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TSP Ep 143: Ten Tips on Filmmaking When you Don't Know What the Fuck to do or Tom Goes it Alone
10 Plays10 days ago
In this episode Tom shares his infinite wisdom in ten tips for filmmakers who don't know what the fuck to do.
So come along with us as we learn a thing or too!
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Episode 143
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello everyone and welcome to this episode of Twin Shadows Podcast episode 143. one forty three Twin Shadows Podcast as always is the podcast about film filmmaking and filmmakers and unfortunately today Stephen will not be joining me.
00:00:16
Speaker
As we know, September is the time of Christmas lovers. So everyone has a birthday and we're all very busy. So this week, we have decided that we will be breaking the podcast up into two separate kind of singular episodes.
Recap of Stephen's Episode
00:00:34
Speaker
Stephen's just released last Friday. If you haven't heard that, go and give that a listen. He talks about... ah subtitles, some political things, if you're interested in that, and a lot of Shin Gojira, which, if you don't know, was just recently re-released in theaters with a 4K remaster.
00:00:58
Speaker
And apparently, as Stephen pointed out, Crappy subtitles. Bad translation. So go ahead and give that ah a listen. It's a pretty quick episode.
Robert Redford's Twilight Zone: An Analysis
00:01:10
Speaker
I'm going to be talking about some tips. I wrote down 10 things you should do as a filmmaker when you a broke-ass hoe. And then I'm going to do ah some quick review of a couple Robert Redford things. I've been watching.
00:01:22
Speaker
um Robert Redford just recently passed away. and i hadn't seen a whole lot of his films or just things that he'd been in He was a director. I mean, the guy started at Sundance.
00:01:34
Speaker
Or if he didn't start it, he was definitely the face, the head of Sundance for a while. I mean, it's called Sundance because... He is Sundance. And yeah, let's get this off on the road. So first, Robert Redford. I want to talk about his Twilight Zone episode, Nothing in the Dark.
00:01:54
Speaker
This is season three, episode 16, and it stars Gladys Cooper, R.J. Armstrong and Robert Redford. This is a fantastic Twilight Zone episode. It's a very contained episode. it's pretty much one location.
00:02:10
Speaker
ah You see the the outside of the room a little bit. It's like a ramshackle, broken down tenant. And it's the home of Gladys Cooper, who is an elderly woman at the time of this episode, who is essentially escaping death. She has outwitted, outsmarted,
00:02:31
Speaker
sacrificed her normal life to escape death because she's so afraid of what it could be. And then one night she hears a pounding on the door. Bing, bing, bing, bing, bing. Help me. I've been shot. Help me, help me, help me.
00:02:46
Speaker
And of course, the person that has been shot is police officer Harold Robert Redford. And spoilers for the episode, mr Death. um What a fantastic episode. There was something about these Twilight Zone episodes that are just so contained.
00:03:03
Speaker
Three actors in the entire episode. One location. It's just philosophy and... The ah great and great acting.
00:03:17
Speaker
The lighting is fantastic in this episode. Rod Sterling, of course, introduces the episode and the outro. highly recommend it for anyone out there that's a fan of Twilight Zone. If you've not seen the episode, go ahead and check it out.
00:03:32
Speaker
It is, and believe Twilight Zone is streaming on Hulu, but because Hulu is streaming Owned by now it is streaming on Amazon Prime, which currently is safe from the throes of people out there. ah Sorry, I'm drinking some Knob Creek whiskey.
00:03:55
Speaker
So if you're enjoying a sip, I'm having that. This is the barrel proof. I think it's, want say it's 140 or 130. I've been enjoying the higher proof whiskeys these days.
00:04:07
Speaker
It just, it seems counterintuitive to say that they're smoother, but they are. And then I kind of like that. um But yeah, this episode of Twilight Zone amazing.
00:04:18
Speaker
It's great. It's definitely not among the top contenders for best episodes. I mean, Twilight Zone has some of the most classic episodes that you could possibly imagine. But this is one of Robert Redford's first roles. And as Stephen pointed out, it's just an all around fantastic episode.
00:04:36
Speaker
He was 26 at the time of filming. I say, check it out. All right. The next film I want to talk about is Three Days of the
In-depth Review: 'Three Days of the Condor'
00:04:47
Speaker
Condor. This is a film directed by Sidney Pollack.
