Releasing soon...
1) Assistants are useful. Team is useful :)
2) Never trust your team blindly. Check everything personally.
2) If your actors have given you dates - make it clear that in no circumstances you will change them in advance so you don't have any moral dillemma if he gets a more lucrative call in the middle of the shoot.
3) What I liked : When I said let there be one director when everyone was shouting with suggestions :).
4) Even if other person seems to be better - take your decisions - ask him to get lost if he is creatively interfering. 99% of times other suggestions are worse than your own.
5) Kill actors if they haven't mugged their lines in advance.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Learning from assisting at shot fiction
1) Do to gym and build He-man kinda stamina if you need to work night shift and day shifts spanning 18 hours every day.
2) Assisting for a short time helps you know how things are on the set but assisting for sustained period of time will not help you incrementally. Make movies - that will teach you more and creatively help you.
3) Don;t have useless good for nothing people on the set - they only eat away your unit people's food and interfere by talking and spoil the sound quality and give there useless comments. Don't have them.
4) Define clear roles for your assistant. Earmark points of continuity for your assistants before hand. Have meetings with your assistant. Get them as charged as you are about the movie. Tell them that it is their movie also.
5) Rehearse with actors in advance.
6) Think twice before shooting rape scenes of small girl - esp with her parents around- and make sure that they are okay with the shots in advance. Be creative and aesthetic about those scenes if possible. Shield the child from the visual detaisl of gory drama - yo uare a human after all.
7) Take reliable actors - who will atleast show up.
8) Take good amount of inserts - they will be useful.
9) Have a good list of shots.
2) Assisting for a short time helps you know how things are on the set but assisting for sustained period of time will not help you incrementally. Make movies - that will teach you more and creatively help you.
3) Don;t have useless good for nothing people on the set - they only eat away your unit people's food and interfere by talking and spoil the sound quality and give there useless comments. Don't have them.
4) Define clear roles for your assistant. Earmark points of continuity for your assistants before hand. Have meetings with your assistant. Get them as charged as you are about the movie. Tell them that it is their movie also.
5) Rehearse with actors in advance.
6) Think twice before shooting rape scenes of small girl - esp with her parents around- and make sure that they are okay with the shots in advance. Be creative and aesthetic about those scenes if possible. Shield the child from the visual detaisl of gory drama - yo uare a human after all.
7) Take reliable actors - who will atleast show up.
8) Take good amount of inserts - they will be useful.
9) Have a good list of shots.
Learning from Foundation film
Video to be posted
1) Light should not be muddy
2) Successive shots should be cut on different angles
3)If the time limit of movie is 3 mins then try to see your script and realize that it will be mins else you mess up the entire movie
4) Don;t work with untrained and super concious girls as your main protagonist (especially at the early stage of your career - especially if yo uhave time limit). They will sap your energy on the set. Practice wel land if during practice you realize that it is not gonna work then throw her out. P.S: However when in film school try to work with untrained actors - nothing teaches yo uacting and handling with actors better.
5) 3 mins movie - don't go for 3-4 scenes - setting up will take time.
6) Pacing during editing is super important to help generate a mood.
7) Don't take even a single shot for granted. Never it is like chal jayega - be very particular about the lens, sound quality etc.
8) Don't have too many shots if time is less - else the whole shooting procedure has a risk of breaking down.
9) Rehearse rehearse rehearse
10) Storyboard before the shoot and not after it for the sake of submission. :)
P.S: Though I think being super ambitious in the foundation film taught me much more about directing a movie than if I had played it safe. Take advantages of being a student - be ambitious.
1) Light should not be muddy
2) Successive shots should be cut on different angles
3)If the time limit of movie is 3 mins then try to see your script and realize that it will be mins else you mess up the entire movie
4) Don;t work with untrained and super concious girls as your main protagonist (especially at the early stage of your career - especially if yo uhave time limit). They will sap your energy on the set. Practice wel land if during practice you realize that it is not gonna work then throw her out. P.S: However when in film school try to work with untrained actors - nothing teaches yo uacting and handling with actors better.
5) 3 mins movie - don't go for 3-4 scenes - setting up will take time.
6) Pacing during editing is super important to help generate a mood.
7) Don't take even a single shot for granted. Never it is like chal jayega - be very particular about the lens, sound quality etc.
8) Don't have too many shots if time is less - else the whole shooting procedure has a risk of breaking down.
9) Rehearse rehearse rehearse
10) Storyboard before the shoot and not after it for the sake of submission. :)
P.S: Though I think being super ambitious in the foundation film taught me much more about directing a movie than if I had played it safe. Take advantages of being a student - be ambitious.
Ad ideas for live search that were super hit
Learnings:
1) You can make a video alone if you want to. YOu just need passion - everything els follows.
2) Choice of music is very important. Good music worked for one and not for other.
3) Simple stories work great
4) Don't get self-indulgant with the shots you like at hte editing table. If they are not taking the story forward they are of no use.
Important 3) Take interesting stock footages of sunrise, sunset. Think out of the box.
1) You can make a video alone if you want to. YOu just need passion - everything els follows.
2) Choice of music is very important. Good music worked for one and not for other.
3) Simple stories work great
4) Don't get self-indulgant with the shots you like at hte editing table. If they are not taking the story forward they are of no use.
