Self Assignment 1 (Learning by Doing continued...)

While in preproduction for the short film that I had mentioned in my previous post "Learning by Doing", I had decided to practice with something shorter and easier before diving directly in to a real production.

Wow! What an eye opening experience that was.

The self-assignment:

Find two actors, set up the camera, boom mic and some lighting, hand out a script and make it cinematic. Easy, right?

Well, that depends on how you look at it. For me, the goal was to make this small "test" movie as cinematic as possible. So that meant structuring every shot, framing and reframing, setting up rack focusing, blocking, booming, monitoring and checking the script over and over.

Yes, the script. One thing I learned is that if you don't stick closely to your script, you run the chance of botching the whole damn thing. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure in every case there will be some changes once you are on set but sticking to your plan is really important.

Overall, it was a great experience. Everyone involved worked very well together and was totally willing to shoot pick-ups on a second day due to some minor inconsistencies and oversights on my part.

When all was said and done and the rough cut was watchable, I was definitely pleased with the final result for my first time out with a real cast and crew.

The short film will be online soon. Here is a screenshot from the footage (notice the use of shallow depth of field)...


(shot on the DVX100b w/M2 and 50mm Pentax prime)

The next self-assignment is in preproduction now and I should post something about it soon. Stay tuned.