00:04:50
Speaker
Stars Faye Dunaway, Robert Redford, and Max von Sydow. Sydow? i I'm always never really sure how you say his name, which is a bit of an interesting step because Max von Sydow, Sydow, Sydow, Poo-Poo, plays Death himself.
00:05:09
Speaker
In the classic um masterpiece film, The Seventh Seal, directed by Ingmar Bergman, who I always get confused with Ingrid Bergman, even though they are completely different people.
00:05:24
Speaker
But em Ingmar Birdman directed The Seventh Seal, starring Max von Sydow as... Oh, he is not Death. Sorry. My apologies. He is the the soldier, the antagonist playing chess against Death.
00:05:38
Speaker
Bengt Ekorot plays Death in The Seventh Seal. But we're not talking about that. We're talking about the Robert Redford film Three Days of the Condor.
00:05:50
Speaker
Robert Redford is a CIA agent who... On his way out to lunch, comes back to find everyone in his special branch murdered.
00:06:01
Speaker
Now, he is not James Bond in this film. He is not my John Wick. He's... ah Simon Pegg from Mission Impossible, right? He's the bookish guy that he just reads and reads and reads. He reads newspapers and articles and books and everything that he can get his hands on to try and make patterns to understand um the enemy, to understand...
00:06:32
Speaker
I don't know what he don't even know if it's to understand anything, but he's just a a ah book smart, very intelligent CIA operative. And of course, he calls it in He tries to remember all the special passcodes and phrases.
00:06:45
Speaker
And it's really fun film. He ends up running into Faye Dunaway, who is a complete random stranger to him who he kidnaps to kind of get a few moments of peace because he's being hunted down by the CIA insiders.
00:06:58
Speaker
in this film. It is, ah of course, an inside job type of thing. So spoilers going forward for ah three days of the Condor if you've never seen it. His codename is Condor, hence the title in the film takes place over a three-day period um following this the the hit on his special agent, is ah his group there.
00:07:21
Speaker
Sorry, the whiskey and little light in the head as ah I had to follow in the steps of my my brother, Stephen. But it makes every drink go down a little bit better. You know what I'm saying? ah The only thing I wanted to bring up about this film is, damn, Robert Redford is ah as handsome as fuck in this film. I mean, wearing these big coats and running around New York City and just like, man, he is just he's ah he's at a new level of hot in this film.
00:07:51
Speaker
ah Faye Dunaway, as always, is amazing. i had never seen her be that bad. She kind of snuck up on me in recent years, really as a contender for just one of the greats.
00:08:05
Speaker
ah I mean, just rattling off a couple of her films, Chinatown Network, this Bonnie and Clyde. I mean, Faye Dunaway. She, i mean, power, absolute powerhouse. I think a lot of people don't necessarily point to her when they think greatest actresses of all time, but I don't know.
00:08:27
Speaker
Maybe, uh, of course you have your, um, Helen Mirren's and, ah damn, Selma Hayek's.
00:08:39
Speaker
ah But yeah, Faye Dunaway is great in the film. Their romance, which is quite heavily featured on the poster, which is them laying in bed, really is a strange aspect of the film.
00:08:55
Speaker
um She's a photographer and he kind of sees... Into her soul a little bit, I guess you could say. And they have this really fast, quick romance where he's kidnapped her. And she... I don't know if she falls in love with him or she's just kind of like in ah in on the thrill.
00:09:17
Speaker
i It's a very interesting... i Maybe I just completely missed something there. It was... It's very hot and heavy, kind of a weird romance.
00:09:29
Speaker
um But I kind of like that aspect. as And as well, the film and editing and cinematography are just fantastic. Sidney Pollack is, again, this whole film is just kind of like underdogs that people just don't talk about anymore.
00:09:43
Speaker
Sidney Pollack, absolute powerhouse of a director. I mean... Holy crap. I did see Eyes Wide Oh, no, he wasn't. He wasn't the director of Eyes Wide Shut, but he's in Eyes Wide Shut. I mean, he's in and Jeremiah Johnson, another Robert Wehrm film, which is pretty good and a really good time.
00:10:02
Speaker
um I mean, I'm talking, this guy has some good films under his belt. Tootsie, like I mentioned, the Yakuza. What else did he do? Out of Africa, The Firm.
00:10:16
Speaker
um And I think what his last film was Amazing Grace.
