Transcripts
1. Introduction: You have a script and you're
ready to shoot a film. But how my name is, uh, Malala groovy, aka a
filmmaker or a mall. And I am on journey
to becoming one of the greatest filmmakers
of all time. This is my journey
and I'd like to share a few things that I've
learned with you. So welcome to this course
on short film production. Everything you need to
know from start to finish. Short films are a way of
getting your work out there, whether you using it
as a calling card, a representation
of your own work, or whether you using it as a proof-of-concept to
create a feature film, something in television,
or even a web series. I hope that during this
course I'm able to give you the tools that you need in order to create your
own short film. In fact, that's going to be
the challenge on this course. I'm going to ask you to shoot
your own short film and I'm going to take you through the
process of pre-production, production, right the way
through to post-production. We're gonna be
covering everything from budgeting to scheduling, how to higher caste, how to hire crew, the conversations you
should be having with them, where to get your equipment, where to get your insurance. And most importantly, I'm going to be showing
you actual live footage from one of my film sets so you can
see exactly what we did, the problems we encountered
and how we fix them. I hope I can provide you with
all the knowledge that you need in order for you
to shoot a short film. Whether you are taking up
filmmaking as a hobby, whether you have
a passion for it, or whether you just like
to challenge yourself. And remember, if you see this
symbol up on the screen, it means that I have a more detailed course about the topic. So feel free to follow
me so you can check out more information and hopefully learn more about the
film making journey.
2. Your project: Using what you've
learned on this course, I want you to challenge
yourself by shooting a film based on a script
that you already have. The script can be anything
from one page to five pages, so that equates to about
five-minutes on screen. And the idea is to
shoot it over a weekend or maybe on a day off and just help boost
your confidence. Because what you could do with the film is then take
it and distributed, whether it's showing it to
your friends or family, posting it online and getting feedback from audience members. Or if you're feeling very bold
and happy with your work, maybe it's something
you want to submit to a film festival. Just remember that filmmaking is not just a form
of expression, but also a craft. And your craft needs
to be developed. You need the skills. The more you do it, the more
confidence you'll build, the better it will be. And then the bigger the body of work that you
have that you can present to other people and call yourself an
actual filmmaker. So you got this, Take a deep
breath and let's begin.
3. What is pre-production?: Filmmaking journey
can generally be divided into five
distinct phases. You have the development stage, you've got the
pre-production phase, you've got the production phase, you've got the
post-production phase, and finally, the
distribution phase. Now pre-production is
the preparation and the planning work
that needs to be done before the actual filming, which is the production phase. And the idea is that
we're trying to get everybody on the same page. Everyone that's involved
in the shooting of the film has to
follow one vision. They need to be in
one mind and they need to work
together in order to produce the best possible
film they can produce. It takes a whole team of
people to really hone in and focus on the different
aspects of filmmaking. Whether it's the
camera department, whether it's production,
whether it's post-production. Although this actual direction
and dealing with actors, That's what the
pre-production phase is. But why do we need
pre-production? The reason why we plan during pre-production is first of all, so that we can be
more efficient. We can also reduce costs. If we reduce costs, we can shoot for longer, basically tackle any of the issues that might
arise during production. So we've got a
plan a, you've got a plan B, and we've
got a plan C. There are a few key
tasks that need to be performed during the
pre-production phase. The first is finding out who your producer
is going to be. Is this somebody that
you're going to hire or are you going to produce
this film yourself? The second task
would be to break down the script in order
to create a budget. When you have a budget,
you know how much it's gonna cost you
to shoot this film. And then you can start
looking for the financing. You'll of course
have to look for your key crew, crew and cast. Then finally, you're
going to have to create some schedules. By doing this script breakdown, you can schedule
not only the shoot, greater shooting schedule, but also schedule
your meetings between your director or your
cast, your crew. This planning process
can take anything from weeks to months or even years, depending on how
much time you have, how much money you have, or maybe you're waiting
for an actress schedule to free up in order for
you to shoot this film. The most important thing
to say here is that the pre-production phase is
a time of conversations. You are looking for people, you are breaking down scripts, you are having conversations. So most importantly, who are these key crew members and what do they do on
set? Let's cover that.
