On the 1st day of filming my true love gave to me...

Alright, so I've got an editor. Which means a trailer should be ready in about a month. So, yeah...

Anyway, now a journal through the days of filming. So the first day of filming I pick up my actress from a greyhound bus station that was actually just an old Sherwin Williams. It was so small it was hard to even find it, luckily she was the only Asian in the entire town so she was easy to find.

After an hour drive from there back to my town I dropped her off at a motel so she could catch up on sleep. She had been on a bus since about 3am and had been on it for about 9 hours.

I then checkup with everyone and everything to make sure it's ready for tonight.

I pick up Yvonne(actress) and I'm back at the house again, even larger group of people because everyone wants to see this movie that's been hyped up for months. I meet my DP for the second time, since scouting locations together.

The DP and his assistant have their gear ready, and head on down to the grocery store. Meanwhile the cast and I are getting our makeup done by my a friend. Who at the time I thought was really good at makeup...

We finally leave to the grocery store, but first I stop by the doctor's office to borrow a wheelchair from the good Muslim to use as a dolly.

By the time we get there I'm about 10 minutes late but it doesn't really matter since the store hadn't fully closed yet. Although I'm sure my crew waiting for me didn't feel the same way.

How did I get a grocery store to let me film in their...grocery store?

When you don't live in LA it's not as much of a bitch to get people to let you used their locations. Plus I pretty much knew everyone in the town and if I didn't my friends did. I did have to go through a few people to get the location but I didn't have to pay any money.

The most awkward thing was just asking to use it. I ask a guy in a Gilbert Grape grocery store in a town that's the size of a college campus if I can film a movie there.

So with a decent sized crowd waiting outside we start setting up and film the scenes. Halfway into getting everything set up I remember I'm about to act in front of the camera. But since I was basically playing myself it wasn't much trouble getting into character.

It was incredible looking at the footage between takes. Derrick was able to make my camera do so much more than I could.

What I was hoping would take two or three hours ended up taking about five hours. I could tell the manager was ready to leave, I promised I'd buy him a pizza from the gas station the next day if he just put up with us a little longer.

We then filmed for another two hours in the parking lot, then went home to sleep for about five hours before we got up early for the next day of filming.

Storyboarding

Been a while. I promised to go into the actual making of the film this time, but I forgot to talk about storyboards. But that goes hand in hand with filming the movie so it works.

Here's a question, to storyboard or not to storyboard? Now most will tell you to storyboard. But most are people with no skill and regurgitate what they read in Directing 101.

Some say they can't draw or some shit like that. To quote Dov for the fourteenth time "If you can't direct a pencil, you can't direct a camera".

On the other hand, Werner Herzog is against storyboarding. ""Coincidences always happen if you keep your mind open, while storyboards remain the instruments of cowards who do not trust in their own imagination and who are slaves of a matrix... If you get used to planning your shots based solely on aesthetics, you are never that far from kitsch. -Werner Herzog

And if you're wondering what kitsch is, it's not good.

So you make your own decision. I'm with Herzog, but I don't have enough experience to recommend anything.

Everyone thinks they know what each scene will look like, but until you draw it out you don't realize how much you don't.

If you're a person who likes the characters to explore their space and just be natural, than you'll probably do alright without storyboards.

If your very particular about what you want, like Kubrick or the Coen brothers, than of course you'll want to storyboard. Don't worry about how great the drawings are. The more time you spend animating the longer it takes. Draw some stick figures in the position and shot you want and move on.

Even though I'm with Herzog on coincidence and exploring what happens, I was starring in the film so I needed to get across what I wanted. So I drew about 40 pages of storyboards, and it was exhausting.

I learned a lot about directing from doing that. Go ahead and draw some storyboards and see how well you do.

Robert Rodriguez used to draw comic strips when he was a kid, which helped him a lot with his directing skills.

So what I'm trying to say is there is no answer. And that goes beyond storyboarding. Not to sound cliche but find works for you.

Next time I'll go into the first day of shooting and give you an update on post production.

This is a Rewrite!

Today I'm going to over screenwriting again, since it is the most important part of the entire production. After you've already written the script, you take a break, maybe even feel some sort of accomplishment for following something all the way through.