00:10:23
Speaker
Which, no, that's not him. Yeah, it is. No way, he died too early for that. He died in 2008. I don't know. What do I know? I just know Sidney Pollack's a good man. He's a good dude.
00:10:36
Speaker
I love him in Ice Wide Shut. Absolute fucking badass in Ice Wide Shut. That's the rich, seedy guy. Almost an Epstein kind of guy. Really kind of gross.
00:10:49
Speaker
Three Doors of the Condor. Ending. ah kind of... ah It drags a little bit at the end. and so It's a film... That's where it's a little more showing its...
00:11:00
Speaker
Its weakness is ah the film feels like it has a couple endings, which I'm never really a fan of that. I like it when a film just you know builds up to ah nice, good conclusion, not like 45 conclusions or whatever the hell it was. There's things this film feels like it has like three different kind of endings.
00:11:23
Speaker
There's like a very natural spot where it feels like it could have just ended, but then it just keeps going for like another 15 minutes. And you're like, well, It definitely gives it that classic seventy s um not
Filmmaking Tips from DJ Toasty Toast
00:11:37
Speaker
happy ending. That's for sure, which I'm completely fine with, of course.
00:11:41
Speaker
I don't think you need to have happy endings. And yeah, so there you go. hu Those are my two quick reviews. This podcast will probably be pretty fast. I genuinely need someone to bounce off of or I just ramble and talk very quickly.
00:11:57
Speaker
So I apologize for that. That's why I desperately need Steven here. I'm going to try and go through these 10 steps, tips that ah will help you when you're a filmmaker with a...
00:12:09
Speaker
Little to no idea, maybe a little lost in the woods, or just some things that I have collected into my head over these years of podcasting, interviewing, reading, and of course, doing it ourselves.
00:12:23
Speaker
So... Buckle up, buckaroos. This is DJ Toasty Toast coming in with the mosty most on tips for making film.
00:12:34
Speaker
All right, and ghouls and ghosts. Let's get this off to the races. Number one, read, write, and watch.
00:12:48
Speaker
This is, a let me actually take that back a little bit. My thought process here was to give my personal ah opinions. Now, this, of course, might be horrible advice for you or yourself.
00:13:06
Speaker
You might ah disagree, and that's perfectly all right. um I am not the last voice of reason in any sense of the imagination on filmmaking. Hell, I mean, I can we've barely been able to get the one feature film out in 10 years. So take it as you will.
00:13:26
Speaker
Pretty much that's my CYA. And if you don't know that, that means cover your ass. CYA at all times, every ladies and gentlemen. That's how loose shit gets out.
00:13:39
Speaker
All right, back to the list. Number one. Oh, ah let me preface that again. no No particular order on this, by the way. Okay, number one.
00:13:52
Speaker
Read, write, and watch. I feel like this is a no-brainer. If you've ever watched our show, if you're familiar with the podcast at all, or any have any sense in your head, you know that as a filmmaker and possibly, youre i'm guessing that this is going to be aimed towards the directors out there, future directors and or current directors, you need to be reading books and You need to be writing screenplays, stories, articles, reviews, anything. And you need to be watching film.
00:14:26
Speaker
Now, I would preface that you should be watching as old films as possible and as and foreign films, as many foreign films as well. I think it should be a very high priority to watch and kind of ah get a good idea of films that you're not as familiar with.
00:14:47
Speaker
ah It's very good to watch new films as well, of course, because you can see what the current trends are. what filmmakers are kind of doing today. But I think you need to also make sure that you are going back and really understanding where everyone kind of originates their influence from.
00:15:06
Speaker
yukewat ah You John Wick and the matrix and all these films a thousand times. And when you go and watch city on fire or those classic Hong Kong, um, action films with essentially your, like if it has Chow Yun fat and it's directed by, Oh God, I can't think of his name.
00:15:32
Speaker
All of a sudden it just slipped out of my head. Um, who directed, uh, Oh, man. and was on such a good roll there, too. um John Woo. There we go. I didn't have to look it up, everybody. I promise. My fingers. You would have heard me typing, I'm sure.
00:15:49
Speaker
It would have picked up on the mic a little bit there if you had heard me typing. So no cheating on my end. um John Woo. You know, those guys... Not they necessarily the even the originators. they can go You can you know trace them back to noir films and the Yakuza gangster Japanese films of the 50s.
00:16:07
Speaker
And even as influential as Melville's Le Samurai um from the 60s. And all of those kind of build culmination of...
