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How to Ruin a Great Performance: The Real Cost of Skipping Rehearsals · Indie Film Podcast

0:00
We don't need rehearsals. They're rehearsing on their own.
0:03
No, they're not. No, they are not rehearsing on
0:06
their own. And you know what?
0:07
If they tell you that they are, they're actors, they're liars
0:10
and they're good at it. Chuck, what's the most valuable
0:14
pre production prep that you can do to ensure a good film?
0:18
Rehearsals. Thank you for that Welcome to
0:21
indie film podcast. I'm Vic.
0:23
And I'm Chuck. Today we are on episode 2 of our
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Seven Deadly Sins of Indie Filmmaking series.
0:29
Last week we talked about bad scripts.
0:31
Today we're going to talk about a great way to ruin a good one,
0:34
which is skipping rehearsals. Truly the fastest and easiest
0:37
way to sync your film. Or your friendships.
0:39
Or honestly, your reputation. Or all three if you want to try
0:42
real hard. Skipping rehearsals can lead to
0:45
things like very rush production, falling behind on
0:48
set, missing your shots, or performances that sort of feel
0:51
like everyone just met 5 minutes ago.
0:53
And that's because everybody just met 5 minutes ago.
0:56
So let's talk about the six things that we include in our
0:59
rehearsal list. Victoria, do you want to start
1:01
off? Yeah, I think the first thing is
1:03
probably something everybody considers a part of rehearsals,
1:06
which is running lines. Also character work with your
1:08
actors. Blocking and choreography.
1:10
Difficult camera movements. Special effects test thing which
1:14
I will also include makeup testing in that.
1:16
Good one. And then just new areas in
1:18
general. For example, if you're a
1:21
director that's never shot 10 actors in one scene before,
1:24
maybe you should rehearse that a little bit so you're not wasting
1:27
everybody's time on set. Probably a good call, yeah.
1:30
Do you want to talk to know if everyone can hear you on set?
1:32
Yeah. Sorry to interrupt there.
1:34
Do you want to talk a little bit about situations where you've
1:38
been on set where it was clear that actors didn't run lines,
1:42
didn't do their character work, and maybe even maybe even the
1:45
extreme case of an actor coming on set that is not off book?
1:50
Yeah, I think we've probably all have at least one Horror Story
1:54
where somebody showed up without being off book.
1:57
And and I understand there are some moments where especially
2:00
for, you know, longer monologues and things or or really fast
2:04
bantery type situations where you haven't had a chance to
2:06
rehearse with the other person yet.
2:08
It's feeling a little clunky or a little rough, or maybe a few
2:10
lines get put the wrong order, but generally speaking you can
2:14
tell when somebody didn't bother to look at the script until that
2:18
morning and they're on their way to set.
2:20
Yeah, it's was really interesting to me when I
2:23
transitioned from doing a lot of independent film work where it
2:27
was just friends of mine which still do that.
2:30
Right. And these are unpaid sets and
2:34
then going on to do sound on like some paid commercial sets.
2:38
And just because you're paying someone, it doesn't mean that
2:42
they're going to show up off book.
2:44
No. And when I was working on just
2:46
friendly sets and things were last minute, it would be
2:49
expected sometimes where it's like, sorry, we didn't have a
2:52
chance to look at the script cast in our friends who are also
2:55
actors, they have to look at their lines really quickly
2:57
before they get on. Hopefully it's not too
3:00
difficult. Yeah.
3:01
But when I went on the first commercial set where somebody
3:03
was getting paid and I saw that happen and it was nice because,
3:07
like, the onus wasn't on me. It wasn't.
3:09
My fault. Yeah.
3:10
It wasn't my production, but then it made me realize that,
3:14
you know, when it gets to the point where I am producing
3:16
something where I'm in charge of the budget, that's not going to
3:19
be a given for me is, well, I'm paying this actor.
3:23
Of course they're going to show up off book, because they might
3:26
not. They definitely might not, and
3:28
it's it. There's no faster way to grind
3:31
your entire set to a halt. Then you roll action and.
3:37
Line Nip. We can.
3:40
Cut this together, right? Yeah, we could just do it.
3:42
You could just feed me the lions, right?
