Why you should always have a Casting for your film?
May 26, 2011 by colm
Casting is one of the keys to producing a really good film. If you run an effective casting, you will put yourself ahead of the competition dramatically. An Amateur film is always obvious. The big give away is actors who can not act. So therefore it is imperative that you organize a successful casting. This way your film will look professional.
Actors from The Makeover.
Why do most emerging film makers ignore casting?
Most emerging film makers feel that they are not experienced enough to cast. Since they are only starting out, they should not deal with experienced actors. So it is much easier to pass and use your friend who is funny after a beer or two in the pub or the actor you have heard about through a friend of a friend. Disaster.
Lets get three facts straight.
- Most actors are out of work. Most actors are resting. Most actors are working in resteraunts, cafes or bars. If you have a casting for a short film or a feature film, they will be very excited about the propsect of getting in front of the camera.
- Most actors are used to auditions. If an actor has an agent, they consistently attend castings for commercials, small parts in TV dramas and very rare feature films. When they are cast for a commercial, they will be paid big money but it will not move their quality career ahead. When they get a 90 word part in a TV drama, they will be very envious of the regular actors working on the TV show. The actor will be very keen to prove themselves in their own acting vehichle.
- Therefore actors who have not yet made it, (which is nearly all of them) will be very keen to be the leads in a short film or low budget feature film. They will attend your casting and hope to get the part.
On big films castings are more complex. You have two specific groups of people who work in the casting area. You have the Actors Agent such as the Ari Gold, the fictional character in the TV show Entourage. He is based in part on the real-life Hollywood agent Ari Emanuel. The Actors Agent represents the Actor.
Then you have the Casting Director who represents the Director and the search for the hottest acting talent for your film. Many top directors will spend months in Casting sessions. This specific person called a Casting Director essentially creates a list of actors for the Director to see. The Casting Director at their Casting Company, will have preliminary castings so as to create a shortlist. They will call the actors agents and select a list of their actors. This is why every actor has to have a really good agent if they want to make it in acting. Now, this is how it happens in the big end of town
However the emerging film director and producer need to avoid the expense of the above process. How can you do it for free for your micro budget quality film.
Firstly avoid actors agents, unless you have budget to pay actors. The really good agents will not deal with micro budget film productions.
Secondly, avoid a Casting Director. Do you very own casting in your own casting space. See every single actor who wants to attend. Like a gold prospector, you will shift through all the dross to find the gold. I guarantee you, if you run two to three five hour sessions of castings, you will find gold. You will find some great actors who will lift your film production above the competition.
How do you learn to run an effective casting, I hear you say. Of course you need to know where to source the actors. Also you need to know how to run an effective Casting. You need to know what are the essentials and that is why we have the solution for you.
Please check out the Online Film School or our Complete list of practical or live Film Courses.
In our courses, we teach you how to cast and run an effective casting and how to source your actors.
Till next week have a great one.
Colm O’Murchu
Director International Film Base.
Author Details: Colm O’Murchu is the owner of International Film Base in Sydney Australia. He is currently written directed and produced The Makeover Feature Film. The Film screened at the recent Cannes Independent Film Festival in France and won Best Film at the New York City Film Festival. The Film is currently on release in Australia and has sold to Pay TV in Europe. Colm has created the Online Film School and practical or live Film Courses. that helps emerging film makers produce their own films with no budget. For more about Colm O’Murchu please go to International Film Base
Four Tips for finding Locations for free
May 17, 2011 by colm
Location Location
I am very much looking forward to presenting the Weekend Film School in Sydney on this Saturday and Sunday May 21st, 22nd. One of my favourite parts of the Weekend Film School is how we get people to meet each other and network. On Sunday Afternoon, we launch film projects that then get produced over the following three months. If you are in town and have next weekend free, please enroll on one of the very best film making weekends, The Sydney Weekend Film School
What I want to talk about this week is Locations. Finding locations for your film is one of the easiest part of preproduction.
