EGO DEATH.
- When making a film, you have to be thinking in probabilities. With every single decision you make, action you take, and second that passes by, you have to be asking the question, “What are the odds this film gets finished?”. Every scene that you write, every character you write in.. If you don’t think probabilistically, then you have no clue whether you’re setting yourself up for failure.
- Films are a set of variables and every single one of them is a potential point of failure. You have to assess how likely is that point to fail, acknowledge those risks and reduce them where you can. So you can finish films and become a better filmmaker.
- If you want to get your film done and done right. You have to do it yourself. This means no crew and you have to shoot it too.
- I understand that shooting your own film can be intimidating, but it’s absolutely necessary. Don’t work with a DP. Your film will be dependent on their schedule and even if they do show up, they’re in a position to hijack the vision from you. Odds are they will, without even intending to.
- You’re creative, right? Trust that. You can come up with new ideas under any circumstances.
- Don't chain yourself to ideas.
- Ideas will always come to fruition at the right time. If it’s not the right time, put it on the shelf and work on something more pertinent. You will know when it’s the right time to take that old idea off the shelf and execute. If you work with what’s available to you right now, more will be available to you in the near future, it compounds.
AXIOMS.
- People do. You do.
- Organic is key. Your film needs to be built on the most genuine of inspiration. Do not incentivize people with money, you might accidentally supplement inspiration which was not truly there.
- List every single job that needs to get done, creative or technical, big or small, and learn how to do it yourself.
- Every new person is a liability. In this high risk context, you need to minimize risks that are outside of your complete control.
- Just do it yourself. Bottom line. That’s it.
- Constraints are the springboard of creative ideas.
- Look at the potential talent, locations, props that you have around you. Ask yourself, what’s the most ambitious film I can make in this situation?
- The Venn diagram: "The Easy, The Impossible." The sweet spot is right in the middle. That’s where your film exists. "The Barely Within Reach". It’s important that your film is actually within reach, otherwise you’re wasting your time. But doing something that does not challenge you is also a waste of time.
- Don’t reject serendipity. Every chance encounter might be a kernel of something incredible. If there’s a challenge calling your name, say yes every single time. No matter what.
- With the exception of real danger, fear is telling you what to do next. Follow it.
- If you want to be in a category of one, there’s no better way than doing that which others are unwilling to do. Fear is a pretty low cost filter in this way. Fear of failure, fear of vulnerability, being looked down upon, breaking some rules. If you can keep pushing in spite of these fears, you will look around to see no competition.
- Perfectionism is not a humble brag, it is the calling card of a loser. Embrace rough edges because everyone else is too insecure to do so. The imperfections of your film prove it was made by a person, not a corporation or an algorithm.
- You are not in control. You are collaborating with chance and fate. Do not lean away from this collaboration, lean in.
- Do not throw the baby out with the bathwater. If someone cannot look past something small to see something great, they're too narrow-minded for their opinion to matter.
- Do not give yourself any wiggle room to do so.
- At all times your focus should be on completing the next task and the current project. Nothing is insurmountable, there is always a solution if you look hard enough.
- If suddenly, of some reason, the probability of the film reaching completion gets reduced immensely, say, the main talent drops out. Then put it on the shelf. It might be there for a while and collect some dust, but never put it in a casket. I’ve picked ideas back up years later with incredible results.
- Ask for forgiveness, not permission.
- A page from the skater's book: The best skate clips are the ones that were painstaking, miraculous, or just a real bitch to get.
- Same with film. Shoot in public, shoot in places you’re not supposed to, do things that might raise some eyebrows, it all adds to your film. Just don’t risk life or limb or your freedom, use your judgement.
VIRTUES.
- Study the markers of legitimacy. Appearance, verbiage, details. If you look and sound like you know what you’re doing, people will just buy it.
- Bluff, but truthfully. Ideally you are only lying by omission, it’s easier to maintain and get out of.
- Play dumb. Others will lower their guard, they might even hand you the key.