4. What do producers do?: Most people think that a producer's job is typically
to raise financing, but that's not just the job, especially on short films. On short films that producer, it takes on a great
amount of work and it can sometimes
be overwhelming. So first and foremost, they need to have great
organizational skills. They also need to have
great communication skills. Be diplomatic. They need to tend to peoples, sometimes emotional well-being. They need to know how
to deal with people on every single basis. They need to have
great connections so they know who
to reach out to. They have a wide
knowledge of caste, they have a wide
knowledge of crew. So you need to actually like them and be able
to work with them. They need to be people-people. They need to have stamina
to keep going even when things are going wrong
or working against them. And I don't recommend that
you do it yourself because it is a lot of work to handle, especially if you're
directing and producing. Another important thing
that producers need to do is they need to
be resourceful. So they should have some great connections
within the film industry. So that when you're
shooting your film, they know who to contact, who to get in touch with
if something goes wrong. Because at the core, being a producer is
solving problems. What post-production
houses to use, what equipment
houses to approach. But the role of a producer is to ensure that they support
their director in the best possible way and
support the project so that it not only survives,
but also thrives. Whether you found a producer or you're acting as the
producer yourself. Here is what a producer
is responsible for onset. The first is budgeting
and financing. A budget is a document
that will show you how much it's going to cost
you to shoot your film. And this is a direct result of a breakdown of your script. So if the script is simple and you're confined to
one or two locations, it might be a bit cheaper if your production is
a lot heavier and the script is full
of bits and pieces, there might be more locations, you might need more crew or
more time to shoot the film, and therefore the
cost will be higher. In any case, on a short film, the producer will most
likely break down the script either
manually or using software like Movie
Magic Budgeting in order to figure out how many days it's
going to cost you to shoot and how much
equipment you need, what cameras you're
going to use, how much the food is
going to cause onset, how many crew members are
going to be involved and basically lay out what the total amount is
going to be on the film. Ladies coffee, we
calculated it to be about 5,000 pounds a day for
each shooting day. Once the budget is in place, then the producer and
sometimes the director on a short film will
most likely go out and try and find the
financing for the film. And that comes in
different forms, whether it's
crowdfunding online to try and gain money
from different people. Or it can be approaching different funding bodies
and applying for grants. Or it might be through pitching. And if a producer
wants to pitch, usually they'll put
together a pitch deck. And that pitch deck will have information about the budget, who's on the team. A little synopsis
about the story. Where are they, where
they might shoot, when they might shoot it, and where they're going to distribute and market the film. The producer has onset
is finding the crew. So the key crew, that's the cinematographer
or director of photography, the
production designer. And oftentimes the first AD will usually be more of
a director thing. The director needs to have a
bond with all the key crew. They need to know them. We need to have
worked with them. And so usually it's the directors looking
for those rules, but everybody else onset will probably be employed
by the producer. If this was a feature film, you might have a production
manager on board, and that is actually the role
of the production manager. But as I mentioned, producers do everything on short films and finding crew and hiring
crew is one of them. On feature films where
budgets are more plentiful. More often than not, you might have a
casting director, but because the
calcium director is not there on a short film, sometimes there's no budget for a casting director
on a short film, the producer will be the
one who's responsible for setting up these
casting calls. So they will most likely find
a venue and organize it so that the director is
there and able to see who they would like
to cast in the film. If the director decides
that he or she wants to cast online and are
asking for casting tapes. It will most likely
be the producer on a short film who
will reach out to different agencies and speak
to different casting agents. Get some actors and actresses to send in their show reels or some audition tapes in order for the director to decide who they want to
place in the film. Another important role that a producer has will
be negotiating, negotiating with
post-production houses, or negotiating with
equipment houses. And usually that
involves looking online, finding emails, writing to them saying This is
the equipment we have. This is the equipment that the cinematographer and the
director have decided on. And what can you offer us
for our 2341 day shoot? And they will have
to negotiate based on the budget that
the short film has. Another thing would be
post-production houses. So there are several
post-production houses wherever you live in the world. The producer's role
will be to reach out to these post-production
houses and try and get the best possible
deal for the film. Producers will be in
charge of taking care of the legalities and
the film permits. So if you are shooting
in a private space, you often need an
agreement between you and the owner of the space, whether it's a home or
a club or whichever. And that will come in the
form of an agreement. And it's the producer's job to create those
agreements, right? Those agreements and get those people to sign
those agreements. If you are shooting
in a public space, however, you need a film permit. So whether it's your counsel or any kind of
government entity, depending on the
country you live in, your producer will be in charge of applying
for those permits, telling them that we're shooting
on this day at this time with this number of people
and we have insurance. And that leads me
to the third point, which means that the
producer needs to be involved in and
responsible for ensuring that the
production has insurance and that's public
liability insurance or equipment insurance. So if anyone falls down onset, if anyone has an
accident or any bit of equipment gets damaged, who is going to take
care of that while most likely your insurance
will cover that. And that will be the producer's
role on ladies coffee. We were a little
unfortunate because our lead actress took a
tumble the day before. We also had a lot of
broken equipment onset, and I remember the first
short film I ever shot. So there was an
actress and she was she had a high heels
and she was basically trying to hit something and
she went straight through her hand and we ended up
taking her to hospital. Luckily, we had insurance and the insurance was able to
cover that hospital trip. So please make sure you have insurance before
you shoot a film. And please make
sure your producer, whether it's you or whether
you've hired a producer, is responsible for that
and does their job.
