you better love filmmaking

Re: you better love filmmaking

All true. Like Inspector Callahan said: "A man's gotta know his limitations" Be aware of what you are able to accomplish. Never expect people to be as commited or enthusiastic about your project as you are. It's a different deal when it's just you. But when you enlist the aid of others, you need to be up front with them about anything in the shoot that involves them. Doing less is being unfair, and selfish (IMHO). You may think it's worth it to shoot 12 hour days for week to get your film done. You would have to sell that pretty hard to your cast and crew if they aren't getting paid. It's always better to come to those type of agreements before hand. IF you do, and they bail without reason or notice, you just don't work with them again.
 
Re: you better love filmmaking

You are right guys.
Next project I am going shoot in a 6-10 days straight.
And I will NOT forget to give my talents an agreemnet to sign.
I will try to pay them maybe. Maybe if I will find some cash. ???

Right now I am writting feature script to be shot in NYC, Las Vegas and Poland (to be cheated in NYC ;) )and I will recast and shoot my first projcect in the spring.

;D
 
Re: you better love filmmaking

If possible, always schedule your shooting days to get anyone you suspect may be a problem shot out as quickly as possible.  Yes, your stuck with anyone who basically appears in just about every scene, but anyone else who may appear to be entertaining the waffle, it's best to reschedule and get all their scenes done, ASAP.



Remember the 5P's: Proper prior planning prevents piss poor production.
 
Re: you better love filmmaking

Firstly, contracts with talent does crapall unless you spend money on your project... ie, pay people and have to repay them for the time lost from the actor walking off... basically, if you spend a lot of money on the film, and the actor walks off, wasting all the money, with the right contract, they can be made to cover those costs... however, that doesn't get your film done and it also doesn't get you your wasted time back...

Having your talent ask to have a crew credit sounds quite ridiculous if they were only brought to the project as talent. I would've perked up right then and there and not gone through with them...

One thing i've noticed about this industry is that it attracts a lot of loons and you really need to be careful...

Also, I think that directors and anyone involved in the creative aspects of the film should love actors and actresses and all the creative talent they bring... it's producers who hate them... they put such a harsh demand on the administrative end of the project. A director doesn't have to worry about the actors, they simply need to make sure they're doing what they're supposed to be doing, but when an actor starts getting pissy (not saying they all do, but they definitely have more sway than a grip) it's the producer that ultimately has the problems occur... not to mention proper scheduling and all the other extra work they can cause.

I would probably never work with an actor or actress that would be extremely difficult though, even if they were really good. It would hurt the entire production and hurt the entire film rather than help it. It creates an atmosphere of negativity which not only affects other actors but it affects the crew and brings everyone's faith in the film down. Someone who can get along with people and is great to work with is equally important to the quality of the film as the raw acting talent. A film cast and crew needs to be very cohesive and get along well together otherwise your film is going to have some serious issues in aspects other than the acting...
 
Re: you better love filmmaking

[quote author=THiNSPiRiT link=board=Directing;num=1098593990;start=15#25 date=11/07/04 at 22:32:33]One thing i've noticed about this industry is that it attracts a lot of loons and you really need to be careful...[/quote]

Unfortunately, I believe you're correct on that to a significant extent.

My experience in actor education taught me some unfortunate truths about the people that want to be actors, the most important being that acting often attracts emotionally fragmented people. While this certainly isn't a rule of acting, I've seen it in numbers enough to consider it a trait inherent in a small number of both working and hopeful actors.

I think there are several reasons why emotionally fragmented people are drawn to the field. For some it represents unrequited adulation, for others, it opens the potential to access repressed emotions in a form of pseudo therapy. This gets compounded by the fact that the training of actors is often emotionally damaging to people who are unprepared for it as the process involves extensive unguided emotional exploration. This exploration is incredibly difficult for people who have untreated emotional and mental trauma in their history.

For some people, the process of training becomes so similar to psychological therapy, they come to equate the exploration of emotional damage with therapeutic healing, but the training of actors is not oriented so that the problems and issues explored in the process are dealt with in a helpful manor. The whole idea of “method” acting and similar approaches hinges on the exploitation of historic emotional trauma to arrive at an external result.

In essence, there’s a significant amount of people drawn to acting who have untreated emotional trauma and the process of learning how to access that trauma will often screw them up further as it is not done in a healthful manor. These people tend to develop extremely addictive personalities, they often suffer from body-image disorders, and they become reliant on the thought of acting so much that they’re left helpless when their careers and dreams are not as successful as they imagined.

I’ve seen people on the verge of emotional breakdown, I’ve seen perfectly calm men develop rage disorders, I’ve seen people develop substance abuse problems, I’ve seen a girl get hospitalized for severe self-induced malnutrition. These were all people that would appear to be emotionally stable, but the process of training uncovered all the repressed damage they weren’t dealing with. We’ve seen enough examples in the tabloid media to show that this isn’t a problem limited to beginning actors.

As a director, you’ve got to develop an emotional intuition to be truly successful at your art. Intuition and empathy will help you in learning to talk to your actors and draw out the emotional response your scene needs, but it will also begin to teach you to protect those that need protecting.

I think the “loons” are an unfortunate part of the business, but as with any part of the business, you’ve got to learn how to work with what you’re presented with. In the end, you’re the ultimate caretaker of every person on set, and how you handle that responsibility makes you a director as much as the final film does.
 
Re: you better love filmmaking

Syndey Lumet taked about how he as a director would deal with this emotional side of his actors in his book Making Movies. For some reason most of the stories were about working with Brando, but I'm not going to comment on that. ;D He didn't go into personal detail, but he did talk about how a director should be able to deal with his actors. It was an extremely interesting book.

Chris
 
Re: you better love filmmaking

If you're in NYC...that book is in the public library system! It's a very good book from a very good director.
 
Re: you better love filmmaking

I'd be lost without my library. Had I purchased the dozens of books I've read this past year on the subject of filmmaking, I wouldn't have been able to buy my damn camera.
 
Re: you better love filmmaking

Making movies has to be one of my favorite books on filmmaking, anyone looking to go into film making should read that, that and Rebel Without a Crew by Robert Rodriguez.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top