Good script, quality cinematography, professional acting. Which (IF ANY!) of these can you afford to cut costs on? Any indie / student filmmaker is going to be working with limited resources and experience; often the actors are friends and family and so not trained. The camera work will undoubtedly have some issues while the film maker learns his tools and maybe the same goes for the script if it is a novice writer. The reason for my question is this – I am working on my first feature film and I struggled to get anyone else involved, so I took the decision to work alone for my first project (mainly because I was keen to get going). My concern is that I have so much of my attention on ‘making’ the film that I have little left to improve the quality of my acting, and even if I did, this is my first so the acting is going to be amateur. I did spend a lot of time rewriting the script until I thought it was passable (and I mean passable) My feeling, from watching other indie / student films, is that bad acting and slightly dodgy camera work is acceptable if the story is compelling enough. But if the story is not that good then the best camera work will not keep the audience watching. I think that good acting will keep them watching for a while but not all the way through a bad script. Of course in an ideal world we would have a great script, academy nominated actors and be shooting on 35mm with Caleb Deschanel as our DOP. But if you are just starting out and you want to build your audience, which of the three areas of yoru film project should get the most resource – script, cinematography or performance?
Acting : Indie / Student Films - where should you put most of your resource? Script, cinematography or actors / acting by W Siegfried Jerrett
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Here's 2 cents for ya - I think it entirely depends on the type of project. If it's a weak script, you absolutely Need great actors to pull it off. If it's highly visual, you can let the acting and script can slide.
A good tuppence worth indeed! Thanks Sarah. So great actors can pull off a weak script, good camera / visuals can make up for weak acting / script, but can a good script carry weak acting and camera work? From my personal perspective working on my first amateur project, I know the acting is going to be very weak, the camera work should be passable, the script... I'm crossing my fingers it's okay! It was certainly pretty dire at the first draft, just about readable at the second, hoping it's passable now that it's had a third rewrite. When I get to another project I am going to put a lot of effort into securing good actors. I guess it's liking building a custom car, you build it up as and when you can afford the parts, eventually you get everything together and you've got a mean hotrod :-)
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As a writer, I say always go for a great script. Everything else adds to that. If it's pretty shots of well-acted rubbish, it's still rubbish!
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I guess it needs to be asked: Why would you need to skimp on any of the three? I have seen insanely low budget features that have quality in all three. Much more difficult to pull off, of course, but surely you aren't looking for an easier way to make a feature. You don't need to cut costs any any of the three. You need to find (or write) the best script you can - writers will option a script of a buck to the right project. You need to find a DP with the passion and the skill (even beginning skill) who want to do an amazing job because they NEED the quality as much as you do. And actors are out there - really good ones. It can take time and effort to find the ones with talent willing to work for little or no money, but they are there - you need to do the hard work to find them. But I must say, no actor can make a weak script good. It's more than reading lines well and delivering excellent performances - the script is the overall story and a weak one will drag everything down. How many times have you seen an actor you really like is a movie with a poor script and you say, "______ was, as always, great. But want a crappy movie!"? Poor acting can drag even an excellent script down and if it doesn't all come together with great visuals then you have an incomplete experience for your audience. What about audio?
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if i were you i could cut on acting cost . for me , a good storyline + high quality sound +hight quality pictures = good movie , . even if actors are blended in there , but if you can find a cheap one " not free actor please " gloom him /her , i gues the project can have green lights .
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Ditto Rik. I've seen great stuff shot on an I-Phone. From experience I can tell you that audiences will forgive picture quality but not sound. And the crew will not forgive crappy food. Knock out a couple wepisodes to get your feet wet and take it from there. And keep us posted of your progress.
Cheers guys, I am using the 5dmkii for visuals and recording audio with a shotgun mic and field recorder, so the image and audio I am getting are pretty good considering it's my first project, its the acting and the script that concerns me. I did rewrite three times over about 9 months before I started shooting to get it the best i could at my current level of experience and knowledge but as I am filming I am finding some of the dialoge a bit clunky, so tweaking a bit as I go. It is my feeling that by the end of the project the visuals and audio would be okay, say 7/10 the story passable say 6/10 but the acting perhaps being the weakest point say 5/10. I agree with Mike, from watching other novice projects online it seems to me that the story and the audio must be good, but the visuals can be forgiven if they are not up to par. As I am the crew, cast and caterer i can only blame myself if the food is not up to scratch!