5. What is the role of the director?: The director onset is a storyteller and
shooting a short film is like shooting a feature film or a television show or a
web series or whatnot, the person at the
helm as a director. So if the filmmaking
process was a ship, the director would
be the captain. If it was accompany, the director would be the C 0, the crew and cast might be the
employees and everybody is there because they're
trying to make the director's vision happen. As a result, the director needs to make sure that
the story is being told in the correct way that is in line with their vision. People hire directors and ask directors to make films
because they really truly believe in their stories and the way that they tell them, the director is the
driving force on the film. And ultimately, they need to know the story
they want to tell. To tell a story, they need to have conversations. Conversations with key
crew members may be cast. They need to be there
visiting the locations. You need to know and understand what they want visually
from the film. During the pre-production phase, the director will probably
attend the casting calls, will be watching all
the audition tapes, and we'll have conversations
with the actors and actresses that they ultimately decide they want to
cast in the film. What the film is about, what the themes are, how they see this character, a little bit about story. And these conversations
can take place over weeks or months or even years. As a director, when I have a relationship
with an actor and I ask them to be part of my
film or I audition them. I really need them to understand what kind of
performance I want them to give. And then it's up to them
to interpret that part. Two, other key crew
members that I have to have conversations with
is the cinematographer. And after we read the script, usually we will sit down
and have a conversation about how we want the
film to look visually. And that involves talking
about different shots. Whether we want the
film to be handheld, whether we want it to be still, do we want tracking shots
to be want dolly shots? Do I see this being more smooth? What is the visual
language of the film? It's very important
for the director to know exactly what they
want to communicate, what kind of atmosphere and mood they want to
create in the film. And the cinematographer
will help bring that to life in a visual
way with movement, with shots, with angles, with close-ups, with mid
clauses, with wide shots. So as a director, I need to have that
conversation with my cinematographer
before we get to set. The next person I need
to have a conversation with is the production designer. And the production
designer is in charge of the visual aesthetic
of the film. So we need to have a
conversation, of course, after they read and break down the script about what this
film is going to look like. What are the colors that I see? What are the tones? Um, how, how do I, I mean, what are the
textures that are involved? What are the prompts? So
we're going to see on set, what kind of genre is this film? And usually that will come
down to the mood board. The mood board is
usually prepared during either the development stage or the pre-production stage
of shooting with film. And the director will give the mood board to both
the cinematographer and the production designer in
order for them to decipher and really understand what the
vision of the director is. Director is trying to make the film happen and the location is absolutely crucial to
the storytelling process. When a director visits a set
during the pre-production, usually within an
assistant director, production designer,
and cinematographer. They have an idea of how they
can move within that space. And that's really
going to inform the actual storytelling process. In any case, the
director will constantly have conversations during
the pre-production phase, and these conversations will continue into the
production phase, the director will often be bombarded with 1
million questions. This is why they ultimately
need to know what they want. Why is this object here? Why is it this color? Should we used this texture or should we use that texture? Should we put the camera at this angle or should
we put it at that angle? Should it be closer? Why is it closer? There needs to be an
intention because the director ultimately
understands the story and everything that is onscreen and within that frame needs
to be there for a reason. Problem-solving is not
just the producer's job, but also the director's job.
6. What is the role of the cinematographer?: Cinematographers or
directors of photography, also known as DOP, are basically in charge of the camera and the entire
camera department. Most people think that the DOP, these actually are the
ones holding the cameras. And that may or may not be true depending on what
you're shooting, e.g. if you're shooting a
documentary, then yes, DOP or even the director might be holding
cameras themselves. But more likely than not, they have a team behind them. And that team on a short
film might consist of gaffer, a focus polar, some assistant cameras, sparks, electricians, or basically everyone and anyone in the camera department. Their job is to basically
painting with light and create the best looking image
possible using framing, using movement, using
angles, and using light. Most cinematographers
will be very technical, so they'll have a
good understanding of lenses, lens length, and the camera itself, how to use it, how to change the settings, how to manipulate the
camera so that it gives the director exactly
what he or she wants, e.g. on the short film Ladies coffee. And I have very
limited knowledge when it comes to technical equipment. But basically my son
is metallography suggested that we use diopters. I didn't really know what
they were, how they worked. But as soon as we put
them on the lens, it completely changed
the look and feel of the film, and I loved it. There's two ways that a
cinematographer might prepare for the
director's vision. The first is by
creating a shot list, and the second might be
by creating storyboards. The shot list is basically a play-by-play of exactly where the camera is going
to be and the setups that are going to happen
during the shoot. So the cinematographer
might draw in where the camera is on a floor plan where they anticipate that the actors
or actresses might come in. Basically the camera movement, whether it's a tracking shot, Are they using Dolly? Do need grips. Do we need and Gamble? And basically deciding how we're going to shoot
that specific shot. When they draw it out, they can list it and create
basically a point-by-point. What we're gonna do on the day, and the assistant
director can use that to decide the schedule and what they're going to
shoot and in what order. So whether it's one
camera or two cameras. And that really just comes
down to the shortlist. Some people don't work
with the shot list. I don't prefer shortlist. I love to just get in there and see what we have on the day and place the camera
wherever we feel is best and light it
according to that. Another way that they can prepare is by creating
a storyboard. The storyboard is
basically a drawing or drawings of every single
frame within the film. And basically the
shots that they anticipate that
they're going to take. E.g. if you're shooting living room scene and you have two people
sitting side-by-side and you decide you
want that to be a two shot than the
cinematographer might draw a picture of one character and
another character. And that will be the, the framing that you'll
get within that shot.
