How to Make a Short Film ?

It was long pending in my to-do list and I finally managed to scribble down. Having grabbed good reviews for my first Short film attempt called 12AM, I can confidently post this on how to go out and make a short film. I am taking my own product, 12AM as a case study here. This post is just a guideline and there is no defined rules for a good film making process : )

Incase, if you haven’t watched it yet here is the youtube link for my short film 12AM with English subtitles.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riDxIRA4U5U

Since we followed regular main stream film making process, most of the inputs here will be aligned with main stream film making approach as well. (I hope)

I can broadly categorize the film making in to following 3 major phases.

1.  Pre Production:

To me, this is the most important phase  of film making and most time taking phase too. No matter if your film length is 1 minute or 100, a film with out focused pre production phase will end up in a big mess. The pre production involves following ( but not limited to) steps

Producer, Director and Screen writer : Incase if these 3 are different individuals, its important that they 3 get along well and align with common interest (i.e., the subject/theme of the film) A good long time should be spent interms of reviewing the concept, story line, story structure, detailed screen play and most importantly, dialogues. Above all, one should have a clear objective. Means, what is the intention of making the film. Money or Recognition or Ticket to main stream or Learning or Pure Creative satisfaction. In my case, its Learning and Creative satisfaction that I have targeted.

Direction Team : These are actually re-incarnation of a director. It is important that these guys are in same wave length of Director’s. A good movie’s credit often goes to these unsung heroes. Its most painful task but nevertheless very important to have good set of Assistants or Co Directors. For 12AM, I had 1 co director and 3 assistant directors who worked heart out. They all put the project above their personal benefits and worked truly to get ‘THE OUTPUT’

Assemble Crew : Baring actors, the rest of the team should be formed. The key people are Cinematographer, Music Director and Editor. The second line soldiers are SFX, Audio Engineer, Designer, Still Photographer etc.,

Things to do in Pre-Production phase,

-  Have frequent meetings with chief technicians (ie., Cinematographer, Music Director and Editor) and ensure they all well aligned with the expectations of  Direction team. My style is to communicate the mood required and allow the individuals to express their own creativity and talent.

- Talk to actors and ensure you got their dates and they are comfortable with roles. If you are suffering from tight budget, make it clear about your situation and be clear with what production can afford upfront. Remember, clear communication benefits all parties for hassle free process.

- The direction and production team should go out and fix the locations to shot. Then get the cinematographer to acknowledge the locations for various scenes. Later, the cinematographer and director should come out with shot division plan together. This is most grueling task as you need to more or less estimate the time you will need for the scenes and other possible needs.

- The direction team should work in parallel to have proper permissions in place before the shoot start date.

- Production and Direction team should also engage the equipment suppliers like camera, lights, cranes, properties etc.,

2. Production

If you did your home work (pre-production activities) well, this is less of a hassle. Production is nothing but go out and shoot. But, its easier said than done. This is the place where production control executive comes in. He will take care of the on location hassles like handling food, local police, supervising all departments like lights, cranes, logistics etc., Personally, I truly slipped in this area (mostly coz of poor planning and ended up paying heavy)

3. Post Production

This is actually the most relaxing but equally important phase. Here are the sequence of steps in Post Production phase

-  Make a copy of all footages that was shot and secure it in a safe place

- Direction team should sit with Assistant editor to order all the shots and make it ready for editor to kick off.

- Direction Team and Editor kicks off editing. Very tough task indeed. Should take it slowly as this is the place where the film will be elevated to next level.

 

 

- Once the edit is complete, the film will be made in to 4 copies, one each for Dubbing, Music, Sound Effects and DI (Digital Intermediate) process

- Director has to sit with each, and all these 4 departments will work in parallel.

- The designer will have his stills and he will start working on poster designs

- Once Music, dubbing and sound effects are complete, all files are handed over to sound engineer. Now, this guy will show his genius and experience to give proper calibration of total audio output based on budget & needs.

- The DI (Digital Intermediate) is a colour correction process where a dedicated colourist will analyse each frame of the film and ensure the colour grading and lights are levelled. This is the place where the visual quality of the film will elevate to the next level.

- Once all done, the editor, director and team will have a final check to make sure things are falling in place as expected. If not, do any possible changes and patch it.

Enjoy screening with a wider audience : )

 

Note : I am no expert in film making but i am sure there are many out there who has no clue on how to start though they have immense creative talent. This should help them to get a fair idea on how film making works. Please feel free to comment or ask questions and i will try my best to solve. You can also email to 12amshortfilm@gmail.com :)