Hardest Thing About Making Your First Film?

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yeehaanow said:
The hardest part for me has always been editing.

I edit my own stuff, and it's hard to separate the roles of Director, Writer, and Editor. I feel like someone else would be able to pull off those cuts that I wouldn't think of, because "I was there and that's not what happened".
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The ONLY way to make a good movie is to separate yourself from the material, to be able to CUT the best shots you have, if they don't fit the film. Directors fall in love with footage too much and fight tooth and nail in order to keep the beautiful shot in the film, at the expense of it. My latest film project, we ended up cutting 70% of the dialogue because it WASN'T WORKING. Hinting at something happening made for a much better film than having the actors tell everything that's going on. Our film is turning into an amazing piece of work
that is being recognized by industry people. We probably will premiere at either Sundance or SxSW and hopefully get a deal there.

Gregory Singer
 
Well, I have yet to make a feature but I'm in the middle of a pretty in-depth short (end up being 30-40 minutes) and I'm learning a lot. I made a ton of films in film school doing everything myself but this is the first where I've had an actual budget (very small) and a professional crew (rather than a bunch of fellow film students).

For what it's worth, I've learned the following by working on this sucker.

1. Get a good DP and trust him. - You don't need someone to plan your shots for you (you should be doing that as a director) and he doesn't need to be an "artist" so to speak, but you need someone who's a real craftsman and a hard worker. Someone who you can tell what you have planned to and he'll say, "give me 20 minutes and I'll get it done." I owe my DP so much. He sometimes takes longer lighting stuff than I'm comfortable with but I leaned quickly not to tell him how to do his job.

2. Get a good sound guy - Bad sound makes a film seem amateur-ish. I made the mistake in this movie of hireing a sound guy with a good reputation who then baled on me 12 hours before the shoot for a better paying gig. This made things miserable and I'll have to do a lot of ADR now as a result. Make sure you have someone who will cover the sound so YOU DON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT IT!!! Location sound usually isn't artistic the way visuals are. You can take some time to discuss with your DP how to light something but you just need to get a guy who can "get" the sound for you and not have that in your mind.

3. Don't direct from behind a monitor or camera! - Even if you're a visual guy, make sure you walk up to your actors and talk to them face to face. Don't give them direction from far away. It makes it seem like you don't care about them. I got told this last night from my lead actress. She hit home that, even though she's done some real films (i.e. those with budgets in the millions rather than thousands); I was one of the few directors who would take the time to speak to her as an equal instead of just instructing behind the camera/monitor. She said it made a big difference and I'll always use that from now on.

4. Tatoo Murphy's Law on your chest - Things will go wrong. NEVER plan something under the assumption that everything will move like clockwork. I realize the temptation is there. I succumb to it because we could only afford to pay the crew for a certain number of days and so I gave us TOO much to do on those days in order to make the movie happen. That was beyond stupid and I'm paying for it now.

5. Infinite patience - No matter what happens, NEVER lose your cool on the set. Period. Everyone looks to you to lead. Don't ever seem out of your element. Actors who are generally insecure will get scared if you seem angry, frustrated, or scared. Your crew who you are probably not paying or not paying very much is going to lose faith in you. Keep calm. Give yourself a smoke break if you need one. Pretend you're acting in a play and you have to play the part of the very calm/patient director. Just never lose your cool.

6. Let everyone feel like they're part of the movie - This helps a lot. Make sure everyone involved has seen the script. Have meetings where you talk about what you want to accomplish. Ask advice occasionally even if you'll never heed it. And, if you're going digital, go ahead and play back some of your good shots for cast and crew just to keep moral up. I've lost track of the number of times showing my actors/producer/crew a really nice shot we just got gave them a boost for a few more hours.

7. Seperate yourself from the movie - Some scenes are worth taking the time to do perfectly. Others you have to either cut or just get them done. Learn where the heart of your film is and learn to compromise. It sucks but it's essential. Not everything will come out just like it was in your head. Some times you'll have to settle for "good enough" at this level. Just make sure that you get it perfect for those few key moments and that will hopefully make all the rest worth while.

8. Work with professionals - This doesn't neccesarily mean how much they get paid, it just means work with people who won't screw around with you. There are a lot of flakes in this business. You don't have the time or energy to deal with them when you're making a movie. Anyone with a big ego, trouble focusing, inability to work with others, or any other issue needs to go. At this level, you're better off with someone competent who be on the mark than a genius who's going to have temper-tantrums.
 
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DavidBeier said:
Well, I have yet to make a feature but I'm in the middle of a pretty in-depth short (end up being 30-40 minutes) and I'm learning a lot. I made a ton of films in film school doing everything myself but this is the first where I've had an actual budget (very small) and a professional crew (rather than a bunch of fellow film students).

