By Chance Shirley
May 13, 2004
Part Eight: Action! (Vol. 2)
At the end of our last column, we'd just maimed and killed a whole bunch of folks in Japan and boarded a plane for the States, presumably to slay a few more hombres.
Actually, we'd finally gotten through with all the pre-production stuff and started shooting the movie. So, on to more action...
Extra Eyes
I'm all about guerrilla-style filmmaking -- one shooter, one actor and one camera. However, if you have more people on the set, take advantage of their eyes. Let someone else look through the camera from time to time and see what ideas they have. Also, others on the set might see something you don't. We've had quite a few shots saved by someone asking "Hey, is that big Hollywood-looking movie light in the shot?" Or, "are you seeing the entire crew's reflection in that window back there?"
I was the camera operator on our first shooting day. I figured that Soderbergh directs and shoots his movies, so why can't I? Well, because he's really good and I'm not. I realized that when I'm shooting, I have trouble paying attention to anything but the camera. An actor would ask "how was my performance on that last take?" and I wouldn't have any idea. Luckily, I had good actors and a good co-director to take up my slack.
After that day, I let director of photography Robb Rugan operate the camera, which was a good idea because it let me concentrate more on directing. Also, Robb's a better operator than me -- his tilts, pans, and on-the-fly focus adjustments are always much smoother than mine. Even knowing I'm not the best operator around, it's hard to give the job up. Operating the camera, especially a film camera, is just flat-out fun. To me, at least. But, hey, sometimes you have to make those sacrifices for the sake of the project.
Pacing
If two characters are having a heated conversation, it probably needs to play out pretty quickly. On the flip-side, if two characters are fishing and discussing philosophy, they probably shouldn't be rushing through their lines.
Pacing is hard, especially when shooting on film. I should be trying to get a feel for how the scene is flowing, and all I can think of is the money we're spending as the camera exposes frame after frame of expensive filmstock. I've noticed scenes that seemed to take forever to play out while we were shooting them actually ended up just right, pacing-wise. So I try my best to keep the money out of mind and just watch the actors. Pacing is another place where extra eyes (and ears) come in handy. If, after a take, everybody on the crew says "Jeez, that scene took forever," it might be a good idea to tell the actors to pick up the pace and shoot it again.
Continuity
One of the challenges on a movie shoot is keeping the actors and set looking consistent from shot to shot. Bigger crews have a person whose sole responsibility is to keep an eye out for this continuity. We, of course, have not had this luxury on HIDE AND CREEP, so everyone on set has to try and watch for problems.
As far as actors go, it's not too bad. If their clothes, jewelry and hair don't change during a given scene, you're probably in good shape. I have run into a couple of problems with dirt and (fake) blood on an actor, especially when shooting out of order. We shot a scene where actor Chris Hartsell gets zombie blood splattered on his shirt. Then, while talking about the next shot, which happens pre-splatter in the script, we realized we had a continuity problem. Luckily, we were at a location with a washer/dryer, and Chris quickly washed the shirt while set up for the shot.
The smart way to prevent situations like this is to have spare wardrobe for all the actors, which we often did on HIDE AND CREEP. Just not for Chris.
Keeping set continuity straight seems to be a little more difficult, just because things are always getting moved around for the sake of camera or light placement. And it's hard to keep stray objects off the set, like cola cans, snacks, script pages and crew members.
If you have a digital still camera, or a Polaroid instant camera, it's a good idea to snap a few pictures of the set after you get everything arranged like you want it but before you start rolling. In the process of shooting, if things get moved around, you have something to go back to for reference. Other than that, it's a good idea to take a look around for the aforementioned stray objects anytime you're about to roll the camera.
Records
I wish I'd taken the time to keep a log sheet every day while we were working on HIDE AND CREEP. Nothing fancy, just a list of each scene number and take, along with the corresponding film roll and audio tape. Something like:
ROLL 12-01 ... AUDIO 12 ... Scene 62-b Take 3
ROLL 12-01 ... AUDIO 12 ... Scene 62-b Take 4
ROLL 12-01 ... AUDIO 12 ... Scene 62-c Take 1
Since I didn't keep a log, I confused the guys at the lab when I sent them two cans of film marked "HIDE AND CREEP ROLL #23". That's just silly. BOTH cans can't be #23, right? It didn't keep them from processing the film. It's just that they like to keep good records, and my poor record keeping made that difficult.
