Directing my first short film. Yikes!!

[Stephen Brock]

Hey everyone,

I just launched a new blog for a short film production I'm directing. We are in pre-production right now, slated to shoot over the weekend of March 29th. We'll be out in the woods with a volunteer crew/cast on a micro budget shooting with mostly in-house gear. Shooting on a RED One MX with Nikkor primes, mostly handheld! This is my first time directing a creative narrative so I'll be journaling everything that happens to further educate myself and everyone else that may be interested. I'm also really hoping for some feedback as well from readers! I'm not a true seasoned pro just yet, so I'm always open to anyone who wants to chime in and give some advice on anything they read in the blog.

Check out the blog here and don't forget to subscribe!
fightclubkc.wordpress.com

I'll be updating with video and photos every few days during pre-production and post production. We'll also be releasing behind the scenes footage once principle photography is wrapped as well.

Thanks so much!!

 

[Bill Anderson]

Just be careful that the "journaling" does not detract from the doing, or compromise the head space and energies that are required of a director. I would not worry about "educating others" at this point. The movie itself will provide you with a valuable journal of sorts.

 

[Craig W. Bickerstaff]

I've put it in my bookmarks bar, I'll be interested to follow any updates as I've recently been un able to get my own short films out of the pre-production stage, whether it has been paperwork or lack of locations to shoot in there are so many obstacles which suddenly get in the way of actually shooting something.

 

[Stephen Brock]

Just be careful that the "journaling" does not detract from the doing, or compromise the head space and energies that are required of a director. I would not worry about "educating others" at this point. The movie itself will provide you with a valuable journal of sorts.

Good point. For me, it shouldn't be a problem--I blog the same way I got through college essays: stream-of-consciousness writing. heh...

 

[Christopher Gallego]

Best of luck to you on your first short film production! I'll be shooting my first Red One film later this year, so I'm very interested in following your progress throughout production. Thanks for documenting the process!

 

[Robert Hart]

I observe that according to your blog, you do not as of that entry, have a locked down script. You might well be doing this improvised from a solid story core. Impro can be excellent but you really need actors who are experienced and on top of their game to pull it off. Otherwise you might as well give a bunch of 8 year olds a cam, a mike, send them down to the sandpit and have a better job returned at the end of the day for they have not yet outgrown their imaginations.

For all the resource, human, material and probably favours being called in as well, my own own personal preference would be to have a solid script to schedule around thoroughly. You may find yourself dead in the water otherwise with too many holes nobody has covered. You may find yourself scuttling around putting out little fires instead of directing the talent. The likely outcome may be the need for pickups, very big pickups and all the continuity problems that will arise. Given the complexity of your project, can you afford this without risk of energy fadeout on the part of other critical players.

On a project with a high level of ad hoc and impro in the mix, you may also find the beast constantly evolving and changing as someone has a good idea to spice it up better, stuff which should have happened in the first place. Press "goto" button ie., back to the script.

I am not really a person qualified to comment as I am not an industry player. That caveat all said and declared, I have been involved in three similar projects which became extended and short-changed themselves. One ended badly with people falling out, was majorly re-writ and reshot to eliminate any legal liabilty and people fell out again. Was good fun, much of it but about six weeks of my life which should have been better spent productively. When projects highly leveraged by probono input, stretch out beyond original commitment, fruit starts to fall off the cart. I am fortunate enough that I was in the periphery, fell out with nobody that I know of and can still talk to them all.

As for blogging, this can be a good form of promotion to build a momentum. You may find that if you solicit honest opinion from all your compadres, they may not share your enthusiasm for an unfettered full disclosures blog.

I discovered that on my most recent BTS assignment, when one day that nure hit the fan, despite being encouraged to cover the warts and all, I ended up being waved off as enthusiasm for full disclosure waned with the competing emotions of the moment and uglier sides of persona becoming apparent. So that assignment will end up being another album of self-congratutatory motion happysnaps instead of the interesting documentary it could have been. I have three such collections of BTS camera footage however not a chance in hell of ever getting releases to publish the stuff myself. That was the last probono BTS I will ever do. Life is just too short at 64.

So take care with your blog and any behind-the-scenes stills and footage. There are many good reasons why big productions embargo on-set photography, lawsuit being just one, injured relationships being another, uncontrolled publicity diluting the effectiveness of a planned promotional campaign-build being a third.


Good luck with it though and don't let my "Said Hanrahan" caution and negativity put you off. You may have this thing planned well, in which case my comments are majorly disqualified and not appropriate. When these things all fall together well, there is nothing like it short of being a sixyearold at Christmas again.

