Production design advice for a newbie.

TheJetBlack

TheJetBlack

Active member
I've made a feature and shorts on no-budgets and friends with very limited time. Here's an example from a my feature trailer:



Next, I'm planning a boxing/gangster film (also sort of injected with Cambodian culture). I need it to look right and not like crap. Thanks! :laugh:
 
Hi TheJEtBlack, I know nothing about you and I'm trying to be constructive so here goes, just off the top of my head: you need to scout some boxing gyms or build your own and get gym props. Is there a Cambodian boxing gym in your city? Make friends there, start boxing yourself or just jump rope and observe, take your camera and shoot some real boxers, get a feel for the place - it would be amazing to score access to a rough textured hardboiled boxing gym, right? You need an actor or actors who can box and who look like they are actually boxers ie in shape. Perhaps you'll need a good makeup artist. You need to get believable actors for the style. I take it that you have access to elements of Cambodian culture and therefore you have the potential to make a unique film, have access to certain places, i would exploit that to the full. Plan out what locations you need to find and what locations you need to paint / nail together in advance. I look forward to hearing more about your project, happy shooting:)
 
Thank you for your advice -- they're great! :) And I'm in the middle of trying to get funding for it, which isn't easy at all. lol.
 
Hi, thanks for the kind words man. I think some of the best advice I've picked up from the many amazing people on these boards is to know your limitations and figure out creative ways to work within your limitations. Lot's of the savvy people on here put production design/ location near the top of the list, that makes sense. Good luck with the project:)
 
But I feel you guys can make a feature. Why wait? If you make mistakes on a feature, you'll make bigger mistakes and thus you'll learn more than if you make mistakes on a short, because -- well -- it's short. :)
 
the secret to no budget production design is like a secret zen-master trick that the zen master keeps trying to tell you but you never get it then it takes you years to get it and when you do your like holy crap thats so EASY and OBVIOUS that why didnt I understand it before. Its a magic trick that creates movie magic right in front of your eyes. Robert Rodriguez tried to explain it, then he confused-thehellout of everyone by making a movie that got picked up by hollywood. Ill explain it better.

Tell stories that take place in the socio-economic environment that you are in. That take place with the types of people you know, in the places that you have access to. IF you can find cool stuff to add to your movie, fine. But start with what you have.

Are you a middle class high school kid that wants to make horror movies and all you have is a knife and some fake blood? Guess what. Tell a story about a bunch of high school kids and one of them is a crazed killer that cuts loose at a high school get-together when the parents arent home. Your bedroom already looks like a high school kids bedroom and your house already looks like a suburban house and your friends already look like high school students. Will be soooooo believable. At least more believabel than that green screen sci-fi short you were planning.

Are you a musician and you want to do a comedy? Guess what your best bet is to tell a funny story about a band breaking up. Your apartment looks like a musicians apartment already. Maybe you can get the bar where you play at to let you shoot there. That scene where you play at the bar will look wow so real.

Its really hard to learn this lesson, but when you do youll be sooooooooooo happy you did.

PRODUCTION DESIGN FIRST (What do I have?)

SCRIPT SECOND. (Write a script for what you have).
 
Oh look, Harmony Korine ganged up with a bunch of highschool filmmakers because they had loads of cocaine and he had a few ideas for a crazy character jumping off steps and running through roads, so they decided they could benefit from each other.

I mean really, it'd seriously strike me as one hell of a surprise if the OP had never seen Julien Donkey-Boy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUS8GGujwro

(^ Class A example of a trash film directed by Harmony Korine (Kids, Gummo, Mister Lonely) and DP'd by Anthony Dod Mantle (28 Days Later, Slumdog Millionaire, Antichrist, 127 Hours), with a budget of over a million dollars, mainly to pay for having Anthony Dod Mantle as the DP and to be distributed across the US. - and now, the OP comes out with a film that essentially looks and feels exactly the same, for what, maybe a $100 bucks? What is the world coming to.)

Thing is, like any of his films, Anthony Dod Mantle did an amazing job with Julien Donkey-Boy, it really is a good film and is worth the insane budget it required for it's marketing, actors, and staff. The one thing separating it from a no-budget student film, though, is Mantle is a genius with focal lengths, and not once did he film a shot in that movie that looked uncomfortable or camcorder-ish, it really followed cinematic rules of perception and framing, which really took it to the next level. And it wasn't like Korine doesn't know what he's doing, his recent film Trash Humpers (with Korine being the camera man and DP), was framed and shot with just as much care when it came to zooming and focal lengths.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mgpZ2koRls&feature=related

The main thing that separates s**t from gold is simply if you know how to present s**t in a magical way. Know which focal lengths are enchanting for a shot, use actors who really are hilarious and convince the viewer 100%, use locations that are outside of a "Mom's bedroom/School Parking Lot" range, make sure that the entire film is color graded the same way, ect ect. Other than a few basic common sense things, hilarious trash films are really fun to make, and the honest truth is that if they are funny enough, like the the OP's preview is, it keeps the people who happen to stumble onto it watching. Half of the shots in the preview were very memorable and crazy, half the quotes were giggle-worthy and unexpected, and overall, I'd say that different aspects of that preview were actually enchanting and begged me to watch more, yet some other aspects lost me and made me disregard some of the feel, like the gangster plots or romance plots (though the jokes were all truly good!) It was a crazy preview, I enjoyed it as a preview, but I'm not sure I could watch the entire film lol.

But yeah, that's what also makes Harmony Korine's million-dollar trash films just as equally enchanting, they're both beautiful, crazy, and downright hilarious, mostly thanks to Werner Herzog always having a major part. Really funny stuff. For instance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sr_5D817HS0&feature=related

"I wanna watch you pour that sh*t all over and soak your throat with them suds!"
 
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memento515 said:
the secret to no budget production design is like a secret zen-master trick that the zen master keeps trying to tell you but you never get it then it takes you years to get it and when you do your like holy crap thats so EASY and OBVIOUS that why didnt I understand it before. Its a magic trick that creates movie magic right in front of your eyes. Robert Rodriguez tried to explain it, then he confused-thehellout of everyone by making a movie that got picked up by hollywood. Ill explain it better.

Tell stories that take place in the socio-economic environment that you are in. That take place with the types of people you know, in the places that you have access to. IF you can find cool stuff to add to your movie, fine. But start with what you have.

Are you a middle class high school kid that wants to make horror movies and all you have is a knife and some fake blood? Guess what. Tell a story about a bunch of high school kids and one of them is a crazed killer that cuts loose at a high school get-together when the parents arent home. Your bedroom already looks like a high school kids bedroom and your house already looks like a suburban house and your friends already look like high school students. Will be soooooo believable. At least more believabel than that green screen sci-fi short you were planning.

Are you a musician and you want to do a comedy? Guess what your best bet is to tell a funny story about a band breaking up. Your apartment looks like a musicians apartment already. Maybe you can get the bar where you play at to let you shoot there. That scene where you play at the bar will look wow so real.

Its really hard to learn this lesson, but when you do youll be sooooooooooo happy you did.

PRODUCTION DESIGN FIRST (What do I have?)

SCRIPT SECOND. (Write a script for what you have).
Click to expand...
Post of the year...
 
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Originally Posted by memento515
the secret to no budget production design
Click to expand...

Seriously excellent advice there . . . .
 
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