I’m taking Production 1 this semester and after many reshoots and late night editing sessions, I finally had to admit to myself that I needed to spend more time on pre-production.
Before Prod 1 I had never tried to make a movie all on my own, but I figured I had an idea in my head of what I wanted to shoot so I’d just wing it. #MISTAKE. My first movie was a mess, to the point that I had to go back and reshoot the whole thing. I figured I’d share some tips that helped me out for my next couple movies:
1. Writing/finding actors
I put these together because one thing I learned from my first movie is how hard it is to get lots of friends together at once. It’s a lot easier to write a movie with the expectation you can get one or two people to act and work from there. If you need to have a scene with a lot of people, websites like doodle.com can help find a time that works with everyone’s schedules. (Make sure to offer pizza too, it’s amazing what college students will do for free pizza).
2. Shot List/Storyboarding
Making a storyboard is the most helpful thing you can do. When I had to reshoot my first movie I made a quick stick-figure storyboard, which made the shoot go much smoother. My last movie was longer, so I didn’t have time to make a full storyboard, but even just putting a plan on paper as a shot list was better than trying to go from what I had in my head, and made sure I didn’t miss shots I needed.
3. Pulling together props and LIGHTING
For my first movie I needed a big pile of paper, so I figured I’d raid the recycling bins the day of the shoot. The problem? They emptied them 2 days before my shoot. Lesson learned, it’s better to get the props way beforehand. The other things to round up early are lights. More often than not, I found myself with 2 desk lamps trying to light a scene and wishing I had more lights. You can always take out light kits from FPS or even knock on friends’ doors and ask to borrow lamps, but the more light you have, the better.