- Unwarranted confidence is the secret sauce that makes it all work. The most important act of all is to appear confident when you have absolutely no reason to be. Speak calmly, move slowly, and smile.
- Revere the hacker : He who breaks down systems into their most finite parts and understands how to manipulate them at that level and exploit the whole system. I would argue this is how we achieved the transfusion scene in bloodsucker, with a basic understanding of fluid mechanics. It only has to work for the duration of the shot and from one angle.
- Customizing. You can increase the utility of just about everything around you. Think of a small, but frequent problems you have. Is there an elegant solution to it? Perhaps one that you can execute with just a bit of woodworking, soldering, or programming.
- Fixing. Save money, keep shit out of landfills. Unless something is totaled, investigate fixing it first.
- Mastery is completely free and no one can ever take it away from you. You earn mastery through hours and hours dedicated to challenging yourself, trying new skills and slowly, but surely improving. The more variety you master, the more singular you are.
- The quickest way to earn mastery is by throwing yourself head-first into a project, racing to that export button. Look back, figure out what you did wrong and how you’ll do it better next time, and do it all over again.
- The three most important skills to master as a filmmaker are not technical or costly. They are writing, directing, and producing. If you master these, you can make a great film with nothing. If you suck at these, you could not make a good film with any amount of money.
- The hallmark of GOOD WRITING: Preserving that thread of interest throughout the whole film.
- The hallmark of GOOD DIRECTING: Magic on screen.
- The hallmark of GOOD PRODUCING: When the actual budget is lower than the perceived cost.
GEAR.
- Aputure MC. Small, magnetic, app controlled RGB LED light.
- Amaran tube lights. Bright, large source that is agile and can fit in tight spaces.
- Smallrig Clamps. Allow you to clamp lights pretty much anywhere and quickly change the direction of the light.
- Gaff Tape. The industry standard tape for a reason; it's easy to handle and doesn't leave residue.
- Aluminum foil. Used to control light.
- Parchment Paper. Cheaper alternative to diffusio paper.
SEEDING A FILM.
- Don’t write your script! Not yet. Let the ideas stay malleable for now.
- That person you had in mind, hit them up, ask if they’re interested. That’s it. Your film has started.
- Spark Interest. Before you start writing an official script, sit down with your talent and tell them your rough idea. Be sure that they’re very excited about it. If they won’t sit down to talk about it or they don’t seem very excited, that’s an indicator you should look elsewhere. Their lack of motivation will more than likely kill your film at some point, better to move on before you’ve invested a ton of time in it.
- Time Estimate. If they seem highly motivated and inspired, tell them time commitment expectations. Try to be very accurate and detailed here. Better to give them an estimate that ends up being higher than actual rather than one that’s too low. You will start to lose people if you keep asking them to come back saying “last time, last shoot”. They will lose confidence in you.
- Promises. If they’re still with you, start making them promises. Give them explicit next steps, a deadline for you will deliver the script, let them know what dates you’ll likely go into shooting. They can start to factor it into their schedule and more importantly, for you, there is now accountability. You will feel the pressure of them waiting on you, let that propel you.
- By this point you hopefully have an idea of the locations you want to use in the film. Perhaps they’re obvious ones immediately within reach, someone’s apartment or home or your buddy’s dad’s restaurant. Those are the best because you have a guarantee you can get them, you already know the space, you’ll have complete control, and if they’re real, they already have that richness from being thoroughly lived in. Ideally, your talent might also bring access to locations like these.
- Some locations, you need to finesse a bit more. The bridge in Twerp was tricky access, but it heavily informed the rest of the film. The subway scene in Dominator was very unpredictable. In Bloodsucker, we had to quickly shoot in front of a cafe because security was shooing us away.
- Let reality inform your story. Your talent’s experience is a good place to look as it’ll be more likely they can revisit those emotions to give a nuanced performance. If you choose to take that route, treat them as a consultant to the story. You don’t need to give them total authority, but find an overlap between the ideas in your head and what feels natural to them.
- Don’t write the script yet! By this point I have actually still not written anything down. My thinking is that if I forget a detail, it probably was not worth remembering. But forgetting genuinely good ideas sucks, so maybe scratch out some notes.