00:16:18
Speaker
reference and influence that somehow get to where you would be like your John Wick. This is for like the basic bitches out there that whose favorite film is like Interstellar.
00:16:28
Speaker
It's you got a lot of work to do. um Not that there's anything wrong with Interstellar. If that's your favorite film, cool. I would never want to deprive you of your enjoyment. I'm just saying that the there is a world out there to explore.
00:16:43
Speaker
And for reading, books I would recommend, ah the Friedkin connection, connection, um making movies, the, uh, Sidney Lumet book about filmmaking.
00:16:55
Speaker
It's been brought up on our show many times. It's an absolute one. It is so good. If you want to have any interest in making films, uh, Sidney Lumet is just a magnificent filmmaker and his book is a very great kind of introduction to what it's like to be behind that camera on some of the some of the greatest films ever. I mean, he talks about Network and he talks about 12 Angry Men. i mean, it's that's a fantastic film.
00:17:31
Speaker
And there are things that he brings up that makes you really think critically as well about how you should approach your films and what it takes to have a deliberate idea. And the last little bit on this note will be writing.
00:17:46
Speaker
Writing is good even if you have no intention of being ah screenplay writer. If you have no intention of writing books or reviews or anything, it just helps you understand the story, the process.
00:18:02
Speaker
The more you can understand about the process in its entirety... the better you can kind of jump on it from the perspective that I'm coming from, which is you don't have help.
00:18:17
Speaker
You do not have anyone but who you can beg to be on your crew with you. And that's probably what you're going to have to do. You're going have to do a lot of groveling, a lot of um and Honestly, just a lot of confidence in what you're doing.
00:18:33
Speaker
And part of that confidence comes from really knowing your story. i think to add your personal take on a story is very important because that is what you can do to make it unique.
Ethical Filmmaking: Herzog's Influence
00:18:48
Speaker
Okay. And that was the first part. Number two, lie, cheat, and steal. As broke ass hoes, you know that life ain't cheap.
00:19:01
Speaker
Filmmaking is not cheap. Every little thing has a dollar sign associated to it. So every little aspect that you can get away with not having to pay, you should.
00:19:13
Speaker
Werner Herzog is kind of who I am ripping this off from. um Pretty much, she said a filmmaker needs a camera and some bolt cutters um because... You're not going to be able to pay for permits, locations, insurances that you would like to have. Of course, we would all want to have all these things. We want to be as legit as possible. But that is just not the reality for a lot of us.
00:19:40
Speaker
So we have to bend the rules a little bit. And i want to get into these. And what I mean by lying is you should never outright be dishonest with your own cast and crew. I'm more of talking about lying to the police, lying to, i don't know, some location people, but and not like your location people, but Let's say you're going to shoot in a public bathroom.
00:20:08
Speaker
You have a shot for a public bathroom, but you don't have insurance. Well, maybe you lie and you say you do and you just don't show them it or something like that. you just got You're going to do whatever you have to do to get in. And you should not, under any circumstance, disrespect that.
00:20:23
Speaker
um You do not... If you say, let's say you're going to, you bring some bolt cutters and break into the public bathroom. Now you've already broken a chain. Now that sucks. Maybe a lock, $20 lock or something. Yeah, that's not ideal, but this is art.
00:20:39
Speaker
And I think we can, you know, be okay with that. But then if you go in there and you leave a bunch of trash and graffiti and you're just being an asshole, that's not cool.
00:20:50
Speaker
I mean... You're already kind of pushing the line there, but I think you understand, hopefully, what I'm saying when I say you just got to do what you got to do and get it done.
00:21:03
Speaker
Stealing, kind of, it just sounds better to say light, cheat, and steal. I'm not necessarily ah advocating theft. But if you, let's say, need to, i don't know, get a lens from Amazon and then return it before the return policy, I don't think that's necessarily that wrong.
00:21:26
Speaker
Um, we did, uh, this a little bit on dickhead and I think it's a very valuable thing uh, us independent nobodies, um,
00:21:37
Speaker
The big leagues have access to everything. I mean, when you go and look at the, but ah let's just say, was it? I want to say Cannes or, yeah, I think it was Cannes this year. When you look at the, they always post, you can always find on Reddit, on the cinematography Reddit, subreddit, which cameras were used. And it's like 90% of films that make it anywhere are shot on Ari's.
