How do you make a feature film?

Hey guys
well this is what i have to say. BUY these books------"from reel to deal" "the guerilla film makers handbook" and "story" by robert mckee. these books r the best out there. make sure you plan for as long as it takes. Pay everyone, at least $20 a day. i know you cant afford that much so you have to get investors. Prepare a great PPM and go get them. the whole process should take more than 6 months but well workh it. dont shoot until everything is rehersed, stoyboarded, broken down, overheads, budget, etc. getting investors isnt hard and for a dv film u need about $30,000 to do it right. plan a daily budget and hire a AD/PM someone who will stand behind you and also keep track of the money being spent. dont make this hard. its not . its like building a housee, you do it in order. and u do it right. MAKE SURE THE SCRIPT IS THE BEST AND ABSOLUTELY MARKETIBLE AND KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE. you want to sell the film right? hire the right people. Good DP, actors , crew and u wont have to worry about very little thing cause they know what to do. Dont give result direction to actors and make sure they know everyting about character. Filmmaking is a great fun exhausting experience so dont make it hard but fun. if you can pull it togeter then you will become a stronger person.

if u want to make cheap dv $50 movies with bad audio and crap lighting then continue to do so but dont plan on working in the industry. REMENBER THIS IS A BUSINESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! if u want to do art go to film school or to europe but the Glaumor of hollywood isnt there. MAKE EVERYONE BELIEVE IN YOUR PROJECT AND DONT GIVE UP CAUSE ITS ALL UP TO YOU BUDDY.
 
mroczkowski83 said:
true but didnt DOV SIMMONS telly you ot to make shorts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...


Dov says not to make shorts to make money, because they aren't really marketable. That doesn't mean you shouldn't do them to hone your craft, work on ideas and figure out what the hell you are doing. There's a difference

There seems to be a shortage of exclamation pints around here. Anybody know where they are?
 
yeah, keeping it down to a few location's, knowing what you have access to and also having a set of trustworthy ( dedicated actors ) the problem with working with friends for actors ( or people who think it may be fun ) is that' real Actors will jump threw hoop's ( in a good way ) because like you they want to have something to show... where friends find it to be a good way to spend saturday... On to a personal story... I was filming a short, and went to a party 50% of the short was filmed, and the lead actor showed up at the party with his head shaved ? He wasn't an Actor... just an associate....
 
Get ready to wear many hats. My shoot last weekend had my lead actor acting, as well as taking the gaffer role. We also had a scene were several cops surrounded a cabin. We shot it with a couple actors that were wrapped for the night, along with myself and the producer. I also along with directing and shooting, had to throw on a police outfit and run past the camera at a few different angles to make it look there were 10-20 cops, when only they were like 4. In my case with little to no crew, you have to be very creative.
 
MattC,

You totally nailed exactly what I was thinking. Being a director on a low/no budget film is basically being the leader of an all-volunteer organization. You have to recruit and evangelize your cast and crew. One of the most important skills required is the ability to get people to commit and stay committed to the project. Part of this is understanding what each person is looking for out of this. It may be experience, a good reel, knowledge, appreciation, a date with the leading lady, whatever!

It's going to take natural leadership ability. I learned the most about doing an indie short film from my experience years ago running a small non-profit educational foundation. I got good at finding reliable people that could commit to a cause for their own reasons. I got good at incorporating their reasons into the mission for the organization. I got good at asking people to do hard things for free. I got good at explaining to each person their role in the group effort. I got good at acknowledging people and remembering to 'feed their souls'. Otherwise they will walk out when the going gets tough (and the going *always* gets tough).

--- Mark
 
Markran, what you say is very true. Being a good director is about delegating, leadership, being a good motivator and such, especially, most especially when people are working for free! On Hollywood films, directors have the freedom of being complete total assholes to his cast and crew and get away with it. It's a different story for us Indie, no-budget directors. I find your story very interesting. Please share on how your experience in delegation, getting people to do hard things for free, getting people to commit....often I find those the hardest things to do.
 
"On Hollywood films, directors have the freedom of being complete total assholes to his cast and crew and get away with it."

I guess that's true on medium-sized films. On the biggest Hollywood blockbuster projects, your stars, key crew members and most importantly, producers, are probably influential enough that they can tank your career if they spread the word that you are a total jerk.

I guess my advice is to communicate as much as possible. Let people know that you appreciate them. Thank their spouses for "loaning" them to you. On my last project I ended up with some insanely long days (like one that was supposed to be 12 hours that ended up being 21 hours). The entire volunteer crew (12 people) hung in and helped make it happen. I think it helped that they were seeing shots on the monitor that were awesome. We had to actually break from our location for three hours when we ran over (they were booked for another event). During that time I took the crew to dinner at the nicest Italian restaurant in our entire region. Yes, it was expensive but it turned out to be an important gesture of appreciation.