- Workshop it. Share your film, verbally to as many people as will listen. Tell it as an anecdote. You’ll get a better sense of what works and what doesn’t. You’ll see gaps that you didn’t realize you hadn’t thought out. It’s a fun and rewarding way to share your film before you’ve even put a word on paper.
EXECUTING.
- If you’re confident about the idea, and the pressure is on, a moment will come when that script just starts flowing out of you. Get it down quick. Scrap paper, Notes app, fuck the format, just get it down. Dialogue and any specific visual ideas or other details.
- You have to be very careful to preserve the great things about this first version. If everything went right, it was born out of some very raw intuition that you should be careful not to undermine.
- Now put it in script format so it’s legible and you can start sharing it.
- The only important opinion is that of your talent, but if you’re on the same page, they should love it.
- Be cautious about feedback beyond that. I would honestly say you don’t need any feedback, but if you’re really excited to share it with someone, go for it. But just remember that people are pretty terrible at giving feedback.
- I would always take it with a grain of salt, especially if they can’t identify what’s great about your script. Small ideas are welcome, large overhauls should be completely ignored.
- Again, remember that your script was born out of an intuition you cannot fully explain and you need to be careful not to muddle it. It’s much better to apply significant scrutiny to incoming notes or your own second guessing, rather than just blindly running your script through a ton of versions. I promise you that’s a great way to lose sight of what makes your idea special.
- You don’t have to do it, but it’s a good way to force yourself to visualize your film beforehand. I storyboarded all of TWERP, SCUM, most of DOMINATOR, and none of BLOODSUCKER, though I still knew exactly what I was going for. Sometimes you get on set and the spacing of the room wasn’t quite what you’d thought or something just isn’t working and you might throw it out anyway.
- Storyboards should be ugly. They only need to communicate framing and camera moves. You’re the only person that needs to be able to read them. If your storyboards are gorgeous and your film sucks, check your priorities.
- This is where things are either a breeze or the nightmare begins and you gotta push through it either way.
- Be realistic about what you can get done in a day. Overly long, crammed days only leaves people frustrated with subpar results. I tend to do no longer than 6-8 hours. People unfamiliar with production tend to hit a wall around then.
- Put a reshoot day in the schedule. Just one, maybe two.
- There will probably always be some unexpected delays or changes. Someone gets sick or something comes up. It could be someone’s way of communicating that they’re disinterested in the film. But, GENTLY, keep pressing. You gotta try to push it through.
- On Bloodsucker, we suddenly realized one of the supporting actors was leaving town in only a few days and we had to splinter what would’ve been a one day shoot into a three day shoot. This happens. Keep a cool head and make it work.
- Be nice to your actors. They’re being incredibly generous and trusting working on your film. You might not have money to pay them, but make sure that they’re fed and happy and they feel safe. They will be more focused and do better work.
- Diva control. A diva is just a person with an unmet need, their reactions are just blown out of proportion and they’re likely hostile. There’s no more important time for you to keep a cool head. Listen closely and you can sus out their need. Once you have it, navigate carefully. Stand your ground on what you need, but make sure they feel heard and acknowledged. They’ll quickly become more agreeable.
- A lot of books have been written on this. You should read them.
- You need to know the goal of every scene. What does the audience learn by the end of it? This will help you identify the pivotal pieces of information that the performances need to get across. It also helps you identify where the camera needs to be in those moments.
- For actors, don’t force anything. You have to carefully massage it out of them. Put them in a headspace, give them a goal to achieve by the end of the scene. They need to be extremely present and completely forget that they’re acting. This is not easy, they’re in a very vulnerable position. Focus on what they’re doing right, it’ll build their confidence. Throwing them a curve ball is a good way to get their mind off the absurdity of acting. Inch them closer until they’re in a groove, then let them have fun. Allow them to surprise you. I compare it to panning for gold. Once you’re in a groove, you might get one gold nugget each take. Collect as many as you can and string them together in the edit. I find more often than not, those gold nuggets are when someone did something unexpected.