7. Role of the production designer: What we see on the
screen and within a frame needs to be
true to the genre, true to the culture, or true to the era in which
the film is being shot. And that's usually a production designer's
job because they are in charge of visual
aesthetics on the film. They will usually go
into extensive research, read the script, break it down. They'll decipher what type of props they might need
to use on the set, whether they have furniture, whether furniture is
needed or not needed, what sort of colors will
be in the background? What sort of textures
are gonna be using. And as a result, the production
designer might be a creative and come from
a design background, or they might be fashion designers and understand
texture is very well. The production designer
will usually come onto the project
pretty early on. So in feature films that could
be two to three months on a short film that might be
a few weeks to a month. But one thing's for sure
there will be doing a lot of research independently. They need to make sure that everything that is seen
onscreen or within that frame is true to the story and the
director's vision. They can use the mood board the director has prepared
for them in order to understand what color
palette might be used in the film and what the
general aesthetic is. On a short film, usually the production designer is
in charge of everything. So like a cinematographer, they will also have a team. And that team might
consist of prop masters, set decorators, are directors, or even construction workers. If they are building a set
to be a production designer, you need to be highly creative, but then you also need
to understand design. You need to understand fashion, you need to understand color, you need to understand
construction, plastering would work everything and everything in anything. So the scope of the work
is actually quite wide. And the director
will be talking to the production designer about exactly what they need
during the prep work, the production designer
will be out there finding the props and we'll visit
the location absolutely. With the assistant director
and everybody else onset to see what
is already there, to see how much they
need to add that to a set that's already
made on ladies coffee. Of course, we found
a house that was incredible and very
suited to my vision. I was looking for
a lot of antiques. I was looking for
a lot of woods. I envisaged the film to
be more red and yellow. I want it to be warm. And I wanted it to be filled with full of just
little trinkets, little bits of metal,
bits of jewels. And of course, the film is an
Arabic and isn't Arab film. So we needed to ensure that
everything in the frame was representative
of Arab culture. Because if you visit a woman's
house and she's an Arab, more likely than not, her house is going to look
like an Arab household. I'm the production designer, is the person who's
responsible for that. Our production designer on
latest coffee actually came on rather late and was running around like a headless
chicken for a couple of days, trying to source all the prompts that we needed in order to make the film and just trying to make sure
that everyone was happy. So she was having
conversations with the cinematographer as well, deciding, Do we have
a big set of windows? And the cinematographer said that's too much light coming in. We want to sort of
soften that light. So can we get some
curtains up there? Can we get some sheer curtains? Whose job is it to get that? That's a production
designer's job. They will most likely
go out, go shopping. They'll have a lot
of great contacts within the building industry. There'll be in
communication with prop houses and warehouses. They will know where to find alien species if they
need to make one, they will find creative ways of, of just creating the
magic that comes to set. And therefore, production designers
are extremely crucial. And adding to the
vision of the director.
8. Casting actors: This happens to me very often, but wherever I am when I
say I'm a film director, everyone jumps in
and says, Well, I'm an actor, or can I be
an actor on your film? And I find it very interesting
because to be cast in something you have to fit what the director
is looking for. Ladies coffee is a film
that was shot in Arabic, is an Arabic language film. The script is in Arabic. So of course, I can't hire
somebody who can speak Arabic. I think being an actor or an
actress to poison yourself in the best possible position for you to get a
role on the film. First of all, you
have to develop a relationship
with the director. You have to know the director. You have to be on the
director's radar. In order to do that, you need to make
sure that you are. I think on social media. Social media is a great way
to find a lot of talent, and that's largely how I
found my talent in the past. You need to be
potentially signed with a casting agent or know
some casting directors, because that's the first place of directors and
producers will look when they're looking
for specific talent during the pre-production phase, of course, the
director will be in direct communication
with the actors. In terms of rehearsal, in terms of understanding story and theme and
having discussions, going out for coffees, maybe talking on Zoom, maybe meeting in person. Just really developing
that relationship, the actual business side of it. So hiring the actors, signing contracts, asking them how much
they want to be paid, arranging transport that
will most likely be done by the production manager
or the producer. In the case of our short film, while shooting a short film, you may not be able to access the actors and actresses
that you want. When we shoot short films, usually it's a
shorter timeframe. It's a tighter budget. So if you're shooting
something over a weekend and all you can access
are your cousins. You might want to use them
as actress on the film. But a great way to get actress involved is by doing
an audition tapes. If you do a call-out on social media or if you
just speak to friends and friends of friends and you meet people that you might want
to cast in your film. Get them to send
an audition tape and send them the script, let them read the script and
then send them some sides. And that's usually a page
or two of information. And a bit of the script is
certain scene that you really, really want to see them act out and get them to read it out on tape and
they'll send you the tape, they'll send you the link. And you'll have a watch of
it and see if that really fits your vision as a director, the handy thing
that happens with producers is because producers
are so well-connected, they usually have ties to some pretty established
actors on the scene. And if you are a young
director who wants to make a film and really
push it out there, put it into film festivals. Finding the right producer for you who has the
right connections, who could get you? Brad Pitt, Dustin Hoffman. They often say in
the film industry, it's not about what you know, it's about who you know. So really, really comes down to meeting people, getting in, into the rooms where
you might find actors going to
networking events, attending plays, going to the
theater and asking her out. Because you never know
these actors can sometimes surprise you with the
talent that they have, but also the dedication
they have to the film. And one important thing
that I would like to add is your actors and talent
needs to be likable. Sometimes as a director, you have to choose between
somebody who's extremely talented and somebody who's
actually a nice person, but you could help direct them. And more often than
not, I tend to pick the person that I like more. Be a nice person.
