“Quiet on the set,” means EVERYBODY has to be quiet the ENTIRE time a shot is running. The more people on set, the harder that gets.
.:About
notes for myself after shooting my first feature, Greyscale. I recently wrapped and want to keep the lessons I learned fresh, as well as keep a bit of a scrapbook of pictures and videos from production.
If this helps you out as a new director/filmmaker, wonderful. I learned so much on my first major outing.
(updated on weekdays)
Feel free to email and share lessons you've learned on (any) set and I'll work on including the most helpful ones in.
.:LINKS
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.:Meta
.:Following
193. Don’t ask for input from too many people.
If you constantly put things out for feedback request, they won’t stop giving you feedback when you’re finished since they’re used to that dynamic.
192. Picture lock is scary, but you have to move on.
Knowing that the first time you spot something that annoys you and you get to live with it forever is a scary thing, but never getting your work out for people to see is worse.
191. Not everyone is going to like your movie’s genre.
It’s an instant show-stopper and any feedback is going to be tinted by their genre proclivities.
190. Work things out with your projectionist at your premiere.
Nothing better than having them fiddle with the settings on the screen for the opening 10 minutes of what you poured blood, sweat, and tears into… causing more tears…
189. Post is going to cost more than you think.
So will marketing. But nobody will watch if they don’t know your movie exists.
188. Don’t switch up your file organization during the editing process.
Nothing like relinking all of your files to your project files.
187. If you’ve forgotten to put in a scene and didn’t notice when watching the full edit… you probably didn’t need that scene.
186. Don’t forget render times in schedule estimates.
“Sure, I can get that out by tomorrow.” Might be easier to say, but never forget how long things can take to render… and have a backup plan if the render doesn’t work (or if you mess up a setting and everyone looks like they’ve been stretched)…
185. Park a truck in front of your generator.
If you’re using a naked generator, it’ll be noisy… parking a large vehicle in front of it will help bounce the sound up and away. Not an entire fix, but it may be the difference between fixing the levels in post and having to fully ADR a scene…
184. No ad-libbing in fight scenes.
It’s a given, but make sure every move is thought out, choreographed, and practiced repeatedly BEFORE the day you’re to shoot an action sequence.
183. The more takes you film, the longer you have to watch in the editing bay.
After a while, it all bleeds into one. For the sake of time, get your 2 good takes and move on.
182. Know what you can knock out of the park.
Know what you’re good at and do that. Take on too much and you’ll be in over your head. Take on the right amount of difficulty and you can show something brilliant.
181. Don’t stress your actors.
You get to live with their performances for a loooooong time.
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