Anything that can, Will go wrong!!!

GlimmerGhost

GlimmerGhost

Well-known member
Why the hell didnt anyone tell me? 'm joking of course but even after reading a million times to OVERPREPARE for filming a movie (I swear to you I thought I did) how much more can go wrong filming this thing?!

Forecast was sunny, but it rained so hard the location had to shut down and I was forced to shoot the whole thing at my small house.

Rented a lighting package, but surprise, surprise! The guy prior to me blew the bulbs out... hahaha, oh yea and the leading supplier/distributer had nothing in stock... so I was forced to work with worklamps.

Boompole operator turned out to be this flaky kid that has insomnia and kept falling asleep during the shoots... so now the audio has to be VO'd. Sonofa...

The Navy's Blue Angels held an airshow this weekend, and it got into the audio so bad that the whole shoot went... "Action!".... "No wait... Now acti... shi*, ok, nnnnn... ok now action!"

My DP brought his XL2 and insisted it would match.... whoooowheeeeee, it sure as hell didnt I'll tel you right now, I'm just glad I had the common sense to reshoot all day one's scenes on day two.

Anyway, what can I say? At first I questioned myself as a filmmaker, but I'm not bitter at all, i learned a whole lot from my first movie "Some Men Speak Of War", and even though the final product might not be what I want there will always be another chance to do it better. I hope this testimonial gives others that are new at this inspiration to try again if they fall the first time.

The good news? I gave my second script to the owner of a 5 star restaurant here in cleveland, they ok'd me to shoot for this weekend. (Ravensedge, whatyasay buddy?)

Last minute advice is welcomed in every shape and form please!!!!
 
Congrats on gettin' 'er done. I'm about to direct my first short. Hopefully the time I've spent on set as a producer will prepare me for the nightmares.

I'm also not using lights or sound so it should be easier than yours. It might just look like a big steaming pile of horsefilms refuse.
 
Hairy Lime said:
Hey, it's all about story, right?
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Absolutely. No amount of polish will make me sit through a movie with a terrible plot (unless it's really bad, then I can't help it).:)
 
Ouch, GlimmerGhost. I can relate to a lot of that. I was lucky enough to finish a shoot this past week that went the opposite: months of everything possible going wrong in pre-production, and then an actual shoot that went smooth as silk. Still, here's my one piece of relevant advice:

always check your gear before you leave the rental house. Sometimes you'll get bad cables, bulbs, who knows... better to spend an extra half-hour than to have your rental be a waste. Also, any place renting lights should also be giving you spare bulbs free of charge.

As for sound, yeah, I don't know what it is. I've had more trouble with sound people than anything else. I've been lucky enough now to find a few that actually know what they're doing, but for the most part they are a lazy and incompetent breed of people in my experience, if not actually high/drunk during the shoot. If you find a good one, hold on to him!
 
HorseFilms said:
Absolutely. No amount of polish will make me sit through a movie with a terrible plot (unless it's really bad, then I can't help it).:)
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Dont rent Scotlantd, PA. :grin:
 
Glimmerghost, I feel your pain. I like to think of directing as trying to steer an eighteen wheeler down a narrow, windy country road without the power steering. Does that analogy make sense to anyone?

p.s. Just shot a short in a restaurant attached to a movie theater, couldn't cut the AC. Short looks great. However I'm in post-production audio hell. It never goes as smoothly as you want.
 
GlimmerGhost said:
My DP brought his XL2 and insisted it would match.... whoooowheeeeee, it sure as hell didnt I'll tel you right now, I'm just glad I had the common sense to reshoot all day one's scenes on day two.
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ALWAYS run camera tests before production. Plan on doing film out? Do some test shoots with your camera or have DP that has lit for that exact camera on a previous film out. Even if you read on a board like here that the HVX has a great film out, you don't know it, you don't know how to expose it for best results. Do not assume any of the post production steps, KNOW them. Murphy will guarentee those assumptions will be false.


dougspice said:
As for sound, yeah, I don't know what it is. I've had more trouble with sound people than anything else. I've been lucky enough now to find a few that actually know what they're doing, but for the most part they are a lazy and incompetent breed of people in my experience, if not actually high/drunk during the shoot. If you find a good one, hold on to him!
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Hire a professional. Otherwise you get what you pay for. And watch how you classify a group of people. It would be pretty easy to throw around some derogatory terms to describe my experience with most people who consider themselves cameramen or directors. Incompetent would sound nice by comparison in describing this "breed of people".

