My screenplay and film equipment

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davideugene

Well it has been a week or 2 since i have got to come talk with you all. I have been a little under the weather lately, but feeling alot better now. WoooooooHoooooooo!!! Ok now down to business. I have found my crew to help me film. They all seem to be very excited with my idea and are very excited to get started on it. They are college students in my area. I hope we can all stick together and keep production rolling with new shorts and features. I think I am now in the hardest stage of my production. The screenplay writing. Some of my partners have some experiance in screenplay writing, should I ask them for help on writing it? Could this endanger my idea of my production being stolen from me? I have only given them a visual image of my idea for them to think about. I have also given them the freedom to write any ideas out and we will try to place them into the shoot. As long as it runs with the story. Does this seem fair to offer? We already have the equipment to film with. We even have access to AVID editing software. We are gonna be filming with miniDV cams and spy cams. Do these sound like good decisions?

Thanks alot!!
David Eugene 8)
 
OK David, here's some tips as I understand it.

1 - Write the screenplay yourself.
2 - register the script with the guild.
3 - Never share any ideas with anyone, and even after the script is registered, its a good idea to not broadcast the scripts plot at least until you're beginning production. You never know if the person you are talking to is just an aspiring screenplay writer with no original ideas (happens more than you think).
4 - You will always find enthusiastic people when you tell them, "I'm going to make a movie", especially starving college students. If these people are exceptionally good, tell them you're beginning pre-production and when you have a schedule for them you'll call them. In your first shoots it is not so important that people have experience, but rather they are serious about making movies/films and will work LIKE professionals.
5 - MiniDV is fine, I'm not sure what a spycam is, AVID is terrific.
6 - Try to limit the amount of ideas flying around while on the set. If you want to brainstorm with the crew on ideas on how to do shots (which is a very unusual way to do it - usually you have one person with experience who can be your DP but overall the director should have the vision for the shots), just make sure its not on the set wasting time. Try to do it as early as possible so you can plan your shot schedule prior to shooting.
7 - If you want this to come across as a nice DV flick and you don't want it to turn into a clusterF*** on the set, I suggest you treat the MiniDV like film and don't shoot until you're ready to shoot the actual scene. Don't go with the truth - that you can shoot for hours and edit it later - make it one take at a time just like film.
8 - If you want to do like #7, its best to shoot your first shot on your schedule as a really easy shot... someone walks into a building, or something simple like that. Something you are almost for sure going to get on the first take. Then it sets in everyone's mind on the set that every take does matter and they will go through the whole production in that mindset.
9 - Take the time to do the shot schedule right in preproduction and have your DP or whoever will lead the crew on the technical end be prepared with where to place the camera, what equipment is needed for each shot, etc. And take the time to learn the equipment and make sure the camera operator fully understands how to operate and move with the camera!
10 - Good luck hope this helps.
 
Thank you alot WideShot!! That is great info you gave me. I will definetly put those tips into effect with my production. Now do most filmmakers that get together starting out, stick with each other usually? Yeah I want to make sure my vision I have about my story and scenes are definetly used. I feel very strong about my ideas and visions. I don't want to sway away from them at all.

Thanks again WideShot for your info!!!
David Eugene
 
A spy cam is a small analog camera that will record to a miniDV as long as the miniDV has analog connections. You can get kinda like eyeball shots with it in hard to do places if you tried to hold a little larger camera. Just attach the spy camera where ever you want. Go to www.killboy.com then click on scenery then click videos. They use a spy cam in there shots.
 
Free help will come and go at their own schedule. There is nothing you can do to prevent that, if they want to stick with the picture that is great but you can't expect that because you get what you pay for. If you find a core crew and cast whom fall in love with your style or flick, they will probably entertain the idea of doing another feature with you - for money, or at least for better meals and have their expenses covered or a deferred payment or a percentage - such as lets say you have a DP and a core that are really good and want to stick with you. On this first flick, if you plan to submit it to festivals - which I assume you do - there is the possibility that it will get picked up for distribution or at least will lead to an opportunity to make the next one and have someone with connections in the industry get you money to make it. At that point, the best thing you can do to retain you stellar core is offer them a deferred/low/percentage pay for that flick.

That, in a nutshell, is how it could work, and there are many variations on what you can and cannot do. Like I said, some books like Gregory Goodell's will show you what and how to do some of this in detail and will explain the overall concept that I laid out in these two posts in much better detail.

MiniDV cameras are small enough that you shouldn't need something smaller to use but if you have it and see where to use a spy cam, I say use it.
 
Kool I will check out the book also. I do plan on submitting it to as many film festivals as I possibly can. I feel it will have great potiential. These guys seem kool so far. They knew right off that I will not show my script until I get it copy written. They stated that before I got a chance to tell them. I hope they are as really psyched as they seem. Now I am gonna need some good legal papers. Where is a good place to find them? Should i talk to a lawyer or is it safe enough to get the papers off of a site online?
 
What -I- would do is first check out sonnyboo.com because he seems to have a few helping legal papers. Goodell's Book, Independent feature Filmmaking, has a LOT of very useful sample legal papers, contracts, etc. and so that is a valuable resource (I swear everyone needs to own this book - its 500pgs of gold).

The legal side is not tough to navigate, fortunately as long as you get contracts, shooting permits, register the script, etc. you are pretty much covered unless you start taking money. It would be really great if you could get an entertainment attorney's ear and opinion but if there is nothing in it for them, you probably won't.

Now something that came to me last night regarding what I said above about taking energy and ideas from the cast and crew - Altman does! PTA does! Altman allows occasional improv by his actors in the name of the character, he also takes ideas from a lot of his crew and uses them. He says most of the spectacular moments in his film came about this way. PTA says and has said about him by Phillip Baker Hall on the Sydney commentary that he really likes to use to cast and crew as a source of energy instead of the other way around. In other words, enthusiastic and energetic crew and cast are not trying to be calmed down and channeled, they are contributing to the excitement, spontanaity and freshness of the takes. And PTA is able to shoot for loooong hours and blur the time lines because everyone stays so amped for the shoot.

So its kind of a 180 from what I said - you have your vision and if you have questions on set take them to the DP - but maybe it may be your style.
 
AHHHH i see what your saying. Thats kool, and kinda what I was talking about when I said I gave them the freedom to add and state opinions. Although the film is my idea I want to make it as much a team production as possible.

I greatly appreciate your information on my post you are very helpful to me. Thank you!

Dave
 
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