2 Things That Hold Every Filmmaker Back

INTRODUCTION

No matter the scope of the movie, there will always be two constraints that every filmmaker will need to fight against: time and money.

These two restrictions are also inextricably linked together. So let’s use this video to unpack some examples of how these enemies of creativity raise their heads, and, more importantly, provide some solutions and problem solving techniques that will allow you to defeat them and help create the film that you truly want to make.

TIME

If you’ve ever tried to write a screenplay, direct a short film, or even come up with a concept for a YouTube video, you’ll know the feeling of reading a phrase written on a page and then interpreting how that’ll look in your head using your imagination.

The thing is, there's often a huge gap between the idea of what you imagine your film will look like and actually shooting it and practically bringing it into existence. To craft the images you imagine in your head you’ll need a great degree of control over your shooting environment.

After all, you’ll need to control things like how actors say the lines of dialogue, the locations you shoot in, and the way the shots are designed, framed and lit.

Controlling so many variables is a tricky thing. To get it all perfect you need enough time to adequately prepare and execute your shoot. As you can imagine this is where we run into problem number one: the reality that there is never enough time on a film set.

Take cinematography as an example. It’s a discipline that thrives on precision. Lighting setups, complex camera movements, and intricate blocking all take time. When you're rushed, compromises happen, and shots don’t always turn out as envisioned.

You may say, well, what if we’re able to extend the shoot schedule or time - surely that’ll give you ultimate control. Perhaps, but not necessarily.

A great example is shooting an exterior scene in that soft, beautiful cool light that you get naturally at dusk after the sun has set. No matter how many resources you have - you’ll always be limited to a shooting window of somewhere around 30 minutes.

Shoot any earlier and you’ll be filming with rays of direct sunset light, and film any later and all that beautiful ambient light would’ve disappeared into darkness. 

A lack of time will always create some kind of a compromise whether that is decreasing the amount of shots you get, filming less takes which gives actors and camera operators less time to perfect their performance, or compromising on continuity by shooting in less than ideal light.

MONEY

One of the biggest reasons that there is never enough time comes down to our second constraint: money. 

The size of your budget has a direct impact on the scope of your production, the gear you’ll use, the number of performers, locations and scale of the production design. It also impacts how many shoot days you can afford. 

Basically money buys you more time.

However, the catch is that the more money you have, the higher the scope of the production quality you’ll be expected to get out of the budget.  

Whether it’s a local business asking you to make a promotional video, a commercial client, an artist or a broadcaster funding a narrative production - they will want to set the budget to be the lowest it can realistically be while still being able to produce the product.

Whatever its size, film production is very rarely given a complete excess of resources. Filmmakers will always find a way to spend the budget: whether it means renting a more expensive location, hiring a larger camera kit, or funding additional crew members to speed up production. 

Time and money can’t be separated. A great example of this is crew. The more crew you can afford, the larger gear setups you’ll be able to pull off and theoretically the quicker you’ll be able to work. 

However, as your crew roster grows, so does your payroll, catering costs, and gear budget. This means that although you can now afford more people and work faster, the production won’t be able to fund as many shoot days.

Or visa versa, if you cut down on your crew you’ll have more shoot time, but your gear setups will be more limited and you’ll be slower to set things up and shoot fewer setups each day. 

Hence the dichotomy of time versus money. But it’s not all doom and gloom. What are some practical ways to help you achieve your vision on your budget?

SETUP TIME

One of the biggest things that munches up time is adding different shots or what we call setups. This means moving the camera to a different position, changing the type of camera movement, or swinging to a different lens.

If you’ve scheduled one and a half hours to film a scene, the difference between deciding to shoot four setups as opposed to eight setups is huge. 

Assuming 30 minutes at the beginning for technical setup time, like tweaking lighs, production design dressing and blocking, you’ll be left with an hour of actual shooting time.

Choosing to shoot four setups will give you 15 minutes per shot - which, including the time it takes to reposition the camera, do hair and makeup checks, will give you somewhere around four or five takes per shot. 