Cheers
 
pto2212 said:
Why?
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Why? Holy crap if you knew how many shoots i've been in that no one broght tape to? Two. Both those pilots never happened because of that disaster.

I'm here talking to you guys and editing at the same time... and i'm thinking about what horse said and i'm thinking to myself, "the story is great, but god all these angles suck major ass."
My house is pretty small and dosent have much space to pull a Barry Green Z99 special... shoot, it dosen't even have enough space for a Pto special ( ":Drogar-Dolar(DBG): a-do I, or-dont I? a-do-I? or-dont I... akuna matata:grin: :beer: )

I've seen enough cleveland Indie films with the amateurish looking angles to last me a lifetime... i just didnt expect to see them show up in my movie during post.Oh well, i guess its true, you are your own worst enemy.
 
I said "in my experience", wabbit. I know there are good sound people out there. I've found a few to work with now. My point was that, more than in any other crew position, I've also found plenty to never work with again. Bottom line is that there's no shortage of incompetence anywhere you look, really.
 
GlimmerGhost said:
Why? Holy crap if you knew how many shoots i've been in that no one broght tape to? Two. Both those pilots never happened because of that disaster.

I'm here talking to you guys and editing at the same time... and i'm thinking about what horse said and i'm thinking to myself, "the story is great, but god all these angles suck major ass."
My house is pretty small and dosent have much space to pull a Barry Green Z99 special... shoot, it dosen't even have enough space for a Pto special ( ":Drogar-Dolar(DBG): a-do I, or-dont I? a-do-I? or-dont I... akuna matata:grin: :beer: )

I've seen enough cleveland Indie films with the amateurish looking angles to last me a lifetime... i just didnt expect to see them show up in my movie during post.Oh well, i guess its true, you are your own worst enemy.
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... I was being sarcastic to an extreme. I know you need tapes...
 
dougspice said:
I said "in my experience", wabbit. I know there are good sound people out there. I've found a few to work with now. My point was that, more than in any other crew position, I've also found plenty to never work with again. Bottom line is that there's no shortage of incompetence anywhere you look, really.
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Well the choice of "breed of people" has very heavy implications. More over, most independent film crews stick the most undesirable crew memeber in the sound position and then wonder why sound always ends up such an issue. "Grab the guy standing around and give him a boom pole" "Why is the sound always so bad?" You just answered your own question.

Sound is a seperate dept with it's own expertise and knowledge. You wouldn't ask one of the grips to start applying makeup, don't give the mixer position to the shortest straw.

Actually take the time to look for someone who's primary field of knowledge is sound and then provide them an ounce of respect and time to do their job. You would be amazed at what that will get you. Anything short of that and the bad sound is reflective of your incompetence as a producer. If you give a monkey a camera, you don't blame the monkey for the shaky footage you blame the person who gave the monkey a camera.

Maybe you didn't mean it but the the way you made that statement is flame bait and should not be tolerated. Adding "in my experience" doesn't excuse racist comments, nor will it excuse any gross generalization of any group of people.

For future reference: "I have been unsuccessful in finding decent sound people. I have done A, B, C and had no luck. What am I doing wrong? How do you guys find good sound people for your projects?"
 
wabbit said:
Well the choice of "breed of people" has very heavy implications. More over, most independent film crews stick the most undesirable crew memeber in the sound position and then wonder why sound always ends up such an issue. "Grab the guy standing around and give him a boom pole" "Why is the sound always so bad?" You just answered your own question.

Sound is a seperate dept with it's own expertise and knowledge. You wouldn't ask one of the grips to start applying makeup, don't give the mixer position to the shortest straw.

Actually take the time to look for someone who's primary field of knowledge is sound and then provide them an ounce of respect and time to do their job. You would be amazed at what that will get you. Anything short of that and the bad sound is reflective of your incompetence as a producer. If you give a monkey a camera, you don't blame the monkey for the shaky footage you blame the person who gave the monkey a camera.

Maybe you didn't mean it but the the way you made that statement is flame bait and should not be tolerated. Adding "in my experience" doesn't excuse racist comments, nor will it excuse any gross generalization of any group of people.

For future reference: "I have been unsuccessful in finding decent sound people. I have done A, B, C and had no luck. What am I doing wrong? How do you guys find good sound people for your projects?"
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This is why we normally don't let Wabbit outside of the Audio Thread.

Then again, I agree with everything he said.

See, you should come out of that one thread more often.
 
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