In the film industry, a producer is the person who manages several aspects of the production process of a motion picture and strives to make sure that all the necessary elements are ready at the right time. Occasionally micromanaging and multitasking, most producers are involved in the production process since the early stages ofdevelopmentall the way to final phase of distribution
Whereas the director is responsible for the creative and artistic elements of a film, the producer is responsible for enabling the director’s view by furnishing him with a crew, cast, equipment, props, and location. Here's a bit of their job descriptions:
Buying the rights to a screenplay;
Hiring a screenwriter to write a script;
Renting equipment and returning it on time;
Booking locations and negotiating prices with owners
Having actors sign release forms;
Signing insurance paperwork and contracts;
Supervising budget and schedule;
Making sure the cook arrives or ordering a take-out.
Development
The first phase of a movie production is called development. This is the period in which the screenplay is written. At this point in time, a producer may or may not be already attached to the project. If the screenplay is a spec script, then the screenwriter is writing it on his own, without any guarantee that he will ever sell it. If the writer is in a work-for-hire system, then he's getting some money for his time.
The development phase can be the shortest or the longest phase in a production. In The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, for instance, the short story in which the movie is based on was published in 1922, with the rights for a movie being first acquired in the mid-1980s. Between this first purchase and beginning of the official pre-production, several directors and stars were attached to the project. In 2008 the movie was first released with David Fincher as the director and Brad Pitt in the main role.
This lengthy period before pre-production starts is often called "development hell."
Pre-Production
For pre-production to start, producers must commit themselves to a project – a screenplay. Once greenlit, the script furnishes the framework for the production. Location scouting, casting, equipment rental, storyboard, and shoot script all happen in accordance to the screenplay.
One of the main tasks for the producer during this phase is to secure funds for the production to progress to the next level. Serious student filmmakers must understand that any film production costs money. Meals for the crew is often the biggest expense to young filmmakers. For Hollywood studios, on the other hand, their hugest expense is often the star's salary, which is higher than the entire crew's combined. Equipment rental, contracts, permits, and insurance are also costly for the independent producer and should not be ignored.
Creatively and artistically, many decisions must be made. First and foremost, a director must be chosen; he or she will be in charge of creative decisions from that moment onward unless fired. Writing the shooting script is huge responsibility in this phase. The director must be extremely familiar with the screenplay to the point that he knows what and how he wants to shoot the movie. The shooting script is a more detailed description of the shots and scenes of the movie.
Production
The main part of the production phase is calledprincipal photography– which is the moment when camera rolls to record the actors and make the movie. The purpose of pre-production – all the procedure applied and decisions made during this phase – is to make everything during principal photography go as smooth as possible.
Principal photography is the most expensive part on a film production. Major Hollywood producers are paying $1500 a minute. This amount accounts chiefly for cast’s and crew’s salary. Student filmmakers may be shooting at the vicinity of $100 a day, used mainly for food. Ergo principal photography in any film must be fast and efficient. Achieving such a feat is an art in itself. The director and his crew must come together as a well-oiled machine.
Notoriously, what most stalls principal photography is lighting and camerawork. The inexperienced filmmaker may find this assertion ludicrous, but professionals know better. This is especially true for student filmmakers, the reason being twofold. First, students can’t afford all the nice toys as found in the studios, thus they face worst challenges. Secondly, studio movies have so much money that the consensus amongst producers is to “fix in post.” Cinematography at that high-end has become sloppy.
Post-Production
Normally, post-production only starts whenprincipal photographyends, but they may overlap. The bulk of post-production consists of reviewing the footage and assembling the movie – editing. The time editing takes to complete is directly proportional to the amount of footage recorded and how good camera notes are.
An infamous example is the case ofApocalypse Now. Shooting indiscriminately, sometimes with eight cameras rolling, Francis Ford Coppola ended principal photography with tons of footage that were good for nothing. His editor, Walter Murch, who started working before Coppola was done, spent two years in the editing room figuring out how to piece this epic together. Camera notes help in the sense that they tell the editor where to look and what to look for.
During the first century of photography and moviemaking, everything was
shot on film – a celluloid material whose light-sensitive surface could
record lasting images. Film was good because it was the only option. And
during that first century, it did a fantastic job of recording those
masterpieces that we love and treasure, like Gone With the Wind, Citizen Kane, and The Godfather.
