Keeping your crew happy

Maintaining a good crew
So now that you’ve found the right people, and said all right magic words (for those who don’t know the magic words are “Sundance” “Van Sant” and “Japanese”). You have a crew. How do you keep that crew?

• Food - Number one on the list is food. Have plenty of snacks and drinks available for the cast and crew. I cannot stress this enough.
• Vary the tasks- More than likely everyone on your crew wants to be a director or a cinematographer. Almost no one likes holding the clapper. Know what types of tasks every person enjoys, as well as what they are best at. Use the best person as cinematographer, but be sure to let the wannabe and beginner cinematographers get in a few shots as well.
• Listen to their ideas - It’s your movie, and when it comes down to it you make the call…but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t listen to your crew. Nothing makes people happier than knowing that at the very least their ideas are being considered. And if the idea is simple enough, and won’t cost too much time you can use the ultimate production magic words, “Lets try it both ways”.
• Get rid of the dead weight - Don’t tolerate slackers, arguers, or gossips. Tell them to leave the set. Perhaps just tell them to leave temporarily if you think they’ll learn their lesson, but don’t be afraid to kick someone out permanently. Chances are if you aren’t having a good experience working with that person…then everyone else on the crew is contemplating severe bodily harm upon that person.

Loyalty
One last important thing to remember is loyalty. If someone works for you, work for them. If someone does good work for you for free, make sure they are the first person you call when you have a budget to pay them.

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How to find top quality crew.

It’s your first film, you’re under the gun and have to get things done. Money is disappearing by the second. The actors are getting antsy (or possibly drunk). You look up into the sky and scream…”Where the hell is everybody?”. Sound familiar? You need to learn how to find a good crew.

Finding a good crew isn’t impossible, in fact its probably not nearly as hard as you might believe. Paying for crew members certainly helps, but it doesn’t solve the problem completely. And some of you can’t afford to pay the crew so you’ll have to just live with what you got, right? Well, maybe but probably not. There are, in fact, ways to find great crew members, who are often willing to work for free. And the most beautiful thing is, once you’ve found a good crew your troubles are practically over since you can stick with them over and over.

Where to find film crew members
Well…first things first…where not to find crew: your non film making friends . If you’re friends are filmmakers like you, its fine, but absolutely do not beg friends who are not filmmakers unless they are you’re absolute best friend who would take a bullet for you (in some cases they might have to). If your shoot is less than 10 hours, you may get lucky and have a successful shoot…but more than one day is impossible. Film shoots can ruin friendships. In addition to the generally high stress factor, there is a great amount of knowledge, skill, and perseverance needed to complete a film. Your non-filmmaker friends will have none of those.

Don’t get me wrong, your friends will want to help…at first. They’ll show up ready, eager, and willing. Then they’ll quickly realize they don’t know what the hell is going on…and so will you. So your friends end up holding the clapper, or getting you a coke, and generally feel useless. By the second day, they feel more useless. By the third day they don’t show up. By the end of the third day, you suddenly realize you need six more crew members than you have for one particular shot…but everyone’s already left. Take my advice…use only people genuinely interested in making films on your crew.

So where do we start our search? Craigslist and myspace are a great place to start. Regions where film productions are popular often have meet up groups, trade organizations, or other community oriented events where filmmakers can go to network. One of our local groups in Louisiana is H.U.R.D Meetup Group.

The absolute best way to find crew
The absolute best way to find crew, is to volunteer for someone else’s production. It’s alot of hard work, and your doing it for free. But wait…isn’t that exactly what you want other people to do for you? Maybe its a good idea to get a feel for just what you are asking out of people, before you go on thinking that your brilliant film is so great that everyone is dying to join you. Once you’ve done this a few times, you’ll have a good idea of the kind of directors you like to work with, and the kind who you absolutely despise. So now when it comes time for you to direct, you what your crew will expect out of you.

But, most importantly, joining another production helps you to meet people and see how they work, before you are actually dependent upon them. You can see who disappears, who is always late, and sometimes you might even catch someone stealing (they are less afraid to steal in front of a PA than you might think). More importantly, you’ll see the AD that does everything in her power to keep 100 extras under control…you’ll see the production assistant who runs to the aid of the grips, regardless of whether or not its his job or not. You’ll see the people you want to work for you.