I didn't really. I just felt like some intense pressure that had been looming over me was going to give me a week off. Now you come back to it and start rewriting. So how do you know when you're done rewriting, you don't. Some will tell you that you'll have a feeling when you're done. Others will tell you, you're never done. I felt it was done but could always be polished, so I rewrote a little bit everyday while getting the rest of the production ready.

After finishing your screenplay, you might feel the need to send it to some of your closest friends or a script doctor. Avoid it. That's just the weak part of your mind either wanting fained compliments to make you feel good or an "expert" opinion to tell you how you should feel about it.

You just finished your first of many, many drafts. Why not wait till the third or fourth draft before you do this. If you send your friends a crappy first draft, how excited do you think they'll be to read your sixth draft?

Why spend $200-300 on a script doctor on something you already know needs work. Save them till the end.

Some will tell you to rewrite your entire script you need to do a complete rewrite. Well, I tried that. Guess what, it was a complete rewrite. It was an almost entirely new script. When you rewrite the script from the beginning, how much do you want to follow the last gameplan. Kind of boring, at least for me.

It was like reliving past experiences, so the only way to make it any fun is to make different choices to see what happens. So my new script was completely different. Now, there were some good things to come out of it.

I took a few of the ideas and used them in my old draft, but most of it was just successful in a writing excercise.

So I went back to the original, and never sent that script to anyone. Why? Anyone? No? Okay, I already told you but I'll tell you again...Don't send the first draft to anyone!

"But Steve wasn't that technically the second draft or some shit"?

Well said, but it was more like a first draft in the sense that it was completely different and would need polishing in a completely new way.

Now I didn't follow my advice, because I didn't have the advice till I made the mistake...which is how I got the advice.

I not only sent my first draft to a script doctor, but all 250 pages of it. Wow, I don't think you need an idiot like me to tell you to never do that. But just to let you know, I like to make my own mistakes rather than follow rules from a screenwriting book at Barnes & Noble.

Follow Syd Field or Robert McKee if you want, I just like to make mistakes first then read their books after I'd made a few screenplays so I can look more objectively than just follow blindly.

Anyway, not only did the scriptdoctor complain about how long it was, I had to pay an extra $50. The script doctor bascially told me things I already knew, too long, too many characters, etc.

He told me it was really funny, but needed to get some serious cuts. Which may be the hardest part of the screenwriting process, cutting your favorite scenes. You love them, they may be the funniest part of the movie. But if they're not necessary, you're gonna have to cut them.

My friends told me it was funny and didn't think it was too long. But they don't know how long a movie's supposed to be. When they read the new 90 page version they thought it was too short.

Hopefully you'll get lucky and have that one friend who's completely honest. He let me know my first draft was all over the place.

Pretty much all the advice I got were things I'd already come to terms with. It's just nice to have the validation. That's mostly what you'll pay a scriptdoctor for, to validate the little things you already believe in the back of your head.

I only paid for one scriptdoctor, one time. The best way to go about it two pay for two scriptdoctors, two times. But I actually wanted to make a movie this year, so I skimped on that.

I knew what I wanted and that's all that mattered. I did find outside sources for criticism though.

Triggerstreet.com enables you to have horrible screenwriters critique you as you critique other horrible screenwriters. I'm sure there's some decent one's there, I just haven't seen any. And if I seem pessimistic I'm not. If you had read a screenplay about a prostitute that convinces a 70 foot cyclops to kill everyone last man on earth and it wasn't even the worst of the screenplays you'd read, than you might feel the same way as me.

I'm not sure what else I can tell you. Write, the rewrite as many times as possible before you shoot it. Get outside opinions, keep it around 90 pages, and don't be predictable.

I'll never understand why people want to make a movie that's already been made a hundred times. Where does that passion come from?

Know you're talents and your...non talents. I'm awesome at dialogue, but I'm not good at...something? Maybe I'm good at everything. That's the kind of self confidence that get's a movie made.

By the way, if you suck at dialogue, than there may be no hope for you. Unless you're writing Rumble in the Bronx II chances are you will whither into obscurity. So if it's possible, learn to write realistic dialogue.

Also, read your script aloud to someone, you'll be able to tell when they're bored or if they think something's funny.