This is a rough cut of the first five minutes of my one man feature film. I feel I have been a bit heavy handed on the colour grading and sound mix, but this is my first go. What do you think? I would love your feedback stage32ers https://vimeo.com/54879453
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Definitely not the script, unless you are just practicing. There is a difference between bad performance and bad actors and that comes down to the director involved and how he gets his performances.
Hi W - What is the Genre of your project?
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i have just been re reading your post and realised your acted in this movie , right ? but the funny thing is your saying your acting is not that good though your story was good , you didn't use that good cam you needed either did you find those experienced personality you wanted but you were looking for audience in the begining of every thing , well , i know , its good to accept the reality , but i wouldn't recommand you go on post that your self , let the audience say so , they will see if there is any thing they like or not in your movie . who knows if what your calling good script might be the wrost and bad acting be the best , and another thing you should concetrate so much on post production , color your pic and make some good sound before you put your self in the public eye . surely , there is no creative mind that will ever get statisfied with their own piece of art , even those you see in the media , have alot of excuses always , they are like .... it would have been a better piece if i had so and so on board .... i wanted to shoot in this location , but the producer didn't understand me . or that dam art director messed every thing i wanted , but i did n't have a choice .... i hear she is cousin to exc , etc etc . so then try to swallow your pain , and keep it tight under your throat , your reason is understandable to every one here , unless if that person is just braging over the site , i guess he must be without a film credit , but i doubt if there any one here that has every earned a credit with out encountering such challenges . i didn't watch your rough cut , preciously because i have poor net work here in Kampala city ,am unable to watch videos on line now , other wise i should have told you my perception on your movie , may be in feature if i can find this thread again . i wish you the best of luck . Julian Nabunya .
Hey everyone, quite a few comments to respond to here - Chaz - the genre is psychological thriller / murder mystery. Art - Brilliant short, and love the fact that you tell a compelling and clear story with no dialogue. Sam (1st comment) - Great advice and great quote from R.R. I have been a jewellery designer for 20 years and been at it following that exact approach. Julian - Good advice, yes I am acting in the film, it is a total one man project, I use mannequin heads to set up the shots and then step in for the take, good advice, i will NOT self critique from now on, just do the best and put it out there. Floyd - I think perhaps you have misunderstood my situation, I am not starting sloppy and will not be turning it into a habit. I am a COMPLETE beginner experimenting and I have ZERO budget. I heard that JJ Abrams film 'super 8' was inspired by his teenage experiments with a super 8 camera, that's the stage I am at - teenage experiments (except I am not a teenager!) I spent the last 20 years designing jewellery, until recently I was managing a team of 5 designers for a top UK jewellery brand with a half million a year development budget, creating ranges that are sold all over the world, but when I started 20 years ago I was bending silver wire into freaky rings with a pair of old pliers in my dad's garage. Start with some crazy experiments on your own and learn as you go, that's how I see it, frankly to be contacting professional actors and DPs at this stage in my development would be a bit of joke and possibly a waste of their time. Sam (2nd Comment) - The best and most helpful comment so far, thanks. I definitely will not talk anything down from now on, it is not false humility but I can see what you are saying and it could be detrimental to appear to do it. Checked out your site and reel and things seem to be moving forward well for you, some great stuff on there, so good luck and I hope to do the same. As for surrounding yourself with good people, I like that idea a lot and I have had this in mind form the start of this project - my aim is to make something good enough that when I search for people to work with on my next project I can show them what I have done and they will respect it enough to work with me and do something even better for the next one. It was a video by Robert Rodriguez that in part inspired me to get going, he was on youtube giving out that message - you want to make a film, then do it, just see what happens, make it happen and learn. Thanks for the encourage words. And thanks to everyone who has gotten involved in this chat so far!