Behind the Scenes Video

Zacatac

Zacatac

Well-known member
Hey Guys,

I possibly have been hired to make a "Making Of" for a feature being shot just a few minutes away from me, I've made one BTS video before for the 4k Challenge here: http://www.vimeo.com/2912463

Now I might want to get into BTS shooting and I know they can be bland and kinda over the top. So I'm thinking about what I really need to shoot

What do you think should be done, This will be the first time I've ever done something like it, so what do i shoot, how do i shoot it, how personal should i get?

Thanks,
Zac
 
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HBO First Look, EPK or DVD Bonus feature? Who will be your client? Who is paying you? If it is the filmmaker, you should have a lot more freedom than if the studio marketing departments are paying you. Do you know the director or actors? Are you being hired to just shoot or to produce the finished piece?

Make sure that you listen and do exactly what the ADs tell you to, stay out of the actor and director's eyeline. Don't bug people, go through channels on set, which will be the ADs. They will tell you when you can have access to the director and the actors. Esepcially if they are shooting multiple cameras, stay out of the way of all of the cameras, not just the one you are standing near. Just keep in mind that in the filmmakers minds, you being on set is a necessary evil. They put up with it because it is needed to market and promote the film. Hate to say it, but shooting BTS is kind of boring and tedious, filmmaking is filmmaking. At some point, not now, not on your first one, it will occur to you that there is not really that much you can do to make it creative. Other than interviews off set, you cannot light it, often you cannot pick your vantage points and you are shooting people in the act of filmmaking, which as anyone in the business knows, looks very exciting and glamorous but in reality is small amounts of excitement surrounded with hours of tedium. Have a PMA, but realize that the most important thing is to capture what is going on without injecting yourself into the proceedings. Make friends with the sound mixer and get a wireless tap from his board (sorry, I have never encountered a female sound mixer in Hollywood, although I know that there are a few out there). In this way, you will be able to hear the actors because, surprise, real actors acting usually speak pretty softly and when you are behind the real camera crew, 20 feet away from the talent, you won't be able to hear them at all.

Just keep in mind, you are entering the toughest legal clearance type of media production in existence. Feature films themselves, commercials, television, every other type of production gets a free pass where often the lawyers will shoot you down in flames for the most innocuous things. If you are dealing with clearing ANYTHING besides what you will be shooting on set, hire a good clearance person.

Good luck and enjoy an exciting career in BTS shooting.

Dan
 
Woah, I did not expect such a great list of tips :D

This is not for any major studio, I mentioned the idea to the producer and he went with it, I am currently going to be a PA, first day of filming this saturday.

Its not a huge studio production, which means I can connect myself further into the set, less people, less crew, more leeway, This is still a prototype idea for them.

I mean its such a small budget, I'm not getting paid, maybe a little commiseration on the side, but I'm doing this for experience, even if i was going to jsut PA, no payment, I just want something to add to my resume... lol

This is also everything an experienced filmmaker will say not to do.
 
Sometimes it has it's perks. I walked onto a set as a stranger and was presented with several pairs of Oakley Blades "Radar" version (sun glasses in a carbon fiber like case, ipods, little ipod speakers, watches etc. I'll bet I walked out with $5k in gifts. I had access to anything I wanted and everybody introduced thier selfs to me. Guess it depends on the crew. We had a blast! I was treated very well. I had all the actors coming up to me doing little skits, we ended up doing a little spoof on RR's 10 min film school renamed 2 min film school, had several 30 sec film school episodes :). We did comedy shorts on acting, dressing, lighting, craft services, how to direct, produce, be a studio exec, how to shoot the BTS, they rolled up fake joints and pretended to smoke them (rehab episode). Rig'd the bathroom door so props would fall on them when they went in or out. On and on and on. I'm telling you the BTS stuff was (almost) better than the movie. Everyone had sooooo much fun with it. Work hard but when in Rome take the fun road if you can.

EDIT: I did have a connection FTR
 
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Jeez Chip, I want to work BTS with you. Half the time when I do it, the unit publicist has already had fights with the ADs before anyone has ever met me or my crew. So when we come on set somethimes, tensions are already high. The typical one I have ran into has been on some ABC shows that I did where we were mistaken for another crew that had already been on set for Entertainment Tonight or the Insider. Those crews on this particular show were complete idiots and got in the way constantly, were intrusive and inconsiderate. Naturally the ADs and the crew were primed to not be very receptive to us, although I think by the end of the three days, we had won them over when they saw that we weren't jerks like the other crews.

The best I have scored has only been t-shirts and a jacket. Have never been so lucky to have stumbled onto a gift suite show like you did! Very nice.

Dan
 
Very cool guys,

this i believe is going to be a low-key thing, not a big crew, not a big budget, so I'll have alot more welcoming then a Union Crew

Using my HMC150 I'll need to buy some extra SD cards for a day of shooting

:D
 
The movie I spoke about above was a comedy, it was 24/7 of jokes, fun and pranks, things no doubt would have had a different tone and outcome if it were any other genre of film. I also have some personal connections with the studio so the director threw me some slack when I told him I was putting a wireless lav on him. Anytime the director would go to the bathroom he would leave the mic on and the actors would all fight for my headphones and be rolling on the floor laughing. Got some really funny BTS stuff for this movie. It'll be out on dvd in probably 12-18 months.
 
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