Monday, March 31, 2014

A World of Darkness - Lessons of a First Feature Film

When I decided to make a feature film back in 2012 even if I would have told you I knew what I was getting myself into after all of the random projects and short films (I lost count) I have done since my Sophomore year of high school, I really wouldn't have known what I was talking about. Sure, I had an idea of what it meant to undertake a huge project, work with actors, crew, and get a vision together. But I really didn't fully understand everything that it would take to ensure a no-budget feature film (aspiring for quality) would get finished, especially when I wore every hat.

It's one thing to do everything for a short film no more than 15 min. Now translate that to and hour and a half. As writer, director, producer, editor, sound mixer, sound editor, ADR director/recorder, casting director, etc., I had a huge undertaking. I didn't realize how intense it would be. At the moment I am in the final throws of post-production and I've been working on this film for over 2 years. A lot of people have put a lot of work into it, which I am grateful for, but I know that nobody has been on board as long as I have so for me it's really in a sense my "baby." So in my attempt to make a feature I had no budget and just a passionate bunch of people who happened to believe in me and my project enough to work with the hope that one day they would get compensated for their hard work.

And so I've come to a point of near completion on Shades of Darkness.

Shades of Darkness Trailer #1

I could go on and on about my adventures in making this feature but instead I'll save my rants for in person conversations and speak some of the most important things I've learned from this project.

1. Be careful who you decide to work with. Sometimes friends work well together and sometimes they don't. That was a problem I had early on shooting this feature. I had a friend I had brought on who was interested in getting experience in film and we ended up having a big conflict of interest that led to a lot of on set issues including the amount of time it was taking to shoot. Ultimately this led to a falling out that was never reconciled. So before you start working together, figure out your work styles and see if you will work well together. There is nothing worse than major set tension.

2. Get all your paperwork in order. I made sure to have actor contracts written act and I had an agreement for music but beyond that I didn't get everything together I should have. Make sure you have written agreements on what's expected for every single crew member. Make sure everything is laid out up front and is completely clear to the last period. Make sure you have it written that no matter what happens on the production you will get all the footage and audio recorded needed to edit the film with up front terms. I lost a lot of audio and had to do a ton of ADR because of a situation like this. If you have everything written out up front you should have no issue. Just make sure it's clear, even the fact that at the moment you have absolutely no way to pay anybody.

3. There are decent actors who will work for free. If you're fortunate and you have talent you'll be able to find actors who have talent who are willing to work for no pay just because they believe in your project and you. You might not find A-list talent but you may just stumble upon the next up and coming talent who may in something big next.

4. If possible, don't break ties. One thing I've learned is that every person you meet is a contact, even if they aren't in the film business. That accountant might just be the most reliable person you've ever met you can later hire for your new production company. Even if you don't always like how someone works, if you can work around it, find a way to make it work and maintain your contacts. You never know when they might help you out. That's how I found one member of my cast and a few crew members as well.

5. Figure out what's realistic and try to adhere to it. Some things are just unrealistic and impossible. Everyone as an artist at times tries these things and even sometimes on this feature I realized I needed to take a step back and see what was possible and work in that direction.

6. Realize you won't have a life. Feature films are an EPIC amount of work. Even more so when you're working full time on active duty in the Army. With that, while making a feature film it's a good idea to realize that you really won't have much of any kind of life outside of making your film. Time on set, script revising, looking over shots, etc. will all consume hours upon hours of your time. Which leads to another very important thing ...

7. Learn the best way to manage the stress. Especially if you're wearing many hats it's important to know the best way you deal with stress and learn that to take it onto set to be able to lead everyone. The first few shoots I'm pretty sure I broke down because EVERYTHING seemed to be going wrong. But after that I learned how to remain calm and just get it done.

8. You're going to have to make hard decisions. For the first time ever I had to re-cast a role. That means I had to fire someone, which sucked. I also had to deal with a lot of conflict and approach people about things that went wrong. Making those types of decisions is never easy.

9. Passion. That's probably the only thing that kept me going through the whole process. No SANE person makes a feature film with no money. It really is just plain crazy! I probably wouldn't do a feature again without a budget.

10. If you want to direct, write, and make your own movies. I might say this could be the biggest thing. This is what I've been told by industry insiders. Nathan Kahane, the Executive Producer of Mandate Pictures said to me when I was intern that if I wanted to direct to go make my own movies. That's what I had been doing and that's what I did with this feature. I just went out there and did it. After numerous shorts I decided I shouldn't wait any longer to make a feature. So now I've worked for over two hard years on this film. If you want to know if you're cut out for the film industry, see if you can stick with a project for that long, because that's an average minimum for a feature to get done.


1 comment:

  1. Truth! But it all is coming together! So proud! And thanks for asking me to be a part of it; I am honored.

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