Shooting a short

[Tim Sewell]

Script and partial shortlist written. Ready for action tomorrow night when wife is out, so hopefully no interruptions!

[Tim Sewell]

My intention is to document this journey here and I’m doing it for the entirely selfish reason of keeping myself on it!

[KnightsFan]

Awesome! Have fun and good luck! I am also making a short film tomorrow. Definitely looking forward to hearing about how well your shoot went!

[kye]

I always liked the rule that anyone that stuffed up a take through stupidity had to buy the drinks for the wrap party.  It ensured people checked things properly when coming onto set, but it also made for a great wrap party 🙂 

It also made for some legendary stories!!

[eatstoomuchjam]

Since one of the stated reasons for documenting the journey was accountability, how did your first night of shooting go?

[Tim Sewell]

12 hours ago, eatstoomuchjam said:

Since one of the stated reasons for documenting the journey was accountability, how did your first night of shooting go?

Reasonably well thanks - will write it up soon!

[Tim Sewell]

So an update, if anyone's interested. I shot the first scene, which was made up of 5 distinct shots. They came out OK. They were... competent, but only that. The lighting was good - nice contrast, nice colours, well-motivated, but that's all.

Can you tell I'm dissatisfied?

I was so focussed on getting everything 'right' that I didn't pay enough attention to getting it good or interesting.

So I'm going to reshoot and one of the things I'm going to do is lean in to the limitations I have - first among which is that I'm doing this almost completely alone. I am both crew and talent! The biggest limitation caused by that is that camera movement while I'm on screen is not going to happen, which means that to create interest I need to make my angles and composition more interesting.

Also, the lighting as I did it the other night looked, basically, like a commercial, not a movie, so now I'm happy with my ability to get decent levels etc, I'm going to really try to push the envelope with ratios and temperatures and try to have some fun with it.

Once I've reshot I may post both versions for comment before I continue with the remaining scenes (it's going to take a while to complete the whole project given that I work full-time and my main set is our kitchen, which is in near-constant use as my 3 children attempt to bankrupt me purely through food costs!).

[eatstoomuchjam]

It's great that you can reshoot!

I'd also say that if the composition/angles and/or lighting are boring, moving the camera is just a crutch anyway.  Fincher's stuff usually looks great/cinematic and he rarely moves the camera.  That said, moving the camera can be a great addition to good composition and lighting.

Anyway, it sounds like you're off to a solid start!  Looking forward to seeing some wip scenes or screen grabs!

 

[Tim Sewell]

27 minutes ago, eatstoomuchjam said:

It's great that you can reshoot!

There are *some* advantages to being both crew and talent myself! Obviously this is a passion/learning project, though, so reshoots aren't a problem, except for getting the time to do them.

In terms of movement - I'm not missing it too much. There is one point in one shot where a subtle push-in would really help to sell the moment. I can do it in post, but that it won't have the (very mild) parallax that a 'real' push-in would give me.

[kye]

14 hours ago, Tim Sewell said:

I was so focussed on getting everything 'right' that I didn't pay enough attention to getting it good or interesting.

So I'm going to reshoot and one of the things I'm going to do is lean in to the limitations I have - first among which is that I'm doing this almost completely alone. I am both crew and talent! The biggest limitation caused by that is that camera movement while I'm on screen is not going to happen, which means that to create interest I need to make my angles and composition more interesting.

Firstly, it's awesome that you're actually shooting something!  and the fact that you're on-screen is next level above that even, so in my books you're already successful 🙂 

I'm not sure what you're shooting, and therefore what making it good / interesting really means in your context, but here's a few random thoughts..

