LESSON 3
PRODUCTION
(Principle Photography)
Congratulations, you made it to set! You wrote the script you found everyone you needed to show up and make a movie together. You got all the money you needed, actors are rehearsed, equipment’s all good-to-go, and you have all your paper work in order. You’re ready to start shooting… now what?
“Everything that can go wrong will go wrong!”
No matter what you do you can always count on two things when on set, Irony, and Murphy’s law, actors will be late, crew members will have car troubles, a piece of equipment didn’t make it to set, a location fell through, any number of things are bound to happen so you really just have to accept that that is the nature of the beast and just roll with the punches, and think smarter not harder…
“There are no problems, only solutions!”
No matter what happens, keep your cool; everything is going to work out fine, as long as you look for solutions instead of focusing on what the problem is. Just like math, if there is a problem, there must be a solution. Use your team and their knowledge, sometimes we think best under pressure. Filmmaking is a collaborative effort; take advice when it’s good, and move on.
Set Etiquette:
“Stay professional people!”
I know making movies is fun, and everybody should be having a good time working together… you’ll have your highs, lows, laughs, tears, disagreements, etc., but remember you are there to do a job, don’t goof off, don’t be loud, and don’t mess around on the headsets. Show up early. Make sure to maintain safety standards; don’t do anything stupid that could get anyone hurt. Stay sober at least until you rap. If you don’t know anything about electrical wiring don’t attempt to be an electrician, that’s all I’m saying. Do the job you are there to do, it’s ok to have a suggestion once in a while, but don’t step on your fellow filmmakers toes.
Check out Film Set Etiquette at Movie Geeks United
and FTM 2 General Set Etiquette.
A good article on set etiquette can be found @ wikihow.com – Behave-on-a-Film-Set
On Set Communication:
“Don’t say anything stupid”