Other small touches can make a difference such as making very professional call sheets for the cast and crew (you can find examples to emulate online). Also, involve everyone on the crew in at least one pre-production meeting (this is outside of rehearsals for the actors, which are essential as well). Make those meetings fun and get ideas flowing. I usually have the camera there and often we start acting out the blocking of key scenes with various tech crew members taking the positions of the actors to see if we can frame the shot the way we are imagining it (plus it's a lot of fun to see two 250 pound guys awkwardly recreating the blocking of the romantic embrace!)

During one of those meetings I described how I planned to do a crucial scene and one person thought that it wouldn't work on camera. As we talked about it, everyone but me, eventually ended up expressing their feeling that the shot as planned was risky. So, I gave up my cherished vision of this shot, even though I thought they were wrong. Turns out in retrospect, they were absolutely right. The moral of the story is, if your whole crew disagrees with you, then you should listen to them. If you're not going to listen then get a new crew (because you must not hold the current crew in high enough regard to trust their opinion when they are unanimous).

If you have a little money making t-shirts for the cast and crew is a great idea. To save money I've used my laminating machine and color printer to make "All Area Access" crew badges with the logo of the film (note: yes, make a cool logo for the film). The black neck lanyards can be purchased online for $5.00 a dozen. I handed out the badges when everyone arrived on the morning of our first big location shoot. Everyone thought they were super cool and it helped everyone feel like a part of something "big".

The reality is that, as talented as they are, the people on my crew (including me) all have regular day jobs and none of us are probably ever going to move to Hollywood and be in "the business" for real. This kind of indie project is a way for all of us to participate in film making for fun. It's part of the responsibility of the producer/director to inject some of that "Hollywood Magic" in the process. It makes it more fun and reminds everyone of the scope of what we're trying to do and the art form we're trying to be a small part of.

It's also vital that you have excellent "craft services" (this means food, drink, snacks and munchies). It doesn't have to be expensive (you can buy in bulk at Costco), but there has to be enough and chips don't count as food. Food means real food like sandwiches (with chips on the side). And for God's sake show up at that 7 am call on the first big shoot day with some donuts, bagels and coffee.

I think it's also important that the cast and crew see that you take the project very, very seriously. That means you are doing your homework and showing up prepared with scripts, prop lists, storyboards, locations stills etc. It's also a very good idea to have some "motivational" materials prepared for key pre-production meetings. For one I had a mock-up of our movie's poster (click here to see it http://66.240.157.66/personal/randall/wedding/Wedding-Poster---Small.jpg). Everyone flipped out seeing their names on the bottom of that poster.

For another meeting I spent an all-nighter the night before cutting together some rough test footage we had shot in our location. I corrected it (because we didn't have any lights on the test) and put it to music. Watching the footage you could just barely squint and see the ultimate vision starting to come together. That got people excited. Also, at the beginning of the project I already had a "World Premiere" date. Everyone knew the project had to be done by that date and everyone knew they'd be able to come to the premiere with their significant other and see the results of all our hard work. I think that gave everyone an 'end result' to focus on. It also meant that I basically had to spend three days without sleep right before the premiere to finish the edit, but it was worth it. We've all seen projects that don't ever actually get finished. Everyone knew this project was going to get completed, hell or high water.

Last, you need to involve your cast and crew while shooting. Let them know what's going on. For example on the morning of one of our all-day shoots, during move-in and setup at the location, I learned that the 10K light had shown up from the rental house with a blown ballast (they assured us they had tested it but when we picked it up we didn't make them hook it up and prove it, lesson learned). I gathered the entire cast and crew around and shared the news as well as the solution, "Joe has a big enough car so he's going to return the 10K to the rental house. They open at 9 so he'll be there in parking lot waiting for them to open and be back here ASAP. In the meantime we're going to change the shot order to do these smaller side shots that we can do with softboxes first. That means we'll need to reset the dolly and track etc. etc."

It was a setback but the important thing was that everyone knew what the new plan was and had a part in helping. Things always change during shooting and it's not a problem as long as everyone is advised of what changed and why. Otherwise, they'll start to think that the production is not organized.

At the end of our long and difficult production I was very surprised and gratified to receive an old-style chalk clapboard that the crew had chipped in and bought as a gift for me. They chalked in my name on the director's line and all signed it. As great as our movie was I think that was the best moment (well, it may have been exceeded by the standing ovation at the premiere!).

--- Mark

P.S.

I almost forgot. During shooting I had an extra small camcorder loaded with tape and battery and told everyone in the crew to go get it and shoot some "Making of..." footage whenever they felt like it throughout the day. After the movie was done I edited together those tapes into a cool five minute "Making Of..." video. When I made the Cast and Crew DVDs, in addition to a Director's Commentary track that specifically called out the unique contributions of everyone on the crew, I included this video. Everyone who was on the crew has shown that 'Behind the Scenes' video to their family and friends and every one of them has volunteered to be on any future project of mine. It's a small world and word does get around. If you want to attract a great crew on your second project, make sure you have a very happy crew after your first project. Here are links to WMV streaming versions of the "Making Of..." video.

350 Kbps link: mms://video.power2play.com/mr/MakingOf 350k.wmv
700 Kbps link: mms://video.power2play.com/mr/MakingOf.wmv
 
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