Directing a HD shoot!

M

macminialacool

Hey,

I am a first time Director that will soon (eventually) direct a short film shot in High Definition! Any tips for the first time director? Like things like when you say action, cut? Place everyone... roll camera... blocking the scene and camera blocking?? I am pretty sure on most of this stuff but want to be 100% sure if you know what I mean.

Chris
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
Here is something else off topic: I am shooting Varicam in October and was looking for a film on DVD that I could buy now, from Amazon, that was shot on Varicam, with well-done cinematography.
Click to expand...

If you can cope with PAL VHS I can send you a copy of "No Place" which was shot with Varicam. I can't provide a NTSC vs yet as I've been broke all year and haven't been able to find the cash.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
clive said:
If you can cope with PAL VHS I can send you a copy of "No Place" which was shot with Varicam. I can't provide a NTSC vs yet as I've been broke all year and haven't been able to find the cash.
Click to expand...

Would love to see "No Place"! But unfortunately not wired for PAL here. I don't want to do a VHS conversion and have the NTSC output be substandard.. as I'm trying to see something nice off of Varicam
I am tempted to start a pool on this board to fund an NTSC master (what are the costs, about $200?)
Best,
Per
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
What I wanted to do was convert to NTSC and then burn to DVD. NTSC DVD's play in pretty much every machine, unlike PAL.

To do that I'll need to spend £2 per minute on the conversion to NTSC and another £2 per minute to convert to a master DVD. Then I've just got my duplication costs. No Place is 82 minutes. That's 82 x 4 = £328 or $569.

This year has been incredibly frustrating, in that there just hasn't been £328 spare and I've had to resort to doing short VHS runs from my cloned DigiBeta Master to use as showreels.

Like many indies I'm in that limbo state between completing a feature and making sales. But at least I heard in the last couple of days that my ex-business partner has got some interest from a couple of distributors now.

I've got a piece of work coming up in the next couple of weeks, I might try and bite the bullet on these costs and just get it done. If I do I'll pm you and let you know.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
No one should "yell action." The only person "saying" action should be the director unless the director allows the first AD to give the background action, but on my set that's my responsibilty as the director. I have control of the timing for both background and main "action." :director:

That being said, I no longer say "action". I was on the back of a horse 100 yards away from the camera when the DP yelled action, and the horse took off at a dead run with me holding on for dear life. :bag: I'm an "ok" rider, but this horse had seen so many shoots that he 'anticipated" and loved to hear the word "action" that I almost ended my career right there.

Also that being said, I have learned from Mr. Eastwood to not yell on set at all and he justs says "go" or "whenever you're ready" to the actor. The camera is already rolling. Funny thing is where he figured out that an actor sitting on a horse tenses up when he hears "action" and that makes the horse jump.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
The only person "saying" action should be the director unless the director allows the first AD to give the background action, but on my set that's my responsibilty as the director. I have control of the timing for both background and main "action
Click to expand...

Is this another of those British/American things? Because I've never been on a set where the director called "Action," on a UK set that's always been the 1st AD's role. Not that it matters a hoot, I'm just interested if that piece of production protocol is different in the US.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I've always heard the AD doing this in the US as well though low budget shoots don't always have an AD (hence the director). Then again, Montana isn't exactly mainstream hollywood so don't listen to me :D
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top