However, as technology advances, digital filmmaking gains dominance and poses a threat to the film hegemony. The Oscar-winner Social Network (2010), for instance, was shot on the Red One, a video camera.
Why Shoot Film
Film is still preferred by most filmmakers because this is the
tradition and the technology they understand. Other two big advantages
of using film are (1) depth of- ield and (2) broad exposure latitude.
Depth of Field
When shooting 35mm film, shallower depth of filed is a given. This
means that creating areas in the frame that are soft focus or blurry is
easier, and filmmakers love this to direct the audience's attention.
Exposure Latitude
Wikipedia defines exposure latitude as "the extent to which a
light-sensitive material can be overexposed or underexposed and still
achieve an acceptable result."
Basically, what you have to remember is that film has broader
exposure latitude than video. This means that underexposed and
overexposed areas are rendered better on film than on digital media. For
instance, on video, a corner of the frame with little light could go
completely black, whereas on film is would still show details.
This is important because cinematographers play with light, so a
broader exposure latitude medium offers them more opportunity. It's like
a painter who has several paint tubes with all the colors of the
rainbow (film), as opposed to another painter who only has the primary
colors (video). However, needless to say, technology is constantly
advancing, and the gap is decreasing.
Why Shoot Video
Video is spreading quickly. As technology evolves, video will soon
become the industry standard. It's impossible to know when, but the push
towards it has already begun. The main reasons to choose video are (1)
workflow, (2) price, and (3) reproducibility.
Workflow
Video can really speed things up. With film, prior to the shoot,
someone has to load the magazine in a light-safe area. After the shoot,
the film must be developed, processed, and digitized (turned into a
digital file in a computer). Film is digitized because most editing are
now done in computers, using programs like Avid or Final Cut Pro.
If you shoot video, you can skip these steps. You record straight into
an SD card or hard drive. The footage is then unloaded in a computer or
separate hard drives. The footage does not need to be processed; you can
watch it on the set within seconds after taking it.
Price
Shooting film is expensive. A 400-foot role of 16mm stock costs
about $100. 400 feet of 16mm film is enough for 11 minutes of footage.
That means that, when shooting 16mm, you spend $100 for each 11
minutes. But feature films are shot on 35mm, and they shoot way more
than just two hours of footage.
With digital filmmaking, the preferred media is SD cards, which in
theory can be used endlessly over and over again in different projects.
Reproducibility
Video is also convenient because of its reproducibility. Just like
files in your computer, video is digital, so it can be inexpensively
copied over and over again without any loss in quality whatsoever.
The film director’s primary task is to interpret the screenplay and translate it visually. He is the creative mind that chooses the
aesthetical and technical specifications to be implemented in his
vision. To succeed in this mission, he is involved from the early stages
of pre-production all the way to the final phase of post.
Francois Truffaut’s Day for Night (1973) is perhaps
the movie that best romanticizes the job and life of a director on and
outside of the set during a film production. Their amazement and
frustrations are subject matters featured in Truffaut’s Academy
Award-winning film.
Even though directors must oversee the several stages of production, during photography,
everything could get exponentially hectic. Their personal lives –
family, friends, and affairs – are shoved aside to pave way for the film
production. Weekends and holidays too. Everything revolves around the
production schedule. At daytime, they shoot. At night, they rewrite the
script. During breaks, they rehearse. Lights, costumes, decor, props,
camera, actors are all supervised by the director, who’s often
multitasking and micromanaging all of those. Directing movies requires
extensive command of the craft. It takes decades to master and centuries
to forget.
Traits of a Director
The director must be a tyrant and a democrat, a dreamer and a
realist, a rebel and a loyalist. He has to give orders and follow them.
He has to demand and obey. He has to be the most snobbish and most
sociable person on set. He is the manager, the judge, the president. A
friend. He is all of those and much more.
During a film production, the director assumes very many roles.
Besides mastering the production process and storytelling techniques, he
has to be aware of cultural and political issues that surround his
movie. He has to be sensible of possible implications that any elements
in his picture may cause.
Well-rounded, the director must know, for instance, that the
color red means danger and emergency in America, whereas in China it
connotes courage, loyalty, honor, success, fortune, fertility, and
happiness.
In the exceptional example of Psycho (1960), Alfred
Hitchcock foresaw the encroaching revolution of the 1960s and took
advantage of it. Being entrepreneurial, he purchased the rights to the
novel of same title and even bought copies to obscure the ending.
