Filmmaking as with anything in life you should do with your best foot forward. if you do your best and fail, you'll learn. If you do it all half-hearted you'll absolutely fail and learn nothing.
I believe that a bad looking movie with good acting and story will trump look. I've proved it with my first film and even with the debacle that is my second. For those that disagree on the "My second" I have EVERYONE that has seen the full movie as proof. Storytelling will save a bad looking movie.
That doesn't mean set up a camera shoot and run if you don't have to. You have to do what you can accomplish in your set amount of time. If you're not paying your actors and you have 50 pages to shoot in 6 days. Do the math. If you're accomplishing 5 pages a day, you're not going to finish. When you can't finish and your crew doesn't show up, and your actors can't extend, you're screwed.
Do your best is what I'm trying to say. Just if you have to choose, choose story and acting over look. For those who disagree point me to some NO Budget movies (anything under $10,000 and full length) where the terrible acting and awful story were disregarded because they had great looking shots?
Now, here's three of my favorite "shot" stories.
1: My DP told me about how they worked all night long on a moving camera shot in a small living room. ALL NIGHT LONG. The Director needed and wanted this shot. He showed it to me, it was a couple who enter the living room and sit on the couch. All night long for a shot of a couple to sit on the couch.
2. An actress posted about this on twitter or facebook that she was an extra and had been in the same place for hours because the DP and Director couldn't get a dolly shot of the leads walking down the street. The next scene which took place in a restaurant was cancelled because they lost their envelope of time to use the facility. They also lost the sunlight and accomplished nothing for what was obviously a pivitol moment in the story, a couple walking down the street.
3. This is my all time favorite shot story, and a lesson for all. Because it comes from my all time favorite horror film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the original of course). All the wonderful horrific moments in that movie, and what does the DP call his favorite shot? The girl sits on a swing and she gets off. The camera follows her low as she steps up to the house of horrors. It took a long time because they had to run track under the swing blah, blah, blah. There isn't a damn horror fan who notices that shot, it's meaning or cares. By this point we know what's going on in the house, and her stepping up to it is what's important. They could have put the camera on the porch and it'd have worked the same exact way.
If you have unlimited time to work out shots go to it. That's part of doing your best.
But, if you have limited time and budget, story and acting. Don't fool yourself into thinking a pretty sequence will save the fact your actors can't act or they're being directed improperly. It won't. It never has.
Always do your best. Just use some common sense.
I believe that a bad looking movie with good acting and story will trump look. I've proved it with my first film and even with the debacle that is my second. For those that disagree on the "My second" I have EVERYONE that has seen the full movie as proof. Storytelling will save a bad looking movie.
That doesn't mean set up a camera shoot and run if you don't have to. You have to do what you can accomplish in your set amount of time. If you're not paying your actors and you have 50 pages to shoot in 6 days. Do the math. If you're accomplishing 5 pages a day, you're not going to finish. When you can't finish and your crew doesn't show up, and your actors can't extend, you're screwed.
Do your best is what I'm trying to say. Just if you have to choose, choose story and acting over look. For those who disagree point me to some NO Budget movies (anything under $10,000 and full length) where the terrible acting and awful story were disregarded because they had great looking shots?
Now, here's three of my favorite "shot" stories.
1: My DP told me about how they worked all night long on a moving camera shot in a small living room. ALL NIGHT LONG. The Director needed and wanted this shot. He showed it to me, it was a couple who enter the living room and sit on the couch. All night long for a shot of a couple to sit on the couch.
2. An actress posted about this on twitter or facebook that she was an extra and had been in the same place for hours because the DP and Director couldn't get a dolly shot of the leads walking down the street. The next scene which took place in a restaurant was cancelled because they lost their envelope of time to use the facility. They also lost the sunlight and accomplished nothing for what was obviously a pivitol moment in the story, a couple walking down the street.
3. This is my all time favorite shot story, and a lesson for all. Because it comes from my all time favorite horror film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the original of course). All the wonderful horrific moments in that movie, and what does the DP call his favorite shot? The girl sits on a swing and she gets off. The camera follows her low as she steps up to the house of horrors. It took a long time because they had to run track under the swing blah, blah, blah. There isn't a damn horror fan who notices that shot, it's meaning or cares. By this point we know what's going on in the house, and her stepping up to it is what's important. They could have put the camera on the porch and it'd have worked the same exact way.
If you have unlimited time to work out shots go to it. That's part of doing your best.
But, if you have limited time and budget, story and acting. Don't fool yourself into thinking a pretty sequence will save the fact your actors can't act or they're being directed improperly. It won't. It never has.
Always do your best. Just use some common sense.