- Most importantly, as a director, take responsibility. When a performance isn’t working, it’s on you to fix it. And you can fix it. Just think hard and communicate carefully.
- Try to shoot the scenes as fully as you can. Beginning to end if possible. This is good for your actors, continuity, and tonal consistency.
- Strike a balance with coverage. Sometimes you need the master, the medium, close up, and extreme close. Sometimes you just need one angle. It never hurts to be on the safe side, but remember time is finite.
- Keep the edit in mind. Think about how long you’ll stay on each shot and what shot will be where. It’ll help you more closely cut the line between knowing what needs to be exactly right and what can slide.
- When to move on. In an ideal world, I try to get two takes that I’m happy with or jus one that feels like magic.
- If you had a DP, but you would be violating one of the AXIOMS and your film is more likely to fail, so let’s presume you don’t. Directing and shooting at the same time is a whole skill in itself, but you have to develop it if you want to be completely liberated as a filmmaker.
- You will have moments when you get overwhelmed. The shot isn’t working and neither is the acting, you’re at a loss for how to fix either and everyone’s just looking at you. Take a breath, collect your thoughts. If the clarity isn’t coming, try simplifying. Put down the camera and just watch the actors. Do an experimental take and try a bunch of things with the camera move and placement. Or perhaps the shot you’re gunning for is just a bit too ambitious to be doable given the circumstance. So you have to make the call, are you just gonna keep doing takes until you see that magic one, continue eating at your time until you run out and risk jeopardizing the film? Or are you gonna pivot? Not compromise, but make it work, some other way.
- You do not NEED to bring lights. Natural and practical lighting is great. Just move your subject closer or farther away from sources and windows. You can get the contrast and shadows where you want them.
- Aputure MC. Small, magnetic, app controlled RGB LED light.
- Amaran tube lights. Bright, large source that is agile and can fit in tight spaces.
- If you want to really understand lighting, photograph subjects in natural light. Find shadows use them to your advantage.
- Andrew Price, the Blender Guru, Lighting Course.
- Don’t get a sound guy. The Tentacle Sync Track E Audio Recorders are miraculous little devices.
- Tips on placing Lav Microphones:
- Medical tape under, double sided tape on the back of the lav, medical tape over. Tape a couple more times down the cable. This should be secure as hell. Not going anywhere.
- Get in there. Place it dead center in the chest. It can be awkward, but you'll end up with rustle pretty much anywhere else.
- Lav Concealers provide a small barrier for additional rustle reduction.
- Remember to record Room tone. 30 seconds or so. It will glue your mix together.
- Know your camera. Know the menus. Know the buttons. Know how to change iso and shutter. Know the difference between ISO and Shutter and Aperture.
- Know your camera’s idiosyncracies.
- What is the max record time?
- Does it overheat?
- How long do batteries last?
- Does it ever crash?
- Always bring an Air Rocket.
ASSEMBLY.
- Start by double backing up footage the moment you get back from a shoot. Get 2 identical hard drives, work off of the main and the other is the mirror. Use apps FreeFileSync and backup frequently. One of the drives will fail at some point, likelier the main, you will be incredibly grateful for this system when it happens.
- Folder structures. Keep everything organized, labeled and consistent. My Project Folder Structure Template.
- Start with an empty project.
- Create a bin for assets and organize all recorded media there.
- Now sync audio and video with timecode of you recorded with the Tentacle Sync Track E Audio Recorder and the Tentacle Sync E on your camera.
- Create a bin for timelines, create a new timeline, call it SELECTS 1, open the timeline, and drop your footage in.
- If you did not record with a Timecode system, try syncing by waveform first, and if that doesn't work, visually based on events in the vide or looking at similar shapes in the waveform.
- Pull selects by cutting out a section and raising it to the track above.
- You want to look out for those gold nuggets we talked about earlier. Find the moments when the actors were completely engrossed in the scene or moments that surprised you in an interesting way.