3:44
Maybe some cue cards. You have a teleprompter,
3:46
something like that. Yeah, you're not Marlon Brando.
3:50
Everybody out there you should probably get off book like
3:52
that's that's key. And yes, it's it's one of those
3:56
things that we've done and we can we're going to get into that
3:59
a little bit later about respecting everybody's time
4:01
because we had a episode where we talked about budgeting.
4:04
Yeah. And it is nice when people are
4:07
generous with their time, but also, you know, you only got one
4:12
shot to get one opportunity. You only got one shot to get
4:15
what you need. But there's only one opportunity
4:17
when you have everybody on set to get all the footage that you
4:20
need. And you don't want that to be
4:22
difficult. No, in the moment you want,
4:24
you're already going to have stuff popping up that's going to
4:27
be hard to handle. Yeah, there are so many
4:30
unpredictable things that can happen on set.
4:32
If you make sure you have rehearsals, then you know at
4:36
least these actors have some familiarity with these lines.
4:39
For sure, for sure. Do you want to talk about
4:41
blocking and movements at all and stuff that you've done in
4:44
that realm for film? Yeah.
4:46
So blocking and choreography and general movements, I feel like
4:50
that covers a lot. But especially if you have
4:52
things where you have literal dance choreography, for example,
4:56
you want to rehearse that. And then if you have, you know,
5:00
any sort of fight or stunt sequences, those are just a
5:03
safety precaution to make sure that you try to rehearse those a
5:08
few times and then general movements.
5:11
So that way if you're having these rehearsals and you can
5:14
have the character sort of walk through ideally in the space in
5:18
the location, right, That would be really cool.
5:19
But budget doesn't always allow that.
5:22
So you may not have access to the exact location, but even if
5:25
you've got just a garage somewhere and you can kind of
5:28
clear out some space and use a little bit of painters tape or I
5:31
guess you could use gaff tape, but it's so expensive.
5:32
I don't know if I would masking tape or something like that to
5:35
sort of mark off like, well, here's where the stove is in the
5:38
kitchen or. Just go out in a yard or a park
5:40
and use some sticks. Yeah, you've got options here.
5:42
You've got, you can get real flexible with some of this
5:45
stuff, but being able to run through some of those movements,
5:48
especially if your camera team is available to be there, yes,
5:51
and they can watch it happen and know what to expect with some of
5:54
these movements. Not only does that help inform
5:56
your shot list and your storyboard, but it also means
5:59
that your DP is going to be able to say something like, Oh yeah,
6:02
if there's a wall right there, I can't film them that close to
6:06
me. Yes, and start to point out some
6:08
problems you can catch before you're on set.
6:09
Yeah, which when you're just starting out and not knowing the
6:12
difference, you know, lens widths and and framing, it's
6:16
going to be tricky. Sometimes you'll assume that
6:18
something is going to be easy to get filmed on set, but maybe the
6:22
space is really small. And that's one of the first
6:24
things that we ran into when we were starting to film a lot to
6:28
my brother and I, it was it was getting into these spaces and
6:31
you always think, well, it's bigger in my head than it
6:33
actually is in real life, it. Always is.
6:36
It's unfortunate. And if you're not an
6:37
accomplished cinematographer, it's going to be different,
6:40
difficult for you to just get in that space and and think, oh,
6:43
OK, well, I can just throw an 18 on.
6:45
And then, well, this is way too fish eyed.
6:48
This looks really weird in here with these two people sitting
6:51
next to each other in this table with a wall that's six feet
6:53
away. For some reason, it gives an
6:55
eerie, very 90s vibe to this film I wasn't planning for.
6:58
Yeah, yeah. Actually, I was on a set
7:00
recently that did the complete opposite, which was really nice.
7:05
It was, oh, actually it was director Amanda Woods.
7:07
She's been on the podcast before, and she was directing
7:11
this one. And she had us rehearsing in her
7:14
living room and kept us. She was like, no, we can't move
7:18
too much of the furniture or anything.
7:19
I want you all to be very used to all the obstacles that are
7:22
here because the space that we're shooting in is very, very
7:25
small. And warned us right up front
7:27
that especially when we had a bunch of stunts happening in
7:30
this small space with about eight or nine people in a tiny
7:34
space all fighting and jumping over each other, we had to
7:38
rehearse within those constraints too.