00:22:04
Speaker
And a lot of us, even just renting it, is sometimes a little bit out of our own price range. But if you could, if you had essentially the capital to, don't think you can buy an Ari off Amazon and then return it. I don't know if they have, they might have some kind of special return policy for items that expensive.
00:22:22
Speaker
That's another thing too. You should really understand the return policies on things before you attempt to do this. Always be willing to lose. That's what I'm saying. If you're not, you are so screwed because boy, don't bet the horse kids.
00:22:43
Speaker
Don't do what we did. Actually, no, fuck it. Do it. Just go ahead and do it. All right. I hope that gets that across. So that was lesson two. Number three, keep your crew small.
00:23:00
Speaker
This is more of a necessity than anything. I don't think most of us have the luxury of working with large crews. um And even if you do, i think it's probably still best to keep it as small as possible.
00:23:17
Speaker
When you're essentially at our level, you have to make everything count. Everything has to count for more. ah So even if you could have like five PAs on site helping you with things, just essentially being runners and assisting gaffers and grips and whatever, you have to also think that you have to...
00:23:41
Speaker
get them to site so location uh transportation food as steven likes to mention an army marches on its belly well they also that belly has to be filled with green and that green isn't salad it's dollar bills.
00:23:59
Speaker
Food is expensive. it adds up very quickly and it will sneak up on you. And absolutely, you should provide food sustenance for your crew. It is very important. Long days.
00:24:12
Speaker
Everyone needs to eat. It's very important to keep your crew energized and happy. And a way to do that is to also keep your
Resourceful Filmmaking Strategies
00:24:19
Speaker
crew small. Trust me, you will want to do this. I would say ideally you want like a crew of seven.
00:24:27
Speaker
I think seven is probably the perfect number in this kind of idea. You're going to have your director, you're that's one, your cinematographer, who will probably i be your camera operator.
00:24:40
Speaker
It's nice to have a separate camera operator because then what you can have the camera operator just focused on the camera and the DP can kind of help with the light setups and things like that. They'll probably already be doing that. so Having that hand to lighting a scene or a set probably is what takes the longest in your setup.
00:25:04
Speaker
It's going to be, especially if you give a shit. um If you don't give a shit and you don't give a crap about lighting, I mean, you don't really need my tips. You're already too far gone for me.
00:25:16
Speaker
But let's say now you don't necessarily need a grip or a gaffer. Most people can figure out how to operate a C-stand, if you even have a C-stand. I mean, the reason why you want a grip or gaffer is, of course, experience and safety.
00:25:33
Speaker
Those are the number one things that they bring someone that has experience. They also know how to be safe, or I would hope. Safety is paramount. You hurt, injure an actor or crew member, your production, if it's not just ah automatically shut down, could be in a whole lot of trouble or...
00:25:54
Speaker
You're wasting time, essentially. And also, you just never want to hurt people. Safety is paramount. I guess that should be a tip, but fuck it. Who cares? We risk things ourselves, and that's okay.
00:26:07
Speaker
So, who else do you want on set? You want a sound mixer, or sound recordist, or whatever the fuck that person's going to be. The person that's going to necessaryly that can help set up the lavs, and the boom, operate the boom, and essentially here everything is being recorded okay I think that is a little bit overlooked is that you're actually making sure that what you're recording sounds good and is actually working and that's pretty important
00:26:39
Speaker
um Let's go with who else do you need? i would say hair and makeup is who I was thinking of. um This doesn't necessarily have to be two people. It can be one person doing both.
00:26:51
Speaker
But you do not really want your actors to have to worry about this themselves. They have a lot going on. um You can, of course, do that. But... It's so much better. and Your continuity will be say a lot safer if you have a dedicated person um maintaining hair and makeup.
00:27:10
Speaker
So that's very, that's a good one. Maybe you could argue back and forth that it's not a huge necessity. You absolutely can do it without, but I'm just telling you, you'll you'll save yourself a lot of heartache.
00:27:29
Speaker
And yeah, where are we at? Like four? um And then, of course, you know, I guess really you don't really need too much more. Maybe just like ah you definitely want someone around to help. If you're doing everything like What I mean by everything is ah building the camera, packing up gear, calling people, you're going to burn out so quick and your your performance or your ability to perform on set will probably be hindered.