Hitchcock was so sure that the picture would be a hit that he even
deferred his director’s salary in order to get some support by the
studios. By noticing the approaching revolution, he knew he could have
Janet Leigh in her underwear in the bedroom and naked in the shower. The
picture became the highest grossing film of Hitchcock's career, a box
office triumph, earning $11,200,000.
Training
The essential training to be a film director usually begins at a
very early age, watching movies. Aside from the very first ones, all
great filmmakers were once kids enamored with moving pictures. Not just a
hobby but a full-time love affair. As the kids grew up, they refined
their vision and hearing to scrutinize the components inherent to the
movies they watched. They observed camerawork, editing, acting, score…
everything.
The next step would be actual hands on a film camera and
shooting. Decades ago, making short movies with friends and learning the
necessary skills by trial and error were considered a valuable method
to become a filmmaker. But times have changed. The competition is much
bigger now, and digital has ruined many youngsters.
With a generation that grows up watching YouTube, the discernment
between good and awful is shattered by a criterion that values number
of hits over technical excellence. Shaky cameras, trite stories, squeaky
voices, and porch lighting are among the many problems caused by the
preponderance of digital cameras.
Nowadays, attending a film school is a wise option to become a
filmmaker. There, students will have keen insight on all the levels of
production and the many professionals involved to make a movie, plus the
chance to make friends that share the same passion. Networking.
Blocking
Blocking was originally a theatre term that refers to
the positioning and movement of the actors in the stage. An essential
part of rehearsal, blocking is necessary for a smooth performance.
from wikipedia
The term derives from the practice of 19th
century theatre directors such as Sir W. S. Gilbert who worked out the
staging of a scene on a miniature stage using blocks to represent each
of the actors.
In cinema, camera and lights are added to the equation.
Blocking a motion picture involves the precise synchrony and movement of
the actors in relation to camera and lights. The director is the one
responsible for blocking. He must guide the cast to accommodate his
vision for the arrangement or composition of the frame. The more
“trained” actors are during blocking, the faster principal photography
will be.
Sketch the Scene
One efficient way to block actors and camera is to
use drawings. Hand-drawn pictures are fine, although computers make the
job easier. Floor plans and storyboards are often combined for a faster
process but also to help the crew visualize everything needed for the
shoot to happen.
Floor plans are used to design the layout of a scene
with actors and camera positions. Floor plans are quite convenient when
shooting a scene with an elaborate setup. Too many actors and ambitious
camera movements (dollies, cranes) constitute a good definition of
“elaborate setup.”
Storyboards are also common. They are a collection
of frames that tells the story visually. The frames illustrate the more
important shots in the movie. Storyboards are quite convenient when the
directors is explaining exactly what type of composition he desires.
Attention to Body Language
Deciding on the positions of the subject and camera
are only the first and second steps of blocking. The third is body
language - posture. A director must pay close attention to how actors
use their bodies and what is signified by their postures and gestures.
Quite regularly, professional directors instruct actors on how to move
their hands and legs and eyes. It is attention to detail that separates
the men from the boys and the women from the girls.
In the frame above, you can see two actors with
contrasting postures. Angelina Jolie, impeccable, holds herself
straight, with air of nobility. Her back does not touch the chair. Her
hands are held in front of her bosom – we can tell this is not
comfortable.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, we have Johnny
Depp, slouched in his chair, legs crossed, supporting his arms. He looks
tired and uncouth. But not Angelina. She's refined, elegant,
sophisticated... A lot information is conveyed by posture. Keep that in
mind.
Coverage
The initial recording of a scene is usually done with a master shot,
a shot wide enough to capture the action in its entirety. But
screening the whole scene from a single wide shot would be boring, not
to mention all the detail that would be missed.
Ergo crafting a film involves recording a scene from different camera angle using different shot sizeto emphasize important elements of the film, such as a gun in someone’s
hand or a tear in someone’s eye. This use of subsequent camera setups
is known as coverage. Coverage is important not only to keep things
dynamic and exciting within the scene, but also to ease the editing
process of the movie.
Observe the example of coverage below from The Thomas Crown Affair
(1968). All the shots combined together make the scene very
interesting, especially as it contains very elaborate compositions and
as it focuses on character’s facial expressions.
Among the several types of shots, we find in the example above long
shots, medium shots, close-ups, ECUs, high-angles, inserts, and
reactions. In the movie, the scene is practically silent. Yet the
amazing coverage is able to convey emotions and tensions.