7:40
So then by the time we actually got to the filming location, I
7:42
walked in, I was expecting a closet and I was like, oh,
7:45
actually, no, there's plenty of space in here for us to all
7:47
move, which was the opposite of what usually happens.
7:51
So it was really nice that the director had had time to tour
7:54
the location with the DP, take a bunch of photos and set up
7:58
expectations appropriately for us during the rehearsal process.
8:00
That's really solid. It was really nice.
8:02
I was in sales for years and the the one line that I held onto
8:07
that helped me keep customers long term was was under promise
8:11
and over deliver. Yeah.
8:13
And I feel like a lot of times on indie film sets, there's a
8:16
lot of over promising. And it's very genuine, right?
8:19
Everybody thinks that their movie is going to be the next
8:24
insert name of Clerks famous indie film.
8:28
Yeah, Clerk, Sir, I'm the next Richard Linklater.
8:31
Whatever the case may be, you don't go out doing it if you
8:34
don't think that you have a shot at your film becoming famous.
8:38
But the reality is, is that 99% of the films that are made on
8:43
the indie film scene really just get screened at a couple film
8:46
festivals and mostly to friends and family.
8:48
Yeah. And that's the reality of the
8:49
situation. Which is not a bad thing and can
8:52
be leveraged for other stuff down the road.
8:53
And at the end of the day, it's also a movie you made and you
8:56
put your art into the world. Yeah, if you're not bringing in
8:59
several billion dollars for your $5000 short film, please don't
9:03
think that that's a failure of that short.
9:05
Film no, no for sure and everything everything moves in
9:09
steps anyway. But that's really cool that that
9:11
Amanda did that on on your set, like just basically prepping you
9:15
for these difficult movements in a set that's actually going to
9:18
be smaller than when you're going to be filming it.
9:20
It was perfect. Because it's better to do that.
9:22
Yeah, than than be crammed when you're shooting and you didn't
9:25
rehearse on that. Exactly, especially for fight
9:27
stunts where the it's a safety concern and a safety issue.
9:31
Do we want to talk about some excuses for skipping rehearsals
9:33
that we've heard? Or we imagine we might hear
9:36
someday, and we have an answer written down so that we can have
9:40
a witty retort ready when we hear them.
9:42
I really do, but I do want to mention one thing first.
9:45
As far as the difficult camera movements as a part of rehearsal
9:48
goes, I need to remember the name of this app and I want to
9:52
say Magic Cinema Lens. Yeah, yes, if you.
9:56
Something like that there's. Free camera apps for They're
9:59
different for Android and for iOS, but they do make apps that
10:04
are free and some of them are paid, but you can basically put
10:07
in the model of camera that you have and then the the lens.
10:11
Millimeter shooting with. And it'll just preview that shot
10:15
for you right on your phone. And it's so practical and you
10:18
can just take a quick screenshot and then your storyboard is
10:21
done. And obviously these apps are not
10:23
a sponsor because I can't remember the name of them.
10:27
So even if they were a sponsor, they aren't anymore.
10:29
Just congratulations. Yes, just check, check it out if
10:32
you're if you're trying to get something done quickly, because
10:34
sometimes if you get in the space, you don't want to take
10:37
your cinnamons collection, Yeah, and your black magic or whatever
10:41
other camera clip on. The chat gear to.
10:42
Haul around, yeah. And then there's, I mean,
10:44
there's ways I used to do math a lot of times because I have a
10:46
small micro 4 thirds set up and it's like, well, this is an APSC
10:49
sensor that we're going to be shooting on.
10:51
And it's like, well, I just divide it by 1.5 or whatever and
10:54
then I can adjust my millimeter, which it doesn't quite work.
10:57
It's not a. 100. Percent.
10:59
But it is impressive that you know the math and the ratios and
11:02
the correlation to all that because.
11:03
Full frame to APS seat of micro 4 thirds is all like tricky math
11:08
if you're trying to bounce between all three of them, but
11:11
you know it's easier just to get the app.
11:12
And I went into camera because I thought I wouldn't have to do
11:15
math. Yeah, here we are.
