worst shoot ?

[Chance1234]

goes with out saying firstly that my shoots just rock , but last week i helped out on a no budget shoot by a second time short director,

it was the shoot from **** . to give you some idea, literally every day the cameraman walkd off vowing never to return, there weer 5 cameraman in a one week shoot!

no storyboards or shot list, the director had no idea of what he wanted, didnt know the lingo, basic shot composition , forgot to tell one cameraman that all the previous days shoooting had all been done with an anamorphic lens,

caterign was shite, also i had to wait for two hours in a pub in edgeware until someone decided to tell me where teh location was ,

tensions ran high all week, no one want s there name associated with it and to be honest i dont think it is ever going to see the light of day anyway as i cant see how the footage can possible cut together (no master shots!)

any other tales

Chance

[deanl]

Hey there.

Surely this "must have masters" attitude is an old way of thinking. If this guy is editing himself then maybe he knows exactly what he needs. I know when Ive shot scenes that I have known what will look like, I havent bothered shooting masters and all the normal coverage. Whats the point? It wastes time shooting footage you know youll never use.

I undertsand that if your not sure how your scenes are going to look anyway you just shoot the **** out of it. Then let the editor make sense of it. Thats may be the standard way of working.(from what Ive read and seen). But its not the ONLY way way of working. This guy might be a chuffin genius. Just because hes bad at comunicating and doesnt "know the lingo" doesnt mean he doesnt know what hes doing. Give him a chance. Let him learn. Some poeple will have no idea of the technical aspects of filmaking. Lenses? WTF. They must rely of people who do to get there picture made. Now if this is the case you do need to imrove your people skills.

Then again maybe he was a total idiot. Maybe he had no idea what the edit will be. Maybe the "must have masters" way of thinking is just the starting point he needed. If he was just trying to zen his way through the shoot it seems to have backfired. Im sure he will know better next time.

Despin out.

[Chance1234]

trust me Despin this was bad,

understadn what u r saying re masters and fair enough (IMHO do make life easier and also helps set the scene and continuity) but this was a case of more not having any idea of the shots or flow, i was cameraman number 3 on the shoot( as well as costume, lighting (what lights ;-) ) peace maker, car mechanic, props, dog handler,diplomat,etc etc )

and lack of storyboards or even a basic shot list on top of the fact that he had no idea what he wanted made life very diffilcult hence why 5 cameraman walked off.

Example :

Dir: Ok we are going for the next shot
cam: ok whats the shot ?
Dir: Urm them two over there and mumble mumble
Cam: how do you want it >
Dir: Both in focus
Cam: What FS, Two Shot, Mid Shot also where do you want the camera ?
Dir: urm urm, over here,
Cam: The only way i can get both of them in shot is to be about 18ft up in the air and about 6ft away from the window, i can do a pan if you like
Dir: ok will go with that
Cam: Rightwho do you want be to start the pan on
Dir: The two of them

30 Minutes Later

Cam: Whats the action in this shot ?
Dir: mumble mumble ok lets go for a take
Actors: What are we doing in this scene
Dir: U urm there and u urm there ok lets go
Actors: then what
DIr: We will jsut roll with it ACTION
Cam: Urm you might like to ask roll camera first
Dir: oh ........

20 Mintues Later....

Dir: Wheres the other Actor ?
Cre: In Make Up
Dir: still ?
Cam: well you didnt tell the make up artists what you wanted in advance, they had to
go out and get stuff in
Dir: Oh wheres the runner
Cam: Hanging from the rafters
Dir: Whats the time
Cam: 4pm
Dir: OK SPEED UP EVERYONE we still got 11 locations to shoot at before light falls
All: ho ho ho
DIr: next shot girl leaves room, we will film her opening the door and exiting
Cam: hang on the last shot her final position was right at the other end of the room
do you want me to get a shot of her walking across the room ?
Dir: No we will jsut go with this one
Cam: Ok your the boss .......so what shot do you want (read through above x number of times)


Also to be a director you have to have good communication skills that is a must have and if you are workign with people who are pro's you need to know the lingo or at least have something that makes sense and cosistent.


The other key thing which made this shoot a disaster was no planning, i got a call on friday night before hand to ask for my help on the shoot, the guy came around my hosue on sunday to apparently jsut borrow my polys and black wrap and when he came round, he suddenly presented me with a list of other things he needed and ended up leaving my house with half the contents (shooting starting on monday ) basically everything from costumes, to props, to gells, etc etc if i hadnt of had them then there would of been nothing to shoot with !

Planning is also crucial , for the record i ended up after the shoot givign a copy of Directing shot by shot and Producing the short film and video and telling him not to even think abotu making another film till he;s read those books (gratuitis plug :both books can be ordered through my website www.5ylac.s5.com under making of and then filmamking books)


Also as he has in the past helped out on my shoots as a runner before, he was nicking my catchphases and some of the things i do to get things moving keep morale up , but ending up misquoting them and getting them horrible wrong. That was both scarey and disturbing.

[deanl]

Hey there.

Is this halfwit a friend of yours. What was he shooting on?

Despin out.

[Chance1234]

just a runner on my shoots,

[deanl]

Hey there.

I guess for you young Chance only the best will doodle do.

Despin out.

[Chance1234]

to answer your other question the film was being shot on a Sony PD150 using Mini DV tapes instead of DVCAM, nice bit of kit though i couldnt find the bars on it :-(

[Spoon boy]

I suppose talking about this stuff makes you feel better then.

[Mods]

LoL we've had some bad shoots. The worst was CFC's.

- Actor broke his foot
- We got evicted from two locations
- We then got watched, videoed and told to leave by a security guard at another location
- Camera battery ran out (always does)
- Car for the lift home broke down.

Oh well, these things happen!

Mods

[SoulJacker]

Anyone wanna make a zombie film?