• I normally screw things up the first (few/many) times I do something, so just chalk it up to a practice shoot and keep going
• If you're able to get a technically competent capture then you can really change the look in post, so I'd suggest just covering the fundamentals
• The success or failure of a film depends 97% on what is in the frame (with the remaining 2% being sound, and 1% image) so that's where your attention should be going
• Is there a way you can separate the various tasks in your mind while you're shooting?  For example, maybe you put in a full battery, an empty memory card, and then completely forget the camera exists and just roll as you do 20 takes of the scene from that angle, focusing on your performance and emotional aspects while you're doing this?
• If there are small errors in continuity or performance there is always the option to just include them and make it a more stylised final film.  For example, if things cut funny or jump around a bit etc, and you lean into it in the edit, then the impression might be that the character might not quite be in control of all their faculties, or might be drunk or on drugs, etc.  Obviously I have no idea what the context is, so this might not fit your vision, but it might give you options where previously you didn't see a way forward or just couldn't get excited about the material
• If you haven't storyboarded or done detailed planning, one thing you could do is to pre-shoot the whole thing without lighting or performances etc, and then just edit it together in the NLE, and treat that as a moving storyboard.  This would have the advantage of being able to anticipate any issues with any camera angles, and also to get a feel for the pacing and even things like if you decide to cut an angle or part of the film then you can skip filming it altogether.

Best of luck and keep us updated - we are definitely interested in hearing how you get on!

[ac6000cw]

On 4/11/2024 at 10:21 AM, Tim Sewell said:

So an update, if anyone's interested. I shot the first scene, which was made up of 5 distinct shots. They came out OK. They were... competent, but only that. The lighting was good - nice contrast, nice colours, well-motivated, but that's all.

Can you tell I'm dissatisfied?

I was so focussed on getting everything 'right' that I didn't pay enough attention to getting it good or interesting.

So I'm going to reshoot and one of the things I'm going to do is lean in to the limitations I have - first among which is that I'm doing this almost completely alone. I am both crew and talent! The biggest limitation caused by that is that camera movement while I'm on screen is not going to happen, which means that to create interest I need to make my angles and composition more interesting.

I've never acted myself, but I used to be heavily involved doing backstage work for amateur drama groups (lighting, sound, scenery building etc.) so I've seen a lot of amateur acting go both well and badly.

I think acting to an inanimate camera is probably quite difficult - the interaction and extra adrenalin provided by an audience often really helps. I've been at dress rehearsals where at the end you think 'Oh dear...it's miles off being ready', but the first night performance with an audience is 200% better.

People seeing the performance/movie for the first time don't know the script or the movements, so as long as you stay 'in character' when things go wrong you can often ad-lib your way out of mistakes. But dropping out of character immediately says 'I've messed up'. I've worked on shows where sizeable chunks of the script have been skipped by an actor but the cast have held it together and got away with it.

Remind yourself you're doing it for fun (I assume), so relax - it'll come out better if you're not worrying about every detail while you're performing.

 

 

[Tim Sewell]

So there's a guy who lives near me - young guy, good looking - who 2 years ago gave up a film-making degree at a London university (can't remember which one - but a good one, I can remember thinking when he told me) to go on the tools with his dad, because he couldn't see any way that an expensive 3 year course was ever gong to wash its face.

Was talking to his sister this evening and she reckons he'd be totally up for getting involved in my short. Which could mean I've either got talent that isn't me, or a camera op that isn't me. Either way, it suddenly makes this project a whole lot easier.

(Not to mention Resolve 19 - which changes the space entirely!)

[mercer]

Making a film is one of the hardest things I've ever attempted... especially in a DIY, low/no budget space... but it's also one of the most exhilarating experiences I've ever had... even if ai haven't been successful with finishing the film...

Yet. 

[kye]

2 hours ago, Tim Sewell said:

So there's a guy who lives near me - young guy, good looking - who 2 years ago gave up a film-making degree at a London university (can't remember which one - but a good one, I can remember thinking when he told me) to go on the tools with his dad, because he couldn't see any way that an expensive 3 year course was ever gong to wash its face.

Was talking to his sister this evening and she reckons he'd be totally up for getting involved in my short. Which could mean I've either got talent that isn't me, or a camera op that isn't me. Either way, it suddenly makes this project a whole lot easier.

