film-Budgeting-Much-Shoot-Movie/dp/0943728657/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1313639515&sr=8-1

Of course, I go through and read a script a couple of times to get the story and the emotion of it, but when it comes to plan the shooting, I go through the script and color code it with colored pencils and highlighters using Singleton's industry standard system, then do the breakdown sheets, as described. For the logistic planing, the breakdown sheets become the bible and these should be the basis of building a schedule and your call sheets. For shooting and putting together a set up list, I go a step further, and go through the script and for every scene I number the lines of dialogue for each character, then for set up list notation, use the fist letter of the character's name and then the number of the line of dialogue. So if a character named Johnny has 6 lines of dialogue in a scene where he makes a telephone call, I make notes in the set up list that refers to his lines as J-1 through J-6. Then on the blank facing page, I will make an initial set up list like, for example: #1-Master/full shot Johnny with phone from across the room, J-1 to J-6, #2, CU Johnny, J-1 to J-6, CU Johnny twists phone cord between his fingers, J-3 to J-5. And so on and so forth. I do the initial set up list in pencil, then when shooting make my notes, on the actual set ups and their coverage, in pen. This along with the script coordinators' noted script has saved my ass when editing.

The next part of planning is the actual logistics of getting you, your crew and your talent to a specific location, at a specific time, to shot specific scenes. THIS is where I have had most of the challenging situations come up on film shoots. Not to sound like a crotchety oldster, but I have found that punctuality, responsibility and reliability are not characteristics that are valued much any more, especially with folks that you will be able to talk into participating in a low budget film "Adventure". You may note that a lot of low budget films are cast by the filmmakers themselves. The lack of reliable people to participate in the films is the major reason, IMHO. I know, you think that this won't be a problem for you... BUT when it does come up, do me a favor... think of my Vilmos Squirrel avatar!!! Not to say, "I told you so".... but... The real answer for the problem with unreliable people is absolute sincerity and complete seriousness in the way that you conduct yourself in regards to the making of your projects. This is not to say that you have to be a d*ck, or a domineering type, but if you are embarking on a film project, you and everyone you talk to in regard to the project needs to understand that this is a serious project, and even through you may be inexperienced, you are giving it your all and treating it like BUSINESS. Everyone you come in contact with, in regard to this project, should understand that filmmaking is what you are going to do, and even through this may be a learning experience, it is going to lead to bigger and better things. While the project is going to be fun, everybody involved must understand that you are ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY SERIOUS about filmmaking. If you can pull off that attitude, your experience with slacker f**ks should be minimized. When you do run into them, you will need to cut them loose from the project with no mercy. YOU have bigger and better things to do!

From there it is pure logistics. As noted in posts above, you really need to spend time at the location and figure out issues that may come up. Not only the time of day when you plan to shoot, but also the day of the week that you plan to shoot. We did a location scout on a location once on a weekend, but ended up shooting there on a weekday... when rush hour traffic made sound recording a nightmare. We also had the opposite with a location that we scouted on a week day, but did not note that the local airport had a flying school that had a repetitive flying path directly over our location that was used by low flying students ALL DAY on the Saturdays and Sundays we where shooting there.

Logistics continues. How do people get to the set? Where do they park? Where do they clean up and change? How are they going to be fed? Where do they wait before they are needed on set? Where are the facilities? Who is bringing the costumes and who is doing the make up? Where is the power? Do the SFX work and look convincing. Are the call times appropriate? And so forth and so on....

And you need a comfortable pair of shoes!!!
 
Worst bad luck I've seen: Lead actress had to go into witness protection after filming 80% of the production...
 
john threat said:
planning is nice
thinking on your feet is better!
Click to expand...

You should be planning very thoroughly how you can stay thinking while on your feet.
You should be planning what to do when all plans are failing.
You should be planning to throw away every plan you have when the situation is different than planned.
You should be planning to awake in the morning, go to the set and say "action" even if all plans have disappeared and the sky is falling.
You should be planning to not ever, not once to walk onto the set without having planned first all you could and maybe done one of the above later.

In short: If you want to play "your guitar" like a Keith Richard or a Jeff Beck - make a plan first and be able to forget about it later. If you go the other way round, you probably get lost.
 
john threat said:
planning is nice
thinking on your feet is better!
Click to expand...

A lot of good advice in this thread, but the quote above has a point. I wouldn't say "thinking on your feet" is better per se, but simply it's *required*. You should still plan, extensively - as advised here; no doubt, 100%. But.

The reality of filmmaking is that there is room for experience and talent, because so much cannot be anticipated. Let me describe to you a situation that happens all the time and WILL happen to you. You storyboarded and drew the exact shot breakdown. You do your setup. You film it. And you review your shot - and the scene is dead... for some reason, it just lies there like a dead fish, and you don't know why. I'm not talking about the script or actors - those are the first line of examination, of course, even before you start shooting. I'm talking about a scene that works on paper, the actors are doing what they are supposed to be doing... but for some reason, the scene is dead.

Now let me say something tough. The idiots will tell you it can't happen, that if your script works and the actors do their job, the scene will never feel dead. But they are idiots - they simply lack judgment and an aesthetic sense. Nothing can help them, so let's ignore those people. IF you have an eye, you will perceive when a scene or setup is dead. And that's what marks 99% of failed amateur productions - when people either don't perceive when something isn't working (idiots or hacks), and those who perceive but don't know what to do. Here sometimes experience comes in, or natural talent. This is what will happen to you - you will be confronted with this, and how you deal with it will determine if your film will succeed or not.

When that happens, often the answer is purely technical, and you have to search for it. For example, one time I was involved in shooting a feature and the scene was not working at all - it felt dead and flat. The director finally hit upon a very simple little thing - he just moved the camera slightly at the beginning of the shot. All of a sudden, the scene came alive! It's such small things that can make your scene come alive or lie there dead. It can be just an issue of re-framing, or changing the tempo, or slight change to the staging. That's where your "thinking on your feet" comes in - you are confronted with a dead scene, and you must quickly experiment with ways to make the thing come alive. So you see, merely having your script and actors solid and storyboarding is not enough. People's films fail, when they either (a) don't recognize when something is not working or (b) don't know what to do about it, and they simply stick to the pre-arranged storyboarding solutions.

The lesson for you here is: use your eyes and ears. When something is not working - and hopefully you recognize that - be willing to abandon the previous preparation and storyboarding. But there is a natural resistance to abandoning the comfort of the preparation - because you've invested so much time and effort in the preparation, that it now acts like a giant gravitational field, and you are unwilling to be brutally honest with yourself and say "IT IS NOT WORKING" and "I need to abandon my comfort zone and 'waste' all the preparatory work". Be willing to always change your design, and experiment. Your first and most important obligation is to make a good film. For that, you need to abandon your preconceptions and be willing and able to keep re-evaluating the work as it progresses. Always keep your eyes open and be ready to jump.
 
Thank you all. Great thoughts . David - the three shot sheets ( setup lists) was a great suggestion. Never thought of this before. Really like it, since I'm bordering on the obsessive compulsive side myself. Great advise about casting too. Delaying and changing shooting dates will be a nightmare and shouts ' unprofessional ' on so many levels, but I have to find my actors. I wish I could afford to pay for a real casting director, since the second lead is in his 60's and that will be a long shot I think.Thanks again.
 
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