Filmmakers Talk 19 - Voice Over Instructions

If you have heard any funny comments in the studio post it in the comments below and it might just make the Film-Makers Talk List.

Previous Talks:

Filmmakers Talk-18: Life of a freelancer

Filmmakers Talk-17: Sound PJ.

Filmmakers Talk 18 - Life of a freelancer

Post your funny comments that you may have come across and it just might make it to the Film-Makers Talk List

Some past Talks: 

FT#17 - Sound Pj

FT#16-Filmmaking Dictionary: Deadline

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Filmmakers Talk 17 - Sound Pj

Sorry I had to crack this bad joke.
For those who don't know, Pj stands for Poor Joke.

Post your funny comments that you may have come across and it just might make it to the Film-Makers Talk List

Some past Talks:

FT#16-Filmmaking Dictionary: Deadline

FT#15 Casting Director

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Filmmakers Talk #12 - Creativity Ends

Post your funny comments that you may have come across and it just might make it to the Film-Makers Talk List

Some past Talks:

FT#11 Fix In Post

FT#10 Producer to Client

*This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, quotes, places and incidents mentioned, either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, from the film industry or outside the film industry is entirely coincidental.

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Filmmakers Talk #11 - Fix in Post

Of course you have heard this..

Post your funny comments that you may have come across and it just might make it to the Film-Makers Talk List

Some past Talks:

FT#10 Producer to Client

FT#9 Post Producer to Agency

*This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, quotes, places and incidents mentioned, either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, from the film industry or outside the film industry is entirely coincidental.

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Filmmakers Talk #3 - The Editor

If you have never done "post-production" you would not have heard this...

Post your funny comments that you may have come across and it just might make it to the Film-Makers Talk List

Some past Talks:

FT#2 - Director

FT#1 - Producer

*This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, quotes, places and incidents mentioned, either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, from the film industry or outside the film industry is entirely coincidental.




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“This isn’t personal, Kay. This is business”, Michael Corleone - The Godfather , (1972)

Wanna be a..... Director

Want to be part of the glamour but don’t know what to do.? Can’t make up your mind if you want to be a Director or a Cinematographer or a Music Director... read on as I give you an insight which no film school will ever tell you. This blog is on if you Wanna be Director.  Most of this is based on my experience in India and figures would vary as time passes.

POST: Director

JOB PROFILE:

A Director is the leader of the project mainly in terms of vision and direction. He is responsible for decision making and it’s his style and effort that shows in the end. He is responsible for the acting, style of shoot, the technical direction, etc. The director is the one who takes it from the story to the screen, he also participates in choosing the team, at least that of the key crew,(mainly the head of the departments) also the cast gets finalised only after the director’s approval. He has meetings with the head of almost all departments before the film goes into production and also has rehearsals with the actors sometimes (if time is available) He uses scripts, storyboards, references when meeting with these departments to show and explain to the team what he feels the film should look and feel like.

Lots of time the director becomes or feels like an answering machine. A yes or no, eg, when costumes come back after the briefing with references then it’s the director who says yes or no to colours, material, and so on and so forth. The same goes for all other departments. The director has also to work with the post team, influencing the grade of the film, with the editor to check for cuts and the flow of the story, etc.

EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:

Anyone with a vision can become a director, there are people who become directors based on experience, some on qualification, and some just by the influence they bring. 

Experience can be gained by working closely with good and bad directors, working with different people show you different styles of working, also different production houses also function differently, so it helps in choosing a way that suits your style and also one that is right for production. 

For people who are new to the industry and want to be part of it, there are various courses that one could take up to learn the art. These days one can graduate with a BMM degree – Bachelors in Mass Media, this is a 3-year course and teaches you the basics of all media-related industries including journalism, market research. Although this course does not prepare you for direction, it gives you an overall about media. There are also government-run institutes like the F.T.I.I. - http://www.ftiindia.com/ and private ones that offer specialized and general courses for those who have already done their graduation. One could also choose from courses abroad like 

NYFA

IAFT 

You could also check these site’s out which has a list of schools from across the world

About film schools

The way to choose the best schools to learn is to check the course duration, the syllabus, topics covered, the teachers, their real-life experience with film making, what are the practical’s the course offers, the library, and of course the fees, if one is leaving their country then place to stay and those expenses of upkeep also have to be kept in mind while choosing what’s best for you.  

If you trying to get through this industry then you better hope that you come from a family with a lot of influence in the industry or are just plain rich to finance your ventures.

TIMINGS:

Depending on experience and how quickly he can make decisions the time spent by directors at work may vary. During the shooting phase, the director almost always is there from the start to the end. (except during pre-light) the time and effort of Pre and post vary. 

Documentary directors = since a lot of research goes into documentary’s lots of time the research time is the same as shoot as usually the documentaries are made up of findings and interviews which are usually shot at the first attempt. In other words, the amount of time spent would be equal to the passion for the subject.  

Daily soap / Serials = minimum time few hours a day ranging from 2-6 hours during the planning days, and during shoot depending on the availability of actors and locations the time on the shoot, days are the normal one and half shift, to even 2 shifts sometimes.  

