Production Diary: In Times of Crisis

I'm not sure how effective the web-series into feature idea will be, but I reckon Ray's current study of YouTube content providers is probably something you should keep an eye on.

I'm kind of considering doing it in reverse. Once The Flight of the Flamingo has embarked and had fun on its festival run, I am toying with the possibility of chopping it up and releasing it as a web series. Just an embryonic idea at the moment, and obviously I'd have structured it very differently if I'd intended it to be a web-series, but I think, in the current climate, it might be the best way to try and establish an audience for the film, when DVD sales have died and VOD is a harsh mistress for indie films.

Anyhow, I look forward to seeing how this progresses! If you ever need 2nd Unit stuff in London...
 
I'm going back to school again! Not literally. Unless the School of Hard Knocks counts.

Seeing as how this is going to be a rather low budget affair, I'm not going to be able to rely on just hiring people to reach a higher level of production quality. Some of you who've known me for a while might recall that that was my plan.

I made Antihero without paying much mind to either video or audio quality. My logic was that I'm a director, and I can't literally be an expert on everything. I was hoping that by the time I'd be making my 2nd feature, I'd have a budget large enough to be able to hire all the technical experts needed to get it done.

I still want to hire talented people to execute the actual jobs, but it will definitely be a skeleton crew, and I'll definitely be required to work very closely with everyone. Long story short, I was okay with Antihero having the lowest of production quality standards, but I'm not okay with that for A Slow Death. And things being the way they are, I need to seriously up my game in the technical departments.

I see no better way to do that than with a series of short films. I think I'll make a few random ones, not connected to this movie or anything else. And then I'll consider doing the web series. I'm not 100% decided, but I'm definitely leaning towards making the web series before attempting crowdfunding.

I think the first classes I should register for are DIY Light Kit and Sound Design 101. Any thoughts on that?

As for the actual production of A Slow Death, I'm definitely not rushing this one. I do want it to happen as soon as possible, but we absolutely will not start production until I feel confident in both the script and my own technical abilities. I'd like to shoot this fall, but next spring might be a more reasonable goal.

Any ideas for my first short? I'm thinking I might do one of the stories from that three-stage Summertime contest Nick created (most likely, either Gash or The Joy).
 
Cracker Funk said:
Any ideas for my first short? I'm thinking I might do one of the stories from that three-stage Summertime contest Nick created (most likely, either Gash or The Joy).
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…or you could go with the script for Insertion or Mantis??? Or, if you’re going all the way back to the original story, maybe ABC? :P

Seriously though, sounds like a good plan.

So you’re going to focus primarily on one technical aspect in each film? Perhaps you could write a little report on each of these new lessons? Share your new found knowledge, for those of us who plan on actually pulling our fingers out and doing something some day soon!
 
By 'classes I should register for' are you still speaking non-literally? I assume so but I'm also easily confused...

This sounds like a good plan. I think you were right with Antihero that you can't be an expert in everything, but that kind of relies on having those experts to hand. And if you don't have them right here, right now then the logic kind of goes awry. And when, in however long, you get to a position to have those experts on your team, a broader and closer understanding of each of these facets of filmmaking is only going to be a help.

Do Gash ;)

But, seriously, if you ever want someone to write you a short film to shoot (which, I think, would be an interesting task for someone inclined to be a writer/director) then gimme a shout.
 
For me, it seems that my required expense for any production:

Hair \ MUA
Sound boom op
Leading & supporting Talent

These folks always get some money, seldom what they are worth but always something!

So any project I want to do starts at $300 cash budget minimum.

Rest of the crew, including me, works for those invaluable yet monetarily worthless things we call "credits" :)
 
I was about to write a long post but thought I'd ask you to clarify your 'classes' first. Are you planning on taking actual classes at a school? Online? Metaphorical ones by studying the material online yourself?
 
Cracker Funk said:
I think the first classes I should register for are DIY Light Kit and Sound Design 101. Any thoughts on that?
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Hmmm. There really is no such thing as a Sound Design 101. If there were, Sound Design 101 would actually be dialogue editing, Sound Design 102 would be Foley, Sound Design 103 would be Sound FX Design, then Sound Design 104 would be mixing and even after all this you still won't have actually started really learning sound design. I know a lot of graduates and those fairly new to the profession often market themselves as Sound Designers but that's only because they've only been taught the basics of sound engineering and audio post and hardly know what sound design actually is. In professional movie making circles you need quite a few years professional experience in the other audio post roles before even starting to take on the role of Sound Designer.

I have seen some beginner sound design courses and sound design included in general filmmaking courses but again, they're not really sound design. These courses just cover mainly the basics of the techniques of sound recording and editing, with some fundamentals of mixing thrown in. What would be useful IMO is a filmmaking course which includes how to employ sound design (rather than how to actually do it) but I've never seen a course which devotes more than the odd lecture or two to this subject.

Don't be put off by any of this! It's an opportunity because learning how to employ sound design is a difficult skill to acquire but one which will put you ahead of the loop compared to the vast majority of other no/lo budget filmmakers. So it's certainly more than worth your time playing around, studying how sound design has been employed in the great films and experimenting with sound design yourself. That way you'll develop your abilities to design your films for sound and get the most out of your sound designer when you do have the budget to hire real one.