Important 3) Take interesting stock footages of sunrise, sunset. Think out of the box.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Learning from music video
1) Do shot breakdown in detail - without compromising. (Good you did it this time and realizd the difference)
2) Make sure when you are taking rush shots - folks are not looking at the camera3) Don't get concious if there is crowd watching you. Learn to work in the crowd
3) Have a camera person. Have him on board earlier so that no time in explaining issues.
4) Have an assistant only for continuity. It is very important
5) Do good crowd control. Have one production guy for crowd control.
6) Take one back up shot for every good shot. You will be surprised to know that you end up using backup shots more.
2) Make sure when you are taking rush shots - folks are not looking at the camera3) Don't get concious if there is crowd watching you. Learn to work in the crowd
3) Have a camera person. Have him on board earlier so that no time in explaining issues.
4) Have an assistant only for continuity. It is very important
5) Do good crowd control. Have one production guy for crowd control.
6) Take one back up shot for every good shot. You will be surprised to know that you end up using backup shots more.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Learning from my videos so far
Biggest learning in an institute were you are judged (sometimes by mortals of lower intelligence)-
1)Take all criticisms positively and evaluate each of them. They are very very useful.
1) MFP
If the actor is speaking too fast. Tell him that. Give pauses for audience to understand the joke. Give them time. Edit without cutting dialogues.
2) 7 shots
Improve the framing. If a girl is looking like a girl (and you do not want her to look like a girl) - camouflage her better so that she doesn't look like a girl.
3) Moments of solitude
1) Take permissions
2) Hear sound using headphones when doing the final sound design.
3) Don't get self-indulgant with your best shots at the time of editing.Make it crisp.
4) Continuity - note down the issues of continuity - left hand write hand etc while changing the perspective shots. Make sure that your actors stick to the lines else difficult to intercut also. Show 2-3 people to take their input before you release the final ut ot the general audience. Must show to Saurabh first.
5) Meditate on script for a good amount of time, it should have atleast 5-6 draft (even if it is a 6 mins script).
Put your scriptwriting classes to good use while evaluating the script.
1)Take all criticisms positively and evaluate each of them. They are very very useful.
1) MFP
If the actor is speaking too fast. Tell him that. Give pauses for audience to understand the joke. Give them time. Edit without cutting dialogues.
2) 7 shots
Improve the framing. If a girl is looking like a girl (and you do not want her to look like a girl) - camouflage her better so that she doesn't look like a girl.
3) Moments of solitude
1) Take permissions
2) Hear sound using headphones when doing the final sound design.
3) Don't get self-indulgant with your best shots at the time of editing.Make it crisp.
4) Continuity - note down the issues of continuity - left hand write hand etc while changing the perspective shots. Make sure that your actors stick to the lines else difficult to intercut also. Show 2-3 people to take their input before you release the final ut ot the general audience. Must show to Saurabh first.
5) Meditate on script for a good amount of time, it should have atleast 5-6 draft (even if it is a 6 mins script).
Put your scriptwriting classes to good use while evaluating the script.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
The story of a frog
This was one vid that I made in 2 hours end to end. I got some positive feedback - good script and good execution. To an extremely -ve feedback - some went to an extent of asking me to reshoot. Both the parties were extremely honest. And I was trying to evaluate why I got two such feedback. And learnt a very crucial lesson:
"Some audiences only look at the frog and some only look at the fly".
Why do I say this. This is because when i made the video and was seeing it across various rereuns, I was trying to see how the fly was trying to elude the frog. When I see the video from that interaction or fly point of view, it is not boring at all. But the dominant image of my video was frog. And lots of folks only saw the frog and found it boring.
Ofcourse there were some remarks as - I can see the thread, I can see the hand. That
on my part was intentional. One remark was - can we have a more real fly please (actually I thought in the contrary that instead of a written "fly" I could have had a smiley, as I had already introduced it.) Even the brand of the plate that shows up -that too. Coz I wanted to bring out the fact that it is staged, its like in a puppet show, you see the puppets and the hands of the puppeteers. I found some appeal in showing it rather than hiding it.
Also another lesson I learnt was that script is important. I made this video practically at the time of editing when the concept of love between frog and fly came up, I could have thought about it nad have shot it better. From now on my policy is to avoid reshoots as much as possible. Afterall when I make a real movie with real actors, will I be able to reshoot it?
"Some audiences only look at the frog and some only look at the fly".
Why do I say this. This is because when i made the video and was seeing it across various rereuns, I was trying to see how the fly was trying to elude the frog. When I see the video from that interaction or fly point of view, it is not boring at all. But the dominant image of my video was frog. And lots of folks only saw the frog and found it boring.
Ofcourse there were some remarks as - I can see the thread, I can see the hand. That
on my part was intentional. One remark was - can we have a more real fly please (actually I thought in the contrary that instead of a written "fly" I could have had a smiley, as I had already introduced it.) Even the brand of the plate that shows up -that too. Coz I wanted to bring out the fact that it is staged, its like in a puppet show, you see the puppets and the hands of the puppeteers. I found some appeal in showing it rather than hiding it.
Also another lesson I learnt was that script is important. I made this video practically at the time of editing when the concept of love between frog and fly came up, I could have thought about it nad have shot it better. From now on my policy is to avoid reshoots as much as possible. Afterall when I make a real movie with real actors, will I be able to reshoot it?
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