9. Role of the first AD: The Director and Assistant
Director relationship as one that stands
the test of time. You really have to like your assistant director because they will be your voice onset. And I'm talking about the
first assistant director, also known as the first AD, during the pre-production phase, the assistant director
has two crucial jobs. The first is
conducting something called the technical
rekey or the tech rekey. And that's when the
director and the first AD, along with the cinematographer
and production designer visit the set. By visiting the location, the AD can begin to plan by answering some questions
like where the car is going to park or where are we going to hold everybody
to have food? Where's the base going to be or the holding
area going to be, which is where everyone's sort
of hangs out, has a meal, maybe puts their equipment down, maybe has little breaks, and they can speak to the
owners of the property. Or maybe if you're
in a public space, they know where you
get your electricity, where the sockets are, where they can put
the equipment, store the equipment safely, where lights are
allowed to go up. There will usually be
in communication with the production designer because the production
designer might say, well, we're shooting
at this train station and we'd like to
take the sign down. Can we take the sign down? And the first AD will
be the person in charge of asking
those questions, especially on a short where you don't have a
locations manager. The second roll and
the main job of the first AD onset during pre-production is to create the shooting schedule
and then essence, they'll use software
or tools like movie magic scheduling
or they might do it manually to break down
this grip and this side. What is going to be
shot on a daily basis? Where it's going to be shot, whether the scenes are interior, exterior, day, night, who is going to
be needed on the set. It's basically a play-by-play on a day by day of what
we're going to shoot, where we're going to shoot it, and the order in which the
scenes are going to be shot. And in essence, create a plan so that they can send it out
to the rest of the crew. Now this document is
essential because as a team, we need to know what we're shooting and we need
to make sure that we cover every element and
every bit of the script. With short films, it's generally easier because the scripts are, at most say five
pages, maybe 15 pages. So you're looking at
maybe two day shoot, one day shoot me
week-long shoot. But on feature films and
television shows, e.g. it's much longer and the first AD has a
lot of work to do. Now, there's another
type of schedule that needs to be prepared. And that's usually done by a
second assistant director, but on a short film
you may not have one. So this would fall
into the scope of the first assistant
directors responsibilities and that is creating
the call sheet. The call sheet is
usually sent out a day, a couple of days before
the actual shoot. It has information on it such as what scenes
we're going to shoot according to the
shot list that was prepared when we're going
to break for lunch, who the key contact people are, where we're going to go
in terms of location, where the parking spots are
basically everything that the first assistant
directed director has collected during the
pre-production phase. In terms of information, we'll be on that sheet. Everyone who is onset on the day knows exactly
what we're doing, where we need to be,
where we need to go, and if they have any
questions or concerns, they know who to contact, whether it's the onset medic. They can tell them
a call sheet what the weather is going
to be like when you arrive on day one
of the film shoots. Everyone knows exactly
what they're going to do. Now let's jump into day one of the
ladies coffee film shoot using actual
footage from the set. And let's talk about what
it was like being onset.
10. Case study: Day 1 on short film ‘Ladies Coffee’ set: Day one on ladies coffee. What was the film
experience like? I think that says it all to one. So we're here of a
set of ladies coffee. This is day one or so behind. We were easy to
have chocolates in the winter because literally
we're losing lights, like we have lost light. Everything is gone
out the window, but we're doing everything. We can just pull it from. Our wonderful team here
is doing a great job. Thank you bear, we'd
love you to Dewey. Yes, I just saved. Basically,
our production coordinator was the person who arrange
all the transport. So we started the day. I'm trying to save
money and everyone got picked up or made their
own way to the set. It was of course, very
early because the location that we're shooting out
was a private property. I, as the director, had met this couple during
the pre-production phase, and I saw their property in a magazine and I just thought
it looked really great. It was very aligned
with my vision and it's what I was looking for. So I knew that the
production design costs would be much lower as well. And we wouldn't have to invest so much money into
getting furniture, hitting the walls,
getting wallpaper. And then of course, the
story which follows this mother and daughter as they visit an anti in her home. The AMT is quite wealthy
and she's got loads of Antiques and her
house is like a museum. And I knew that we would not have the money in the budget
to pay for all of that. So why not find a
ready-made house? This ready-made house was about, I would say maybe
one to 2 h from everybody who was involved
In the production. So it was quite a
journey to get there. We had a 04:00 A.M. pickup
and I think we got to set maybe about 06:00
and the call time, which was on the call sheet was, I think 07:00 A.M. receiving the light from the
top one on the list? As a director? Yes, of course, I was nervous. I was nervous because I
didn't know what to expect. I didn't know if
everything would go well, it's like you're just wondering around the
museum and you know, it just like a bit
more attentive, maybe touch a few things, maybe, you know what I mean? Relationship started
an hour ago. I feel like during the
pre-production phase, there's a lot that
we could have done differently if film
has actually or was in development for a few years and in pre-production
for about two years. And the reason for that is that once the script
was completed, we raise some funding
through crowdfunding. And then COVID happened. And because COVID happened, we had to delay the shoot for
really, really long time. During that time,
people came in and out of the production. Producer was change. At one point there was
