One Torqued Nut

If you’re here at this site reading this, you almost certainly know two things about me:

One – I’m a filmmaker. I’ve created and sold (for money even!) several film projects, ranging from small event videos to a short documentary that has made it’s rounds and been seen by around three quarters of a million people. I even carry certifications and pieces of paper that proclaim my alleged abilities.

Two, I’m a huge YouTube fan. While 98% of the stuff I upload to YouTube isn’t “pro quality”, I see it as an experimental playground for me, and possibly a chance to one day escape the string of day jobs that prevent me from doing full time filmmaking.

I’m also a fan of the social aspect of YouTube. A long time ago, before most anyone heard of him, I found one of my favorite YouTubers: Peter Coffin. Today his followers reach into the five digit arena, and along with a few other ‘Tubers I discovered early on, he’s one of those people that I watch not only for the hilarity (which would be worth it in and of itself – have you subscribed to him yet?), but also for inspiration.

But enough of the pleasantries. In a recent tweet, Peter commented “You want to make a movie? Cheap? Buy a couple Canon 7ds. ” and linked to this video, which obviously had some sponsorship from Canon. Go on, you can watch it, I’ll wait.

Okay, eyes back up here class. When I watched the film, I have to say, I really liked it. That it was shot on a camera that’s designed to take pictures only adds to the wow effect. But going back to the tweet that introduced me to the video, I was really conflicted.

For starters, watching that video, the first thing I noticed was that these guys are pros. The opening shot is done on a Jib. Throughout the film, you see signs that their 7D was being stabilized by steadicams, tripods, and dollies that I’m willing to bet my hat cost more each than your first car, unless you were one of those rich kids I always spited growing up. About halfway through the film, you see a field audio recorder in the bottom of one frame that easily costs a grand. The film is definitely color corrected, the aperture on their lens is tuned in on each shot like a pro did it, and everything is very tidy in general. These guys are pros.

My point behind this is, the film in and of itself is a marketing ploy. By watching it, you might start thinking that you can somehow create films like this just by purchasing this phenomenal camera (and being a Canon man, I will admit that it’s a phenomenal camera). The truth is, to make a film like this, you need the phenomenal camera, REAL post-production skills (more than the average YouTuber, or above average YouTuber for that matter), a $2000 jib, $1500 dolly, $3500 steadicam, a few grand in audio capturing components, field lighting for better field depth, a couple years of training, and a corporate sponsor to justify the 90 hours you’re going to spend on the project. Yeah, the camera is cheaper than shooting on, say, 32mm film stock, but the camera part of professional filmmaking is one of the lesser costing components if you’re doing it right. So Peter, while I love ya, I disagree, this isn’t really a “cheap” way to make your movie at all.

But the man who criticizes without actually offering a solution is no man at all, says me. So what DOES it take to make a great film on a budget? Here’s my list of things you need if you want to put together your neighborhood’s summer blockbuster:

1. Imagination. The human brain is a great tool. Use it. So many producers get so caught up in buying the right toys that they forget that the most important part of any film is not the hardware that shoots the story, but the story itself. There are films that have made it into global distribution which were shot with virtually no budget on equipment that was laughable. (El Mariachi comes immediately to mind.) The reason these films float is because there’s a visionary behind them, who puts the story ahead of the equipment.

2. Ingenuity. You want to shoot a film the right way, on great equipment? Don’t buy it. Instead, beg, borrow, and, uh, “liberate” what you need. At this year’s Cannes film festival, director Marc Price blew the world away with his zombie thriller “Colin”, which he produced on a, get this, $70 budget. Yes, seventy dollars. It cost more to enter his film at Cannes than it did to produce the thing! And topping it off, he did the film right, on film stock, with makeup artists, sound, lighting, the whole nine yards. If you read the CNN article, you realize that his secret was n networking, and getting all of his friends to bring what they had to the table. So before you start thinking about spending two grand on a camera, why not think about what resources you might have available. MacGyver will be so proud.

3. A camera, any camera (and the know-how to use it). Ready for a shocker? Great films are’t made great by the cameras that shoot them. The Blair With Project, which for ages held the record for the highest profit to cost ratio in a feature film, was shot on Sony consumer grade Digital 8 handycams, much like the one I bought in a pawn shop about 6 years ago for $100. Seriously. So everyone who insists that you need big spendy cameras to make a good film, get over yourself. What you really need are the brains to maximize the usage of what you’ve got. Sure, a nice camera gives you more latitude to perfect your shots, but it’s not as important as knowing how to use a camera. Even most consumer grade cameras allow you to manually control focus, white balance, aperture, and sometimes even shutter speed. Master these skills, and any old camera will come alive.

4. Quality sound recording. If there’s an area you SHOULD invest in, it’s audio. A friend of mine who shoots mostly wedding videos likes to say “Audio is 51% of the video”. What this means is, the human eye is a forgiving instrument, but human hearing is exacting. When we see, our brains can barely manage the bandwidth that our twin super high definition eyes send it, so the brain doesn’t always process all the information it gets. Instead, it takes guesses, skips over redundant parts, and gives you a “pretty good” representation of what’s out there. This is why ninjas seemed to be invisible. They took advantage of this weakness in human vision. So when we watch an image, our brain will often forgive grainy picture, shaky cameras, and all the rest. It’s used to dealing with lousy images, so it can handle that.

Ears, on the other hand, are very precise. They can detect the most minute changes in frequency, and they WILL notice horrid audio in your film. If you’ve got background noise, a TV on someplace, even a low hum from appliances, our ears can pick that up, and it can ruin a film. Despite this, I know several video producers who have $3000 cameras and still don’t own a $150 shotgunmic and a $50 boom pole. That’s just crazy! Going back to Blair Witch, a huge chunk of their budget was invested in audio, and a lot of film critics feel that the superior audio mix of the film greatly helped make it a hit. So before you buy your first $4300 ENG quality HD camera, get some microphones and the brains to know how to use them.

5. Capable co-conspirators. You can make a one-man film, but it’s a pain in the neck. Many hands make light work, and this is true in the filmmaking world as well. Having someone there to hold your boom pole and monitor lighting is important. The more crew you have, the more your focus can rest where it needs to: on the story being told. Whenever I go on location to shoot, I bring no less than two people with me.

The bottom line is that yes, the cool cameras and toys are great, but what you really need to make a good film is a good story and the knowledge of how to use what you’ve got. You don’t need $30,000 worth of gear. You need ingenuity and gaff tape. Lots and lots of gaff tape.

Components of a great film.

-Jim

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 15th, 2009 at 10:48 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.