11:16
You always have to do math. Math is everywhere.
11:19
Dang it, my man teacher was right.
11:21
And like, you know, like crazy cinematographers and, and DPS,
11:24
they can actually eyeball distances within an inch because
11:28
they're so used to. I have.
11:29
Seen people do that and it's the coolest thing.
11:32
If you ever get a chance to be on a set with some of those like
11:36
the the the tough gaffer Bros, I guess it's hopefully not the
11:40
offensive way to say that, but that's kind of how I refer to
11:43
them. They're usually in a band T of
11:45
some kind that's from some big tour and they've got all the
11:49
stories and they're just going to walk right up, set this exact
11:53
focus. Yes, because they know exactly
11:56
how far away the talent is and just. 12 feet 3 inches.
11:59
There it is. Yeah, I'm like, how on earth?
12:01
I'm also a woman, so I've been lied to about what, 6 inches is
12:04
my whole life. So I don't know how they do
12:06
this. Perception issues.
12:11
It's tough, you know. Should we talk?
12:13
Hey, yes, about excuses for skipping rehearsals.
12:15
So, you know, sometimes you hear things like larger productions
12:20
often skip rehearsals. I'm just preparing for the big
12:22
leagues, right? Yeah.
12:24
But can you afford the time on set to wait until the 10th take
12:28
to get the shot? No, because those bigger
12:31
productions, obviously they have budget.
12:33
They do. And maybe they do skip
12:34
rehearsals or maybe they do rehearsal on set that day
12:36
because they booked the location for three days because they have
12:39
the extra money. They could do that, actually.
12:42
That kind of leads us to the next one.
12:43
Yeah. Steven Spielberg doesn't
12:45
rehearse because he worries about rehearsals ruin ruining
12:48
the moment. Where actually he just avoids
12:51
rehearsals to the point of predictability.
12:54
Yes, that's I had to look that up because I had seen the quote
12:56
about the Steven Spielberg not rehearsing.
12:58
Yeah, I guess it's been misinterpreted to that a lot.
13:01
He actually does do rehearsals. He does prefer to do like
13:04
detailed walking walkthroughs and blocking and all that.
13:07
Yeah, apparently on set, yes, he does prefer that.
13:11
But that means that it gets budgeted into the shoot day
13:13
schedule. For sure, and also Steven
13:16
Spielberg works with of very well trained actors.
13:20
Also true, he's not picking up who he could find on Craigslist.
13:23
The the thing that I worry about with low budget indie film sets
13:27
is that some actors are absolutely incredible.
13:30
Some actors are still developing.
13:32
And the fear that I have on set, more than ruining spontaneity is
13:37
that that feeling of somebody searching for their lines.
13:41
And I've talked about to other actors about this too, that when
13:44
they go on set and you can see sometimes actors grabbing the
13:50
lines out of their brains. And to me it always plays out on
13:53
camera. And that is a worse outcome than
13:57
somebody that comes off as overly rehearsed to me.
14:00
And there is a difference in it feeling like these words didn't
14:05
just pop into their head all of a sudden, right?
14:08
Because that is a careful line that actors have to tow is they
14:12
also can't look like they knew what they were going to say.
14:15
So there's a fine balance there. And it's really hard, which is
14:18
why you should try to get actors when you can and not just.
14:22
Use your friends. If possible, if possible, unless
14:25
your friends are great actors then that's just a win win.
14:27
But I will say I knew 1 actor who was so good at memorizing
14:33
lines, but it was the funniest thing.
14:35
And I don't believe they ever did much stage or film work.
14:38
I think they mostly did stage and they would rehearse with
14:43
their script in hand and they would like sort of just read it
14:49
out loud to themselves over and over and over again.
14:51
Which is good and a great way to memorize things.
14:54
But then sometimes during longer monologues, you could see this
14:58
actor's eyes going left to like they were still reading across
15:02
the page. Like photographic?
15:04
And I was like, I don't. Think they can see the picture
15:07
of the script in their minds and they're just reading it?
15:10
And that was kind of wild. I'd never, yeah, I'd never
15:13
experienced it it. Was a robot from the future.
15:16
That was it. AI has been here longer than we.