a production manager. A production manager
has changed. Cinematographer
was changed twice. And it just kinda went in, went out depending on
people's schedules. And then finally, when it came
to shoot in October time, yours truly got COVID after avoiding it for
almost two years. And as a result, we have to put the
shoot once again. This of course affected
our costs because, um, initially we had a location and we had to change the
location and so on, but it really worked
in our favor. And finally, after all
of this prep work, and finally after
all this development and getting everyone
together and having these conversations
and discussions, we are now at the point
where we're gonna shoot. So we get to set and we had
some breakfast prepared, we had some I think well, I had a vegetarian, we had a vegetarian set, so basically
prepared everything. So that was vegetarian. And I think I was
going to say vegan, but maybe gluten-free because a few people who
are gluten-free, I'm not quite sure. Perhaps. Hello. I'm going to get and then we waited for the
equipment to come in. Now, the equipment was not brought in by
an equipment house. Rather, we hired someone who
was a gaffer who brought the equipment with them along with the
entire camera team. Who was supposed to serve the cinematographer at the time. And as they were unloading, I, as a director was having
conversations with my actors. We were rehearsing, we
were going over lions. Unfortunately, as they say, anything that can go wrong
does go wrong in a film sets. That is completely true for what happened
on ladies coffee. Our actress, one of
the lead actresses actually had a tumble
the day before, showed up with some bruises. At least she came though, which I loved because we
were able to make a film. But she was, she was struggling. She was struggling to remember her lines, who was
a bit shaken up. She was in a lot of pain. So it was very, very
difficult to shoot that day. And in fact, it took
us about 5 h to set up the foot. But as I mentioned,
the shortlist, I think we had about 30, 30 shots on our shortlist. We found out very quickly that we have to
toss all of that out. We were running out of time. A lot of the equipment
was failing us. We didn't have the equipment
that we needed and we wanted a lot of it got stuck or
was broken and so on. And basically at that point we were like We have
to shoot whatever we can at least we have some
footage that we can work with. And at that point, the
assistant director of the first assistant director whose job was to make sure that we were on schedule on time. And he kept saying to
me, we have to go, we have to go and trying
to hurry people along on the set to make sure that we
could stick to our schedule. Broad set here. We are waiting for a setup. We are doing. We're doing CME for just had an amazing idea of putting a
dead body in the background. What can I say? We're running out of time. We didn't think about not having enough
light during the day. The sun sets at four. So we literally have no
time shooting anything. So we're rushing. I'm hoping everything done. Do I have everything
I want is a director? No, I do not. But
you do the best you can with what you've
got right now. Okay. By a lot of the things
I had prepared, my vision as a director, I couldn't do I
couldn't do the shots that I wanted to in
terms of cinematography. And that in turn affected the mood and the
style of the film, which I had so
carefully prepared with my cinematographer and at
least a month in advance, the camera that we
wanted to use and the aesthetic that we
feel that we wanted. We couldn't use anymore
because that camera was no longer available
and we couldn't get it. We had a few members on the team who
weren't as experience, which meant that the
work was a lot slower. And we were in a
position where I looked at my cinematographer
and she said, We have to shoot
whatever we can. Even if it's in the
style of dramas, we went from having a very intricate cinematic
language to the film, to a very simple
wide shot to shot, single shot over the shoulder, single shot over the shoulder. The one she can too much closer. Thanks, everyone coming through might be easier to come this way if we didn't have enough light that was due to budgetary
constraints as well. And and as a result, we just had to shoot
with whatever we could. And the production team and the producers went
far and beyond. They did things that they're not typically in charge of
because it's a short film, of course, like preparing meals, checking in with the actors. That's another thing that
the producers need to do. Just make sure that the
actors are doing well. Because as a director, what concerns me is the
performance of the actors. So I get there and I want
the best performance. I cannot have the actors. But if the actors are
not in the best of moods or if they're having
issues with something, they can speak to
the producers onset, you woke up tomorrow. Does anyone have a code?
Okay, but might have a quote. We have a couple of options. Somebody who also served as my right-hand onset was a script supervisor
and her job was to diligently watch the
screen and make sure that the continuity was
flowing so that if somebody picks up a glass
with the right hand, when they say a certain line, then they'll have to say
it at the same time. What a really,
really funny moment where one of our
actresses flushes the toilet and she kept
flushing it at the wrong time. And we kept telling
her she says a line, which is all that voodoo. So we just kept telling
her flush on Voodoo. So she would remember when
she said all that voodoo, she would flush on Voodoo. You can see the script supervisor is the one who feeds
me that information. I also turn around to her when there's a
tape that I really like or I feel that I got the performance I
wanted from the actors. Okay. Standing by, nice
and quiet, sounds. Little camera. I know Josie. Here's the city. From the moment we
roll and we say, Alright, an action
and they perform. And the moment we cut, I have to decide
whether what I saw on that screen and in that frame
was the way I wanted it. The cinematography has
showed me the frame. We've discussed the frame. Well, we had discussed
the different framing, but she would show me the
frame and I would say, okay, I'm happy with this.
I'm not happy with this. I want to go and tighter.
I want to go and looser. Can we do that again? Can we do that again, please? And then whenever I was
satisfied and I was happy and everyone was happy and our sound recordings was happy
and everything was smooth. We can move on to
the next setup.
