The movie can be only as good as the weakest link in the whole process.

From scriptwriter to final sound mixer and PA. The level of professionalism of each of these positions determines how good the movie will be. A bad script shot by an amazing director will never be a good movie. An amazing good looking movie will be degraded by bad sound. An amazing script can be cut to pieces by the editor and an assistant who is running late or forgets to bring a prop makes that the director needs to improvise to get the scene. Each element in the process of film production is important. You can’t compensate.

 

The bigger the acting talent of the star, the fewer problems you have.

Good professional actors are very focused on their job and trust anybody around them to do their job. The less acting talent the star has the more they try to compensate it with attitude and silly demands. The worst are the celebrities without acting talent, they are famous (for a moment) and give only trouble for production and crew about how they look, their pay and how they are treated. This is possibly to compensate for their insecurities and lack of acting talent.

If you treat actors like stars, they start to behave like stars.

An actor also has a professional obligation towards the film production and they are aware of that. They will act in a professional way if the production and crew will be professional no matter how big of a star they are. But the moment you give them room to act up or behave like a spoiled star of the 50’s, they will act this way. It’s actually basic human behavior. People want to be facilitated in their needs with the least amount of effort. The golden age of divas and spoiled stars is way behind us.

Nowadays it’s the agent and managers of the stars who have sometimes ridiculous requests to impress their client, than the star itself.

Professional actors are talented actors who act professional on set and off set.

 

Always see the big picture.

See the whole movie, not only the shot, the scene, the day. Know what comes before and what comes next. Making a movie is not macro management, it’s global management. It’s a give and take and balance the pro’s versus the con’s. Don’t work only in the moment. See the whole thing.

 

9. "Continuity" - Doing everything exactly as it was done in the previous take.

Continuity is the most important thing to keep in mind when shooting a scene. Have all the actors and props on the set at all times to repeat whatever has been done in the previous take, even when they are not on camera. It first of all makes things go faster, because the actors know what they are doing. It gives better performance because the actors are interacting with the other character off camera and it makes the eyelines match from shot to shot.

 

The only exception being made is about inserts where the actor is not seen.

 

Blocking rehearsal

Blocking rehearsal is the corner stone of each scene. The time it takes to do this is time won to shoot the scene. Only after blocking rehearsal, everybody knows what is going on in the scene and what will be seen in the scene. It avoids unnecessary and time consuming work and allows thinking ahead and mapping out everything that is needed for each shot.

 

Not doing a blocking rehearsal makes that the whole crew and actors are swimming in the dark and makes that shooting your scene will take twice or triple the amount of time than is actually needed.

 

IV. BEFORE SHOOTING

It all starts with

Having a finished script!

Not having a finished script before pre- production start is a recipe for disaster. It accounts for spending an unnecessary big amount of money on something that will be changed in the next version of the script and doesn’t allow anybody of the creative team to formulate their creative vision on the project.

 

Only when there is a finished script that falls into the projected budget start…

 

PREPRODUCTION

1. Production meetings

 

Small pre-production meetings constantly take place between department heads: The director discusses with the propmaster which props he wants in the scene, with the DP what kind of shots and lighting he wants, with the stunt coordinator which stunts he would like to see, with the production designer what kind of colors he likes his sets and with the costume designer which clothes he likes to see on his actors. The DP, production designer discuss the colors of the set and the practicality to shoot them. The costume designer talks with the production designer about the colors of the set and contrasts them with the costumes and so on and on… These are all small meetings. All the things the director wants are intensely discussed and the department heads give their suggestions to the director and final decisions are made. The key grip and stunt coordinator have already figured out how to mount the camera on special rigs and to do everything safe. The gaffer knows where to place the generator and bring cable into the set without being in the shots. All locations have been scouted and secured.

 

Then the last meeting before the shoot is the big production meeting.

In this meeting the crew goes over all the scenes and stop at the things that require special attention:

- stunt, big or small;

- Visual FX (green screen, set extensions, wire removal);

- Special FX (rain, fire, snow);

- weapons and explosions;

- big sets that require pre-light or special treatment.

 

These items are the most time consuming things to deal with when shooting and if any of these items are poorly prepped, huge delays can be expected.

In this big production meeting the 1^st AD checks with all of the department heads that everything is taken care of and nothing is forgotten.

 

 

1. Delivering the set

The production designer delivers the set THE LATEST THE DAY BEFORE shooting.

 

NOT the morning of the shoot.

NOT right before shooting the scene.

 

This means the set has to be constructed, painted, dressed and props are in place. Any logo’s that need to be covered ARE covered and any product placement and brand clearances have been approved.

 

If the set is a real location, all permissions and notices have been received by production or location manager.

 

If any of this is not in place, the shooting day will experience huge delays.

 

1. Stunts

All stunts are rehearsed and prepped BEFORE shooting and the stunt coordinator has the responsibility to protect crew, actors and equipment.

 

On the shooting day the stunts are recreated based on the rehearsals, NOT figured out.

It’s the Stunts coordinator’s job to ask for those rehearsal days and the 1^st AD’s and line producer’s job to facilitate them. Any difficulties or changes of plans according to the director’s vision should be reported to the director and DP before shooting.