News (non-news episodes) / MTV kind of serials (where the director and producer are the same people) = usually full days ranging from 8 – 12 hours or even more, most f the times these are hired employees so office timings would apply,  the shoot timings are generally ranging from one shift to 2 shifts.

Promos and Advertising = depending on the team provided and the quickness at which the director takes decisions’ time spent could be ranging from 8 – 12 hours to sometimes even 20 hours if things don’t fall in place in pre (especially just before PPM’s and shoot days). During shoot which usually lasts 2- 4 days generally, it’s a similar one and half to 2 shifts.

Features = depending on the time spent in Pre-production the director would give that much of time per day. Since pre in feature films usually take months the director usually doesn’t need to kill himself at the office every day, time spent could be ranging from 2-4 hours on an average to 6-8 hours on some days. Most of these are time spent in meetings. The shoot lasts sometimes for months, and mostly its the standard one and half shift per day.

PROFITABILITY:

Documentary Directors – depending on if it is commissioned or if it is being done out of passion one could make nothing to a few thousand. Documentaries are rarely very profitable monetarily at least. The commissioned ones, at least some of them do make a decent amount.

Daily soap / Serials – directors here get paid per episode usually, though some do get monthly salaries. Money ranges from 10,000 Rs per episode to 25,000 Rs per episode could go up to 80k approximately which is mostly for weeklies. So on an average, it could range between 40k – 80K for beginners to 80K – 4lacks per month as experience increases.

News / MTV kind of serials – here the amount of money the director makes is in the hands of the director himself, especially if he is a freelancer and not on the payroll. What generally happens is a budget is given to the director and the amount he saves is up to the way he plays and makes deals with the crew they are hiring.

Promos and Advertising – the money made here depends on the deal made with the producer, the two ways are the director chargers a fee for the project (usually when the director is a freelancer or a beginner) or a percentage of the profit. In the first case a director could make 1 to 2 lacks per day of the shoot or a higher deal as agreed between him and the producers. Sometimes the deal also works in percentages of the total budget, 2% - 15% of the figure usually.  As far as percentages go a beginner could make anywhere between 10% - 15% and this could go up to 60% - 80% as experience and demand go up.  

Features – experience plays a huge role in the figure that a director makes. A first time director could make 5- 9 lacks for the film and as experience and hits come his way the figures could go up and there is no end figure that one could say he could make.

THE TEAM:

The director is the captain of the ship and all are the crew that gets hired to work for him. The immediate people who report to him are the direction team which is made up of DA’s and AD’s. The DA – Director’s Assistant sometimes also doubles up as an assistant director, and the number of assistants hired depends on the budget so ranging from 2 – even 7 and 8. The rest of the crew are Production and their team, line prouder and his local team, DOP and his team, camera, lights, grips, gaffer, special equipment like a crane or a Milo, costume’s, hair and make, stunts team, VFX team, transport, caterers, food stylists, and the list goes on and on. The hiring of these is obviously based on the requirement.

So now that you know what it is about being a director you can decide if you want to be one or specialize in some other department. Remember a director like any sportsperson is only as good as his last film, so if you have the talent for it I would say go for it and all the best.

For those who have no time to go to a film school or have already started working check out No Film School for more tips and learning

Auggieism:- What do you call a loyal Auggie... . 

Ans:- Doggie..

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“Toto, I've (got) a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore." – The Wizard of Oz.

STORYBOARD

Love drawing cartoons, then storyboarding is for you. Storyboards work for all - features, Tv serials, AD films, and even for animation. It helps some more than the other.

What is a Storyboard?

A Storyboard is a way of pre-visualizing the director's thoughts or ideas (mainly scripts) into illustrations or images so that the director and the team can see what he plans to shoot or do.

What does a Storyboard look like?

A Storyboard is a series of still images or illustrations put in story order to explain to everyone what the director's vision is. They could just be images put in order which explains everything, or usually, there is a description alongside which describes the camera size (like wide, mid, etc) and the dialogues that go along with the frame. The dialogues could also be broken up based on the edit pattern that the director has in mind. For presentation the general norms are to have the image on the left and the description on the right, these could be 4 per page or if the other pattern of 2 a page is used then the description is put below the image. Sometimes this pattern is used to put as many images in one sheet as possible so that the entire story or scene is on one sheet so that the overall idea could be seen faster.

Storyboards can be done differently from 2D to 3D they can be done in black n white, or in colour, even still’s are sometimes clicked to make one. Storyboards can be done in detail, with as much information in it as possible, which means that camera lensing, set area, props, etc all included. This detailing helps all departments to plan what needs to be done by just looking at each frame. Sometimes there is not enough time or money to get the entire film boarded so key scenes or just keyframes are boarded. Further lack of time also calls for just doodles to be drawn by the side of the script to be a quick fix.

Where and to whom is a Storyboard the most useful?