11. Case study: Day 2 on short film ‘Ladies Coffee’ set: They are doing just them
walking into the corridor or is it slow? Is suddenly. I'm the Director
for Dorothy ladies coffee. We're about to start
date to be warm. Site almost. Let's just
see how it goes today. Fingers crossed day to onset. By day two, we were
comfortable with each other. At that point, the
crew knew each other. They were familiar
with each other. They knew the setup,
they knew the home, the space where
we were shooting, then you what
equipment we needed. Everyone was on a
first-name basis. Actual shoot day went a
lot smoother than than the day before because
we weren't able to do most of the shots that we
wanted to do the day before. We left it to the day after, and we tried to trick it so that we would only work with the
two actresses that we had. As I mentioned, the
other one took a tumble. So we worked with her
on the first day. We did not work with
her on the second day. I'm happy to report that
on the second day we went through about 20 setups, which is actually very
good when you're working on high-end TV shows like billions or the
Witcher or Wednesday, e.g. they're working
with two cameras, usually get about 25 setups. And we got through about 20 as a short film and seven
pages of script. So much happier with day two
footage and everyone else. She, Marshall get into
the cause we're gonna go. Yeah. Okay. So yeah. I mean, doesn't matter
because at this point that this baby has
been in an accident. So I don t think she'd
be or he would be. They would be or it would be
beautifully kind of swatter. Basically looks like it's just around as tight as possible. Maybe took one side
on the other side on that on that day. And in that scene, we had the makeup artists
that was present and a couple of whom would say distressing scenes
as it was a horror film. So we have to check and we had to make sure and
actually funny enough, how we found that
second location is our first location
fell through. And so, you know, at the spur of the moment, we contacted the City Council in the UK where we shot and we reached out
to them and we said, Look, we're looking
for a location. Is there any way that
you can help us? They sent there might
be a fee and they gave us a list of different
places where we could shoot. Now we reached out
to them and due to the very sort of collaborative discussions with the producer, and of course, as I mentioned, the producer has to
be quite likable. And as it so happens, the owners of the estate
really liked the producer. And so they said there was no charge, which was wonderful. And we ended up going there. There was ample space, parking space that
the first AD had scouted out to make sure that we had a place to put the cars. We notified all the residents
there that there would be a sort of distressing scene
that was going to be shot. And finally, we shot
our scene outside. Yes. Oh, yeah. I'm gonna
send the car. We're going to rehearse,
and then we're gonna wanna do a cost to the
camera so you want to do it. What are you doing? Your job is now screwed up,
but Mike in it. So now she's got to remind
you, gotta redo it. It's okay once I go
because I think we've got to think of the guys
would just get job business. I'm sorry, I'm taking off your camera shot to
take one action. And we were losing the
light and trying our best to try and capture all
of the scenes that we needed. So that we knew that when, when we got into
the editing room, which is the next phase and
post-production that we had, everything that we could need in order to complete this
film, the Living Dead. Okay, sound real camera. So what was going on, on set? Sort of in the background. So I was as a director Most of the time behind the monitor with my script supervisor
and we were watching the actresses do
their performance. Cinematographer had the
camera set up and she had her entire camera team
speaking to the gaffer, of course, who was
lighting it in a way that was suitable
for her and for me. That was in line with the
story and the vision. But there was also a lot
going on in the background. Typically when we
finish shooting, they would take the memory card out of the camera
because we're shooting digitally and move it on to a laptop and
then onto a hard disk. And that was usually done by a digital imaging technician, also known as DIT onset. We did not have
DIT person onset. We could not afford one. And as a result, that was done
by the assistant cameras, the first assistant camera. Second assistant camera, um, and then we also had a clapper
loader on the camera team. My first AD was also
my my voice onset. And they would check
in with me from time-to-time to make
sure I was happy. I was happy to move on to
the next chart that we had. And the producers
were basically in the holding area throughout
the day, just checking in. And as a director, I actually wasn't aware of
what was going on around me and I really
shouldn't be aware. I mean, that's a good thing
because I know that the team has handled the
rest of the work, even though it was not exactly the vision that
I had anticipated. It was in essence, or hopefully is a story
from start to finish.
12. Set etiquette: I just wanted to talk a little
bit about set etiquette. Of course, the more
films you make, the more you will learn and
the more you will understand. But here are some of the
issues that you might run into on your film set. The first is having people
who are quite unreliable or not able to do their
jobs as they are meant to. And of course, once
you get to set, you find that there's
something lacking. There are things that
are lacking even during pre-production that
you couldn't foresee. And my best advice
for that would be basically work with
people, you know. Of course, if you're
shooting a film for the first time and this
is your first short. It would be a different
conversation. But the more you know, the more you discover people, the more you work with people, the more you will begin to get comfortable with certain
crew and cast members. Andrew might hire them again, you might work with them again. Another thing to remember is of course always respect
everyone onset. When I get on my set, I usually give a little talk or a little speech just to
say to everyone, listen. This is how I want
my set to be run. Everyone should be
respecting one another. At the end of the day,
every single crew member is a talent. They've got their
own experiences, they've got their own skills. And the reason why we've
hired them and why their onset is because
we want to get the best that they can do. We want the best possible
performance they can give. So I always say to people, your name is on that. When the credits run and people are looking
at the cinematography, people are listening
to the sound, people are seeing the
production design and they see the
name next to it. They want to know and trust
and will be very impressed if the work and the quality and the caliber of that individual is reflected on the screen. And as a director, I would
love to see people give the best and the most they can in order to make
this vision happened. It's not just a job. It's very hard work. People are on there for
hours and hours and hours. And that brings me
to my next point. Please ensure that the
food is very yummy, that people are healthy
and that people are safe. If you have a certain
job or a task, try not to do the jobs or the task onset that you are
not qualified to do, e.g. if you're in the
camera if you're in the camera department
and you work in grips or you're used to carrying
heavy equipment and you ask a set runner or somebody onset to move a piece of equipment, they probably shouldn't do that because if it falls
on them or something happens and your insurance
or you don't have insurance, or if you've made the mistake of not getting any insurance, that won't be covered. So let people who know how to handle
equipment, handle equipment. Let people who know how
to deal with the actors, e.g. deal with the actors. Let the cinematographer
do their cinematography without being interrupted or
without being questioned. You've hired everyone
there for a reason. And of course, there's always
room to have discussions. But I've been on
loads of sets where people will interject
and feel like they have to say something
that might be as simple as having the actors
directing other actors. So you're sitting, you have to actress
sitting side-by-side. And one of them might turn
to the other and say, Oh, you should say it this way. You should say it that way. No, no, no, no, you
should do this. You should do that. At the end of the day
that act as an actor, it's not their place where
they're positioned to tell the other actor how to act. The direction should
come from the director. And at the same time, e.g. you wouldn't I'm interject as a director if the producer
is negotiating e.g. with a equipment house
and come in and say No, I don't like that or let me get in touch with them
or letting me talk to them or which whichever usually your producer shouldn't be
doing that are handling that. And the reason that's
in place is to keep everything separate and to
keep everything diplomatic. E.g. the first
assistant camera or the focus polar or the clapper loader wouldn't come up to the sound
person and be like, actually, I heard a plane. Did you hear that
plane? Does that play? And I think we should switch it off or cut, cut, cut, cut. Nobody can yell Cut except for the first AD
or the director. And so if people
start to do that, there needs to be a bit more
respect and harmony onsets. And that's where the
difficulty is because really filmmaking is not
only problem-solving, but it's also dealing with
people and people's egos. And you will encounter this a lot in your career
if you're going into filmmaking and if you've made a film just for fun as a hobby, Well enjoy it
because you will not have to deal with that again. And thank you very much for
listening to set etiquette, but please be mindful.