It is one of the director’s tasks to create a shot list,
and thus define how the coverage will be. Before principal photography
starts, the director should know where the camera will be and what or
who it will shoot. A movie with poor coverage always feels awkward, for
it usually impedes the editor from accomplishing the much praised invisible editing.
Shooting Script
The shooting script is more elaborate, precise, overwritten version
of the screenplay. Unlike what common sense may suggest, the shooting
script is not written by the screenwriter. It is written by the director
alongside his cinematographer, while both discuss their ideas and shot
plan desired for the movie.
In broad terms, the main difference between the screenplay and
the shooting script is that the screenplay is a selling tool, whereas
the shooting script is a production tool.
When a screenwriter pens the screenplay, he is trying to sell,
above all else, the story. Therefore, he has to create a smooth read
with a harmonious flow, otherwise his screenplay and hard work end up in
the wastebasket. Screenplays should contain little to no direction
whatsoever. Directing the movie and calling the shots is not the
writer’s task; it is the director’s.
Ideally, right after a screenplay is purchased, the movie enters pre-production.
The director then will alter the story as he deems fits and eventually
craft the shooting script. The shooting script is normally broken into
shots, featuring precise cinematography terminology such as close-ups, dolly in, overexposed. The idea here is to inform the crew what is going on. Before principal photography starts, the shooting script will be divided into dates, so everyone knows what is being shot when.
Although terrible to read, the shooting script is essential to a
complex production such as the one of feature movies. The goal is to let
all the crew members know what they will need to bring or arrange
beforehand.
Contrary to cinema
which tells stories that are usually pure fabrications of someone’s
imagination, documentary film making is concerned with the exposure and
analyses of real facts and historical events.
Even though documentary cinema explores actualities, not all
documentaries present the absolute truth a hundred percent of the time.
Filmmakers, like any other artists, are both privileged and burdened by
the power of manipulation. As such, they are blessed and cursed by the
possibility to bend the truth.
The Structure of Documentaries
At its core, documentary film making is an opinion former and a
trendsetter. Its structure is built as to allow the filmmaker freedom to
manipulate and persuade. Even the purest directors fall prey on their
position and the liberty of the medium, and they end up being biased
enough to impose their own perspectives onto the world.
Documentary filmmakers have the following weapons in their arsenal for persuasion:
Voice of God: This is the voice-over heard in
the movie. The pretentious reference to the almighty is due to the
influential force the voice-over has in documentaries. In narrative
cinema, voice-over offers exposition and personal comments. On documentaries, however, voice-over is used to
state unquestionable veracity. If you hear the sentence “There are
only 80 pandas left in the entire world” spoken by a deep voice, you
will believe it. That’s the reason why most narrators are men and many
from Britain – apparently the British accent is more persuasive than
American English.
Documentation: To make a point convincingly,
the filmmaker must present evidence from legitimate sources. The
evidence is the documentation. A letter from your Uncle Bob carries less
legitimacy than an article from the New York Times, hence selecting
sources is paramount for documentaries. Newspaper articles, bank
statements, government records, surveillance footage are all fair game
for the filmmaker because they carry the weight of truth. For the most
part, at least. Occasionally, directors may intentionally misuse
documents and take it out of context to mislead the audience.
Interviews: Much like documentation, interviews are common on documentaries and equally necessary as sources. In the documentary Super Size Me,
since the movie director, Morgan Spur lock, has no official knowledge
over heart health, he has to consult with cardiologist Stephen Siegel,
MD, who becomes his expert witness.
Expert Witness: An expert witness is anyone
that has great knowledge on the subject that they are testifying on. It
requires no degree but vast experience. An illiterate farmer from Texas
could be considered an expert witness on a documentary about cattle
manure used to fertilize soil. As a general rule, the audience is much
more likely to listen to an expert witness than a random John Doe from
the streets. Expert witnesses don’t always have to be interviewed on
camera. Their statements or archival footage also carry great weight.
It's easy to feel intimidated by the thought of writing a screenplay.
The rules! The formatting! The binding! Don't let the seemingly endless
parade of screenwriting elements scare you away from writing your first
script. Since a familiarity with the basics of the craft is half the
battle, The Writers Store has created this handy screenplay example and
overview on how to write a screenplay to help you get up to speed on
screenwriting fundamentals.
