I have a few general pre-production questions for you all.
1. If two actors try for the same role and one of them is more physically suited for the part (looks, stature, race, sex, etc.) and the other is a more talented actor, which one should I choose!?
2. If I'm running on a teeny-tiny budget, what are the best expenses? How can I get the most bang for my buck? How can I make the biggest improvement to my movie with the least money?
3. Can anyone tell me where I can rent/purchase affordable Microphone/Boom equipment bundles?
4. Any ideas on how to shoot (or maybe fake) a court scene? In an ideal world I would like to film inside a court room. But this may not work for obvious reasons. What is the next best thing?
5. Free/Cheap original score. I need an original score and I can't pay much for it.
6. How do I get actors and actresses interested in my movie? What is the best way to get people excited about my idea?
7. I would like to hear your opinions on how to expose a major twist at the end of a story. I know M. Night Shyalaman uses flashback type shots to look back and explain what led up to the twist. How is this done best, is this the best way, and if not what is the best way?
8. Last thing. How do I include a car accident in my movie? The accident needs to severely injure a major character. How do I make the crash believable?!!?
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! YOU ARE A HUGE HELP!!! If you are reading this and other people have already answered my questions, please give me your answers also. If you agree with earlier posts, then I will be able to see that a wide range of people support their ideas. IF you have different ideas, then I will be able to evaluate more options. THANK YOU!
-Jorge Pinkel
-Jorge Pinkel
1. That depends. Generally you'd want the better actor, but if you need a 300-pound heavy and they're a 90-pound weakling, you're a bit stuck.
2. Food, microphone, lights, camera. Good sound with OK picture will be more successful than bad sound with a good picture. And good lighting will make any picture look better.
3. Your local sound hire place :). It's hard to tell without knowing where you are, but you may be able to get a deal from them, particularly if you shoot at weekends.
4. Difficult, but I believe there are some 'fake' courts used for training lawyers, so maybe you can get hold of one for a day or two; I remember seeing a short where the director said that's what they did.
5. There are literally thousands of composers looking to create a score for your movie for free. That's not a problem, though finding the right one may be.
6. Again, there are thousands of actors looking to appear in any decent movie that will help their showreel. In the UK there are a couple of places to advertise to get hundreds of replies, I'm not sure about other countries.
7. Not sure. I don't like twist endings much unless they're well done; 'Fight Club', for example, was funnier the second time through knowing what the twist was. 'Sixth Sense', on the other hand, didn't have much left to it once you knew the twist.
8. One option is to start with the car already crashed and let the audience imagine the accident. If you open with the car upside down and smoking and the driver hanging from the seat-belt covered in blood, you can skip the actual crash.
Thanks. keep 'em coming guys.
-Jorge Pinkel
-Jorge Pinkel
Hey my names Cleary, been postin stuff on here for a while an Im gona have a crack at ansewring your questions, baring in mind I havent bothered to read what other people have put.
1.) Personally I would go with the better actor unless the appearance of the character in your film is vital to the story?
2.) Actors: Thats the most important thing that you have to pay for in my opinion, if your paying some one money to act in your film then it is because you have already auditioned them and come to the conclusion that they are good enough for the role and are going to give you a good performance (As opposed to forcin them, paying them nothing and hoping that they can perform well).
4.) Not all courts happen to be big fancy oak rooms with stands and holding cells. Some courts are small business like rooms with very little in the way of any thing, this is because they are civil courts that deal in small matters (not sure what you need the court room for? but thats worth baring in mind) which is dependenton what sort of case you are dealing with?
5.) Royalty free archives are a good place to start looking first. Then I suggest just going through my space and other social networking websites such as it.
6.) Marketing, its the only way to get people excited about it, posters and flyers would be a good place to start from.
8.) Make it beliveable through editing, just because its a car crash it dosent mean that the audience have to see the moment of impact in order to associate with whats happening in the story. Could shoot 1 shot of the person walking towards the speeding car, cut to the drivers P.O.V shot as hes heading towards the person, cut to a different angel of the car speeding, cut ot the persons p.o.v shot and then cut to another persons reaction shot to seeing the car crash, overlap it with the audio of a car crashing and cut to the crashed car. Obviously you dont have to edit it that way but you get the point = Reaction shot.
Let us know what you think of my suggestion? Hope that they help you out. Cleary.
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Thanks Cleary. I think your idea for the car accident is pretty good. If actors are the most important thing, then I am in good shape. The acting community where I live is already pretty excited about my movie. So thats good news. The court room scene would be for a murder trial. But I will probably ending up some sort of business room anyway because I just don't think the county courthouse would oblige, although its worth the call.
Thanks everyone. Keep posting for me!
-Jorge Pinkel
-Jorge Pinkel