15:18
Expected. And then they went down the same
15:20
societal path that we did where it's like they just want to be
15:24
famous AI. Everybody spends all the all the
15:28
mark, all the marketing doesn't go to like products that help
15:30
people. It just goes to attention
15:32
seeking and Speaking of which, if you like this podcast, you
15:36
should probably subscribe to us. That's.
15:38
A great time to throw that in there, yes?
15:42
Don't forget to subscribe or follow this podcast.
15:44
Yeah, On whatever platform that you're on, we would really
15:47
appreciate it. And if you do like it, tell a
15:49
friend so. Next famous excuse for.
15:53
Skipping rehearsals. We'll rehearse on set because we
15:55
apparently didn't actually need all that time for filming.
15:58
I'm sure every shot will be a one.
16:00
Take wonder. The script is simple, it doesn't
16:03
need rehearsal. Well then, perhaps let's see our
16:05
first episode about boring stories.
16:09
Delightful. Yeah.
16:11
So there's a lot of, there's a lot of times we'll have excuses.
16:13
You know, we can do it on set, which I will say we've done that
16:16
before. We did do a rehearsal on set for
16:18
our last. We did, absolutely, but we put
16:21
that in the schedule. Yes, we knew we weren't going to
16:24
have time to rehearse with everybody beforehand.
16:27
So we made sure that that we gave what, an hour for the first
16:31
shot? Another 45 minutes for a more
16:33
complicated one like there were. We did block it off, which it's,
16:37
you know, it's not ideal sometimes, but but when you're
16:40
adults in the working world and work life balance is trickier
16:45
and trickier every single year. Sometimes you can't get
16:48
everybody together except for the shoot.
16:50
But we're going to talk about some other things that we've
16:51
done there. Do you have another example of
16:54
a? Excuse this one's my favorite is
16:57
we'll fix it in post. Yes.
17:00
By chopping together the moments where they did get the the lines
17:03
right. Oh yes, yes, unless you are an
17:06
amazing editor, I've never seen that done well.
17:09
And don't get me wrong, an editor I do believe can make or
17:12
break a performance for sure, depending on which takes they do
17:15
pick. Yes, there is a lot of validity
17:17
to that. So never make your editors
17:19
angry. Yeah, I but they can't.
17:21
Pull something out of. No, they can't.
17:24
Like if the connection and the emotion in the moment wasn't
17:27
there, Yeah. You need to have, you need to
17:29
have a good performance for them to tackle in the 1st place.
17:32
Yeah, my actors aren't being paid.
17:34
I don't want to overwork them, which actually is a valid
17:37
reason. You don't want to waste their
17:39
waste their time. Yeah.
17:40
However, maybe you should talk to the actors first about that
17:44
because they might want the rehearsal time, especially if
17:48
this is one of their first film projects, you know, or they're
17:51
trying to break into film and they need to have a good film
17:54
reel and you're one of the first things that they're going to be
17:57
using on that. Maybe they do need the rehearsal
18:00
because it would be a bigger waste for them to come on set,
18:03
spend an entire day and then not have anything usable in the
18:07
future for them. And keep in mind, if they don't
18:09
have anything usable for your for their reel, how do you think
18:12
your film's going to? Look, yes, that's that might be
18:15
a rough one. OK, the last 1 is my favorite.
18:17
Yeah, this one, because I've heard this one from quite a few
18:21
people, actually. We don't need rehearsals.
18:24
They're rehearsing on their own. No, they're not.
18:27
No, in no world are they doing that.
18:30
They they are hopefully, probably, definitely running
18:33
their lines and doing some character work.
18:35
Yes, but they are not rehearsing on their own.
18:38
And you know what? If they tell you that they are,
18:40
they're actors, they're liars, and they're good at it.
18:44
Don't trust the word of an actor.
18:47
Well, I guess maybe just the. Word of an actor.
18:49
They're also known for being vulnerable and genuine too I
18:51
guess. I suppose yin and Yang, there's
18:54
the good and the bad. All right.
18:55
Well, yeah. So obviously rehearsals are
18:57
important. Do you want to talk about a
18:59
cheap trick? I would love to talk about a
19:03
cheap trick because I think it's a really important one and it's
19:06
a very accessible cheap trick for everyone and very applicable
19:10
to rehearsals. Well, I'm on.