Third, those people will see that you work. If you work, it means you’re serious. There are alot of wannabes in this field, and working for a week only to have a production fall apart is every crew member’s worst nightmare. I may not be getting paid…but I at least want to see the movie I worked on. People who show up and work their ass off for someone else, will only work that much harder when its for themselves.

So now that we’ve found a crew, my next article will cover how to keep them working hard for you.

Self Distribution for your film

You’re a DIY filmmaker. An independent. You’re won’t let anyone tell you how to make your film. So why are you going to let the distributors tell you how to sell your film? Or what if you’ve already tried the traditional distribution route, and no distributors are interested. Maybe its time to think about self distribution. After all, films such as My Big Fat Greek Wedding made literally millions… Read more

Four ways supply your film with wardrobe for next to nothing.

As they say, the clothes make the man. Never is that more true than in the realm of film. Pay attention the next time your watching any Hollywood, or even well produced indie movie. They aren’t running around in jeans and a t-shirt. Wardrobe counts for alot…but unfortunately when you are buying clothes for a full cast it gets quite expensive, but not if you know these tips…

In this article, I’ll tell you some great ways to get free clothes for your indie production. However, let me first start by pointing out the type of clothes you can’t get for free…clothing to be used in blood effects scenes. The majority of the ways I’m going to list here are going to open up access for you to get one unique copy of each article of clothing. Unfortunately, when you are doing effects shots that involve your character getting covered in fake blood, you need multiple copies of anything that could get bloody. After all, what if you don’t get it in the first take…are you going to wait for someone to dry clean everything before doing the shot again. Even if you get the shot on the first take, what if the next scene you shoot occurs earlier in the story when the character should still be clean? My only advice here is to buy cheap clothes in bulk, usually in quantities of at least six.

Wardrobe for cheap
But on to the point of this article. How can you get excellent wardrobe on the cheap?

• Goodwill, thrift stores
  Stores such as goodwill sell lots of old clothing for extremely cheap. If you are in a city of any decent size, there are probably a ton of these that you can visit.
• Garage Sales
  Most people have clothing on sale during garage sales. There are basically two approaches to getting what you want: Show up ridiculously early, or ridiculously late. Most people show up very early to garage sales in hopes of being the first to peruse the merchandise and find some hidden treasure. You can join the crowd and fight for the deals. I find though, its far better to show up very late, just before the sale is closing. People putting on garage sales, for the most part, aren’t as concerned with the money as they are getting rid of their crap. If its getting late and there is still stuff, then people putting on the sale aren’t happy. Show up late and offer a big bulk deal, such as $10 for all their remaining clothing. You may also want search around for any random props you may want and get that tossed into the deal. You’d be surprised just how cheap you can get things at garage sales when it looks like no one else wants it.

Clothing for free

If getting a bulk of clothing for $10 is still to pricey, here are some ways you can get wardrobe for free:

• Old People
  Grandma and Grandma probably have tons of old crap…excuse me…vintage clothing just lying around. This is especially great for picking up men’s jackets, hats, purses, and jewelery. One warning though…if it doesn’t fit, don’t use it. Nothing looks stupider than a mobster in a suit that’s way too big.
• Buy it and return it.
  You might have to put a little money up front, but pretty much every clothing store in America will let you return any item so long as its in good condition and still has the tag on it. Make sure to check the refund policy though, before you end up with $600 in store credit to a place you never normally shop.

Shoot your movies in style, but don’t pay the high cost of trendy fashions. Except of course when it comes to sunglasses. Every action hero needs badass sunglasses.

Three secrets to being a good screenwriter

If you’re considering becoming a screenwriter…stop. No I don’t mean that you shouldn’t try and be a screenwriter. I mean stop considering and start doing. The difference between a screenwriter and a non-writer is just the decision to write. The difference between a great screenwriter and average screenwriter can be found in these three tips.