G
 
mad_hatter said:
So you’re going to focus primarily on one technical aspect in each film? Perhaps you could write a little report on each of these new lessons? Share your new found knowledge, for those of us who plan on actually pulling our fingers out and doing something some day soon!
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I do not plan on limiting myself to just one technical aspect per film, but that's only because I'm awesome. ;)

Okay, from a technical standpoint, as a filmmaker, I am a LONG way from awesome. And that is why I think you offer a really good idea, that I should report on each new lesson, as I stumble through them. I'll likely start a new thread for that, only because calling this thread a "production diary" is becoming really false advertising, since I don't even plan to start production for probably another year from now.

AudioPostExpert said:
Hmmm. There really is no such thing as a Sound Design 101. If there were, Sound Design 101 would actually be dialogue editing, Sound Design 102 would be Foley, Sound Design 103 would be Sound FX Design, then Sound Design 104 would be mixing and even after all this you still won't have actually started really learning sound design. I know a lot of graduates and those fairly new to the profession often market themselves as Sound Designers but that's only because they've only been taught the basics of sound engineering and audio post and hardly know what sound design actually is. In professional movie making circles you need quite a few years professional experience in the other audio post roles before even starting to take on the role of Sound Designer.

I have seen some beginner sound design courses and sound design included in general filmmaking courses but again, they're not really sound design. These courses just cover mainly the basics of the techniques of sound recording and editing, with some fundamentals of mixing thrown in. What would be useful IMO is a filmmaking course which includes how to employ sound design (rather than how to actually do it) but I've never seen a course which devotes more than the odd lecture or two to this subject.

Don't be put off by any of this! It's an opportunity because learning how to employ sound design is a difficult skill to acquire but one which will put you ahead of the loop compared to the vast majority of other no/lo budget filmmakers. So it's certainly more than worth your time playing around, studying how sound design has been employed in the great films and experimenting with sound design yourself. That way you'll develop your abilities to design your films for sound and get the most out of your sound designer when you do have the budget to hire real one.
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I'm not put off by this at all! I'm really glad you posted that.

Okay, so I'm pretty good at dialog editing, though I'm not sure if what I think makes good dialog editing is the same thing as what you expect from it. As far as what I do, I think I have a knack for the timing of the edit. But beyond that, I'm not really doing much, other than a few simple cross-fades, here and there. From the perspective of sound-design, in regards to dialog editing, is there something I should be aware of?

Regardless, for the first installment in this series of self-educational films, foley is going to be a MAJOR focus, as per your recommended order of learning. Thanks for the advice. :)
 
Cracker Funk said:
Okay, so I'm pretty good at dialog editing, though I'm not sure if what I think makes good dialog editing is the same thing as what you expect from it. As far as what I do, I think I have a knack for the timing of the edit. But beyond that, I'm not really doing much, other than a few simple cross-fades, here and there. From the perspective of sound-design, in regards to dialog editing, is there something I should be aware of?
Click to expand...

Professional dialogue editing is quite a complex and responsible role, which ultimately is about providing the sound designer and re-recording mixer with the best (most appropriate) raw materials organised appropriately. What constitutes "the best" depends on the artistic (emotional) requirements of any particular line of dialogue and the technical requirements of the distribution channel and delivery specifications.

There is a wide range of potential processing which can be applied to a line, word, syllable or sometimes even a single letter during mixing (rather than editing) with regards to the actual sound design of the dialogue, almost no golden rules though. I touched on this subject a few times in The Principles of Sound Design thread.

One of the best books ever written for audio post is Dialogue Editing for Motion Pictures, which I can't recommend highly enough. In my opinion it's essential reading for any aspiring director or video editor (let alone an aspiring dialogue editor)!

G
 
Cracker,
So you're going to make a few shorts and focus on different departments with each one to learn more about those skills? If so, that seems like that could be a good way to go through your own school by design. You certainly have some editing chops down!
 
A.P.E. -- I'm totally buying that book. Thanks for the recommendation!

Flicker -- Good to see ya! And yes, that's the general gist of it. :)
 
So, it's been eight months, and I haven't done diddly-squat with this! Heck, I guess I don't mind admitting that the lack of progress was almost entirely due to emotional stuff. I dunno, sometimes it feels like the odds are insurmountable. Yeah, I worked on some editing projects since then, but I hadn't worked on anything of my own, untill...

Some friends of mine needed a music video. I like how it turned out, and we've been getting an overwhelmingly positive reception, and that has lit the proverbial fire under my proverbial butt! I'm excited again, and ready to get moving on the next big project. :D

I still like the general plan laid out in this thread. The general strategy is to make a few short films, concentrating on improving my technical skills, because I've reached the realization that my limited budget for the next feature is going to again force me to wear more hats than one ideally should. And even if I'm able to hire a DP and sound guy, I won't be able to pay enough to get a seasoned veteran, so I won't be able to just trust that they'll do a kick-ass job; I'm going to have to be skilled enough in their fields to be able to have meaningful discussions with them and help with the decision-making process.

The only thing new is that I now have a deadline, and I'll admit that this semi-arbitrary deadline is largely just for personal reasons. I must wrap production by fall of 2015, for an early 2016 friends/family/cast/crew debut, and then we see to getting it out to the rest of the world.

So, on to making those short films! Since I've got a lot of extra fake-blood laying around, I think the first one shall be "Gash", story by Nick Hilton! This one isn't going to be easy, and I want it to look and sound awesome, so expect to see it by this Thanksgiving (my day-job gets crazy-busy after Thanksgiving, so it has to be done by then).
 
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