Doing EVERY THING yourself.
- Thread starter drc
- Start date
i look at this way, when i bought my camera i had never filmed or edited anything before. i wanted to be a filmmaker so i started making films, i had no idea what i was doing, especially when it came to sound.
so my first short was a nightmare, second a little better, third one i really tried hard on sound production (still sucked though lol)
i do as much as possible so i can learn, hands on experience, so when i get into bigger productions i can say to my cinematographer what i'm looking for in a scene. i will have the knowledge to communicate my vision so that the film turns out how i want it to.
at this level it's all about learning for me, i find it better to learn by doing rather than getting someone else to do.
so my first short was a nightmare, second a little better, third one i really tried hard on sound production (still sucked though lol)
i do as much as possible so i can learn, hands on experience, so when i get into bigger productions i can say to my cinematographer what i'm looking for in a scene. i will have the knowledge to communicate my vision so that the film turns out how i want it to.
at this level it's all about learning for me, i find it better to learn by doing rather than getting someone else to do.
Figure out everything important first...then work on sound.. It is not THAT important ! You can fix it in post ADR is easy he he he he 
That's the way I did it.
It's ALL important I want to know everything about it ( filmmaking ), then I want to have people work with me while I direct. I then will have the knowledge to guide those on my team and understand what they are doing.
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That's the way I did it.It's ALL important I want to know everything about it ( filmmaking ), then I want to have people work with me while I direct. I then will have the knowledge to guide those on my team and understand what they are doing.
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Totally agree. If I was directing a studio film, I highly doubt that I would be the DP, sound recordist, gaffer, etc. But, drawing from my indie experiences, I could at least meet these guys/gals halfway and paint them a picture.
I like to know about, and work on each an devery aspect of a movie. Why? Because I want it to be my movie.
Don't get me wrong, a good team is something invaluable, but I think that it's better suited for big productions (indie or mainstream).
I like to keep the people involved to a minimum, and only delegate when I can't realistically achieve something by myself.
It's not that I consider my work to be sublime, or too much for a crew, but at times where exposure is a prime factor when trying to get your shit together, I want credit for my work not to be split.
Evenmore, I not only do, but enjoy being involved in this way, taking creative desitions from beggining to end.
Again, I don't think I'm such an egocentrical bastard for this
Don't get me wrong, a good team is something invaluable, but I think that it's better suited for big productions (indie or mainstream).
I like to keep the people involved to a minimum, and only delegate when I can't realistically achieve something by myself.
It's not that I consider my work to be sublime, or too much for a crew, but at times where exposure is a prime factor when trying to get your shit together, I want credit for my work not to be split.
Evenmore, I not only do, but enjoy being involved in this way, taking creative desitions from beggining to end.
Again, I don't think I'm such an egocentrical bastard for this
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Whatever you don't know about these aspects you'll learn after diving in and doing them all on your first film. These are all great suggestions.
While I think it's great to understand all aspects of filmmaking, speaking from many years of experience, it's pretty tough to actually be responsible for them all on the same shoot.
Especially camera operation. While it might seem the perfect marriage of skills (Why explain the shot when you can just shoot it yourself?) and it does work in many situations (Run and gun docos, 48 hour films etc) I've personally found that the attention I need to give to achieving a good shot distracts and detracts from the attention I should be giving to actors.
So, a good, committed DOP is essential to a project of any scale, someone who's going to take that pressure off you, and also deal with a lot of equipment wrangling that you would otherwise find exhausting.
Ditto editing. While I always used to edit my own projects, and still do occasionally, I now find the input of a new set of eyes invaluable. The trick is finding someone you can work with and who's opinion you respect, to avoid battles in the edit suite.
Especially camera operation. While it might seem the perfect marriage of skills (Why explain the shot when you can just shoot it yourself?) and it does work in many situations (Run and gun docos, 48 hour films etc) I've personally found that the attention I need to give to achieving a good shot distracts and detracts from the attention I should be giving to actors.
So, a good, committed DOP is essential to a project of any scale, someone who's going to take that pressure off you, and also deal with a lot of equipment wrangling that you would otherwise find exhausting.
Ditto editing. While I always used to edit my own projects, and still do occasionally, I now find the input of a new set of eyes invaluable. The trick is finding someone you can work with and who's opinion you respect, to avoid battles in the edit suite.
I would start backwards in your self-education... begin in post with someone elses' project... learn all the mistakes so that when you learn the technical bits from on-set, you'll have the end goal in mind and get better footage/sound/everything than you would otherwise...
Be hyper-critical of your own skills and brutally honest with yourself (not derisive, that won't promote learning).
Once you have the onset skills, then take a stab at writing, especially after you've taken someone else's script and attempted to turn it into a viable production -- that's an extremely valuable lesson. You'll write differently after you've taken the months of preparation time to dissect someone else's script to realize it. The typical "all dialogue all the time" indie script will suddenly look really unshootable to you.
Be hyper-critical of your own skills and brutally honest with yourself (not derisive, that won't promote learning).
Once you have the onset skills, then take a stab at writing, especially after you've taken someone else's script and attempted to turn it into a viable production -- that's an extremely valuable lesson. You'll write differently after you've taken the months of preparation time to dissect someone else's script to realize it. The typical "all dialogue all the time" indie script will suddenly look really unshootable to you.