MicroCinema Scene

By Sean McKnight
A popular misconception about moviemaking is that it’s easy. You might think, “How hard can it be? You just set up a camera, people play pretend, and everybody has a good time.” Wrong. Find out what’s really involved as I relate my experience of making my first feature film—Disturbing Images.

It all began when I was asked to be an extra in a movie called Murder Below The Line directed by Norm Macera. While on the set for Murder, I talked with Norm and the camera people about their equipment—I’m a bit of video tech geek. Eventually, Norm and I got to talking about our backgrounds. He has a broad background as a writer and filmmaker. I have an extensive background in video and multimedia production (about 19 years of experience). So, he asked me if I’d like to become more involved with Murder, and I said yes. I ended up developing the opening and closing title segments for Murder and helped him with some of the effects shots.
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By Jamie Lisk

Like a scene right out of a George Romero movie, for about two weeks in June, 2005, the residents of Deseronto, Ontario, found themselves inundated with the walking dead.

Production for Dave Francis’ Zombie Night 2: The Awakening rolled into the township of Deseronto, Ontario at the beginning of June, and for about two weeks the place was turned into a veritable zombie outpost. At any time of the day, people in various forms of decay could be seen walking up and down Main Street, chomping on food, having a drink, or, sometimes, just window shopping. Although, discouragd by the crew, the sight became so common that few locals even batted an eye after a while.
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What a world we live in today. Originating with the laserdisc, supplemental material riding shotgun with movies became standard when DVD’s made their way into virtually every home. Filmmakers benefit greatly from such special features, especially astute observers. Not a lot of us can afford film school, but you can make a curriculum from your own DVD collection and from discs available at public libraries for free. A lot can be learned from DVDs in the form of commentary tracks, documentaries, as well as the obvious: just viewing the movie for its own value. If there are commentary tracks and extras, they usually contain a lot of valuable information regarding how something was done. While some may get bogged down in tech speak, not every DVD has scarily meticulous FX people speaking at length on how they created a ten second sequence.

Commentary tracks have some of the best lessons available, although some can be rather hit or miss. Rob Reiner and Cameron Crowe commentaries are almost exclusively about performance, but say nothing about camera. Others are all about camera tricks, but leave out anything about directing actors. And yes, unfortunately, there’s an all new category of commentary tracks for people like Tim Burton who don’t talk for 20 minutes at a time and teach us nothing. As an assistant to building your own “curriculum,” I offer up a few of my favorite DVD Commentary tracks for moviemakers.

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For years we’ve seen new moviemakers putting out better-edited pieces with some great camera angles and even nice visual effects.  Alas, one thing that has constantly eluded the majority of green moviemakers is attention to sound quality.  While it’s common understanding that sound is 50% of the cinematic experience, at the shot-on-video level it’s hard to give it such attention.  Most newbies are starting out using cheap consumer cameras with built-in microphones, and many a camera manufacturer has longtime held the theory that what’s most important to consumers is the visual.  We want to see Billy blow out his birthday candles, but we don’t necessarily need crystal clear audio to hear the abhorrent family chorus of “Happy Birthday.”

Unfortunately for many start-up moviemakers, the camera recording Billy’s birthday is the camera they are forced to use to shoot their first flicks.  Right away they are dealing with a disadvantage.  What follows is a list of things you can do to ensure that you are, in fact, devoting as much attention to sound as you would to your image, and in the process, making your movie rise above the majority in the shot-on-video universe.

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As aspiring moviemakers, we are always burdened with finding actors to appear in our movies. Where do these elusive beings live? How do we get them to be in our movies? How will we know if they are right for a role? The answer is simple: hold auditions. This is very basic info, but also handy.

First things first: Set a dates for the actual shooting of the movie. What does this have to do with casting? It ensures that this movie is going to happen! Many people forget to make sure they have a camera and a way to edit their movie before they start involving actors. What good is an audition or even footage for a movie if you can’t finish it? And by setting the shoot dates, you can quickly whittle down your choices by making sure actors are even available for those dates to begin with.

