Being a wannabe filmmaker is not easy. First of all I'm naturally a lazy bum. So getting off my ass and doing something for myself is very unnatural for me. I have been working on a new project though. VERY VERY SLOWLY working on a new project.. but I am working on it.
Trying to break into showbiz is proving to be a lot more mah-fan than I thought. I spoke to a buddy of mine who is in the business. She is actually doing what I want to eventually be doing..sorta.. she is constantly on site shooting and she has even directed a few TV episodes. She basically advised to start churning out videos and put it on Youtube and told me as well that some production houses shoot pilot videos for their tv series in order to push the idea to a network. The risk is if they don't like ur pilot idea then what ever money u spent will just be burnt. So after considering my options I have decided that the next video I shoot has to be good. As in I wanna do it semi-professionally. So that if someone saw it they would think hey thats not bad maybe I wouldn't mind watching something like that on tv. Which basically means. I'm gonna have to cough up some mooollaahh. Yup it's gonna cost me.
Shaz's guide to making a video (in theory and completely based on what he thinks is right as he has never actually shot a video so how would he really know for sure)
Step 1: Know what you want to shoot and write your script.
So i got my script ready and i have fixed a lot of problems which i got wrong in my previous shoot. Basically not so many actors and locations. A more manageable project that must be shot and wrapped up in 3 days. My last shoot took about 2 months and in the end it was a disaster because of being a little too ambitious.
Step 2: Get your equipment, locations, cast and crew ready
One other mistake I made in my previous production was that I was acting in it as well. While it did solve my problem of finding one more actor however I couldn't pay 100% attention to directing it. So not gonna do that this time around. Plus the main cast for this show is only 3 characters.
Equipment- Ok I have a camera. Now what I need are some lights, a dolly with track and maybe a crane. I called up this cinema rental agency and boy are they inefficient! When I call they say send e-mail when i send an e-mail they tell me to call. The person I need to speak to is never there and when I finally spoke to him he didn't have all the info I needed. Crane cost RM1k per day.. yowzah! Ok so maybe I don't need a crane. Dolly and Track will cost RM250 a day. Much more manageable. He didn't know how much lights we're and told me he'd let me know via e-mail. I'm still waiting for his reply. sheesh!
Locations- There are 4 main location shoots for my project. Apartment, DJ studio, mall and beach.
Apartment..well I suppose I could use mine. Check!.
DJ studio. Yup thats where I work Check!.
Mall..I tried to ask Giant if they we're cool with it. After a few days of being bounced around from dept to dept they told me...guess what...no. Apparently they only allow documentaries and videos that are regarding Giant to be shot in their malls. brilliant. So now I'm looking for a new mall. So no check..
As for the beach I need to contact a resort in PD to book it i suppose. I have had bad experience shooting in locations which i thought we're open to public. So these ones better be booked and nobody better bug me when I'm shooting
Cast and crew- I actually think this might be the easy part. If I managed to pull 5 people to act together in my last show I think I should be able to pull this one off. Hopefully. However it's the pre-production crew that has got me stumped. Get this this is the full list of crew required for a proper shoot.
- The director, who is primarily responsible for the acting in the movie and managing the creative elements.
- The assistant director (AD) manages the shooting schedule and logistics of the production among other tasks.
- The casting director finds actors for the parts in the script. This normally requires an audition by the actor. Lead actors are carefully chosen and are often based on the actor's reputation or "star power."
- The location manager finds and manages the film locations. Most pictures are shot in the predictable environment of a studio sound stage but occasionally outdoor sequences will call for filming on location.
- The production manager manages the production budget and production schedule. He or she also reports on behalf of the production office to the studio executives or financiers of the film.
- The director of photography (DP or DOP) or cinematographer creates the photography of the film. He or she cooperates with the director, director of audiography (DOA) and AD.
- The art director manages the art department, which makes production sets, costumes and provides makeup & hair styling services.
- The production designer creates the look and feel of the production sets and props working with the art director to create these elements.
- The storyboard artist creates visual images to help the director and production designer communicate their ideas to the production team.
- The production sound mixer manages the audio experience during the production stage of a film. He or she cooperates with the director, DOP, and AD.
- The sound designer creates new sounds and enhances the aural feel of the film with the help of foley artists.
- The composer creates new music for the film.
- The choreographer creates and coordinates the movement and dance - typically for musicals. Some films also credit a fight choreographer.
I'm doing all of this at the moment. It's not fun. Fair enough I don't need some of the ones mentioned and I can double up some of the other ones. But really if any of you dunno what to do with your time. *whimper* help!*end whimper*
Step 3: Production.
This is where you start shooting your project. Can be very tiring and it can be boring at times if you need to re-do shots over and over. The problem I had with my last shoot was that all the people acting in it were my friends and they we're doing me a favour. I mean the moment they say "eh tired lah Shaz" or "enouglah for today very hotlah" I can't force them. Shooting schedules can be like from 8am to 2am a few days in a row. So I don't really blame thme, but the next shoot I do I'm gonna have to make sure my actors understand I own their ass for the duration of the shoot.
Step 4: Editing and clean up.
Basically this is where you gather all your footage and set up camp infront of your pc while you go through he very tedious process of editing. It can be fun at the end when you see how the final product will look and sometimes you will see problems with the shots here that you didn't realise earlier on. For example the boom mic dipping into the frame. So you might need to do a re-shoot, but pray that is not needed. You also need to find a good soundtrack. And in this case I will need to produce it originally can't be ciplak. So I have a few musical contacts lets hope it wont be that hard to produce it.
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