Hey, welcome to the forum

A mistake that I wont make again my self with in the pre-production stage is with regards to my marketing photo shoot.

I organized a photo shoot where I was relying on a large group of young people to turn up to be a part of my audition posters, how ever a couple of hours before the shoot my head of transport let me down, as did a number of other people who was supposed to feature in the poster!

So I definatley would not use those people again as they are un-reliable, and due to unfor seen cercumstances my shooting location became unavailable which was a nightmare in itself. I then had to re-locate the photo shoot and round up a second group of friends to model for it!

So in hiensight I learnt that my organizational skills could be improved on, so I learnt from my own mistakes the hard way.

Though you might not be able to learn directly from my bad experience! I would advice you to hold your own photo shoot (Be it to design a poster for your marketing as mine was, or as a promotion for your film) and test your own skills?

Hope this helps you?

Cleary.

www.myspace.com/b31_film_productions

There were a three big mistakes during my pre-production.

First, I hired one of the main actors without an audition, based on my producers word that he could act, and that he had military experience (the character handled a pistol). Turns out neither was true, he didn't know his lines, his eyes kept catching the camera, and he had contract problems with the reality show he was working on at the time. This cost me four or five days of work and a lot of stress.

Second, I allowed the last minute change of location. The new location was better than the previous location but this last minute change forced me to rethink all the shots on the day of the shoot which added to the stress. You should know where the location is and have a walk through and photos.

Third, although not a big mistake I would have gotten a business card/website/email addresses and a PO BOx as well as a shirt or two for key crew to create a more professional front which makes it easier to deal with everyone in pre-production.

Lastly, rehearsals. It seems lame but if at the very least you get the blocking down your DP will have an easier job lighting it and your actors will be much more consistent. And if you are shooting digital and can rehearse on the location you can shoot the rehearsals and get closeups and cut-aways and ambient sound.

Good advice for the pre-production stage is to always back up your locations, and even back up your back up locations as you can never be too prepared. So like rjschwarz stated, things can change at the very last minute e.g the waether. In which case it is always good to have a back up shedule where by you can get on with shooting other footage, this way your not wasting valuable production time waiting on some thing that you have no control over!.

Cleary.

www.myspace.com/b31_film_productions

Ok, good stuff so far. Thanks for the info. What about casting? What is the best way to meet up for auditions. Is there a conference room somewhere I should rent? I'm trying to keep costs down but at the same time maintain professionalism.

Don't forget the music clearance mistakes. Going into production with music that is financially beyond your music budget is a huge mistake. Planning not to clear your music and proceed with film festival submissions (without clearing at least festival rights) is a mistake.

As a music supervisor, I see this happen so many times. For those who think it's okay, you are wrong. For those of you who do not know this, please take the time to understand the process of clearing and licensing the music you use in your films.

When you are working on your film budget and breaking down your script, you should spot the script for music cues that are written in the script and for scenes that traditionally will require music. You should consider other potential scenes for music cues. Once you have your list of all the potential music cues, you need to know how to determine the cost of these cues.

This is the part where you should hire a music supervisor to help consult you in creating your music budget. If the script calls for specific songs, the music supervisor can inform you of the feasibility of securing the rights to these songs. A music supervisor can make recommendations based on your overall budget and what you feel you can carve out for music.

Whether you believe this or not, it is copyright infringement every time you exhibit your film with uncleared music. I'm working on a film where the music was not cleared and was screen at several festivals. Now a distributor is interested in the film and they require the rights to every song in the film to be cleared and license.

I've already been confronted by one of the master rights owners about the use of this one particular hit song. She stated that the use is a copyright infringement and she is going to collect a fee. She even said that the fee she's going to quote is going to be more than the fee she would have quoted if they would have cleared the song for festival use in the first place. She could have easily issued a Cease and Desist letter and stop the film from being exhibited until all legal issues have been resolved or the filmmakers removed the song from the film.

The kicker is, she said that she would absorbed the infringement fee if the licensing deal can be secured. The problem is, the minimum the filmmakers are looking at is $17,500 for just the master side. This does not include the publishing side which could be more than this. If the song has to be removed from the film, there's cost involved plus the infringement fee that they will be hit with.

So to keep this post short, don't make the mistake of completing your film knowing there's uncleared music in it. Take out the big artist named song and replace it with a song that will work just the same by an indie artist. It will save you money in the long run and a lot of headaches.

I hope this helps and this mistake will not be an issue.

Dominique Preyer
Music Supervisor
e-mail: ?url="mailto:dominique?spincyclefilms.com"? dominique?spincyclefilms.com ?/url?
Website: ?url="http://www.spincyclefilms.com/dp/home.htm"?Music Supervision ?/url?

There have been other threads specifically on auditions. It really depends upon your location. Big city vs small town.

Personally I found that teaming up with film students was very helpful. It gave me access to crew willing to learn and work for free, it got me film school insurance through my producer, as well as access to locations for some filming and auditions. Lastly setting an audition at a university sets you one step up from sleazy even if it brands you as not really professional.

The one big problem was the students all disappeared after four or so weekends. They had their own movies to make by that point. So in general working with my students, despite the two mistakes mentioned above, was a huge asset.

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA

One more big mistake. Sound equipment. When I started my movie i got the film students advice and bought a camera, but I leaned on the film students to provide lights and sound equipment. The lights worked well because we finished the interiors before they disappeared. The problem was the sound.

The university sound equipment was a bit used, and I had to get my own for later shots after the students disappeared. Big mistake was not just buying my own stuff from day one.