Write everyday
We humans are creatures of habit. So there is no better habit to get into for screenwriters than to write every single day. I recommend you write for at least ten minutes, but no longer than thirty. Sure you could write longer, but when you go to write again tomorrow, your subconscious is going to bring up memories of yesterdays two hour writing spree and say “No way…I’m not getting into that mess again”. Thirty minutes is the absolute max. If you have more to write, then that’s just a good starting point for tomorrow.

It’s also a good idea to write at a specific time everyday. Get up a little early, go to sleep a little later, or maybe just write for part of your lunch break.

Your plot affects the characters not the other way around.
The characters are the vital element of your story. The plot is only there to illustrate who your characters are. You should never make your character do something out of character simply to further the plot. At first this may seem difficult. There is something you may want very badly to happen, but if there isn’t a character in the story that could both make it happen and want to make it happen, then you’ve written the wrong story for the wrong characters.

Write fast and sloppy
Don’t try to right the perfect first draft. No one cares about the first draft. You’re screenplay may start out as an animated short about a lovable bear, and turn into a fierce suspense about hikers being chased by bears. There is no reason that anything you write be coherent, logical, or especially good, until you finish the first draft. There are only two requirements for the first draft:

1. It’s finished
2. It contains real words (mostly)

The desire for perfection is the cause of all writers block. You start to think “What should happen next…maybe the hikers could find an abandoned cabin…no that’s been done already”, when you should have just written “The hikers find an abandoned cabin”, and moved on. It doesn’t matter…write something….the hikers get hit by a bus…it doesn’t matter. You can always fix it. But just writing without judgment opens up the flow of creative juices. Who knows you may even mistype something, and the typo itself spawns a whole scene…but that won’t happen if you are staring at the blank screen.

In fact, I started this article with the title “The secret to being a good screenwriter”, and I only had one tip. Then I thought of two more, edited it a few times, and then fixed the title. There is a good chance I may even edit this article a bit after I published (followers of the site who pay close attention may have noticed I do that from time to time.)

I don’t know just who said it first, but its a common saying that “Good screenplays aren’t written, they’re rewritten”.

I love to say I told you so.

When I wrote the post about the writers strike, and the idea that networks would start picking up web series, I thought that I was a few months ahead of the curve. It turns out I was only a few days ahead, as NBC just announced they are picking up a web series.

NBC has picked up the web series Quarter Life created by Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick. The 36 episode series, with each episode being 8 minutes, is being condensed into six, hour long episodes. For more info check out : NBC picks up ‘Quarterlife’.

I think NBC may have made a mistake though, since all the press I’ve read so far about the deal fails to mention the price. If they told the price, no matter how small by television standards, its probably big enough for independent producers to consider creating dramatic web series in hopes of getting picked up.

How options work.

If you are an indie producer, director, or screen writer, you absolutely have to understand the power of options. It’s rare that movies get made these days without the script first being optioned.

So what is an option exactly? Well, an option is simply a type of contract that says “I want to buy something”. You can have options in real estate, stock, writing, or just about any type of property that could be classified as unique and illiquid (meaning it isn’t easy to buy and sell). The basic idea is you “lease” the exclusive right to buy the property for a period of time. In other words, you haven’t bought it, but no one else can buy it for as long as your option exists. When it comes to filmmaking we usually speak of options in terms of either literary or script options.

A literary option is for licensing books, comic books, graphic novels, etc. Here, you are basically buying the right to be the first person to license an author’s work, and adapt it into a screenplay. Steven King often lets indie filmmakers option his short stories for as little as a dollar. However, aside from an indie friendly author such as King, usually literary options are out of the grasp of indie budgets.

For indies, the more important form of option to understand is a script option. Here you are optioning the right to take a screenplay and produce a film. The beautiful thing about an option for indie producers is that it essentially gives you the right to use the script to find financing. The great thing about options for writers is that its often just free money, because the option doesn’t get exercised (bought), because the producer fails to find the budget in time. It also always seems to work out that the producer, while shopping the script around, drums up interest in the script from some other producer or studio, thus making it possible for the writer to option the script a second time.

