INDUSTRYINSIDER
HOW TO MAKE A MOVIE
OR WHAT I LEARNED FROM THE 48 HOUR FILM CHALLENGE Text & Photos by Joseph D. Becker make sure you have food for your cast and crew.
THE FIVE MINUTE FILM
Most scripts are one minute per page, which means a five page script for a five minute movie. Don’t push it, make it a 3-4 page script. Then you won’t run over and be trying to decide what to cut. Get one to three writers. Appoint a lead writer who will make final decisions, no arguments. Brainstorm and decide on a topic early on. Break it into three acts and finish the script by 2am. Start rehearsing the actors as soon as the script is done.
KISS KEEP IT SIMPLE SPIELBERG THE 40 HR FILM CHALLENGE
Make your deadline 8 hours early. If you run into trouble, you’ll have time to fix it. Plus, if you get done in 40 hours, your editors will have time to tweak. Don’t let them use up all the extra time tweaking. Remember that you have to deliver the files on time for your film to be considered for the competition. Start your upload at least 2 hours before the deadline. You can run into trouble during the upload process. Make a DVD AND upload the files. That way, if something goes wrong, you can deliver the DVD in person You don’t want to depend on 20 people, and you don’t want to be running all over town. So keep your actors and your locations few. If you can get one location that has different settings. then use it. Like a house across the street from a park. Then you can shoot at the house and park. If it’s close to a school, maybe you can use a classroom, a school office or conference room but, try to keep them all within a half mile radius if possible.
DON’T FORGET FOOD
You will need to have enough food and drink for everyone on set. Designate someone to be in charge of crafty. Make sure they understand what’s required, and budget for it. Food costs money. You can do potluck, or make some other arrangements, but
ASSIGN DUTIES
Even though you are keeping it simple, you should still assign different duties to different people. This way, everything gets done and nothing gets missed. One or two people can gather free background music, while another person does titles and credits. The person doing titles should be provided with all names and titles spell checked. All titles should be checked, double checked and approved.
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AZ FILMMAKER
September 2013