FILM RIOT -----
Ryan's main advice with this question was to not focus on it, this is very similar to what Farren Blackburn said when he spoke at the studios. I find when I am planning a shoot I am always trying to add my own flair to it and coming up with ideas takes up most of my time. Taking this advice I will make my projects trying not to think of how I will make it unique, I believe that will come in time and trying to find my style will take away from the feel of my project.
This video was quite relevant to me at the time since I was having trouble finding a location for my shoot, I either was getting refused straight away or not getting any response, I had spoken to a friend and knew I would be able to use his house but I did not want to do that as I knew the location wasn't what I wanted it to be.
Ryan's advice was to make compromises, which I had to do anyway to be able to get actors. Ryan also spoke about Video Vs Audio, his main point was that Bad visuals can be forgiven but bad audio ruins a film, because of this I knew I wanted to get the best sound I could, therefore I booked out a mixer rather than a Zoom.
Seth Worley
Whilst this video was hosted on Film Riot, it was actually a short film director called Seth Worley, his advice was a favorite quote from the writer of Toy Story 1 and 2 which was Fail as fast as possible, get the first draft done quickly and move on, get the bad rough cut done and move on, your first try at anything is not going to be great so dont get hung up on it, move on as fast as possible.
I found this extremely relevant to myself as I find it very easy to get disheartened when things are going wrong, which happened a lot during this project, with the struggle to find actors and locations I was disillusioned about my final product, I like the advice to just push through it even if it isn't great as it took some pressure off to make it perfect and just to make it full stop. Obviously I will try my hardest to make it good but I wont get caught up in that one shot I didn't do well or that cut I can't quite get yet.
Locations - Worley also talked about the process in getting the locations for his latest short Real Gone he spoke to the woman in charge of locations about what scenes he wanted and the type of feel of the location and the location person just drove around and saw places, then walked in and asked if they could film, this is a very personal approach and also allows to get an answer straight away, rather than waiting for an email or call back which may never be forthcoming. I will take this into effect for my next project but I agree that this would be better for the locations themselves as they can put a name to the face and maybe feel more at ease letting us film there.
After the shoot, apparently Worley's Location scout went to each location they filmed at and gave a small gift basket with a thank you note, this is a great idea as it fosters a good relationship between the location and the production, maybe allowing for more opportunities to film at a later date or giving people a good impression of the filming community in general.
Worley also mentioned that when they came to the location they asked the person in charge if there was anything they needed to do or not to do, any rules or regulations they should adhere to and kept a constant state of gratitude for the person to allow them to film at their location.
Steven Spielberg - The advice from Spielberg was primarily to watch older movies as these were the films that started the industry and everything we do today stems from them. You can learn from silent movies and how they added tension without sound, you can learn from when sound first came into films and they felt like plays until people learned more about composition and making people talk faster.
In the process of researching Directing I also read some scripts and imagined what I would do for them, just small thought experiments such as thinking about how I would do a scene from The Fantastic Beasts script or the Star Wars Script, I even planned a small sequence from one of my favourite books, without the hinderance of location or actors I simply thought of shots and the type of mood I wanted to convey.
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