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Nothing is more horrifying to a first timer than realizing very early in your shoot that you’re going way over schedule, over budget and your crew is about to mutiny because of long shooting days.  At this point, after shooting all day, you are forced to start cutting pages while trying to keep your movie’s story coherent and alive. It’s my hope this article will help beginning writer/directors embarking on their first feature (or even long short) during the scriptwriting and pre-production phase so they don’t run into such unfortunate situations.

First, so you know where I’m coming from, a little about my background. I have worked for over 17 years in film and video production, shooting 14+ feature films, producing a couple of films and writing 8 feature scripts, 2 of which have been produced.  I have shot video features with tiny budgets and have also worked on the opposite end of the spectrum, shooting 35mm features.
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When you leave the studio (if you were ever in one) one of the biggest factors to a good shoot, is location, location, location.  I’ve been on many a location scout and have learned that a great location is often determined by how it will work logistically.  The logistic factors to locations are cost, sound issues, power and logistics.  We’ll break those down in a bit, but first let’s cover some more simple ground.

First, who should be on the location scout?  Answer: As many crew people as possible.  But since it’s not feasible to take the entire crew to each location (unless you have a small crew), you need to pick department heads, the director, cinematographer, 1st assistant director, art director, sound mixer and production/location manager.  I like to bring my gaffer if possible as well.  These people all look at locations in different ways and will have different and valuable input.  When all of these people are not on the scout, then somebody present should be looking out for them.  Sometimes when it’s just me and the director out scouting, we both have to wear different production hats and not just consider picture needs.
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I couldn’t afford film school. That costs money. In some cases, USC, UCLA, and NYU – a LOT of money. There is a lot to be learned in film school. There is also a lot to be learned on your own. Going to film school does not guarantee you a job, but the networking, relationships, equipment, and the creative environment has a value that can’t be measured. The whole point of film school is to come out of it with a couple great demo reels. During my video and film career, no one ever asked me where I went to film school, what my degree was, or even if I went to school or finished college. All they want to know is if you can do the job. Shooting, lighting, directing, sound, whatever…

So what about us wannabe’s with no way in? Are we doomed? People like Kevin Smith (dropout), and Quentin Tarantino exist on the mythology of their not liking film schools. There is the famous quote of James Cameron’s (later ripped off in the movie Good Will Hunting) where he was quoted as saying “I got a $150,000 film school education for a $1.50 in late fee at the public library.”
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One of the most common stories in Indie Filmmaking, especially in the feature length genre is that of the “Promise of funding that turns out to be a dead end” scenario. How many of us have been approached by someone that claims to have access to investors and capital that will fund your movie, and after months of working, (for free I might add,) that it turns out to not be true? Or worse, someone has a unique way of raising money - that you come to find out via controversy - is either illegal or at the least, unethical.

Where to begin? In 3 years I’ve dealt with all kinds of delusions, lies, and cheats: I don’t know where to begin. I know! The annoying old man with delusions of grandeur! I shan’t use real names because it’s rude and it doesn’t help that it’s also legally libel, but these are all true stories.
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Jump back to the spring of 2001.  I’m working on a picture called In a Sky With No Angels.  On the movie, I was the writer/director, primary producer and actor.  To say that it was difficult would be an understatement, especially when you add in the fact that I only had 24 hours to shoot twenty pages worth of script.  It was to be a very long evening, but I felt confident and ready.

By the following afternoon, we had managed to complete all but one scene that was scheduled. The official page count was eighteen.  It was a big success for me on a personal level.  I had, until this point, not fully organized a shoot the way they are supposed to be organized, but instead simply grabbed friends whenever they were available and slapped movies together according to who was around.  With In a Sky With No Angels, I thought more in advance, factored in actors’ availability and then scheduled pages to shoot accordingly.  We were working with a script, had very exact call times for cast and crew, and each person involved on the production had a very specific role.  Additionally, when someone was done with their part in the production, they left.  There was no need to have people just sitting around as they can commonly act as distractions.

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