The stress of filming..does it wear you down?

word - longer-running-time suckfulness, is just longer-running-time suckfulness.
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Max, I must say, I always love your quotes.

Looking at a feature, the most important thing is planning. Which is why ADs are amazing - if they know how to schedule. Ask anyone here who just wrapped for Timefest. I for one messed up on the schedule. I stripboard film after film after film at my college, since people hate doing it. And I messed up my own schedule. Why? Because I decided not to bring it into EP Scheduling and actually make a stripboard. Big mistake? Yep. But my mission wasn't to make a godly film. I wanted to have fun on set. And I did, and my cast did. It was a great time. Lots of laughs, a few mistakes. My clip of gaff tape made a cameo in a shot.

That was shot in a day.

I am gearing up for a feature to shoot first or second quarter of 2009. Planning on doing this the 'real' way. Name actors, money backing it, might pull a Cinealta F35 out on this one too.

But fact of the matter is, in the real world, you can't shoot weekends only. I'm not saying don't shoot. If you want to have fun. (As long as you don't work yourself to death) then do it.

But once money enters the equation and name actors...then all bets are off for a weekend shoot. Try to call up an agency and ask for (name actor) for 3 months, shooting saturday and sunday. I can tell you, they will hang up. If not laugh at you.

I've shot shorts by myself and one other person. It's a pain. I did it that way for Timefest. But then again, I just wanted to get something done. Even if you have an amazing crew, you can kill the production without a good schedule. That strip board is all important. It acts as your bible on set.

Can it be done? Most definitely. But you aren't having name actors, major equipment rentals, grip trucks, set designers (shout out to you max), and everything else that comes along with a major production. It works in the indie world, not so much in the real world.

Though best of luck on it. :)
 
Yeah, there is a balance. The only thing worse than someone rushing into making a film, is someone who always wants to, but always finds excuses not to.
 
David Jimerson said:
I blame Rodriguez. Well, maybe not him personally, but the IDEA of him. He was the one-in-a-million, but a lot of people sure seem to be convinced that he's the rule rather than the exception. After all, Rodriguez did it, so everyone can, right?

No.
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I wonder if there is a direct correlation between the above quote and the IMDb Bottom 100 list:
http://www.imdb.com/chart/bottom

If you look closely, most of the stinkers on that list were made post-Rodriguez.
:shocked:
 
Its not the stress of filming in itself, but managing a team. Where I am, you can't only "be" the director. There's no film tradition, no film schools to get young talent, or even Actors or an entertainment industry full of people "eager" to work in an Independent film. This is a big contrast from our neighbour Hong-Kong. DIfferent Government, fantastic Arts and Cinema education, a Solid industry, etc.

Which means you end up working with enthusiasts, and most professionals you get access to are wedding shooters (which come from photography backgound- 99% of them. Nothing wrong with this, but its hard for someone that comes from still pictures to go to moving pictures) etc.

As for local filmmakers, everyone thinks they are the "sh*t" over here. No one in the field wants to learn and cooperate in other's work, affraid someone might "pull off" something better. This is the Indie reality over here.

What this means is that, most of the time, you end up working with people with the passion for cinema, but don't know squat about the process. And people get extremely impatient. They only see the glamour of the films they have seen, and when they see the hard work behind a shot or sequence, they get easily bored, irritated, and just plain simply quit. The only acting school over here is for Theatre (not film), so explaining to theatre Actors not to over act is a challenge.

This scenario, however, gives you the capacity of managing the "film boat" in any situation.

Now for TV commercials, etc, you can hire decent - decent means average-technicians, but they are not creative. You have to do the DP'ing and be able to manage the camera, or they simply "don't know" what to do when you ask for specific camera movements or lighting, or give you boring, 80'ish standard setups.

back to filmmaking. Keeping everyone happy and eager to continue shooting an independent film over here, and making them spend their Weekend's and week nights time to do them is the most Stressful. People here do not work for the money- the ones that do are not worth it, so its a stressful challenge!

Bare in mind that this is merely for Independent filmmaking. For my professional work, there's budget and we can work with Hong-Kong...
 