How it works
An option basically has three major components:

• What is being sold
• The price to option it
• The price and agreements to be made in order to buy - called exercising the option

An option usually turns out to be the contract before the contract. What I mean by that is that, if you leave out something in the option, or fail to have some sort of “catch all” clause…then theoretically you don’t have an option. If there is something left to be negotiated, then the writer can refuse to let you exercise the option. This is why its really important to have a lawyer draw up this kind of paper work. A properly written option, is nearly the exact same contract as a literary purchase agreement, because the option will spell out every single part of the deal.

Transferability
Options can be either transferable or nontransferable. If it is transferable, then the producer can option the script, and then sell the option itself and the writer doesn’t make a dime. All this does is transfer the right to purchase the script from one person to another. The option could be transfered several times, but until its bought or the option runs out, the writer won’t see another penny.

Sometimes studios option scripts that are similar to the script they want to write, just to avoid a similar film coming out at the same time as what they are trying to release (trying to avoid another Armageddon/Deep Impact scenario). Producers know this, and usually won’t see anything wrong with making a quick $2000 off your script selling their option to someone they know won’t ever produce it. They make $2000, and your script is officially considered a “shelved” property, making it very difficult for you to sell again.

On the other hand, sometimes a producer needs transferability for legal reasons. They may buy it under their own name, or company name, but then need to transfer it to its own separate entity in order to do specific methods of financing.

Applicability
An option can be defined as applicable or non applicable. This pretty much just means whether or not the price of purchase includes the amount of the option or not. In other words, if the purchase price is $50,000, and I payed you $5000 for the option, if my $5000 is applicable I only owe you $45,000. If not, I owe you the full $50,000.

Advice on optioning

For the producer, the object is usually to get the option as cheaply as possible, with as long of terms as possible. Remember, you’ll be spending investor money on the actual purchase of the script so you aren’t really worried about the final price, except to insure it isn’t outrageous. But the option…that’s your own money your spending. You will lose it if the option runs out. Also, if your option is too short, and you approach a studio to finance the project, if they want to do the script they’ll wait out your option and buy it out from under you.

For writers its a bit more complicated. You want as short of a term as possible, but the price is somewhat difficult to determine. You could easily option your script for a dollar, then two days later the producer call you back, ready to purchase your script at full price. Or you might take your dollar, go to the coke machine, and all your windfall profits as a professional screenwriter are shot in one transaction. May I recommend that if you are going to drink away your career, get enough for a beer…and a tip.

On the other hand, holding out for some outrageous option price isn’t going to help you much if the producer can’t afford it. Like I said above, the option is usually bought with the producers own money. If if its an indie producer, chances are they don’t have much, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t have the drive and ambition to get financed and make a first class film.

My advice for writers is to only accept an amount that ensures the producer is serious. If its a very young person in college, that may be as little as $250. For someone with a job, or someone whose been in the business for over a year $1000 is probably a better number. I’m not a wealthy person to say the least, but I could easily put $1000 down on a movie if I really believed in it…but if I do you better believe I don’t intend to waste it and let that option expire without doing everything in my power to get it financed. But over $5000 is usually pushing it. I may really really love a script, but if I can’t get an option on it for less than a few thousand its just not worth the risk.

A final note for producers, wait to exercise your option until the day before production begins. Until that day, you really don’t know if your movie is really happening or not. Financing falls through, insurance papers get screwed up, permits get denied, and so on. Anything can happen, so unless your option is about to expire, don’t exercise it until the cameras start rolling.

How to shoot a music video

Somehow I managed to find myself working on the set of two music videos over the last couple of weeks. Making a music video is usually a bit easier than most other types of productions, but it has some of its own unique challenges. But after reading this article you should be well equipped to face those challenges.

When shooting a music video, usually you can leave out some equipment, such as field microphones, mini disc recorders, and mixers. However, there is one piece of equipment that you wouldn’t normally need, that is invaluable in a music video shoot, a PA System. You’ll need something for playback so your band/artist can hear to lip sync. Especially in the case of a rock band, a simple stereo won’t cut it. Drums are loud, as well as the most important instrument to synchronize with the video. You need to be loud enough for the drummer to hear while he’s playing.

Another invaluable tool is a megaphone, especially if a crowd is involved.

