The Director’s job is insane. Let’s face it, you have to be a little bit insane to even attempt it, and when you look at the list of things for which a Director is responsible you could easily talk yourself out of trying. The following is a list of four things to focus on as you enter production. If you can’t do it all, you can at least do these:
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I have been with Scary Cow for a year and prior to that I led and worked with many volunteer groups for a variety of projects and fundraising. I have developed some strong and highly successful attitudes and tactics for building volunteer teams and for assessing what team leader is a good one for me to follow as well.
There is no free lunch. You are going to have to give to get. All negotiations whether they are social or professional, artistic or intellectual need to work from that fact. If you are not skilled at fair negotiating, it will show in your film as well as bring you a million headaches while in production and make it very hard to attract crew or get invited on crews. Here in Scary Cow we are a cooperative. You want your negotiating tactics to be cooperative, not entitled or sloppy.
In low budget filmmaking we tend to have no or very little money to use as a motivation and/or compensation for goods and services. So we make choices to work without the things that will only be traded for with cash or we use what little cash we have for the things and people that will not accept anything else. Learn what your choices are as well as other the forms of compensation you have to entice people to work with you. There are many ways to compensate another person for their services, time and goods. Money is the most versatile and therefore most popular, but it is still only one. I personally find it thrilling to troubleshoot all this and find it a fun way to build lasting personal and professional relationships.
Continue Reading about “No Free Lunch (the care and feeding of a happy crew)” »
Maybe you’re new to filmmaking. Maybe you don’t know which aspect to explore first. Maybe you’re dying to get involved, but are embarrassed because you don’t know the first thing about making a movie.
Can you walk and talk? If the answer is yes, we’re not only willing to have you on our crew, we need you.
From the crew’s point of view, Production Assistants are the main source of information on a film set. It’s an entry-level job, but an important one. Each day, good PA’s arm themselves with as much information as they can get their hands on – call sheets and shooting schedules, the moment-to-moment whereabouts of every key crew member and the cast, where the bathrooms are, and where and at what time the crew will be eating lunch – and each day they are relied upon to convey that information to everyone who asks. Despite being at the bottom of the film industry food chain, they are expected to know everything and if you do, it can pay off in all kinds of opportunities to learn and network your way to a better job.
Read on to see the PA Checklist…
Continue Reading about “Wanted: a few good Production Assistants” »
If you’re looking to add a bit of CGI to your movie and don’t want to shell out the $3,000-$4,000 for a high-end package, Blender may fit your needs.
Blender is a free, open-source modeling and animation package similar to Maya and 3d Studio Max.
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As a Director/Producer, my greatest asset during production (and pre-production, as a matter of fact) is my A.D. As a no-budget, indie filmmaker, you end up doing everything yourself unless you get competent help. If you don’t have a go-to Assistant Director in your contact list, start cultivating one now. While an A.D.’s role on a major feature film is a big, big job, suited for someone unafraid of having a stress-induced heart attack, on a smaller scale here are 5 basic things your AD can do to help carry the load:
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Before you direct actors; you lead them.
You are the captain of the ship when you direct a movie. It’s everyone’s job to do their best to make sure that you make the movie you see in your head.
People want leadership. They want to be led by a good leader.
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OK, so you just spent all your hard earned cash on a camera and just realized that you’re not at the end of the dollar spending days. There are the endless number of accessories to purchase. So what are the essentials that you should have in your kit? Here is my list of five must have accessories.
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While I really enjoy the wild and unpolished nature of independent film, all too frequently I observe work that could really benefit from a savage pruning. Sometimes this lacking may be because the work has missed out on re-edits (and friendly screenings of rough-cuts) due to time constraints. But other times, I think the editor and the director didn’t know where to look for ways to make their story cut together in a tighter way.
So, I’ve put together a list of hints I use when trying to get a tighter edit, with the hope they might be of use to other editors.
Continue Reading about “Killing Your Children: getting the tightest-possible edit” »
We often have folks ask what makes Scary Cow different from other filmmaking groups. Scary Cow tries to blend the best of all of them into something that can really help you achieve your filmmaking goals – whether they be to just get your feet wet to fine tuning your already awesome skills. We’ve had complete novices to industry experts all working together in Scary Cow to make some award winning films.
Still, some people want to know specifics as to how we’re different than just finding a bunch of people on craigslist to make a film, or one of the 24-48 hour film challenges, or even attending film school. That’s what this long winded note will try to help clear up.
Check out some of the main differentiators below:
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