Week 14 – Dan Rahmel’s Top Ten Tips for Short Filmmakers
I came across this site before the final project and now I want to analyse each of Dan’s tips to see whether I agree or diagree and whether I accomplished it or not. It’s a great feeling knowing that the film is finally done and that I have followed (or perhaps done better) than the list. It’s very daunting when you first look at it!
- Make sure you have a story worth telling
When Alam and I discussed various ideas of mocking our Asian culture, he suddenly made the decision to make a film about the first night between an arranged marriage couple. After the change of the genre and the list of scenarios we created, I instantly got hooked by the story. It was its own ultimate selling point and when we presented this to other groups, friends and family, they too thought of it as a clever idea. It has never been done before and you start to ask yourself questions about an arranged marriage, regardless of whether you follow the tradition or not. This story was worth telling because it would engage audiences to question the tradition and perhaps, feel for the bride and groom as well as think that it may not be as bad as people make it out to be. In the UK, the BBC always reports the negatives of arranged marriages and how the mother in law is always mean to the bride; this real life account supports our project even more as people will expect to see something negative. - Don’t start production without a budget
Films always cost money and the group agreed to start pitching £50 each. In the beginning, we did production plans and daily budget sheets via a spreadsheet. With this format, we were able to be confident in our filming approach, knowing that the group will support one another to pay for the project. I did several film projects for the Wolverhampton City Council and I was happy to put most of the money to the project as a result. We had to over-estimate our budget and it came to £400-£450. This was including the details such as bottles of water, plastic cups to petrol, make up and hotel bookings, among others - Get all clearances before shooting
We all understood the importance of releases for actors, music, crew and many more. We also knew it was best to do it now rather than later. The process is very daunting and tedious, but it adds to the professional touch of the group. Our actors were very surprised that we had high standards in our approach to them and the final project, We were serious about this film and therefore had to follow the rules of filmmaking as well as the law. You never know what will happen if you forget to get someone to sign a release form! In addition to this, risk assessments and health and safety forms must be cleared also. Originally, I anticipated problems with weather that might do damage to film equipment and borrowing the Univeristy equipment for longer than we expected. We had to jot down things that needed attention, for example, bringing an umbrella and gaffer tape to stick on top of the camera (if it rains). These small details saved us from damaging equipment! But we also had to make sure the lecturers at the Uni were willing to lend us the equipment for two days and so they signed a form. - Make the film shorter than you want
I’m not clear about our editing stage as of yet, but I hope the group don’t literally follow their initial shot list or storyboards. I always let the editing tell the story as it offers a variety of options. This is why it is a very good idea to film from a variety of angles and include filler shots. Our actors repeated their lines on a dinner table numerous times from different shots and then we would make them do certain actions, such as filling a glass with orange juice and film that as a filler. As a result, we can use the dialogue of the actors while the juice is being poured, for example. These scenes are overlooked in mainstream cinema – the editing machine is a powerful tool that we are so used to these shots without thinking about it. Our film may be longer or it may be short. - When using non-professional actors, cast with personality
Our group had experienced actors, although they’ve never done student short films before. We launched auditions and went through the process of picking the right person(s). We did cast on personality, but also the appearance. What I liked about Ashwin and Bhavna was their ability to act when not doing their dialogue – they would improvise by making facial expressions and certain actions, such as eating a piece of food and taking a few bites before they talk again. And as I mentioned many times before on this blog, I appreciated them both for their fun attitude off the camera. They were down to earth and friendly, which created a good working environment. As a result there were a lot of off set laughs and they were willing to repeat scenes regardless of how tedious it got. Ashwin was a hilarious person but when it came to acting on the screen, he was a true professional. Bhavna was more focused throughout the process of filming and I appreciated her commitment for the film. Both were different and lived miles away from Coventry (Lancashire and SPAIN!) and this is just a highlight of their personality. - Invest in good sound
The University had a professional sound mixer that was handled well by Chris Cattle. The sound is very crisp and delivers the dialouge. Chris went through the effort of going to the skills instruction and learning everything about the equipment. Without good sound, you can’t make a good film. But I think the group overlooked the wildtrack and atmos sounds. Hopefully the editing process in terms of sound is alright for when shots cut to another shot, meaning that you don’t hear different background noise on each cut. I always follow the tip of recording background noise for one minute and looping that when needed. - Fix it now, not in post-production
If I have to be honest, the only mistake the group made was not moving the film equipment from the bushes (it was in a scene when the actors sit on the bench) and that’s it. Every scene we went through was professionally handled, ensuring that no mistakes were made that we would regret in post-production. I was in charge of continuity and there were no problems at all. I even did little tasks such as taking images of the props that would be moved and make sure that I reference them for when they need to be put back. - Don’t zoom in a shot
There were no zoom shots and we would have disagreed with the shot anyway. We relied on the dolly track easing in on our actor rather than the zoom function. - Know the indie/short film clichés
What I enjoyed about this film was that everything was fresh and coming from us. We had certain references that inspired us when we produced this project, but the style of filming techniques were devised by us. We didn’t emulate popular techniques unless it helped move the story. In a way we created our own independent cliche. We knew of all the techniques out there, but it was a question of whether it was needed. - Unless you’re shooting on film, avoid night exteriors
‘Darkness is the enemy of most camcorders. You’ll become acquainted with noise, color shifting, definition drop-out, and more if you choose to shoot at night without a medium size lighting package. It’s usually a lot easier to change the script than deal with all these problems’ – because we had all the necessary equipment from the University, such as dedo/redhead lights and white sheets as a diffuser, we created a perfect lighting set for the night exteriors. When you watch it on film, it does look like it was filmed within a studio, but we were actually filming in the cold rain! What was also in our advantage was the usage of the new JVC camcorders which was of very high professional quality. Even without the lighting set up, the camera would still have picked up our actors in the night exteriors.
