Darren Levine
Veteran
fun thread, but i think too much is being dumped on the director, whereas other aspects will determine the outcome of the film, most notably the script, and if we are going under the assumption that the director wrote the script, then by all means refer to them as writer/director or filmmaker. (semantics are fun!)
the thing that bothers me, and the distinction that needs to be made, is in the attitude of the writer/director, of which i think we can make two groups: those who are passionate and attentive, vs those who are on a film 'high' and want to get something 'done'
not that i can back this statement with numbers, but it feels to me we have a larger number of these geterdonners as we'll call them, than real passionate filmmakers.
i can take from experience where i DPed my friends film which he wrote/directed/produced. we were both on our first feature, it was a skeleton crew, and we both relied on each other to get done each others's tasks. i will admit to you that i did NOT read a single word of the script. I will call it a combination of young fool and trust that my director knew what he needed. he made the shot list and for each scene he gave me a description and we went at it. it might surprise you that it went VERY smoothly. the director did a heck of a lot of preproduction and had his family members helping out where they could. our main issue was the first day on set i ask whos operating boom, and he points to zack, zack is about 5 foot 1. i turn to our other producer who is about 6 foot and kindly asked him to operate boom. and i resorted to keep an eye on it and making sure he was on axis and just outside of frame, and it workout out quite well all things considered. we only had 1 afternoon of (sound) issues, other than that the film turned out much how he expected, for the most part it looked and sounded very good. the story was a tad boring but hey, it was his first script and we wanted to dive into making a feature, so we did, but we did not just get it done, we gave it passion and attention. despite the story being a melodrama, the director had studied how to write a script, so the story does hit the important points quite decently, and i give him credit for doing the research before writing the script.
audio is really where i start to separate the boys from the men in film. i run a festival, and watch a good number of other little indie projects, and junk sound is the first nail in the geterdonners coffin. whether because they don't care, or because they think they can just sacrifice that part of the filmmaking process because of lack of budget or time, it doesn't matter. a good film is a good film and a bad film is a bad film, regardless of any excuses.
now, that's just the technical, and like others have said the technical doesn't matter if the acting and script are garbage. lets make another distinction about the geterdonner: the love to use family members and friends as actors. that WOULD be ok... if they were actually actors, but sadly, they most always are not. and there is NOTHING worse than someone who thinks they are an actor. it's just painful
then the scripty, if it sucks, there's no point. i am fortunate to know several talented, awarded, acclaimed, and insructful screenwriters, and from them i've attained a good understanding of how a story should flow and what points need to exist and where. the geterdonner typically doesn't even read a screenwriting book or make a second draft, or heck even get a professional to read their script. IMO if your script hasn't been read and approved by at least 2 professional screenwriters, then there is a 90% likelyhood that it isn't ready and more likely garbage. in screenwriting i call for the reverse legal system: it's **** until proven gold. and proving is done by READING, not SHOOTING.
we all get frustrated by the geterdonner, they are everywhere, and sometimes we end up on set with them. i try to avoid them by just asking more questions before agreeing to be on such a set. a few questions can save a lot of headaches. i did end up on a set where was production managing, and the amateur director had several habits which i had to even out. such as treating her DP ad as camera op. i had to explain to her the difference and tell her to make the decision right there which she wanted. PS they already had a shot list and she basically kept changing all his shots. i told her if she wanted a DP then she could go over the scene with the DP at the beginning of a setup, and then she was not allowed to talk to the DP until we're ready to role, so go rehearse with your actors(the lead btw she replaced the DAY BEFORE). then she would come as me about doing some particular shot or other, i would tell her it's simply not possible. so she would go to the AD, and the AD would tell her it's not possible, and she would just not trust that we knew what the heck we were doing and instead would just ask whichever of us she though would give her the answer she wanted.
ranting takes too long... and it's lunch time.
cheerios
the thing that bothers me, and the distinction that needs to be made, is in the attitude of the writer/director, of which i think we can make two groups: those who are passionate and attentive, vs those who are on a film 'high' and want to get something 'done'
not that i can back this statement with numbers, but it feels to me we have a larger number of these geterdonners as we'll call them, than real passionate filmmakers.
i can take from experience where i DPed my friends film which he wrote/directed/produced. we were both on our first feature, it was a skeleton crew, and we both relied on each other to get done each others's tasks. i will admit to you that i did NOT read a single word of the script. I will call it a combination of young fool and trust that my director knew what he needed. he made the shot list and for each scene he gave me a description and we went at it. it might surprise you that it went VERY smoothly. the director did a heck of a lot of preproduction and had his family members helping out where they could. our main issue was the first day on set i ask whos operating boom, and he points to zack, zack is about 5 foot 1. i turn to our other producer who is about 6 foot and kindly asked him to operate boom. and i resorted to keep an eye on it and making sure he was on axis and just outside of frame, and it workout out quite well all things considered. we only had 1 afternoon of (sound) issues, other than that the film turned out much how he expected, for the most part it looked and sounded very good. the story was a tad boring but hey, it was his first script and we wanted to dive into making a feature, so we did, but we did not just get it done, we gave it passion and attention. despite the story being a melodrama, the director had studied how to write a script, so the story does hit the important points quite decently, and i give him credit for doing the research before writing the script.
audio is really where i start to separate the boys from the men in film. i run a festival, and watch a good number of other little indie projects, and junk sound is the first nail in the geterdonners coffin. whether because they don't care, or because they think they can just sacrifice that part of the filmmaking process because of lack of budget or time, it doesn't matter. a good film is a good film and a bad film is a bad film, regardless of any excuses.
now, that's just the technical, and like others have said the technical doesn't matter if the acting and script are garbage. lets make another distinction about the geterdonner: the love to use family members and friends as actors. that WOULD be ok... if they were actually actors, but sadly, they most always are not. and there is NOTHING worse than someone who thinks they are an actor. it's just painful
then the scripty, if it sucks, there's no point. i am fortunate to know several talented, awarded, acclaimed, and insructful screenwriters, and from them i've attained a good understanding of how a story should flow and what points need to exist and where. the geterdonner typically doesn't even read a screenwriting book or make a second draft, or heck even get a professional to read their script. IMO if your script hasn't been read and approved by at least 2 professional screenwriters, then there is a 90% likelyhood that it isn't ready and more likely garbage. in screenwriting i call for the reverse legal system: it's **** until proven gold. and proving is done by READING, not SHOOTING.
we all get frustrated by the geterdonner, they are everywhere, and sometimes we end up on set with them. i try to avoid them by just asking more questions before agreeing to be on such a set. a few questions can save a lot of headaches. i did end up on a set where was production managing, and the amateur director had several habits which i had to even out. such as treating her DP ad as camera op. i had to explain to her the difference and tell her to make the decision right there which she wanted. PS they already had a shot list and she basically kept changing all his shots. i told her if she wanted a DP then she could go over the scene with the DP at the beginning of a setup, and then she was not allowed to talk to the DP until we're ready to role, so go rehearse with your actors(the lead btw she replaced the DAY BEFORE). then she would come as me about doing some particular shot or other, i would tell her it's simply not possible. so she would go to the AD, and the AD would tell her it's not possible, and she would just not trust that we knew what the heck we were doing and instead would just ask whichever of us she though would give her the answer she wanted.
ranting takes too long... and it's lunch time.
cheerios