If instead you chose to cover the scene from eight different angles, your shooting time will be cut down to merely seven and a half minutes per setup. When all the technical adjustments are accounted for you’ll realistically only be able to shoot one or two takes for each shot.

Filmmakers therefore need to make a decision: would they rather maximise the amount of angles they shoot (which is called ‘getting coverage’) and minimise the number of takes that actors and operators have to perfect each take, or is it better to decrease the amount of shots down to the barebones of what is needed (‘shooting for the edit’) and have more time to perfect each of these shots.

Different filmmakers have different opinions on this. Some prefer to have more shots and therefore a greater variety of options to craft the scene in the edit, while others commit to having fewer angles in the edit knowing how the scene will be cut - with more, and perhaps stronger, takes to work with.

CAMERA MOVEMENT

Another great area for time saving is minimising technical setups - especially when it comes to camera movement. Each time you want to try a different type of camera movement - for example moving from a dolly shot to a gimbal shot - the camera and grip team will need perhaps 15 minutes or so, to reconfigure the camera for it. 

As we’ve mentioned this 15 minutes may mean losing a shot.

It may not always be possible, but trying to shoot as much as you can without constantly re-building the camera or laying new dolly tracks can help gain many extra shots throughout the shooting day. 

This could be done by using a gimbal for movement shots, then propping it up on apple boxes and locking the motors to shoot what looks like a tripod shot - saving rebuilding the camera for a tripod setup.

Or by rolling the dolly directly on the floor, and accepting the minor bumps, rather than laying a new track for every dolly setup.

If you have enough budget another solution for this is to rent an additional camera, which can be permanently built in a different configuration, such as having one permanently built gimbal and one permanently built studio camera.  

PRE-LIGHTING

Lighting is another area that can suck a lot of time if DPs are not prepared. That’s why whenever possible, if you’re working with a multi-person lighting team, I’d advise sending someone from the team ahead to pre-light the next shooting location as much as possible while the current location is being shot. 

That way when cinematographers arrive in each new location all the lamps will already be in place, and you’ll only have to adjust and dim the light levels once you have a camera to expose with. 

PREP

This can only be done however if you, as a DP, put in adequate prep work during pre-production. If you are able to recce all the locations and create a lighting floor plan for each space during prep, then you can send this lighting plan to your electrical team so that they know how you’d like your lamps to be placed ahead of arriving in the location. 

Same applies to production design, grips, camera, costume and all other departments.

SHOT LIST

Another aspect of prep which can help speed things along, especially for less experienced filmmakers, is making a storyboard or shot list ahead of shooting. Even if you have to drop or redesign shots on the day, having some kind of a plan will allow you to better be able to adapt and evaluate what the most important shots are.

POST-PRODUCTION

We all know the cliche phrase ‘just fix it in post’ and how doing this is often not a good thing. 

Most cinematographers want to get as close as possible to the final image on set, however, sometimes sacrificing a small technical tweak which can be corrected with software in post production may allow you to save time and get an extra shot.

For example, perhaps there’s a small camera wobble on the dolly or gimbal. Knowing the tolerances for how much post stabilisation you can achieve will help you say to the director, ‘We can stabilise it in post if you were happy with the rest of the take’ and potentially avoid shooting another five takes or making a 20 minute technical adjustment to get perfection.

Or, if you’re lighting and want to decrease the brightness of a window by one stop but know that doing that will take your team 15 minutes to build and position a 12x12 net over the window.

Instead saying ‘let’s shoot without it and we can recover the highlights by 1 stop with a power window in post’, is a fast and easily achievable solution.

When providing these kinds of ‘fix it in post’ solutions it is very important that you are properly informed and are providing the director with correct knowledge. You don’t want them to get into post and then be unable to do the things that you promised you could fix on set.  

CONCLUSION

Ultimately, filmmaking is a medium of decision making and compromises. To technically execute your artistic vision you’ll need to be well prepared and have a good technical knowledge, so that when you’re faced with a difficult decision on set you can make the choice which most favours your film.

Because it’s not the idea in your head which audiences will view, but rather what you are able to practically photograph on set.