It gives the directors, producers, cinematographers, commercial advertising clients, etc a tool to visualize the scenes and find potential problems before they occur. It helps in planning story flow for the edit and move shots around if need be. The AD’s can go ahead and plan the shoot accordingly to the board, which would help in saving time so that set up of shots don’t have to be repeated.

In commercials, the storyboard holds quite an important place in the process. Besides the shooting crew which follows the board quite closely, the first use of the storyboard starts at the pre-stage where the board is shared between agencies client and production house, here at this stage mostly each frame gets studied and based on this board changes are suggested based on brand guidelines and the image of the brand. Like the use of certain colours which match the brand, or the non-use of certain objects because of legal issues. All of this helps so that all corrections could be made before going ahead with the shoot which helps in saving of reshoots or any surprises left on the day of the shoot. The meeting which happens with the agency, production house and client is called a PPM - Pre Production Meeting, this is usually a few days before the shoot which gives enough time for the changes to happen, sometimes there are more than one PPM as either there too many changes or too many levels of clients to go through. (like when the main brand team belongs to another country)

The process of putting stills or a series of images along with a rough audio or a track together s called Animatics. This tool is increasingly used by advertisers and advertising agencies to research the effectiveness of their proposed storyboard before committing to a 'full up' television advertisement.

History of Storyboards?

It is said that the storyboarding process, in the form it is known today, was developed at the Walt Disney Studio during the early 1930s, the first storyboards at Disney evolved from comic-book-like "story sketches" to illustrate concepts for animated cartoon short subjects. Websitesand other interactive media projects are the most recent known use of Storyboarding during the design phase.

When and how does a Storyboard come about?

Well first obviously there needs to be a script or a screenplay, in advertising, this is usually coming from the creative team, in films is the script or screenplay writer from where this would come. Then the director has to break it into the no of shots or cuts that he wants to put into the film. Referencing through images is one of the key factors during the making of the board. Key things to know before starting are live location vs set, look of key props, the way the camera moves in certain cases and sometimes look of the costumes are also needed. If it’s a live location then a recce of the place before or pictures of the place in detail, or if it’s a set then a proper layout design of the place helps, here a meeting with the production designer (if there is one) or the art director, where a brief is given (along with the references) and then they draw up a plan based on which a storyboard is done. This holds true for most cases but sometimes the director may want to make a board and then brief the art director what all details he is looking for in the set. Either which ways the director has to have references of the kind of look of furniture or style of house etc to show the storyboard artist (Most of these references are chosen keeping the target audience in mind that is intended)

The key to a good board is how much it helps each department, so the more detail in the board the better, the no of cut one wants to have decided the no of frames to be drawn, a fast-paced film will have more number of cut’s, therefore, will have more frames. Montage, Action are usually the times when you have a lot of frames for a short period. For animation usually, almost all keyframes have to drawn as the team can then follow the direction correctly.

Different ways of making a Storyboard?

Besides the normal 2D drawing there is also 3D way of making storyboards. The advantage of 3D storyboards (also called 'technical previsualization') is they show exactly what the film camera will see using the lenses the film camera will use. The disadvantage of 3D is the amount of time it takes to build and construct the shots. 3D storyboards can be constructed using 3D animation programs or digital puppets within 3D programs. Some programs have a collection of low-resolution 3D figures which can aid in the process. Some 3D applications allow cinematographers to create "technical" storyboards which are optically-correct shots and frames.

Making of storyboards are also helped with a number of tools, StoryBoard Quick, StoryBoard Artist, Storyboard Pro, FrameForge3D, etc all these software basically helps a common man to make boards and not have to wait for a professional artist to come to work for you. They offer usually a range of sets and shapes of houses, cars, etc, some of these lets you import your own pictures so you can use the pictures from your location to see what you film would look like. Most of these come with customizable characters of male, female, age, height, colour, etc, etc.. you could also add audio to some of these and watch them back in proper timing.

If there is still doubt and clarity is required then shooting the script on a home camera or cellphone and then editing it down also helps in clearing the doubts, this could be done with the help of the actors as a rehearsal or with assistants, in any space. This edit helps all to see the problems that one may encounter in the final shooting, like the timing of actors, the number of cuts required, more or fewer shots to be taken, etc.

Lastly for live locations or usually when the set is ready, (on the tech recce) what also could be done is a what is called a walk thru, wherein the cinematographer or the director uses a still camera (ideally with different lenses – like the ones used in the board) and does a run through all the shots in the same blocking that is intended for the final shoot. If one has the budget then even the film camera with the intended lenses can be used and the rehearsal could be recorded on the video assist. (not rolling the film) This process is usually called blocking and is the first time a Storyboard can be seen in the semi-final state before the shoot. These stills if it is shot properly could be used as the final board before the shoot.

In Television serials and Feature films where time and money do not permit the making of detailed storyboard, just stating camera cuts at the side of the script Like dialogues are marked at the side from which to which is Wide and what dialogues go as a close-up, etc. So whatever you do, a detailed board or a doodle, having a shot breakup at least in your head is important.

Auggieism:- What would you say if Auggie got wet in the rains...

Ans:- Soggie..

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