For what it's worth, I've learned the following by working on this sucker.

1. Get a good DP and trust him. - You don't need someone to plan your shots for you (you should be doing that as a director) and he doesn't need to be an "artist" so to speak, but you need someone who's a real craftsman and a hard worker. Someone who you can tell what you have planned to and he'll say, "give me 20 minutes and I'll get it done." I owe my DP so much. He sometimes takes longer lighting stuff than I'm comfortable with but I leaned quickly not to tell him how to do his job.

2. Get a good sound guy - Bad sound makes a film seem amateur-ish. I made the mistake in this movie of hireing a sound guy with a good reputation who then baled on me 12 hours before the shoot for a better paying gig. This made things miserable and I'll have to do a lot of ADR now as a result. Make sure you have someone who will cover the sound so YOU DON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT IT!!! Location sound usually isn't artistic the way visuals are. You can take some time to discuss with your DP how to light something but you just need to get a guy who can "get" the sound for you and not have that in your mind.

3. Don't direct from behind a monitor or camera! - Even if you're a visual guy, make sure you walk up to your actors and talk to them face to face. Don't give them direction from far away. It makes it seem like you don't care about them. I got told this last night from my lead actress. She hit home that, even though she's done some real films (i.e. those with budgets in the millions rather than thousands); I was one of the few directors who would take the time to speak to her as an equal instead of just instructing behind the camera/monitor. She said it made a big difference and I'll always use that from now on.

4. Tatoo Murphy's Law on your chest - Things will go wrong. NEVER plan something under the assumption that everything will move like clockwork. I realize the temptation is there. I succumb to it because we could only afford to pay the crew for a certain number of days and so I gave us TOO much to do on those days in order to make the movie happen. That was beyond stupid and I'm paying for it now.

5. Infinite patience - No matter what happens, NEVER lose your cool on the set. Period. Everyone looks to you to lead. Don't ever seem out of your element. Actors who are generally insecure will get scared if you seem angry, frustrated, or scared. Your crew who you are probably not paying or not paying very much is going to lose faith in you. Keep calm. Give yourself a smoke break if you need one. Pretend you're acting in a play and you have to play the part of the very calm/patient director. Just never lose your cool.

6. Let everyone feel like they're part of the movie - This helps a lot. Make sure everyone involved has seen the script. Have meetings where you talk about what you want to accomplish. Ask advice occasionally even if you'll never heed it. And, if you're going digital, go ahead and play back some of your good shots for cast and crew just to keep moral up. I've lost track of the number of times showing my actors/producer/crew a really nice shot we just got gave them a boost for a few more hours.

7. Seperate yourself from the movie - Some scenes are worth taking the time to do perfectly. Others you have to either cut or just get them done. Learn where the heart of your film is and learn to compromise. It sucks but it's essential. Not everything will come out just like it was in your head. Some times you'll have to settle for "good enough" at this level. Just make sure that you get it perfect for those few key moments and that will hopefully make all the rest worth while.

8. Work with professionals - This doesn't neccesarily mean how much they get paid, it just means work with people who won't screw around with you. There are a lot of flakes in this business. You don't have the time or energy to deal with them when you're making a movie. Anyone with a big ego, trouble focusing, inability to work with others, or any other issue needs to go. At this level, you're better off with someone competent who be on the mark than a genius who's going to have temper-tantrums.
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That is all really great stuff, and totally true in my experience as well. The director has to keep his calm, I'm always shocked when I hear about big directors throwing fits or something. It just doesn't seem right. If I was producer only, I'd be more likely to be that way, and that's why I like having a producer aside from myself to play "bad cop" if necessary. Unfortunately that's the only way some people respond. And I do pay, and I do expect professionalism from my crew. If they don't want to act professional I'd prefer they leave my set immediately, I'm in Los Angeles, all of these people are replaceable at a moment's notice. I even keep a 50 page document of contacts for every position with me, so it will take me if I'm really unlucky 5 minutes to hire a replacement. Everyone here should understand how replaceable they are, and it never should have to be said.

But on the set, the director has to seem calm and collected *especially* when things go wrong, not "even if" things go wrong, because of course they will. I had that happen on my last music video, where we were running short on time for that segment of the day, and the DP and 1st A.D. told me it was one scene or the other, but not both. Of course I wanted both, I thought of the scenes and it was my project. But I said, "Ok... give me two minutes." I knew that I had no more than 120 seconds, literally, because of course we were in a time crunch and we'd only get one scene anyway. So I stepped aside and asked for no distractions and looked at my shot list, the song's lyrics, and thought about what I was going for in the video. I ultimately realized I could convey the message I wanted by doing just one of the scenes if I added something else to it, and I made my decision in about 45 seconds. I said, "Ok let's go to the office set and do that." I didn't want to seem nervous about it or angry or frustrated, because that just puts more tension on everyone else. Let the 1st A.D. apply that tension if necessary, not me.

