ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

9 years, 8 months ago - Jamie Kennerley

How long is a piece of strong Anthony...?!

But seriously, since you're starting totally from scratch, don't you think you would be best to find a more experienced producer to collaborate with? SP is full of collaborations, where no or very little money changes hands. You're asking to be taught how to be a producer, which is more than a thread like this can do. Find someone who knows the ropes who you can work with.

Don't confuse director with shooting crew also. Directors rarely need any kit at all...

Good luck!

9 years, 8 months ago - Anthony Cole

Thanks for the detailed responses guys,

Originally with this project I had a guy who wanted to produce and we had a long chat about what he was going to do to produce and he said the best route for this series was for us to make a pilot and use that as a pitching tool for the series, unfortunately two months later (quite recently) he dropped out of the project citing that akthough he had "utmost faith" in the project but wanted to go down a different path in his career, I'm more than accepting to collaborations and i welcome them. I know how to find directors,cast, crew, locations and funding so I realised I may aswell produce this myself, although I'm open to help from more experienced people.

I've had basic training of producing in higher education, yesrs ago i co-produced for college projects which I'm hoping gave me enough of the basics.

The script is deliberately minimal, theres one interior (a flat) and exteriors are in public places, its a mockumentary style and theres 5 actors, what crew size should I be looking at here? Or would a director best know this ?

Thanks for the pointers people :)

P.S il have a look at the guerrilla filmmaker book thank you

9 years, 8 months ago - Yen Rickeard

Hi Anthony, how long will your pilot be? 30 min or less? (24min fills a 30 min TV slot- but you know that) Is it all in the one location? 4 people or less? If the answers to all these is Yes then you should be able to manage to run the scene yourself. For my first short film I bought one oft the Guerilla Film makers books,.'The Guerilla film makers Movie Blueprint' That enabled me to make the short. Making the short taught me a whole lot more. You need to cover the legal/business side though. You must secure all the rights to your film, so you need contracts and release forms. You don't want to take risks with your cast crew, so need to do health and safety, and have insurance in place. You can do the health and safety yourself, just think through everything that could go wrong from trips hazards through blinding lights to dodgy stairs etc.
If the answer to any of the first questions was NO then you are going to have your hands full doing the directing, you need a producer or an experienced 1stAD.
But if you are going for the collaboration route, you will find everyone helps out and brings creative expertise. You do lose your total overall power tho' which can alter things.
Good luck with it.

9 years, 8 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

Sounds like your coming in completely fresh, and I'm afraid there's a bit of a mountain to climb as all that stuff mentioned above ain't easy. Rather, it is easy if you break it down and have sufficient competent people to do all the bits - knowing how to break it down optimally is the bit that takes experience. This is what a producer will do, and they'll tell you what it'll cost too. And no matter what, it will cost money - doesn't have to be a lot, but less money means greater compromise and relying on favours, so rushing and sub-optimal options.

I would suggest starting small. Really small. Break the script into 4' chunks, and shot the first one in your kitchen, or the park over a weekend. It's a comedy so it must be funny, and if you can't raise several good laughs in 4 minutes, you can't write a sitcom (yet). Post it on YouTube, and shoot the next one the following weekend, then the next one... You'll learn about episodic writing, hone your craft, find what makes people laugh, learn to make films, have a calling card and build an audience. All of those things count!