00:28:01
Speaker
And I know it would be in my case. um I can't speak for anybody, but I'll speak for for you on that point. Let's see. I think I kind of went over that.
00:28:15
Speaker
um The next one is a pretty important one that I think ah gets misconstrued sometimes. And that is use what you have. So if you live near a waterfall,
00:28:28
Speaker
You should probably figure out a scene that involves that waterfall. If you live near a giant wall of graffiti, make that a set piece. Use the set pieces around you. I don't mean ah because you have a house. You don't have to decorate that house.
00:28:47
Speaker
um That's why you kind of want to go for those more cinematic stylized kind of set pieces. Like I said, like the wall of graffiti, the waterfall, um an abandoned church, things like that, even though it might not necessarily be what you had in mind. That's the kind of production value that you can get for free.
00:29:07
Speaker
And free is the best f word that you can hear when you're trying to make a film.
00:29:15
Speaker
And i think a lot of people think, oh, well, I have, you know, like ah we have a... a Shelby GT Cobra, blah, blah, blah, blah. But I want to make a Western. It's like, well, don't make a Western. Make and like some kind of neo-noir Western that uses that Shelby GT Cobra. I mean, that's a bitchin' ride. get You figure out how to use it, right?
00:29:42
Speaker
Figure out how to use those things that you have. Don't write for what you wish you have. Write for what you have. Utilize it. It will help you so much.
00:29:54
Speaker
All right, so use what you have. All right, this one this one's more for a lot of the like cinematographers, that kind of people out there in this world, and that is gear is meaningless except for audio.
The Importance of Sound Quality
00:30:13
Speaker
And of course, that's a little bit of hyperbole. Gear is not meaningless. But I wanted to essentially just bring up the fact that you do not need you don't need an Ari with Master Prime lenses or anything of that nature. That's so overkill.
00:30:32
Speaker
it is great if you could get it, but you don't need it. You don't need some fancy gimbal. You don't need 2000 or geez, $10,000 tripod.
00:30:47
Speaker
Think about gear as what you have is what you're going to use. What you need is to make sure you have good sound and good light.
00:30:57
Speaker
It's not sexy. Everyone likes to see the big sexy camera with the sexy lens and the fancy gear and the big old gimbal. And ah if not the gimbal, the the nice, what are those big, so those sliders. Everyone likes sliders. I fucking hate sliders.
00:31:15
Speaker
Well, I like the TV show Sliders. I think that's a great show, but I don't like sliders. it's just you know there's definitely a time when it's good you can make any kind of thing work too that's ah again maybe that's one thing i should have has had as a tip that's my tip 5.5.1 5.5 right it's like whatever you can make work do it right anything can work um I think I just don't want you to be held back because you think you don't have and all the right stuff.
00:31:49
Speaker
um Great film, by the way. All the right stuff. Stephen was talking about that made me want to made me go watch it. He didn't make me go watch it, but him talking about it made me want to go watch it. Him at both Stevens.
00:32:00
Speaker
If you go and listen to the Stephen Arapes podcast or interview that we did like probably two episodes ago, um they they talk about do the right thing. Great. Cool movie.
00:32:12
Speaker
Spike Lee, badass. So yeah, gear, not as cracked up as it needs to be. um
00:32:21
Speaker
Right, if you have ah an iPhone, you have a camera. Don't get stuck on trying to save it for a Sony FX3 or whatever the fuck they used to shoot creator.
00:32:35
Speaker
They made everyone all hard for a while. and um Yeah, that's a pretty quick one. Number six, always love and boom. Now this kind of is a follow up to the previous one.
00:32:48
Speaker
Something that we have found as a huge um kind of, i don't want to say fuck up. Yeah, I can all vouch for it. It's a big fuck up.
00:33:00
Speaker
You should be loving if you don't have love set up. Now, I don't think they're even that expensive anymore. You can get ah relatively affordable love set up. Let's just see what the Sennheiser love thing is.
00:33:14
Speaker
Love a leer. All right, you have a nice portable Sennheiser lavalier mic combination set up for $475. Sennheiser portable wireless comes with two microphones for $475 off Cinegear.
00:33:38
Speaker
um i don't really know what that is. looks like B&H sells it for $599, but $600 to possibly not have to do ah ADR or we even worry about ADR. I mean, ai is kind of going to be replacing that soon, most likely, as it advances, but...