I've really only worked with professionals in my career, besides a few student films in my brief time as a student, where I had quite enough working with amateurs who don't know anything. After that I realized if I wanted to be a pro I have to surround myself with other pros who make me look better, not worse.
 
JonathanLB said:
But on the set, the director has to seem calm and collected *especially* when things go wrong, not "even if" things go wrong, because of course they will. I had that happen on my last music video, where we were running short on time for that segment of the day, and the DP and 1st A.D. told me it was one scene or the other, but not both. Of course I wanted both, I thought of the scenes and it was my project. But I said, "Ok... give me two minutes." I knew that I had no more than 120 seconds, literally, because of course we were in a time crunch and we'd only get one scene anyway. So I stepped aside and asked for no distractions and looked at my shot list, the song's lyrics, and thought about what I was going for in the video. I ultimately realized I could convey the message I wanted by doing just one of the scenes if I added something else to it, and I made my decision in about 45 seconds. I said, "Ok let's go to the office set and do that." I didn't want to seem nervous about it or angry or frustrated, because that just puts more tension on everyone else.
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I've got a similar story for you. Before we started shooting, no one on this sucker had ever worked with me on a film and, while they liked my previous work, no one had really seen me in "director mode." I'm a small guy who speaks softly and I'm a new city so I don't have any rep here. One week before shooting, the owners of our location decided they weren't giving it to us for free and we'd have to pay for it if we wanted the hours we asked for (two days). It wasn't a lot I guess but it would cause our budget to go over and I certainly don't make a whole lot of money. My producer and location guy where trying to find ways we could still get it for free by just slipping in for a few hours each day (something which was impossible considering we had 15 pages to shoot in two days). I sat there, listened to them say totally un-realistic things like, "well, we could get it for four hours the first day but there might still be people there..." before I finally looked up and said in a totally calm voice, "**** it. I'll pay for the location." They both stopped and asked "what?" I said again, "I'll pay for it. We'll get there at 8:00 AM just like we planned and stay for the full two days. It's not worth trying to find a way around it. Now let's move on."

I then immediatly started going into how we'd handle the following days and what preperations needed to be made. After a few seconds my producer, who is this giant ex-mafia guy, said, "stop." I looked up and asked why to which he replied, "you're starting to scare me."

If nothing else, my money and that meeting at least bought me the reputation with those I was working with that I don't screw around.
 
i just stumbled on this thread reading every post. a very good thread so i though i post to pop it back up to the top of the list as its one of the better threads I've seen on DVXuser. its old but much of it still applies IMO.

david
 
Being TOO eager to collaborate with my talent and allowing an actor to do things physically that weren't in the script effectively making some scenes very hard to cut together.
 
Being on my feet all day. I'm an editor, so I sit on my ass all day, and while I keep in shape by running 25 to 30 km a week, the only thing that prepares your body for standing all day, is standing all day.
 
Biggest lesson on my first film (which was around 2007, I think) was learning that I did not in fact have to confer with the actors between every single take. Often, we're on the right track and just need to go again. The other thing I've gotten much better at is to not let indecisveness lead to "gathering options" but rather to have confidence in the plan and "get what we need", if that makes sense.
 
Very nice thread, and a great resurrection! Some fantastic posts (though, IMHO, not necessarily the ones that garnered the most praise). Now the original post was all the way back in 2004... that's almost 15 years ago! So, that makes me curious - there have been many changes in the industry since then, not just the obvious ones of equipment, financing, distribution and the economics of it, but also in acting trends, where the audience taste and attention is at etc.. It's a different time from 2004! I therefore wonder: has the role of the director changed insofar as some advice to first time directors that may have been super useful back in 2004 is now irrelevant or less important, while other considerations appear or move to the forefront?

It might be an interesting exercise to update this thread, by those who feel like it, or who have gathered experience since then? The thing is though, imagine you just directed your first film in 2017, how would you know how it compared to had you made it back in 2004... since nobody makes a first movie twice :)... food for thought!
 
Zak Forsman said:
The other thing I've gotten much better at is to not let indecisveness lead to "gathering options" but rather to have confidence in the plan and "get what we need", if that makes sense.
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I think that's one of the biggest and hardest lessons to learn. I've watched directors on major sets still struggle with this one.
 
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