Some Things I Wish I Knew Before Making My First Movie

Some Things I Wish I Knew Before Producing my first movie.

1. Pre-Production!!!

Everybody in the industry will tell you how important pre-production is, so who in their right mind wouldn’t do it properly? THIS GUY!

It’s funny, that even though everybody talks about the importance, it still seemed like completing pre-production was unattainable. It never quite made sense what I needed to have done in order to be fully prepared for my first feature. I got some of the basics of course, you can’t have a film without the basics (i.e. Actors, Scripts, Filming locations, Cameras, etc…).

The problem wasn’t what I had done to prepare for the film, it was the things that I should have done, that I didn’t know were important. After realizing the importance of a specific action that should have been taken, talking about it was moot. Let me give you a few examples.

1. Shot lists. (I should note that our assistant director was responsible for this and jumped ship the week before filming) Everybody in the film crew and even the actors should have a shot list and know where and when they are needed. With a shot list, it is a lot more difficult to skip scenes and it is also great for everyone to be on the same page! (chasing actors around, because they don’t know they should be on set, isn’t my definition of fun)

2. Special effects. Will the film have them? What scenes will they be in? What kinds of backgrounds will be used? Will there be any environment interactions?

3. Props! Knowing exactly which props will be used and on what days is very important. I remember I lost 2 hours of valuable time on my first film because of forgetting to grab one freaking prop before heading to the studio. (2 hours is a lot of time when you plan to shoot a full feature in only 4 days)

2. Regular review of footage gathered

I cannot even describe to you how disheartening it is to have unusable footage. Especially when there is no realistic way or budget to regather the cast and crew to re-shoot the whole scene again. It's like having a dancing bear that never danced his way in front of the lens! *mutters to himself, Good for nothing bear!

A scene may have bad acting, blurry footage, extraneous sounds, bad wardrobe (that may conflict with the color of the green screen or take away from the scene), bad lighting, and the editor may just flat out not find anything usable about some of the shots gathered. In my opinion after shooting my first film, regular footage review is paramount!... dumb bear...

3. Having reliable actors who can handle the stresses of being in a film

Being in a film is hard! Especially when it comes to making an independent film, where most of the people involved have little experience when it comes to film-making. I admit our cast had to be patient with our lack of experience, to that I am forever grateful. Unfortunately some of our cast just didn’t even want to, or couldn’t, deal with it.

Not to point fingers at anyone, but some people are really dumb! and I mean that in the nicest, most non-passive/aggressive way... *COUGH.

We had our film totally cast months before the shoot and we lost so many actors the week before and even the week of our film shoot! One of my poor actresses had to learn script, song and dance the same day she was performing these things on film! Thank you again, Emma Beckstrand! Not expressing interest in each of my actors is a mistake, one I don’t intend on repeating.

4. It shouldn’t need to be fixed in post production!

Those of you with film experience are probably chuckling a little bit at my rookie mistakes. This one seems obvious, but sometimes, you film an entire scene and realize that your camera exposure was incorrect, or even the lighting was set up incorrectly. It can sometimes feel like maybe your big turd can just be polished up by the editor. For those of you who wonder what a polished turd looks like, why don't you try it and see what happens... if you're brave... Then you'll have idea of the task that I gave to my editor. While an editor has many tools and abilities, it can take the editor 3 times longer to fix the mistake, than it would have taken just to fix these problems while the photography was taking place.

When it comes to film-making, if the scene isn’t intended the way it was filmed, maybe something else should be figured out other than… Fix it in post.

I am glad to have had the experience of producing a film! We have been in post for about 4 months now and are getting closer to completing our project. We expect the film to be completed (at least ready for initial screenings) sometime before August. We have a letter of intent for distribution. From what I understand this is almost unheard of for films that have not yet been completed. When all is said and done, this has been an incredibly rewarding experience and I look forward to the production of our next film, which I intend on beginning before the end of the year.

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About The Author:

With The Light Express now in post-production, William Hobson has two other films, The Medicine Show, a whacky western and The Three Princes, currently in pre-production. As the head of the new film production company, WillWood, Hobson has hit the ground running, not only to make great films but to help drive the expanding Utah film community even farther ahead in the vast world of movie-making