00:34:01
Speaker
Just do it. You're going to want to get your audio. I mean, even if it, you ah the thing that a is going to save you is not necessarily the ADR, which could not match the performance or the pitch or tone until it's, you know, magnificent AI Jesus kind of shit. But what it can do is remove those ruffles from being inside the shirt or taped to someone's chest or whatever the fuck it can do that.
00:34:27
Speaker
And that can, it can do that now. Um, And then, of course, boom. um I think you should always be trying to do both every now and then. You're doing a nice long white shot where booming might not make a whole lot of sense, but you can always try to plant microphones.
00:34:44
Speaker
I'm just trying to say this. ah Please trust me. Get good audio and do it however you can. I am not the audio guy. This is where i would want Stephen to come in and talk about it a little bit more.
00:34:57
Speaker
Just do it. All right, number six or seven. i may have wrote more than 10.
00:35:08
Speaker
I don't know. One, two, three, four, five, six. Okay, number seven. Yes. Sorry.
Organizing Your Film Production
00:35:16
Speaker
Holy moly, the knob. Sucking on that knob harder than that.
00:35:21
Speaker
Never mind. almost said something very inappropriate. and organization is king holy shit is this not true i mean it is true what am i saying yeah i think i was trying to say something like a double negative but i don't know if i pulled that off ah organization is absolutely 100 going save your life going to save your life You need pre-production to be flawless.
00:35:54
Speaker
And if you want your life in post to help, you want your file organization to be flawless, You want your scheduling to be good and concise. All of these things fall under organization.
00:36:11
Speaker
If you haven't scheduled things properly, you're going to be in a world of hurt. Organization is king. This is where like business classes or something like that might come in handy. But I think a lot of us just know...
00:36:27
Speaker
ah how to be good organizers in a sense. It's just, it's a lot of work, which ah is tough when you're very busy and you're on set and you're trying to do other things and you're just living life and going crazy. And I mean, you're and hyped up, you're on a film set.
00:36:45
Speaker
Oh my God, yes. But boy, you better and be making sure your slates are right. And you better be making sure that your... calling out the right audio and the right sets and you're calling the right people and making things correct. That is huge.
00:37:01
Speaker
Alright, and speaking of huge, number eight. Always get more takes than you need. um This isn't necessarily always possible.
00:37:13
Speaker
ah You might be having a one and done ah where let's say you have a prop that's going to be destroyed. um You might only have two of those props, so you might only have two possibilities.
00:37:26
Speaker
But you, you use all of them. Now, time, of course, is of the essence. But I would say once you're in the actual ah shooting phase, when you're not worrying about the setup, it takes forever.
00:37:41
Speaker
If you're ever in a situation where the actual filming is taking longer than the setup, I have a very good idea you're doing something wrong. So when you finally get there and you're actually shooting actors on film or whatever you're doing, take as many takes as you can.
00:37:58
Speaker
um I don't think you need to go, of course, to David Fincher, Stanley Kubrick, absurd levels of 70, 140, blah, blah, blah. But having 10, 11 takes of a shot, I don't think is out of the question. And trust me, you'll want the coverage. It will mean a lot.
00:38:18
Speaker
So yeah, there's that. And this is a very contentious one, which is why I saved it second to last. My last one is more of a foo-foo, frou-frou. Like, ah of course, of course it's the last one. yeah mean, you have to have this one be the last one. wouldn't make sense any other way.
00:38:37
Speaker
um But this is the one that I i wanted to do second to last because I think ah maybe Steven has changed his mind on this a little bit. um But this is something we've talked about.
00:38:49
Speaker
And I'm very strong of the opinion at our level, at this level, you need to edit the film yourself. If you are the director, you need to edit the film. Um, it's not to say you can't have someone help you edit, but you need to be very, very involved in editing.
00:39:08
Speaker
ah You need to be watching every single clip. You need to understand every take, every shot, every angle so that you can kind of understand the story. I think going forward, this will also just help you as a filmmaker immensely.
00:39:22
Speaker
I think editing is probably... the I'm sure there are people that find it simple And I'm sure there are people that find it so hard they don't think they could possibly do it or they are just completely overwhelmed by the idea. There's so many buttons, so many things, but really you just need to learn how to cut.
00:39:45
Speaker
Just cut, right? Go back to the basics. You don't need to learn fades. you don't need to learn that kind of thing. J cut, L cut, cut. and If you can understand those, I think you at least are, you're you're very far ahead.