(Not to mention Resolve 19 - which changes the space entirely!)

That sounds great!

Having two people instead of one would be an incredible advantage and time saver.  I've tried to film myself for camera tests enough to know that it's almost impossible to frame and focus and expose correctly when you're the one in the frame!!

Also, what about Resolve 19 are you excited about?

[Tim Sewell]

7 hours ago, kye said:

Also, what about Resolve 19 are you excited about?

Film Look Creator all day long! Slices seem cool too. Only trouble is that render cache seems a bit borked in the beta - where I was previously getting real-time playback it seems to be falling over a bit.

You?

[kye]

25 minutes ago, Tim Sewell said:

Film Look Creator all day long! Slices seem cool too. Only trouble is that render cache seems a bit borked in the beta - where I was previously getting real-time playback it seems to be falling over a bit.

You?

Yeah, Film Look Creator and the ColorSlice looks pretty good, but a few that caught my eye were the AI based Dialogue Separator which give separate volume controls for the Voice, the Background, and the Ambience of the voice (ie reverb) so you can remove room-sound as well as the background, and the Music Remixer which gives separate volume controls for voice, drums, base, guitar, and "other".  
The music remixer will allow much easier and more powerful editing of music to fit your edit, rather than the other way around.  I frequently chop up a song and cross-fade between clips to extend the same section or glue the ending onto the middle to end it sooner etc.

TBH my main challenge is working with skin tones and Resolve doesn't have the most intuitive feature-set for what I want, so I'm in the awkward space of contemplating writing my own DCTL scripts or trying to massage it's existing features into use for what I want to do.

The Film Look Creator and ColorSlice looks good but they seem to lack a couple of really basic (and quite obvious) features - neither has the ability to compress skintone hues, which is a major feature of film stocks, and the Fill Look Creator also doesn't have a slider directly for desaturating the highlights, which is another odd thing because that's a standard thing that film does too.

Still, better than nothing for sure!

Also, IIRC they tend to focus on new features in the early betas, and then switch gears to optimising performance as they move to a stable release, so the fact it's a bit slow now is to be expected.

[Tim Sewell]

1 hour ago, kye said:

The music remixer will allow much easier and more powerful editing of music to fit your edit, rather than the other way around.  I frequently chop up a song and cross-fade between clips to extend the same section or glue the ending onto the middle to end it sooner etc.

I was avoiding thinking about that having recently paid £50 for NeuralMix, which basically does that!

And yeah, FLC doesn't do it all, but it sure does get you a lot of the way there. Native subtractive saturation is a major win too, given the relatively high cost of the better DCTLs people have developed to do it.

[Tim Sewell]

14 hours ago, mercer said:

Making a film is one of the hardest things I've ever attempted... especially in a DIY, low/no budget space... but it's also one of the most exhilarating experiences I've ever had...

When I did the music video for that band a couple of months ago - it was a nightmare, but at the same time had me thinking - this just feels so right and so much what I want to spend my time doing. If only I didn't have to make a living!

[kye]

15 hours ago, Tim Sewell said:

I was avoiding thinking about that having recently paid £50 for NeuralMix, which basically does that!

And yeah, FLC doesn't do it all, but it sure does get you a lot of the way there. Native subtractive saturation is a major win too, given the relatively high cost of the better DCTLs people have developed to do it.

Doh! I guess it could be worse - you might have just bought FilmConvert or Dehancer or one of those things - they're MUCH more expensive than that!

In terms of subtractive saturation, there are tonnes of ways to do it in Resolve without buying anything, but you have to do a bit of research and learn a little bit about colour grading.  This is why I keep banging on to people about it.

[Tim Sewell]

I bought FilmConvert years ago but balked at paying for Dehancer. And yes, of course you could do subtractive sat before now, but nowhere near as easily as slices and FLC make it.