brief thoughts and advice on movie making

I suppose an art inspired blog can include movie making thoughts.
Especially since the first short film I made was based on Helen Keller's Three Days to See, an essay on the wonder of sight.

If you are making a film:

Write, rewrite, write again a screenplay. Focus on visuals. Film is a visual medium. The film professor at the college I went to wanted all his filmmakers to begin with a silent film for this reason.

Per Walter Mirch: Story is King. Does an element further the story? Emotion is Queen. Is an element emotional? Rhythm is Third. Does the story have good flow? (This is more important in Post-production).

Consider making a silent film. Sound can be tricky, and an added dimension of worry for the director.

Get as many people to help out with various jobs as possible. It's hard to do everything at once.

If you are director, try to avoid anything but a minor acting role in the film. It will enable you to focus more on your job rather than splitting your time between two very different focus areas for the film. I ended up being a main actor in both of the films I have made so far, and regretted it both times. I love acting - but it is hard to do both, especially as a beginner.

Watch movies. Take notes. See how shots are done. Turn off the sound and see if you can follow the story. Figure out why.

Consider drawing a storyboard - even simple lines can help a lot. Again film is a visual medium. Think visually.

Plan your shoot. Have an idea of what you want. Don't forget to take shots that can be used for cut-aways if necessary. This enables the editor to work with various visual and continuity problems. It can also add wonderful texture to a film.

Write to your capabilities and resources. Explosions tend to be expensive and dangerous. Your job is not to imitate a favorite action movie (unless you are deliberately doing a campy spoof), but to the best with what you have.

Get white noise. This is where one yells "quiet on the set" and records several minutes of pure "silence". It helps your editor work with annoying shifts of sound, and makes your movie sound more professional.

If you are recording sound, aim for the best sound possible. So many great beginning visual films that are dialog driven fail because the sound isn't good. I struggled with this on my second film.

Add music, but do so wisely. Copy-righted music limits what you can do with a film. Royalty free music exists. Imcompetech.com is one good site with royalty free music.

These are not but a few thoughts, and things I'd wished I'd known, but I hope they help someone.

Mainly : have fun, and as my professor always said: make magic.