Beautiful Cafe Scene for Free on The Makeover
Tip One Do not be afraid to write as many locations into your script as you need for your story to be told. I love beautiful locationsand finding the best locations in your city is rather easy. There is an old adage in low budget film making that says “Shoot in a one loacation for three weeks and never move out of there. Yes that is called a play and there is nothing wrong with plays. But if you are shooting a movie, make the movie visual. One can do this by having appropriate locations in your film.
Tip Two . Only have one location move per day and do your best to to schedule only one location for a full shooting day. Over a 30 day shoot, you could have 30 locations. Moving in the middle of the day chews up time. I remember supervising a student short film called Money We only had a one day shoot and we had five locations to shoot in. We spent half the day in the car driving from one location to the other. If you have to change locations, only move once on the day. I know this seems contrary to what Tip One outlines. It is important to find the balance.
Tip Three: Make sure that you have a written agreement with the location owner. Most locations are free and are contributions to the film. Still it is very important to have an agreement. with the owner about the hours and day the location is needed for. Also outline
- Will the location get an end credit in the film?
- Will the location signage be seen in the film?
- Make sure that the location is free of all external people or customers. There is nothing worse than shooting in a cafe that is still open to the public. If the location has external people, pack up and go home.
Bar Location for Free The Makeover
Tip Four. Clean up the location after the shoot and make it cleaner than before you arrived. This is very important and I know I am stating the obvious.
If you get the owner excited about your film in advance of shooting and then when you leave the location, the owner is happy , you will help future film makers have an easy time. That could be you again. Invite the Location Owner to all parties and screenings. Leave a great impression.
Of the 55 locations that we found for The Makeover Feature Film, 44 of them were free. When an owner, contributes a location to your film, they are in a way an investor in your project.
On our courses, we teach you how to find locations with ease and for free. Find out more about our courses by clicking on an interesting course on our home page
Financing your film
April 20, 2011 by colm
Financing your film:
Every film needs finance of some form. Even the most basic short film needs finance. Finance pays for the Cast Crew Equipment postproduction music creature comforts and locations. Films cost money. However you can be very clever with how you make your film happen. I personally have made three many films where three months out from shooting we had no money and ended up with about $50,000 Cash Budget and about $500,000 of Contributios on the first shooting day. Where there is a will there is a way and when you set a deadline, everything will fall in your way to make the film happen.
The Prime Directive of Micro Budget Film Production:
The Principal of Micro Budget works on the fact that
• every contribution
• every free location
• every crew member who works as a co- owner and
share holder
• every actor who works for a percentage
• equipment that you can get at a reduced price
is Finance for your Film.
This is your Non Cash Budget and should be 80% or more of a total budget for your micro film budget
It is difficult to get everything donated, if you are making a professional standard Film. Minimum professional Standards imply that you look after
Crew and Cast and feed them and treat them well. This costs money. Sometimes a location will cost money. Sometimes you have to pay for Equipment hire Editors and Sound Mixes.Here is a great rule of thumb and only a guide. Everysituation is different.
Budget Categories:
Home Video $ 0 – $100
Amateur short film $ 1,000
Professional Short Film $2,000 – 5,000
Micro Budget Feature Film $ 50,000 – $100K
Low Budget Feature Film $200K-$1millionK
Low budget Feature with a B Star $1 millK – $4millK
Mid Range Feature $4 mill – $10millK
High Range $10 million plus,
Studio Big Budget $50 – 200 million
If you are starting out, think about jumping to Professional Short Film level. It is ultimately more fun and what our film courses are all about. I guarantee film students of mine will become more compeditive than 98% of those trying to make their first few films. This means Film festival exposure work and faster rise to your film goals.
There are six different methods for raising finance and our Online Film School and our Weekend Film Schools will show you how to raise your finance.
One of the methods is my new favourite. By taking our Online Film School or Weekend Film School you will be able to use a combination of the finance methods to make your budget. The Online Film School or/and the Weekend Film Schools will be worth literally thousands of dollars in finance for you.
Best till next week
Colm O’Murchu
Director Australian Film Base
16 Steps to make your film happen now
April 14, 2011 by colm
Today I want to talk about the first of sixteen steps in making your film. Step One is Screenplay.
