How to Film Stuff Really Quickly

We shot our last feature film almost entirely in 45 minute to 1 hour stints while we had the kids between their other classes.

In the time we’ve spent filming quickly, I’ve made a lot of mistakes, and I’ve learned a few tricks.

I don’t always follow this advice, but I always wish I had.

1.     Have a back-up plan. And a back-up back-up plan.

Worst case scenario, shoot montages or interview people for behind the scenes.

When you yell “Plan E!” you know you’re doing it right.

2.  Practice forgiveness.

Someday, you are going to have this conversation.

You: You know your lines?

Actor: No, but I learn lines really fast.

When you have 30 minutes to get a scene, 'really fast' is destroy-everything slow.

People are going to mess up. People are going to show up unprepared (and sometimes? That is going to be crazy hard to forgive them for). But you need to become a forgiveness machine, because you cannot work your best and they cannot work their best while you are ticked off or snarking or in any way punishing your people.

Yes, communicate expectations. Communicate why their behavior hinders your goal. And then make sure they know they are more important than their mistakes. And let it go.

(Also, feeding actors line by line and shooting that line ad nauseum till you have what you want is a thing that works in emergencies.)

(And forgive yourself. Guilt is not going to help you make a movie. You’re worth more than your mistakes and you’re going to do a lot more good for this film than you’ve done bad. Go make stuff.)

3.     Know your material.

You do not want to be standing there saying, “So, directionnnnn. Uhhhh…”

If you’re connected to as many crazy aspects of each line and experience as you can get, you are way more likely to have the off-the-wall direction that snaps an actor out of his head fast.

Annnnd your shot list is probably going to be sideswiped. If you know the shots you need, you’re less likely to miss that key shot when it all goes south.

4.     Avoid wasted motion.

If you spend three minutes fumbling around for pens, and you miss getting that last shot by three minutes, whose fault is that?

5.     Take the time to listen.

Acting is hard and vulnerable work, and your actors are always worth your time. You can communicate deadlines to them, but make sure you’re taking care of their well-being and listening to their struggles and reservations.

Ultimately, your people are worth more than your deadline, and they will last a lot longer than any of your projects. Invest in them.

6.     Have fun.

Don’t always be waiting for the hammer to drop. Ask God for help, and then proceed as if you’ve got it.

Pretend that you have some kind of guarantee that you’re not wasting your time and working for nothing.

 

Whatever happens, enjoy what you’re doing. If you let the fun drain out of filmmaking, you’ve become a sad, sad creature and everything gets way, way harder.

7.     Afterwards, relax.

I’m not good at this. I go until I crash.

Don’t be me. This is bad and does not work.

Learn to slow down.

My brain just stopped working. Give me a moment to drink coffee.

Blech. Okay.

Do you have advice on this, or on filmmaking in general? I would love to hear it. Also, advice on learning to relax would be really useful, because I’m still horrible at it. :P

Have a great week! May all your pens be in easy reach.