13. Post-production: Editing and the offline edit: Now that we've compiled all
the footage and it's ready, we get to one of the final steps of the
film production phase, which is the post-production, all the things that we had shot on the film
and everything that you will be shooting during your film will be
in bits and pieces. You're doing different scenes at different times,
different locations. Somebody needs to glue all that together and make it flow. And make it flow in a way
where it's true to the genre, where it's true to the rhythm, where it's true to the
tone and it's true to the entire story concept. Just as the director
had envisaged it. And it is very, very crucial. So depending on your
budget, of course, you might want to go with
a letter with an editor who has less experience
or has more experience. Maybe somebody comes from a
more commercial background. Maybe somebody who's
better at narrative. Maybe you find an editor
who's a specialist or a specializes in a certain genre and has a lot of experience and therefore will give you the
best possible at it you can, because you don't want
to get to that phase. And basically skimp out and everything that
you've worked for and everything that you've done
is basically for nothing. Now the editing phase
will usually take place in a
post-production house. Post-production
houses either have their own in-house
editors or you can hire an editor from outside, whether they're a
freelance editor or whether they sort of edit. Yeah, It's important to
note that the cameras that you may be shooting with might be some very
heavy duty cameras. The material that you get or the quality that you
get in a raw form, in its actual true
raw form comprises of very heavy files that can be gigabytes and gigabytes
and gigabytes of files. In order to make sure that
these files are workable, you can do something
called transcoding. The files, in essence is almost reducing or compressing
the size of the file so that they are in workable order for
slower computers. Or if your editors, e.g. just working from home. It's also very handy if
your post-production, especially in this day and age, if your editor wants to work from home and your post house, they will often take
the files as raw files. They will process them,
they will transcode them, they will upload
them onto a system. And your editor might be
able to access that system from home and
compile it together. One of the softwares that I like to use is called
Adobe Premiere Pro. It is very handy in dealing with even raw and larger files. Some people prefer to use programs and software
like Final Cut Pro. And if you're just
starting out and you don't have any of
this editing software. You can use some things such as iMovie or just
simply any kind of editing software that
you can download on your phone or
your app or online.
14. Post-production: grading, sound mixing, composing and online editing: Once you get to the
post-production house, There's a few other steps
that you need to do. Basically, the editor will compile all the footage together in something
called an offline edit. And we'll get you the
first cut of your film. So you'll be able to see the
story from start to finish. Once you're done with that, you will start adding different elements to
your films. So e.g. there's the color grading, which is changing the coloring
of the film in order to bring out the contrast or the saturation or
different elements, depending on the mood
you want to create. Is it a really sad
and somber story? So are using more cold tones that more grays and
more washed out. Do you want your film to be completely black and white, e.g. or is it very vibrant
and vivacious? And ladies coffee, I really wanted to capture the reds and the yellows and the
warmth of the film. So the cinematographer
will sometimes sit in on the grade
because they want to ensure that the
footage that they've taken is what they want
to see on screen as well. Secondly, would be the sound mixing or the dubbing mixing. And that would be about
fixing and smoothing out the sound that was taken by
the sound recording on set. And a sad record is
might have recorded on a boom mic or a mike
like this, e.g. and you will have to combine
all the sounds together. Or you might have any
additional sounds that you want to
add to the edit. The beginning is
really, really subtle. But let's go, let's go again. Few friends with a few friends, good about me, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, probably also the
atmosphere bit too loud, so it kinda cover the music is underneath that most you mean as in the car accident,
the bathroom? Oh, right. Yeah. Kind of thing. That
helps with the music. You've also got
to add the music, and the music is probably
one of the last steps. So after you've got
picture lock and you know exactly what you want your
film to be, how long it is. You can hand it over
to the composer. Or you can just find
some music online and find the right
music for your film. Start stitching it together. Do the online edit where
you have the final polish, you add all the credits, you add all the title sequences, and then you finally export your film and congratulations, you now have a film.
15. Conclusion: That concludes that
everyone thank you for watching this course on
short film production. Everything you need to
know from start to finish. I hope that I was
able to give you some very valuable
information as well as some of my own
experiences onset. Every set will be different
because everyone has different individuals
or different equipment, different countries, different
languages, different. So your film will
not turn out like my film and your experiences will not be the same as mine. But whatever happens, I'm very proud of
you for completing a film because it is so
difficult to shoot a film, extremely difficult, so
well done for doing that. And looking forward to all your success
wherever it may be.
Filmmaker Amal, Writer, Director, Producer