 

[Stephen Brock]

I observe that according to your blog, you do not as of that entry, have a locked down script. You might well be doing this improvised from a solid story core. Impro can be excellent but you really need actors who are experienced and on top of their game to pull it off. Otherwise you might as well give a bunch of 8 year olds a cam, a mike, send them down to the sandpit and have a better job returned at the end of the day for they have not yet outgrown their imaginations.

For all the resource, human, material and probably favours being called in as well, my own own personal preference would be to have a solid script to schedule around thoroughly. You may find yourself dead in the water otherwise with too many holes nobody has covered. You may find yourself scuttling around putting out little fires instead of directing the talent. The likely outcome may be the need for pickups, very big pickups and all the continuity problems that will arise. Given the complexity of your project, can you afford this without risk of energy fadeout on the part of other critical players.

On a project with a high level of ad hoc and impro in the mix, you may also find the beast constantly evolving and changing as someone has a good idea to spice it up better, stuff which should have happened in the first place. Press "goto" button ie., back to the script.

I am not really a person qualified to comment as I am not an industry player. That caveat all said and declared, I have been involved in three similar projects which became extended and short-changed themselves. One ended badly with people falling out, was majorly re-writ and reshot to eliminate any legal liabilty and people fell out again. Was good fun, much of it but about six weeks of my life which should have been better spent productively. When projects highly leveraged by probono input, stretch out beyond original commitment, fruit starts to fall off the cart. I am fortunate enough that I was in the periphery, fell out with nobody that I know of and can still talk to them all.

As for blogging, this can be a good form of promotion to build a momentum. You may find that if you solicit honest opinion from all your compadres, they may not share your enthusiasm for an unfettered full disclosures blog.

I discovered that on my most recent BTS assignment, when one day that nure hit the fan, despite being encouraged to cover the warts and all, I ended up being waved off as enthusiasm for full disclosure waned with the competing emotions of the moment and uglier sides of persona becoming apparent. So that assignment will end up being another album of self-congratutatory motion happysnaps instead of the interesting documentary it could have been. I have three such collections of BTS camera footage however not a chance in hell of ever getting releases to publish the stuff myself. That was the last probono BTS I will ever do. Life is just too short at 64.

So take care with your blog and any behind-the-scenes stills and footage. There are many good reasons why big productions embargo on-set photography, lawsuit being just one, injured relationships being another, uncontrolled publicity diluting the effectiveness of a planned promotional campaign-build being a third.


Good luck with it though and don't let my "Said Hanrahan" caution and negativity put you off. You may have this thing planned well, in which case my comments are majorly disqualified and not appropriate. When these things all fall together well, there is nothing like it short of being a sixyearold at Christmas again.

This is great advise actually and I agree with your mentioning the many pitfalls of full disclosure blogs and BTS coverage. I am doing my best to keep this in mind and hopefully avoid the mistakes of my predecessors . I am encouraged though that while this is my first time directing, it is not my first time working with this specific group of probono crew members and we have done other projects together in the past that were relatively successful. We know each other well and hopefully that will keep things moving forward and successful.

 

[Stephen Brock]

Best of luck to you on your first short film production! I'll be shooting my first Red One film later this year, so I'm very interested in following your progress throughout production. Thanks for documenting the process!

Awesome! And and thanks for subscribing! It's very encouraging for me.

 

[Marc Wielage]

I just launched a new blog for a short film production I'm directing. We are in pre-production right now, slated to shoot over the weekend of March 29th. We'll be out in the woods with a volunteer crew/cast on a micro budget shooting with mostly in-house gear.

Read this book:

Cinematography for Directors
by Jacqueline B. Frost

Highly recommended for non-technical directors who need to understand the limitations of lighting, exposure, camera movement, framing, and other factors.

I would also strongly recommend you get permits and insurance, and that you find a way to pay your crew (even a minimal wage). The first could get you shut down in some areas; the second could get you sued if somebody gets hurt. I would also suggest storyboarding as much as you can to get a visual sense of what you need to cover, and also taking a few days to rehearse everything with the actors, even if they're in a room reading around a table. At least that way, you'll have a chance to concentrate on performance and have arguments and discussions on the script without a crew waiting around.

 

[Stephen Brock]

Gosh, I've got a lot of reading to do, ha!

By the way ha anyone heard of a cheap way to light a single dialogue scene at night out in the woods with only an arri kit, a few cfl boxes, some led panels and a campfire?....ugh. :-/ We will have grid power from a nearby house luckily.

 

[Stephen Brock]

Also, what kind of topics would you guys like to see covered?