Also a mistake I made was not having enough XLR adapter plugs because we lost half a day while someone drove back to the university to get the plug we needed that wasn't checked out that weekend. Oh, and batteries and gaffers tape. You can never have enough. And a gizmo that allows my camera to plug into a power outlet rather than run off batteries when a socket is nearby.

And lastly, for exteriors I didn't need lighting but I really, really wish I'd bought a decent windsock for the microphone. Even a sock would have helped but a decent professional one would have saved me a lot of headaches in post.

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA

quote:

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Originally posted by Music Supervisor

Don't forget the music clearance mistakes. Going into production with music that is financially beyond your music budget is a huge mistake. Planning not to clear your music and proceed with film festival submissions (without clearing at least festival rights) is a mistake.

As a music supervisor, I see this happen so many times. For those who think it's okay, you are wrong. For those of you who do not know this, please take the time to understand the process of clearing and licensing the music you use in your films.

When you are working on your film budget and breaking down your script, you should spot the script for music cues that are written in the script and for scenes that traditionally will require music. You should consider other potential scenes for music cues. Once you have your list of all the potential music cues, you need to know how to determine the cost of these cues.

This is the part where you should hire a music supervisor to help consult you in creating your music budget. If the script calls for specific songs, the music supervisor can inform you of the feasibility of securing the rights to these songs. A music supervisor can make recommendations based on your overall budget and what you feel you can carve out for music.

Whether you believe this or not, it is copyright infringement every time you exhibit your film with uncleared music. I'm working on a film where the music was not cleared and was screen at several festivals. Now a distributor is interested in the film and they require the rights to every song in the film to be cleared and license.

I've already been confronted by one of the master rights owners about the use of this one particular hit song. She stated that the use is a copyright infringement and she is going to collect a fee. She even said that the fee she's going to quote is going to be more than the fee she would have quoted if they would have cleared the song for festival use in the first place. She could have easily issued a Cease and Desist letter and stop the film from being exhibited until all legal issues have been resolved or the filmmakers removed the song from the film.

The kicker is, she said that she would absorbed the infringement fee if the licensing deal can be secured. The problem is, the minimum the filmmakers are looking at is $17,500 for just the master side. This does not include the publishing side which could be more than this. If the song has to be removed from the film, there's cost involved plus the infringement fee that they will be hit with.

So to keep this post short, don't make the mistake of completing your film knowing there's uncleared music in it. Take out the big artist named song and replace it with a song that will work just the same by an indie artist. It will save you money in the long run and a lot of headaches.

I hope this helps and this mistake will not be an issue.

Dominique Preyer
Music Supervisor
e-mail: ?url="mailto:dominique?spincyclefilms.com"? dominique?spincyclefilms.com ?/url?
Website: ?url="http://www.spincyclefilms.com/dp/home.htm"?Music Supervision ?/url?

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Thanks for the advice. It was very good. Fortunately for me all my music will be produced by a genius of a friend at no cost. Although, I will still make sure I have him sign a release form just in case. Which brings me to my next question. Are there generic forms I can use for this?

quote:

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Originally posted by rjschwarz

One more big mistake. Sound equipment. When I started my movie i got the film students advice and bought a camera, but I leaned on the film students to provide lights and sound equipment. The lights worked well because we finished the interiors before they disappeared. The problem was the sound.

The university sound equipment was a bit used, and I had to get my own for later shots after the students disappeared. Big mistake was not just buying my own stuff from day one.

Also a mistake I made was not having enough XLR adapter plugs because we lost half a day while someone drove back to the university to get the plug we needed that wasn't checked out that weekend. Oh, and batteries and gaffers tape. You can never have enough. And a gizmo that allows my camera to plug into a power outlet rather than run off batteries when a socket is nearby.

And lastly, for exteriors I didn't need lighting but I really, really wish I'd bought a decent windsock for the microphone. Even a sock would have helped but a decent professional one would have saved me a lot of headaches in post.

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA

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I was actually looking into buying a shotgun mic and boom pole. Got any recommendations? Im willing to pay some money for quality stuff that I will most likely use but also don't want to shell out too much also. I was hoping to spend less then $300. Is this possible?

I'm sure it's possible. I spent about $500 on my gear. I got a package on ebay through some company (not just some guy) that sold a shotgun mic, boom pole, 2 wireless mics. I also bought a mixing board at guitar center where I found the prices were better than similar boards being sold to filmmakers (everyone thinks we have money to burn).

Look around ebay and you can get a feel for the prices. Then if you find something that sounds good look around this board and see if there are any comments on that kind of mic because there have been mic discussions before.

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA

Hey all, I'm new to the forums, and I just completed my first real movie.

If I had it to do all over again, the only thing I'd do differently would be to obtain location releases beforehand! A newb mistake to be sure, but man was it a real chore going back once the film was done to get releases.

- Brian

Henry 'Dood' It Productions

Well I'm not big time (yet) but I'll make sure I hold auditions from now on. That simple "hey, you want to be in a movie?" works for casting extras but I'll make sure I have people who can actually act before I waste other peoples time again. If you're around the same level as me, you probably happily except ANYONE willing to help. The hardest thing to do when you're filming with no budget is to turn down someone willing to act for free. Unfortunatly, it's part of being a director. In my first short, I cast everyone that wanted to be in the movie. All three of them. It wasn't till we all got on site that we realized that one couldn't act. (how can someone be a bad actor when you don't even have a speaking role?)Anyway, we ended up having to drop most of the footage and in the end, the movie was a flop. That was a mistake I'll never make again.

"Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try." - Yoda