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There is just too much info here for me to quote anything. I agree with many points on both sides of the issue.
I would much rather shoot straight through but can not for afforementioned reasons. And doing pretty much everything causes me to miss so many things. Just yesterday we were shooting a scene in a bathroom and a bottle of 409 was on the counter next to the actor. I looked at the monitor a hundred times but did not notice it until I got home. I did some post work to get rid of it but it was still there, right out in the open and I missed it, why because I was locking down the focus and checking audio.
I only wanted to do a feature length film first just to see how EVERYTHING is done. And It is very difficult and I know it won't be "Citizen Kane" by any means, and the long "suck-fulness" of the thing may be epic. I don't know, but I do know that I will keep doing it until I get it. And I will do a few short films after this and really take my time with everything.
I am totally not ready to take anyone's money yet, but I will be and when that day comes, I will hire a good crew, better actors and shoot it straight through. For now, I do consider myself a filmmaker, just not a very good one. Yet.
 
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Telling somebody they shouldn't shoot the way they're shooting when they've made it clear that's the only available way for them to shoot is not exactly what I'd call "encouraging" but we may have different definitions of the word.

Finishing your first feature film is a huge accomplishment, whatever product you end up with, and will make you a better filmmaker in the long run.

BTW. For mods. This thread should probably be in the directing forum.
 
Nobody said he should not shoot on weekends if this is his only chance to do it.

I did it as a one man show for my TimeFest Entry (also my first Film) and would do it again anytime - it´s just major suckerony.

Frank
 
I just shot the first week of a six week (possibly 7, we'll see how we do) schedule where we shoot WEDS-SAT and I work Sun-Tues. I'll never take advantage of another minute of sleep again...EVER.

Plus its been 95 degrees and full humidity. Very unusual weather for my area at this time of the year. This week its supposed to be 75, practically winter compared to recent temps.

Does it wear me down? Must you ask? :P
 
c.g._eads said:
Telling somebody they shouldn't shoot the way they're shooting when they've made it clear that's the only available way for them to shoot is not exactly what I'd call "encouraging" but we may have different definitions of the word.
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Pointing out the problems inherent with doing something a certain way is not the same as telling them they shouldn't do it. It's giving a realistic picture.

People can choose to take it or leave it, but they'll do so with a more balanced POV. If they choose to continue with what they're doing, at least they'll know what they're up against.

Helping someone comes in many forms, and sometimes, blanket validation isn't "help" at all.
 
When given the choice between NOT making a movie, and making a movie that breaks every rule, I say go for the latter. Make the movie! Talent will show through even when there are problems with things like continuity and such. And that's what it's about. The real thing will stand out and reveal talent when it's there. When people say that Rodriguez was one-in-a-million, being able to shoot the way he did, well the same goes for all directors shooting under any conditions, including the most ideal with big crews and money--the talent is always one in a million. It's not common. It's simply rare. Might as well find out sooner than later if you've got any or not rather than wait for the "perfect conditions" to make your first movie under.

All that said, if you CAN wait until conditions improve, and you really believe they will in the very near future, then okay, fine, wait. I just doubt conditions improve much until AFTER you've made something interesting in the way of a film, whether short or long (and frankly, short films don't open doors to features the way a decent feature will).

And when you say it's impossible to make a decent feature with no money or crew or time, then there will be some guy who proves us all wrong again. Because he'll be another one of those one-in-a-million. If talent wasn't so rare, we wouldn't appreciate it so much when we finally spot it!
 
Very cool. Looks really strong so far. I'm impressed. Your first trailer is too long (cut it down to the best parts maybe?). The second trailer is better. But with both of them, it's a bit hard to get a sense of what the hook of the story is, but the casting and shots look awesome.

I read the blurb about wha the story is about, and it's powerful. I hope the telling of it works, because it's powerful and worth telling. I just don't get any sense of this story from the way the trailer is edited. I think you can give me a better sense of the hook of the film in the trailer. But as a sample of imagery, it looks really awesome.
 