19:13
You're leaving me on a cliffhanger here.
19:14
What is this cheap trick? I rehearsed this pitch.
19:17
So that's how it's so good. No, I'm.
19:18
I'm on the edge of my seat, literally.
19:21
That's just because of the chairs, I think.
19:23
Anyway, OK, the cheap trick is to lean into remote and virtual
19:28
meetings and rehearsals whenever possible.
19:31
For sure, for sure. And that's cheap in the sense of
19:33
saving time more so than saving money.
19:36
Or maybe you can't afford to do anything in person.
19:38
And if you don't? Have a location or you're flying
19:40
people in from out of town or whatever.
19:42
Yes, it's still OK to do your rehearsals or your meetings
19:47
virtually. And sometimes it feels like a
19:50
waste of time when everybody gets together and it's poorly
19:52
organized. Because I've seen rehearsals
19:54
that go that way too, where it's like, why did I spend 30 minutes
19:58
driving here and then another three hours here and then like
20:01
30 minutes driving back when you only needed me for 45 minutes
20:05
tops? It can be pretty rough.
20:07
It can. Be a little bit rough.
20:08
But we actually did the pre production meeting for Lawful
20:12
Evil, which is our most recent short film that we shot.
20:15
Which if you listen to a previous episode and heard us
20:17
call it chaotic evil, yes, the title did end up changing.
20:20
We changed it. How about that in like the last
20:22
8 hours before submitting it? There were too many chaotic
20:24
evils. Yes, we looked up chaotic evil
20:26
film. There's a lot of films called
20:28
Chaotic Evil, but we had a backup name in case.
20:32
Obviously very different name. For sure we used it.
20:35
But yes. So we did that pre production
20:38
meeting by e-mail. Yeah, we didn't even we that was
20:41
totally asynchronous. And that's one thing I just kind
20:44
of want to talk about a little bit too is rehearsals definitely
20:50
are necessary. However, sometimes if you've
20:53
worked with the same people many times over, they're not as
20:57
crucial or spending the amount of time on that isn't as
21:01
crucial. You can identify problems before
21:03
they happen. Like this is a unique shot, this
21:05
is some unique blocking, and then maybe just pull in the key
21:08
players. And then another thing I want to
21:12
share about rehearsals too, is sometimes the actual product
21:16
itself can be a rehearsal, like the film can be a rehearsal.
21:22
If you have a hard time finding people to work with and
21:25
coordinating schedules, maybe you as an aspiring director and
21:29
cinematographer, throw a couple labs on a couple actors, get
21:33
them to act out a scene that you've written and see how it
21:37
goes. And just make your rehearsal
21:41
actually get captured so that you a can watch your own growth,
21:46
because there's nothing harder than looking back at some of
21:50
your older work for sure seeing. How rough it is it?
21:54
Is I feel that way when I go back to some of the older
21:57
episodes of this podcast for sure anyway.
21:59
But it's out there. But it's there.
22:01
It's on the Internet forever. It's.
22:03
Hidden in the open there. But then also it gives you that
22:07
experience of trying to coordinate all the schedules of
22:09
figuring out what a call sheet looks like, understanding,
22:12
making sure that every time you send an e-mail to people, you
22:15
always include the line. Please confirm receipt of this
22:18
e-mail because I can't tell you how many times as an AD or just
22:23
the support on set I have forgotten to include that.
22:26
And nobody replies when you send out the call sheets and you
22:29
don't know if everybody got it or not.
22:31
And that's a little nerve wracking.
22:32
Yeah, yeah. And yes, you want to make sure
22:36
everybody's on the same page, Yeah.
22:37
So it is important, but we were able to do that on ours to just
22:41
send out an e-mail for a pre reduction meeting because we
22:44
knew everybody. And we really didn't want to bog
22:47
people down with a long meeting when I could just as easily send
22:52
out an overly wordy novel length e-mail as I am want to do.
22:56
Yeah, yeah, and then with a TLDR too long, didn't read attached.
23:00
I did put a very at the very beginning of TLDR just in case
23:04
nobody was going to read the rest of it.
