Saturday, 5 November 2011
Saturday Film School w/ Elliot Grove
Raindance Toronto, Ground Floor, 720 Bathurst St, Toronto, Canada, 10 am
cont’d…
My second last blog was about the screenwriting elements of Raindance/Elliot Grove’s Filmmaking course. I said way back then that I would next blog about the actual filmmaking and non-writing elements. Well, a bunch of concerts got in the way, and my severe condition of lazyassitis. BUT, because I don’t like to break my word and I also have a simultaneous condition of severe closure-osis, I stayed true to my promise.
Here’s the director clapboard on budget, casting, music, lighting and camera angles:
Budget
You want to make it any country you gotta know the language. And filmmaking is a world of its own.
But it’s more of a code than a language, a verbal secret handshake. What does it really mean when someone asks, “Is it on a European budget?” Here’s how to crack the code.
The 4 Budgets [in US dollars]
- Blockbuster: $80+ m
- Hollywood: $40-80 m
- Million: duh
- Low budget under $10 m
- Indiewood: only 1-2 films under the belt
- European: under $1 m
- Micro-budget: under 500 k
- Low of the low budget: under $100 k
Maths is not my forte
This is why I stick to screenwriting. I barely passed Maths in (Vacant) Space. Not only do you have to translate film speak and budget talk, you have to do math! To find out whether a film is on track, one speaks in terms of shooting days, camera tape, feet, and pages. Yeah, it makes sense.
Producer Bigwig: “How’s it going?”
Director Noidea: “Day 2, 12,000 ft of tape and 14 pages in.”
Za?
1 min of shooting = 90 ft of tape
6 min = 540 ft = 1 page of script
1 day = 5,400 ft [max] = 10 pp [max]
90 min film = 81,000 ft of tape.
So Director Noidea above is over budget. His camera film exceeds his allocated script pages. He’d have to make up time, script and tape. Tape costs money, time is money. Producers like Bigwig don’t want to give it out like a cheerleader at Homecoming.
You know why B-grade movies are B-grade? Ever wondered how something happened? Or those aggravating plot holes?
So Director Noidea is 6 pp behind and 7,560 ft of tape over. This is not good. So Producer Bigwig rips out 6 pp of the script to make the pages fit the tape shot.
There’s your missing scenes and plot fillers.
PS to be under budget is great. To shoot more pages under the regular amount of tape it takes – fantastic. And your budget can speak in ratios, ie 6:1. So for every page you have enough tape, time and money to shoot 6. Enough time to edit and reshoot etc.
Cast will last
Casting will affect your budget, but also your overall film. Children and animals cost money and have constraints. That’s why directors love twins – no compromise on film time.
To show the importance and impact of casting, Grove showed a 20 second clip entitled “H_NGMAN”:
Two 10 y/o school boys are in a dark room, one is circling on the ground, while the other is standing above him on a chair.
“You have one chance.” The first boy’s voice eerily echoes in the room.
The second boy nervously swallows, and blinks in slow deliberation.
“E,” he barely whispers.
“Wrong!” the other barks.
And the boy steps out into the darkness…and falls to the sound of a breaking neck.
…fade to black…
The room was shocked into silence.
Grove said the ad initially cast grown men, but the reception was not as severe, in fact, bordering on the “so what?”
What a difference, huh?
Moral of the story: don’t skimp on the casting budget.
“After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.”
And what it also expresses is $$.
Think Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs. That movie is Michael Madsen igniting torture to “Stuck in the Middle with You” by Stealer’s Wheel. I can’t even imagine another song, a more glorified scene, a typical Tarantino tantaliser. The rights to use the song cost more than Keitel’s entire salary for the film [approx $400,000].
That movie was low-budget, almost European. [Pop quiz, hotshot, how much is that? $1.2 m. Well done.] So that glorious 1 min torture scene was 1/3 of the entire film budget.
[This clip contains unsettling images.]
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wnlK2nRKdk
And so famous, it’s parodied everywhere.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7UQLUcK2sY
Who’s whistling Dixie now?
Speaking of not speaking actual lyrics, how much will singing “Happy Birthday” cost you? Easily the most recognisable song in the world, and translated into 18 languages. Well, you better recognise, fool, that putting HB in your film will easily translate to a cool 5 grand. Why do you think there are so many films that sing it in another language, or have it subtitled, or simply hum along?
Let this copyright lawyer tell you [that’s me, folks] that you pay for the words, the melody and the performance of a song. Picking and choosing of a song is often deliberate, and cost-effective.
Spotlighting cheap tricks
“Lights, camera, action!” isn’t just a catch phrase. It’s the priceless assets of a film. But without price it ain’t.
A funnel/snout light makes eyes sparkle. A fill light takes shadow off the face. A key light then puts back defined shadows on the face. [Yeah, I know - makes sense.] Can’t afford any of these lights to make your characters not seem 2D? Add a blue/green card under the face to appear sick. A pink card for virility.
Grove dispensed these handy tips to keep track of your lighting budget, and budget overall. Who do you know that can give you a venue for free? A vehicle? A camera? Can the actors provide their own wardrobe?
Give your best angle
Actors position themselves waaaaaaaay in that comfort area you call personal space. Otherwise they wouldn’t fit in the frame.
Short guy and tall girl speaking at a relatively normal distance? The side mirrors speak the truth: objects are closer than they appear. It may seem inappropriate, and outcries of “It’s not THAT type of film”, but the girl gets on her knees. She has to maintain her height differentiation as if she is a little further away. The closer you get to a person, the taller they tower. So lower thyself. To thy knees! And do whatever it is you are paid to do down there.
Want to have your scene with the actors sit side-by-side conversing? Then have them basically sitting on each other’s laps and in their peripheral vision. Cos that’s how it needs to be done to convey side-by-side on camera.
No wonder actors end up loving or hating their castmates. You have to be well acquainted with their pheromones.
So there you have it. And I have my closure.
Again, Raindance and Elliot Grove really give an informative and practical insight on how to weasel your way [for cheap] into the movies. Recommended! Even for trivia sake!