And oh yeah, WRITE! Don't think about writing, that's thinking. Just write! Bad writing doesn't hurt anyone unless it's the final draft or somebody read it. But you're still better than all the thinkers out there, or the talkers. You wrote so you're a writer.

The only time you should stay away from writing is when you've finished a new draft, stay away from it for a few weeks. That way it's fresh when you come back to it. If you still laugh at a line, get excited during an action scene, or wince during a horror moment. It's good, and best of all you wrote it.

I didn't come up with all this, some of it is sound advice I regurgitated from the greats. But I used all of it so I know it works.

That's it for today, next time I'll get to the actual making of the movie.

Audio Mo Fo

Too much suspense? Are you finally ready to hear... or read who I chose for my DP? Alright I won't torture you anymore. I chose the cheaper guy with more talent that didn't require lodging. Sounds like a pretty simple decision, but the alure of a Red One and the "If you're gonna do it, do it big".

But I follow a motto by (gasp) Dov Simons which makes much more sense. Especially when it comes to your first film. KISS, Keep It Simple Stupid. Plus it's always good to hire a DP who is um, skilled in...LIGHTING! Besides numerous other things he had going for him.

So that's that and that's my DP.

Now what about audio, huh. Audio as I've said before is either just there or it sucks. Unless you're some audio geek you're not gonna leave a movie talking about how crisp the dialogue was, or how innovative the room tone was in setting up the atmosphere of the final scene.

But, when audio sucks, it really sucks. It's like a lineman in football, when he does his job no one really notices, but if he fucks up, people will...I guess, I don't know. I don't really watch football but you know what I'm talking about.

Anyway, there's a quote from...some guy who had attended numerous screenings of low to no budget digital movies "I finally saw one that I could hear". I think he was an EA(guys with money for your movie), so you want to impress this guy.

So any of you thinking of skimping on audio better have a good reason. First of all the on camera mic is horrible, so unless you're innovative and know a way to get around it, don't ever use it.

Then the boompole takes a little skill to use, so whoever you get to do it better be competent and have good shoulder endurance. And he needs to know a few things like how ride the frame of the camera, which means have the mic as close to the actor/s as much as possible without getting it in the camera. Which means he/she/it needs to do mic checks with you the director, or whoever the hell is behind the camera. Also needs to make sure the boompole isn't casting any visible shadows as well. Besides that that's all there is too it.

Some of that is pretty obvious, basic stuff that you may already know, but you'd be surprised how many bad movies are made where people skip this. So if I can stop one more fucked up movie than I've done my job.

Now everyone is going to say that you should get a sound mixer as well. I didn't, and I've known others that didn't. Not to be the guy that uses this line, but you can actually fix a lot of that in post. From my little knowledge of it, sound mixing basically saves you a lot of time in the editing room.

Keep in mind we're talking about low budget movie making. If you can get it, than get it. But if you can't, you can live without it. Just make sure to avoid echo and static at all costs. You can't fix either of the two in post.

You want to shoot in places that don't have perpendicular walls, so as to avoid echos. Hard surfaces, low ceilings, and wooden floors don't help either. Non perpendicular walls, soft furniture, shelves, high ceilings are much better for interior shooting. Maybe even buy some foamcore.

Don't get any of that white noise crap going on either. If the air conditioner, or something is making noise either try to get it to stop, or make sure it's there the whole time. And recored about a minute before of just audio with that sound so you can identify that sound while editing in order to EDIT it out.

In fact always tape a minute of just audio before every scene so you have room tone. That allows you to edit that tone into the scene later one, or edit it out. Like background actors making noise. Record them seperately, then record your actors doing whatever the hell they do. Then edit them together. Don't tape at the same time!

Also, get you $100 pair of headphones so you can check your audio levels so you know if they're consistant, suck, or whatever else could be the problem. These are kind of the industry standard, Sony 7506.

Know your mics as well. If shooting interior dialogue, use a hypercardioid, or maybe just a cardioid. Shooting outside, use a shotgun. Shooting an documentary, or recording an interview use a lav mic. Pretty simple. I could go more into detail with them, but I would run the risk of misinformation, plus this is your starter page do the rest of the research on your own. If I'm you're only source than you're gonna fail big time. Always, get lot's or sources from people who know that the hell they're talking about.

