Micro-Budget Features, nail that workflow!

[clive]

When people get into micro-budget feature production they often make the same killer mistakes, time and time again.

Making killer mistakes is OK on a short because the investment in time and expectation is limited, but getting it wrong on your first feature can be enough to throw you out of film making altogether.

So, here's my tip:

Before you even start turning over on your first movie, get your workflow nailed.

By this, I don't just mean your post-production workflow (although that's vital), I mean your entire plan for the movie.

In order to achieve this, I'm going to suggest you design your film backwards. Yep, you heard me backwards.

So, the first thing you do is figure out where your (at this point) non-existent film is going to be sold. Who will buy it? What do they need from the end product in order to buy it from you? How much are they prepared to pay?

From this knowledge work backwards to what you'll need to do in post-production in order to deliver this project. It's no good assuming you can online in Premiere Pro, only to discover that you can't get it out of your machine onto a deck that is acceptable as a master, without investing in additional video cards that are more expensive than your entire budget for the movie!

From post-production work back to what you'll need to do in production to get a smooth workflow in post.

And having nailed what resources you'll need to make your non-existent film, now write your script.

The reason you leave this until last, is because at that point you'll know exactly how your entire production is going to run from start to finish, from concept to sale and you can write a script that fits both your resources and your end goal.

What I see, time and time again, are film makers who see film making as a series of processes and who only attempt to solve the step they are on: write a script, find a cast, get a camera, shoot the film, find a way of offlining it, find a way of onlining it, work out how to sell it, try to sell it.

The problem with this step by step approach is by the time you discover at sale you needed to shoot the film in HD, not HDV, then the damage is already done!

 

[VPTurner]

...
What I see, time and time again, are film makers who see film making as a series of processes and who only attempt to solve the step they are on: write a script, find a cast, get a camera, shoot the film, find a way of offlining it, find a way of onlining it, work out how to sell it, try to sell it.

...

This is good stuff. You were about to see this again because this is exactly the linear approach I've been taking in order to learn the different steps though first-hand experience. I wasn't planning to produce something saleable; I'm simply putting myself through a self-taught (with help from the wonderful Indietalk community, of course), self-paced film/DV school. I started with a script (after getting some camera equipment, a Canon XL1s with accessories, and learning it). Now that I have a script, I'm putting together lighting and grip equipment and rallying some friends/family for a cast and crew. Post production hasn't even entered my mind yet even though I'm prepared on the software and computer front (Adobe Production Studio Premium, HP Dc7700 with a FireGL V7350). Needless to say, I've already overblown my personal budget just getting prepared.

On that note, I hadn't thought about creating a "Master" yet. I was planning to just dump it straight to DVD and streaming video. Any advice on where to learn about it and what equipment one would typically need?

Thanks!

 

[clive]

Well, if you're going down the Premier route you might want to read

DV Rebel before you make any firm decisions, there's some great ideas about post production and mastering in there.

One of the reasons I put up this post is because there isn't a definitive answer to your question about mastering, because it depends on what you plan to do with your finished film. That's the reason I advocate starting with that question... where is this film going to go when finished and then work out the rest from there.

Hope that helps.

 

[VPTurner]

Well, if you're going down the Premier route you might want to read

DV Rebel before you make any firm decisions, there's some great ideas about post production and mastering in there.

One of the reasons I put up this post is because there isn't a definitive answer to your question about mastering, because it depends on what you plan to do with your finished film. That's the reason I advocate starting with that question... where is this film going to go when finished and then work out the rest from there.

Hope that helps.

And I thought my reference library was fairly comprehensive. Didn't have that one! But I noticed it was just published this year.

It's now on hold for me at my local Barnes & Noble. Thanks for another great tip.

 

[clive]

The other thing I wanted to add to what I said earlier, is it's also a more cost effective way of working.

Let's say for instance you know you're going to eventually master onto a variety of formats: a HD master, a SD Digibeta Master and also to DVD. So, if you know this before you invest in post production equipment, you can figure out the best strategy for achieving what you want with your budget.

It will also help you figure out what camera package to go for.

What it rules out are those additional spends in production and post, which put micro-budget films on hold for the best part of a year whilst you save the money you need to fix the "unforeseen" problem.

I learned this lesson the hard way. I shot a feature on Varicam (when varicam was new). The camera was a freebie loan, but my producer hadn't factored in that (at that point) you couldn't get the footage into Avid without converting the footage into DigiBeta.

All in all the transfers on that film eventually ran to over $40,000. Money that could have been spent increased production value, as opposed to post production workflow issues. In fact, the single largest costs on that movie were all related to post production cost, which could have been avoided by shooting on a different format.

That doesn't mean I'm advocating shooting on any format, just to suit your budget. What I am saying is if you nail your workflow, you can make decisions where you weight your production investment against the end requirements for the film.