The same two characters were sitting in a corner of the bar, this time with a pint each! (It was one of our birthdays so we thought we would treat ourselves) The discussions deepened over the mass of papers strewn across the table, "So...." one of them exclaimed, "What next?"
Well that's the big question, we have our story, we have turned it into a screenplay, we have all these ideas about where we are going to place the camera and what type of shot we want and the mood we are trying to create, but seriously.... what next?
There is a danger that we are going to spend more time talking about it and never actually getting around to do it. Well this is where someone has to step in and take control to move the project forward, but again how?
We know how to make video shorts, we have been playing around with making short films and sketches for over 20 years, because we love it, but I wouldn't call us film makers. Even though we have both spent time on various television sets and in studios and picked up techniques on the production process, if we were honest, we haven't got much of a clue how to be film makers. So, we don't know, there must be an expert out there who can help, so we turned to "The Guerilla Film Makers Movie Blueprint" book by Chris Jones.
After reading this book you quickly understand why the credits at the end of a movie goes on and on and on. Very rarely do you see the same names appear in various different roles, unlike our films, scripted, directed, produced, editted etc.etc. by one of us. Well that is for two reasons, firstly, because we are the two who get together and love making films so we of course do all the work. Secondly, I feel this is more important, because we cant let go. We want to do everything and don't want others muscling in on our little production.
Together Forever is different, we know this is our film and no-one will be able to take that away from us, we are the ones who sweat blood and tears and have all the passion to see it created, but, and it is a big but, to make this film be a success we do need help.
This book breaks down the key individual roles in the film making process and highlights what skills this role demands and how that role influences the film making process. So one of the early, harsh lesson we have learnt before we have thought about all the other aspects is that we are going to need help from people who know what they are doing and relinquish some of the responsibilities to other people. Just like in life, you can try and repair your car yourself in order to save money, but ultimately the repair will take you longer, may not be repaired, car could be off the road longer, if you was a driver for a living that could be more expensive than the initial repair bill a professional would charge you in the first place. What we are getting at is that each of us have a skill set and your time will be better spent and more effective if you operate within that skill set and allow others concentrate on applying their own skills in the most effective way. Looks like one of us will be on tea duty then!
I am sure by increasing the crew size will have an impact on our non existent budget, but that is another whole chapter carefully reserved for another one of our blogs.
So as we leave our latest production meeting we each have a number of tasks to action, using our screenplay as a guide and breaking the tasks down into bite sized chunks we have decided to each decide what roles we need fulfilled by other people, sort out what sound effects are in our script, what key props are required and get some ideas for location, which in turn will decide on what area we are going to hold casting sessions. With regards to casting this is going to have an impact on our budget. Even if the actors are devoting their time for free, we have two children in our script which means they will need to have parental supervision, which ultimately means hotel rooms!!! We feel it is better to recruit/cast locally to where we ultimately decide our location is so we can save a little on this area and only pay for out of pocket expenses such as local travel etc.
We will report back shortly and let you know how we get on. Thanks for reading and following our blog.
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