A good start would be buying this expensive ass DVD, http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/562036-REG/Books_DRT_DVD_Sound_for_Film.html. Don't complain either, I got it for $90. This will solve most of your problems. Others suggest visiting or working on sets, buying volumes of books. I say just get the DVD, try a few forums like this, http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/forumdisplay.php?f=29, and just shoot the damn thing.

A good place to get mics would be http://oktava.com/.

Make sure to get windjammers, or windsocks, or whatever to block...wind. Even if you're inside always use one.

Get XLR cables to run from your camera to your mic, the longer the better. Ask any girl that.

Boompoles are expensive even for the crappy models. I made my own for about $30 but ended up using a real one because my DP already owned one.

TANGENT ALERT

That's the cool thing about hiring people, they usually have their own equipment. My DP had lights, mic, boom pole, crane. So most of the stuff I bought wasn't used. He even had his own camera. A Canon XL2 that had native 16x9.

I bought a $500 add on so I could get 16x9, which is the new industry standard. But didn't even use it cause he had the newer model of the camera that was used in 28 days later. So even my camera wasn't necessary. More waste of money. Consider this when making your movie. Your crew may have the equipment you need already!

I DIGRESS

So I just gave you a lot of information. And it was on audio. Something I barely understand, and don't even like talking about.

Did I follow my advice? Somewhat. I shot in good interiors, I let my DP make the decisions cause he had the experience and I was too busy acting in front of the camera and directing actors or doing one of another hundred things.

My DP actually used a shotgun for everything, didn't use a sound mixer, but besides that I basically followed the rest of the rules.

Alright, I'm worn out from typing about something that bores me. In the future I'll be able to hire someone to do all the thinking on this subject.

Stay tuned for next time where I talk about something that's different from this.

You Down with My DP?

I've gone from updating every two days to going almost two weeks without an update. I've recently just moved from small town Arkansas to big city Florida. I sort of got a rythem now, so I don't predict any shortage of updates happening to you guys anytime soon.

Anyway, I thought I'd go over getting a DP on your low to no budget today and how I went about it.

Last time I'd brought up that I'd made the revelation that having a well lit movie with production value was a good thing to have. I'm just brilliant aren't I?

I got on craigslist, dvxuser, backstage, and a few others I don't remember. Craigslist was by far the best.

I got some offers by some guys that had made some decent music videos or shorts, and some creepy guys that shoot micro machines roaming through their bedroom on some sort of flash freeze thing and wanted to move in with me. That's not that weird for Craigslist though.

I got some good offers but I haggled them to get a price I could actually work with. You got to do this. They need the credit and reel as much as they need the money, so you're the one in control. If they give you a hard time about how much money they want, just remind them of your budget and ask them if they'd rather sit on their ass for a week re-cutting their demo reel for the 18th time, or get paid DP'ing a movie. Well, you might want to paraphrase that a bit, but you get the point.

I finally got a great offer by a guy that not only had experience DP'ing an actual feature film, and it looked great. He understood the budget, asked for the least amount of money, and had family that lived near me. No paying for lodging!

The only thing for debate was the fact that one of the other guys had a Red One which is the best digital camera known to man...or at least to me. That stupid movie Jumper was shot with one.

But the guy wanted more, money, needed extra money to get his Red One shipped from storage, and he's not exactly awesome at lighting. Which is kind of like a director that doesn't work well with actors. David O. Russell?

Also, with the fact that I'm working with non-pro's, I'd rather work with a more non-obtrusive camera so as not to distract the actors from their naturalness anymore than the boompole would be doing. Which was how John Carney worked with his non pro's in Once.

Plus the camera would be beast as far as setting up goes. As apposed to my DVX which would take no time to set up and would let the cast and crew move quick and let us shoot in a week.

But, I've always heard if you're gonna do it...Do it Big!

I've never done this before, though. Do I want to pay more money than I have for a better looking movie that may make everything else suffer.

Kevin Smith shot his first on 16mm, so did all the other indie forfathers. So I can at least shoot on a digital camera.

So who did I choose?

I'll leave the suspense till next blog. And don't worry, I'll only make you wait a couple of days.