Speaking of the lab and record keeping, don't forget to label your film cans. I list the following on anything I send to the lab:
- Title of movie
- Camera roll #
- My name and phone number
- Date film was exposed
- Film stock (ex. "Kodak VISION2 7218 / 500T")
- Roll length (in feet)
I also include basic instructions, usually something simple like "PROCESS NORMAL."
Even if you're the only person dealing with your media, keeping good records can be useful. I know it would help out a lot during the editing process, where I often end up searching through unmarked and unlogged tapes, looking for a particular sound or shot.
Shoot to Cut
Hopefully, at some point, all this footage we're shooting will be edited together into an actual movie. As we move from shot to shot, I try to imagine how it will cut together.
A simple example: two people having a conversation. The time-honored way to shoot a conversation is to get a "master" shot of both people on screen at the same time. Then, you get closer shots ("singles") of each individual person. When it's time to edit, you cut between the three shots. This method of filming a conversation is sometimes referred to as, not surprisingly, "master-single-single."
What you generally want to avoid are "jump" cuts. A jump cut occurs when you, for example, cut from a close-up of a person talking to another close-up of the same person talking. To the audience, this seems less like an edit than a missing chunk of time. Ideally, if you're going to cut between different shots of the same person, you'll have more than one type of shot to choose from. A wide shot and a close-up shot, for example.
Regarding actors and editing, it's also good if your actors keep their movements consistent from take to take. If you have a wide shot of an actor with both hands in his pockets and a closer shot of the actor with his arms crossed, it's gonna be hard to cut between them.
Which brings me to my last note on thinking about the cut: it never hurts to pick up a few "cutaway" shots. If the actor in the previous example was, say, standing on a beach, looking at the ocean, you could grab a shot of the ocean. When it came time to edit the scene, you could start with the wide shot (actor, hands in pockets), cut away to the ocean (hence the term "cutaway shot"), then cut back to the closer shot (actor, arms crossed). The audience will assume the actor moved during the cutaway to the ocean.
Don't Cross "The Line"
"The line." This is so difficult for me to explain, and yet so important. I hate to do this but...
I'm gonna cop out and just give you a link to someone else explaining it: http://www.mavart.com/000002.html
If you have any questions about "the line" not covered in the link, let me know and I'll do my best to answer them. Or cop out again and help you find the answer somewhere else online.
Dead Horses
The first time co-director Chuck Hartsell and I made a movie, we shot it on video, and we went crazy with takes. We did as many as thirty takes on some shots. Needless to say, we broke this habit as soon as we started shooting on film, because film costs a lot more than videotape.
I think keeping the number of takes reasonable is a good idea, regardless of format. If the actors know their lines and where they're supposed to be and what they're supposed to do, you should be able to get a usable shot in three or four takes. There are exceptions, of course. Sometimes the actors are trying to perform tricky actions while the camera operator is doing some tricky camera moves, and it can take a while for everybody to get everything right.
But, when you're shooting a couple of guys talking, and they know their lines, two or three takes should do it. I've found that the actors tend to give their best performances in these early takes. They can start getting bored doing the same thing over and over (and over), and the performances will eventually suffer.
Have Fun
I'm not trying to get all "Shiny Happy People" on you, but I think when the crew and cast are having a good time, it's noticeable in the final movie. Which might not be a good idea if you're shooting a dark, angst-ridden drama. For comedy, though, it's great.
Indie filmmaking, more often than not, involves a lot of hard work for little or no pay. If I'm gonna bust my ass for free, and ask others to do the same, it seems like we might as well have fun in the process. Plus, if we're not having a good time, it invalidates my "a bad day shooting is better than a good day working for the man" theory.
We're slowly getting together the rough cut of HIDE AND CREEP. As of now, it's around 56 minutes long, and I'm guessing it constitutes about 3/4 of the movie. There's still a lot of sound and editing work to be done (plus a few re-shoots and maybe some special effects), but I'm encouraged with what I'm seeing so far.
More as it happens...
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