Last weekend I was involved in a double short film shoot. Two shorts filmed in a period of three days. Seventeen page total.
It was a lot of work, but everything was filmed and the post-production phase has begun.
I headed one of the scripts as director, while my writing buddy headed the other.
I’d like to share my thoughts on where I made mistakes on my script and where I could improve.
My short was the shorter one which we allotted five-hours on the first day of filming to complete. I was determined to get it done quickly, and so imposed director, sound, and camera all on myself. It was just me and the two actors.
For more experienced filmmakers this may have been a cinch. The script wasn’t too complicated in terms of scale, more of a conversation piece, and there was no intense camera work—at least, not in my storyboard.
The shots were planned to be minimal and lengthy in order to highlight the actor’s performances.
Immediately into the first shot I knew that my planning was not going to work.
I had too much on my plate in terms of crew work, and I was struggling to communicate with the actors the specifics of what I was looking for.
My first note to the actors was an attempt at bringing an element of surrealism into the piece, which was not at all needed and only resulted in confusion all around.
Here’s my first tip: when in the moment of actually doing the work, don’t make things needlessly complicated. Be plainspoken in your communication and don’t change the theme of the piece moment by moment and expect others to follow without confusion.
After forcing a few shots that just felt wrong, I had to look the actors in the eye and tell them that it wasn’t working. That the things I had planned were not going to cut it.
To their credit, both actors were incredibly kind and willing to continue. They suggested a different approach and we took it. It was difficult to admit to them that I didn’t know what I was doing and that I was completely lost, but they handled it well. Perhaps that’s how most people handle someone admitting that they need some help.
Going forward, I shot handheld while they went through the scene in completion a number of times. I noticed my camera captured close ups better than wide shots so I stuck with that, and the actors performances got deeper and deeper with each take.
It felt a little more experimental, and in a much better way than my pho-surrealism take. It was fast, exciting, and everyone was very focused. It felt like something Cassettes or Mike Leigh might have done, but maybe I’m just dreaming a little.
We finished filming around the three-hour mark, so early. We could have played around with the scene more, but we were all tired and content with what we’d gotten.
I’m editing the project now, which is coming with its own challenges that may be discussed in a post at some point, and I’m enjoying the footage that we gathered.
The style is recognizable—that fast, telephoto, Peeping-Tom style—and I can see where I could have done better with it, but that’s nothing I can do anything about.
Anyways, here are my major takeaways:
- Always meet with who you’re going to be working with prior to the day-of. Preferably far in advance. Plainly tell them what you’re looking for and listen to what they have to say. Don’t expect people to get you without explanation and to understand how to follow your lead blindly.
- Running both sound and camera by yourself is not for the faint of heart. If you must do it, understand that quality will suffer on both ends. It will always be better to have someone else help with it, it’ll only add to the piece.
- Don’t add “weird for the sake of weird” in the moment of production. Following your gut is a great thing, but it must be communicable to others. It takes time to communicate and you don’t have time when you’re in the midst of production.
- Don’t be afraid of saying “This isn’t going to work,” but also don’t relent to chickening out on your ideas. If you do move on to another plan you must be wary of finding a path that you can stick with. If your plans keep changing moment to moment, you’ll never get anything done.
- Confidence is just deciding that things need to be done in a specific way right now.
There is of course more that I just haven’t had the time to ponder on yet, but these are my thoughts a week after the fact.
It was an intense learning experience, and certainly a humbling one.
Thankfully it hasn’t killed the dream, it just has made me want to try again.