- You can just go through all the footage doing this, but I find this to be pretty inefficient. You end up doubling back a lot. I generally just start the edit here.
- Create another timeline, call it V1, open a second timeline track, drop your selected clips from the selects timeline to your V1 timelines, and start your first cut of the film.
- Wokr on the scenes you’re most excited about first, this will boost your morale to finish the film.
- Finding the final cut. There will only ultimately be one, final cut of your film. You’re sort of like an archeologist, scratching away and letting that final cut reveal itself.
- Finessing. It’s crucial to try pretty much every cut a bunch of different ways. Try it quick, or slow, somewhere in between, or completely different altogether. In reality this is something you'll do without consciously think about it and very rapidly. Stay decisive, but don’t miss the opportunity to find a more interesting way to cut the scene.
- Killing your darlings. You might’ve loved that one take, but you need to acknowledge when it just doesn’t fit in the film. Try to make it work, finesse, but remember to be thinking about the film as a whole.
- Fixing a scene. There will be a moment, perhaps many, that do not click into place exactly as you'd imagined. Do not despair, this is where the work begins. You are a resourceful mf and I guarantee that you can make something compelling with what you have. Experiment. Change the shot order, hold longer here, quicker there, try a different take, throw a curveball. You can always turn a mistake into a creative choice. Make it work in your favor.
- I usually know the music I’ll use in the film beforehand, in fact I usually derive a lot of the inspiration from music. But when I find myself hunting it can be tricky to find that exact song I’m looking form. I usually find a song that’s about 80% of the way there, then plug that into a song finder to find some similar deep cuts.
- Once you find the song, I use Audio Hijack to record it straight off or Spotify or ClipGrab to pull it from YouTube.
- Mixing is the only time I actually organize and color each track on the timeline. Because we’ll be applying a good number of effects across the entire track, so it’s important to group things; SFX, vocals, room tone, etc.
- Headphones are okay, but keep in mind where the film will likely be watched and try to recreate that audio setting. If it’s a phone, use shitty small speakers, if it’s a theater, use large speakers and keep it loud.
- First thing’s first, volume. Make sure the vocals aren’t being drowned out and everything is as present as you want it.
- EQ and compression are the most important mixing tools to learn. They’re both rabbit holes in their own right, but let me give you a quick summary.
- EQ or Equalizer allows you to control the volume of different frequencies. It particularly comes in handy for removing rumble in the bass or some buzzing in the background. But using EQ, you can also cut out the bass to make it tinny, or the high end to make it sound drowned out.
- Compression. My layman's definition of compression is that of an automatic volume normalizer. You designate a threshold, and any sound above that gets reduced by a ratio which you also determine. You also set the makeup gain, which increases the volume of anything below the threshold. Compression can do wonders for improving dialogue clarity, but it can also bring in artifacts and distort your audio if misused. You really have to develop an ear for compression to determine whether or not it is serving your mix.
- Other Mixing tools to try out:
- Limiter - Prevents volume from exceeding a determined threshold. Good to prevent clipping.
- De-esser - Untreated S sounds can actually be quite harsh before they are treated. A de-esser blunts the s’ sounds produced by the human voice.
- De-noise - Removes background noise. You can target a specific range of frequencies. A little goes a long way here. Overdoing it makes everything sound robotic quick.
- RustleRemover by CrumplePop - This is a great and free plugin which uses AI to reduce lav rustle.
- Reverb - Sort of like a small echo. You can take a clean sound and make it sound like it’s in the room. Takes some finessing to make it sound believable tho.
- Color is not a hard science. Don’t get overwhelmed. You can absolutely throw on s-curve on and call it a day.
- I cheat with color. I just use CinePrint. Tom Bolles did some killer work and why make things harder when you can make them easier.
AFTERMATH.
- Sit down and enjoy the film next to the people who you made it with. Tell each other how grateful you are to have done it together. This is a crucial ritual. It’s paying respects to all the heart that brought the film into existence.
- Show it to everyone who you can. Sit them down and watch it with them. Enjoy the moments that worked as intended and forgive the ones that don’t.
