Surviving the horror of filmmaking is no easy task. You have to be prepared, quick on your feet and ready to change your plan entirely if things go awry.
Act I: The idea
Every film, short or long, begins with a story. Everything stems from that one central idea that you want to portray. The shotlist, editing, acting, everything, all comes from a good story.
Writing a script can be one of the hardest parts of making a short film. “Write what you know,” said Bill Kershisnik, a scriptwriter and Southern Utah University communication and film professor. “Good scripts are generated from experiences that we have and things that you care about.”
To have a short film that thrives, you first must help it survive. Everything stems from the story, so that is always the first step.
Act II: Shoot the dang thing
Turn on the lights, roll the camera and call for action. Now that there is a story, filming can begin though a lot more organization needs to happen first.
Planning the film shoot helps to keep each scene consistent. The audience will notice if there is one shot in perfect golden-hour lighting and the other is in utter darkness. Structuring the shoot also reduces the stress on the crew and actors, as less adaptation has to occur.
“Always do a safety take,” Kershisnik said. Working redundancy into the plan is essential. A backup take is always necessary even if the first one was great. Although it takes up more filming time, redundancy gives the post-production team more freedom and decreases the chance for mishaps.
Act III: Fix it in post
Odds are, even with plenty of preparation, there will be some snags in production. To fix any problems that occur, there is the magic of fixing it in post.
Typically, “fix it in post” is a forbidden phrase on a film set. If the shot was bad initially, it will likely still be bad in editing. However, short films often have a lower budget, making it harder to avoid these mistakes. Editing in post-production helps to mask those flaws.
For example, sound on set can contain unwanted noise or the equipment could’ve failed. In those cases, behold the power of automated dialogue replacement. ADR has the actor re-record their lines to better fit the video. Reverb and noise are then added to mimic the on-location sound.
Fixing things later is not ideal, but when situations arise on set, it is a useful tool. Striving to get the most usable material makes fixing it in post an actual solution and not a cover-up.
After the script has been written, shots have been filmed and mistakes have been edited, all that is left is to share the film. All this work is nothing without an audience to see it. Upload it to YouTube, apply to a film festival or just show your friends. Once the film has been given an audience, production is complete.
Author: Bryson Oleson
Photos: Bryson Oleson
Editor: Tessa Cheshire
accent@suunews.net