Screenplay is the foundation of any great film. However it is very important to prepare before writing a screenplay whether it is a short film or a feature film.
There are several areas one needs to get ready before writing your script. Here are just a few of them.
- Idea generation. The Script writer needs to get in the right frame of mind to generate ideas.
- Character Creation: One needs to work out the physical, sociological and psychological profiles of your characters. This is one of the most important aspects of developing a screenplay. Often it is ignored. When I was writing The Makeover, I wrote approximately 10 pages on each character and I could tell you everything about their life. I had all the detail on their family on the characters first job, first girlfriend, their obsessions, their relationship with their father mother and what their hobbies the character had. I wrote these profiles using 27 areas of character, I teach in the Online Film School.
- Scene by Scene Outline is so important before you write your script. This means that you actually work out what happens in each scene. All you have to do is write the briefest of Synopses and then you have the map that will help you during the writing process.
The above is only some of what you need to prepare before writing your script. The rest we outline in the Online Film School Screenplay section.
When you actually write the first draft of the script, one of the best ways to write is to write 3 pages per day.
That means if you write five days a week, it will take you two months to complete your 120 page screenplay.
Three pages a day usually only takes a maximum of 90 minutes and can be written a lot faster. Writing a small amount every day means that you will enjoy the process, keep your day job and have a fun topic of conversation at the dinner party that weekend.
Of course you will need a script writing software. On the Online Film School we supply a free download of a script writing software that would normally be worth $200 – $300 if you bought Final Draft. Why not get the Online Film School and get a free scriptwriting software download.
Formatting your script is so important if you want to make films.
To the fun of making films. Till next week
Have a great one.
The Director on set
February 11, 2011 by colm
I know it has been a while since I last wrote to you. Life has been busy and the first month of the year has just slipped away. My highlight of the month was my trip to New Zealand and the Auckland Weekend Film School. I also visited the South Island and paid a visit to some of the locations for Lord of the Rings near Glenorchy.
Today I would like to talk about the Director on Set. There are many different seasons in the film process and ironically the Shoot is the most intense exciting and shortest season of all.
In Film Production, there are two different types of Directors.
The Heart and Soul Director is involved with the script from start to finish, feels passionate about the film, will take a salary cut to get the perfect scene, is involved deeply in postproduction and often hangs out at film festivals and screenings and meets the audience.
The Gun for Hire Director is motivated by money and keeping a job. They are recruited often just before preproduction starts and in some cases they only hang around for The shoot.
However the vast majority of Gun for Hire directors will work on Post production for some months after the shoot. Once they have a Directors Cut, they will hand it over to the Creative Producer who will make further adjustments to the film.
Both types of Directors are at the centre of the production in the shooting process.
The shoot involves many different people. The Director speaks to only certain Key people in the Crew. The main people are:
The Actors: Obviously the Director will direct the actors.
The DOP (Director of Photography). The Director requires the DOP to execute the Shot List or Storyboard and create the visual look that the director is after. Its very important that these two people get along.
The First AD The person who keeps the film on schedule and the crew working hard. The Driector will be in constant communication with the Director.
The Continuity Person. This person sits side by side with the Director at Video Village and looks for any continuity errors and problems with the shot. For example, microphones that have slipped into frame ,any nasty camera reflections. She is also a sounding board for the Director. They can be very close in the shoot.
The Sound Recordist The Director talks to the Sound Recordist about any sound issues during shooting
Standby Wardrobe. If the Director is not happy with any costumes, Standby wardrobe will hear about it.
Standby Makeup Likewise the Director may not be happy with certain makeup and will want a change
Standby Props. If props are needed to be altered or placed in different places Standy props will need to change them.
These are some of the people that the director will talk to during the shoot. A Director is tested throughout the shoot. It takes experience to learn how to be a Director so it is very important to learn from a Directing School and learn how to Direct.
Please look at our Film Directing Schools on
http://www.australianfilmbase.com/
Till next time
Have a great one.
Colm O’Murchu