You’ll also need to connect at least one cable from your PA system to your camera’s microphone input. This is simply to provide a reference for synchronizing the song later in post. But please, do not connect your camera to any powered output from your PA. There is a really good chance you’ll destroy your camera’s microphone preamps. Be very careful that you do not send a high power signal into your camera’s XLR inputs. If worse comes to worse, avoid this step, and synchronize using the cameras onboard microphone.

I highly recommend you shoot with at least two cameras, and this guide will center around using two cameras. So, using two cameras, the first thing you’ll want to do is synchronize their time codes. Fortunately, most higher end cameras allow you to synchronize their time codes via a firewire connection, and the really expensive cameras have even better options. Set each camera to a free running time code, and then jam sync them. Check your manual on how to do this. Now when you go into post, you should be able to sync them up perfectly in editing even if your camera people are starting and stopping at different times.

Essentially, all music videos can be broken down into two parts, a synchronized performance part, and an unsynchronized story part. The story part couldn’t be easier…simply point and shoot. The story part is only as elaborate as the special effects you are trying to achieve. You don’t even have to worry about setting up the PA system, or capturing field sound.

The performance part is a bit different. So what follows will be the procedure I prefer to use to shoot a music video.

Procedure
As stated above, first set up your PA system, and synchronize the time code of your cameras. If you intend to have a whole crowd in the performance, don’t bring them in just yet. You want only the most dedicated fans that are going to be on the front row, in the initial shots. Anyone who isn’t in the shot, should not be on set at this point.

Master Shot The most important thing you can do is knock out the master shot right away. This is essentially a wide shot covering the entire band or group of performers, lip syncing to the entire song. For a band, with your ‘B’ camera focus on a medium shot of the main singer. If necessary, you may want to cut this into a few shots, in case your band gets sweaty or tired towards the end of the song. However, what you ultimately want to achieve here is a wide shot of the band performing the entire song all the way through. If you get this shot, no matter what happens, you can still finish the video.

Musicians are notoriously moody, and unreliable. You are going to be working all day at this….most musicians have never heard of such a thing. So, by knocking out that master shot, you have enough coverage to fill in all the gaps of your story section.

After your master shot is through, you have a wide shot and a shot of the singer all the way through the song. Repeat this again for your guitar player, bass players, drummers, extra singers, or that random guy in rap videos that throws money around. With two cameras, you should be able to get coverage of the entire group with just three set ups. While you are doing the last members, have other members of your crew set up jib arms or cranes if you intend to do those sorts of shots. Once you finish your last shot of group members, you should be able to let the band take a short break while you put the cameras on the jibs.

Do a few cool sweeping shots. Pop the cameras off the jibs, and have the crew start taking them apart. At the same time, go hand held and go nuts. Get in close up on each member of the group, but try to avoid too many shots of the hands of any of the musicians. Your goal here is to get shots that could essentially be put anywhere, so avoid shooting anything that will be obviously out of sync. You don’t have to go through the whole song at this point if people are getting antsy.

Finally, if you have a crowd in the performance, bring them in. The reason you don’t bring the whole crowd in until this part, is if you had them on set the whole time by now they would be bored. Get the crowd in, and have someone enthusiastic pump them up with the megaphone. Get a bunch of cool shots of the crowd going nuts from the angle of the stage.

You now have the entire performance part of your music video.

Some exceptions
If you plan on having a ton of shots that include both a large part of the crowd, and the performers in the same shot, then its probably best to do the crowd shots first. If plan on doing a bunch of sweeping shots of the crowd with a jib, get that completely set up before anyone shows up, and do that first. Essentially, you need to gauge who is most likely to get bored, leave, or cause any form of problem and get their portions finished as fast as possible. Except in rare cases, none of these people your working with are actors. They don’t know what its like…not used to the “ok stop….that’s great…oh…crap….wait…do it again from the beginning”.

If you have dancers you don’t have to shoot dancers first, but you do want to get dancers in as few shots as possible. Each time the dancers perform there is the possibility, however remote, that someone will get injured. It happened on one of the shoots I just did. Just doing some basic swing dancing moves, a girl’s arm was pulled out of socket. Fortunately, it was a big enough shoot that there were some medial professionals on hand, but obviously that’s not always the case.