00:40:01
Speaker
I am not a huge fan of using fancy editing tools um in the sense that like I do not like to have tons of weird editing effects, I guess to say like, uh,
00:40:16
Speaker
overlays and weird shit like that. Like I, I, that's not me. I, I'm just a straight shooter when it comes to editing. Cut the clip. Okay. Maybe you want to use, uh, an L here or a J here. And I think that's another thing.
00:40:33
Speaker
a lot of like newer filmmakers don't really utilize that much. It's something maybe Steven and I over utilize, but God, it just feels so good getting a good L or J cut. Um, Dickhead has so many, probably,
00:40:46
Speaker
40% of the cuts are L l and J's. um And what those are is essentially an L cut is the audio fades in from the previous shot into
00:41:01
Speaker
the next shot and then the J is the reverse of that where the audio from the new clip fades in first. And it kind of just kind of creates this like really nice cohesive um transition between your edit kind of helps blend um abrupt cuts as well.
00:41:22
Speaker
which can be really, really off-putting. They always stand out like sore thumbs. Even with J&L cuts, like a abrupt cuts can be really bad, or almost always really bad. Good way to take ah your audience member out of the film.
00:41:35
Speaker
But I know Steven just... he I remember he used to always say he hates to do the editing, that kind of thing, but I think it's an invaluable asset. It's going to change the way you shoot. It's going to change the way you plan pre-production because you'll understand...
00:41:53
Speaker
A lot more about pacing. like if yeah It's like the best way to like really feel a scene is in the edit. When you're on the set, it's so different. Everything is so different when you're on on the day.
00:42:07
Speaker
And then when you get in the editing room, things that are funny aren't funny. Things that were serious are hilarious and things that... where scary are completely not terrifying.
00:42:20
Speaker
um So I think to really kind of understand that and get a good grasp and handle on that, edit the film yourself. And then to round this up and to kind of package up this episode into a nice little bow, of course, number 10, just do it.
Taking Initiative in Filmmaking
00:42:41
Speaker
I think I've said this a thousand times on the podcast, maybe a thousand and one now. ah Just do it. um If you're I think a lot of people are waiting, wait for permission to some degree. They're waiting for someone to tell them to make a movie. And that is never, ever going to happen.
00:43:04
Speaker
Unless your dad is Steven Spielberg, no one is going to be asking you to make a film. This is probably the hardest profession as a be a director or something to break into.
00:43:19
Speaker
i I'm sure the numbers are astronomically unfavorable for new filmmakers, especially broke ass hoes like ourselves.
00:43:31
Speaker
We have no name. We have just our story and our grit and hopefully something that sticks. I mean, there's a lot of ah dice rolling that we have to perform just to hope that we hit that nat 20 and make it big.
00:43:54
Speaker
So many times you can see films that... Well, I want to say this. It's really hard to overlook amateurism in film.
00:44:06
Speaker
And oftentimes it sticks out like a sore thumb. For Dickhead, it sticks out like a sore thumb for me anyway. There are times when I'm watching scenes and I'm like, I just know, ah you just know that we aren't experienced filmmakers and not an experienced crew.
00:44:24
Speaker
And I don't even mean like the graphical weird error thing, like the Bermuda Triangle thing. I just mean literally the blocking or the the way the print the shots feed into each other, the lack of coverage, whatever that we didn't have to use.
00:44:38
Speaker
you just Amateurism sticks out like a sore thumb because at the end of the day, you are put up against... ah Lawrence of Arabia, Citizen Kane, The Matrix, right? ah but Their films and your film is a film.
00:44:57
Speaker
There is nothing distinguishing those things other than the fact that, of course, resources and time and experience. But peel all that away on a film. If your film makes it somehow on a rental shelf, it would be sitting right next to those other films.
00:45:14
Speaker
Of course, There are worlds apart. But what I mean is, right, it's like they're the in the in essence, they're the same thing. But in practicality, there are worlds different.
00:45:28
Speaker
And amateurism really does stand out. But you really, it shouldn't matter. You should really just go for it. I think
00:45:38
Speaker
No one's going to tell you to do it. The Calvary is not coming, as ah Mark Duplass said in his speech. um Yeah.
00:45:52
Speaker
It's just you and me and a bottle of Jim Bean, if you're lucky. If not, who cares? Go fuck yourself.
00:46:03
Speaker
Cut.