Thank you! I have tried to cut a good trailer time after time and that is seems to be an art form in itself. I posted those just because i wanted people to see some of the imagery and to let my cast know I was not sitting on my buttocks like most of the directors they have worked with in the past. I guess even calling them trailers is not right. I'm just having a problem cutting a good one. when I do I will post the link. I was not even thinking about the hook, I feel like an idiot. I totally forgot why trailers are put together in the first place. I just clocked in on overtime. I need a real trailer. thanks again.
 
totally. cutting a trailer is a separate art. i haven't cut one i like yet.

one thing a good trailer does, i think, is identify the main character. 90% of the shots should include the main character, and give a hint as to what his dramatic problem is. nice if there's some dialogue to help establish what the tone of the film will be too (you know, if it's comedy, get something funny in there, if it's sad, include a moment where an actor delivers something poignant, that kind of thing). just some thoughts. like i said, i agree they're hard to cut, and i haven't done one that I think is really successful yet.
 
I wrote the script and I don't know if he says anything poignant. LOL. I will try it that way and see how it comes out. I just watched a video about editor that makes his living only doing trailers. He said it takes months to do them sometimes. That just seems crazy to me. maybe because I don't know what the hell I'm doing. But I have some scenes up on FCP and I am fooling around now. I just need to put more of the main character in them.
 
Filthrich, I watched your trailer and it seems more like a music video. I don't know if you wanted to put up a montage of images or convey your story. If you want to convey your story, I suggest you recut the trailer and just focus on what your story is about. Go watch 10 trailers on Apple.com (of movies similar to yours) and notice how easy it is to grasp the story. Take note of how the trailer is shaped. Otherwise you just have a bunch of people saying, "Okay, those were some cool shots but I'm not that interested because I know nothing about the movie." Also, there's a lot of repetition in shots. I think there's like 8 shots of someone sitting in the first 40 seconds of the trailer. Most trailers should feel kinetic. Things need to be happening onscreen. There are also a ton of close-ups. Close-ups should be used sparingly in trailers and only when conveying a very important emotion (or delivering a key line). I don't know what kind of selection you have, but I would suggest getting some more variety in there. I'm sure you'll have more shots the more you shoot. But keep it up. There's some promise here.
 
c.g._eads said:
Filthrich, I watched your trailer and it seems more like a music video. I don't know if you wanted to put up a montage of images or convey your story. If you want to convey your story, I suggest you recut the trailer and just focus on what your story is about. Go watch 10 trailers on Apple.com (of movies similar to yours) and notice how easy it is to grasp the story. Take note of how the trailer is shaped. Otherwise you just have a bunch of people saying, "Okay, those were some cool shots but I'm not that interested because I know nothing about the movie." Also, there's a lot of repetition in shots. I think there's like 8 shots of someone sitting in the first 40 seconds of the trailer. Most trailers should feel kinetic. Things need to be happening onscreen. There are also a ton of close-ups. Close-ups should be used sparingly in trailers and only when conveying a very important emotion (or delivering a key line). I don't know what kind of selection you have, but I would suggest getting some more variety in there. I'm sure you'll have more shots the more you shoot. But keep it up. There's some promise here.
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Thank you. I am trying to cut a real trailer now. But it is way harder than I thought. Looking at them now I realize that they are not even trailers because no one can really tell what the movie is about. I watch movie trailers all the time and applied none of that to my own film. I Have so much to learn, But I will get it down. I don't have too much of a selection because I am not that great with my angles, camera movements, etc. yet. I appreciate the honesty and you taking the time to check them out. I will post an actual trailer next week to see if I am going down the right path.
 
don't be afraid to steal shots from your favorite directors. everybody steals! I see you did that with the Graduate shot. Right idea. But steal less famous shots as well - stuff that people who haven't seen as many movies as you will think are YOUR SHOTS. There have been filmmakers who have based entire careers on this. :)

Also, watch your dailies right up against your favorite films. Compare. Contrast. See what they're doing differently. Then make that adjustment next time you shoot (which is one of the huge advantages you have shooting on weekends - all that time in between to learn and get better - take advantage of it).
 
Very cool. I don't think I will use that graduate shot because the edit right before that does not compliment that one. Thanks for checking them out.
 
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