With these tips, you should be able to handle almost every popular style of music video shoot. Happy shooting.

Writers Strike and the future of television production

This isn’t a news site, so I didn’t really feel the need to jump on the band wagon and report the news about the WGA strike. However, after hearing about it for a few days straight, some very interesting thoughts occurred to me. Most importantly, I think the writers won’t win.

I know for some of you that is a pretty grim prediction, because essentially the writers deserve to win. The writers want an increase in residuals from 4 cents to 8 cents per DVD sold. If you ask me even 8 cents per DVD is ridiculously low…which was my first indication that the writers can’t win. If the WGA was striking for residuals, it would have asked for a higher number and conceded for less in negotiation. There really isn’t a ton of negotiation room between 4 and 8 cents that the WGA can still accept as victory. Can they really come out and say “We had to compromise a little…but we won an increase….its 6 cents now!”

So why strike if its not about residuals? Because its about self preservation. Through the last year of negotiations the WGA realized it was losing ground. If they didn’t do something before the contract expired…then the contract would just expire and the studios would just start doing whatever they wanted, regardless of what the WGA thinks…essentially breaking the union. For a multitude of reasons, I think that even with the strike, a breakage of the union is still inevitable.

Affecting the unaffected
The WGA has an enormous weakness in the fact that the people most negatively affected by the strike, are the least positively affected by the result. The people who are out of work today - i.e. writers for the Tonight show, Daily Show, and so on - have very little stake in the outcome. These types of shows don’t have a strong DVD product. Conversely, the people who do worry about residuals have essentially already been paid, and are still getting paid (though at the lower rate) for their current residuals. Most of these shows have already shot to the end of the season. How long can the day to day writers stay on strike on behalf of writers who are significantly better paid, who are sitting at home still collecting checks? In the case of shows that are new, or have yet to get a foothold, how long can these writers afford to not work while their show loses what little popularity it had. Right now, just a few days after the strike, Ellen is already getting negative criticism for going back on the air and performing comedy…or in the case of Ellen I should say attempting to perform comedy.

Forcing collusion
The major studios are always in competition. Each time sweeps comes around they make a desperate attempt to compete against one another in hopes of getting more of the market share. Certainly, if one studio was being boycotted by writers, that studio would be hard pressed to find a solution as quick as possible…but that isn’t the case.

Since all studios are being boycotted, then none have to worry about their competition pulling ahead in the ratings with some new series. If everyone’s quality of product goes down by the same amount, then they are still equal. If no studio can get writers to write new material, then they are all competing on equal footing.

Companies need to advertise their product, and they only care about numbers. They don’t care if they are advertising on the newest episode of Lost, or an old episode of I love Lucy. They want X eyeballs for Y dollars…period.

And if you think that Americans will stop watching TV anytime soon just because there is nothing on…well you must not have turned on a TV in a while…there’s been nothing on for years now and still people are watching.

The brave new world
The world has changed alot since the last strike in 1988. There are a ton more stations, and alot more content out there. The most important is, of course, the internet. The internet, many experts say will help bring a speedy resolution to this strike, because TV studios can’t afford to lose more audience to internet media. I think quite the opposite is true. The internet is the nail in the coffin for the WGA.

The thing to remember is that above all things…the studios have money. How does a studio compete with an internet series stealing all their viewers? Simple…it buys it. Even a successful web series creator can’t pull down the money that a studio can offer. When you gross $200,000 a year and have to pay actors and crew out of that, its pretty hard to turn down an offer from a studio who offers you $500,000 per season….which is ridiculously cheaper than the studio would have spent to make it in the first place.

The internet will essentially become the major stations new golden goose. They will have the opportunity to pick up programs that have already been created, already been tested and have already generated an audience. And once one big internet series gets picked up for a six or seven figure deal, the internet will literally explode with content…more so than it already has.

Once it becomes clear that the studios can survive, and even prosper without contract writing staff, the writers will have no choice but to cross the picket line. Once a union loses its ability to cause significant financial damage with a strike, that union is essentially dead.

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