23:05
But I also put in multiple notes for this.
23:09
After reading this e-mail, this is what I need from you to
23:13
confirm that they saw the part about the costumes, they saw the
23:16
part about the location, they saw the part about the time.
23:19
Like, yeah, so there were, there were fail safes built into the
23:23
e-mail. But yeah, it was an e-mail.
23:24
Maybe not ideal, but also didn't waste anybody's time.
23:28
Yeah, yeah. It's, it's a balance.
23:30
It's a balance. But I am serious about there
23:31
anybody I am serious about. If anybody out there is an
23:34
aspiring filmmaker, go out, do the thing.
23:38
Don't let the rehearsal thing stop you too much because it's
23:42
going to be hard on your very first film to really like
23:45
breakthrough anyway, because you're going to run into a whole
23:47
bunch of issues that you didn't know.
23:48
You didn't know. Yeah.
23:49
And so it's better to just go out and do it.
23:51
And we actually have a friend of ours, Colin Inslee that I there
23:55
was one film that he did really well with in the Film Festival
23:59
circuit, but he was working with an actor that he knew.
24:02
And a lot of it was just improv on the day, he said, not outline
24:05
of story beats, but the same time it was with an actor that
24:09
he had worked with many times before.
24:11
He knew exactly what he was, where he was shooting, the
24:14
environment that he was shooting.
24:15
He knew, you know, exactly he knew what like the the lighting
24:20
scenario in that location. And it was like this is just
24:23
going to be an improv. You're going to go through the
24:25
story beats, we're going to get it and then we'll see what
24:28
happens. So it's, you know, kind of like
24:30
a rehearsal in practicing that you're film making skills, but
24:34
at the same time then just taking that and if it's good you
24:37
use it. And you go for it.
24:39
And if not, it was a really good rehearsal.
24:41
Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
24:43
Good rehearsals are worth feeling proud of.
24:45
Yeah, and you can bring those same people onto another set
24:47
again in the future because, you know you already have that
24:52
experience with them. You know you can do it.
24:54
O Do you want to talk about Christopher Nolan's following
24:57
his first feature film that he shot for 6000?
25:01
Because that is what a lot of people that want to make indie
25:04
films want to hear about is how cheap they can make a movie even
25:07
though it takes countless hundreds of hours to get it
25:11
across. The finish line, so much more
25:13
than that and so much if you did a film for under like $25,000,
25:18
that means you got a lot of generous offers from like food
25:23
and catering and people and locations and costumes and
25:26
things like, not that I'm saying low budget filmmaking is bad.
25:31
Low budget filmmaking is, I'm hopeful, the next big wave in
25:36
cinema. That is my that is my theory,
25:38
but hopefully not so low that nobody gets paid enough to eat.
25:42
But you know, people, people are working on it.
25:45
And for me, it was no film school, right?
25:47
I didn't go to film school. So I got my experience by
25:50
volunteering on set. Yeah, which is and that's a good
25:52
way to do it. A really valuable thing to do.
25:54
OK, so tell me more about Christopher Nolan, because it
25:57
was what, a six month rehearsal process?
25:59
For this film he for his first feature film, basically
26:03
following was first and second takes.
26:06
They shot it on film, so it was very limited, you know, limited
26:11
budget on the film stock. Yeah, but it was very cost
26:14
prohibitive to do more than 3 takes.
26:15
Yes, for sure. And then limited access to the
26:18
locations that they had scouted. And if you've watched the movie,
26:22
it's it's it's non chronological, which is kind of
26:25
cool too, because obviously he went on to do, he went on to do
26:29
memento Memento, which was famously not chronological.
26:33
But this one, it was actual actually functional too, that it
26:37
was non chronological. Because when you know you're
26:40
going to edit that way, you don't have to worry as much
26:43
about continuity errors when you're not shooting sequentially
26:48
essentially. So you can bounce around to
26:49
different locations, get the shots you need when you can get
26:52
them. But yeah, the the actors
26:54
rehearsed for six months because they had to get in and out of
26:58
the location so quickly once they were able to shoot it.
27:02
And he actually shot it in black and white because he said it was
27:07
easier to look interesting. Without having to do a detailed
27:10
color grade and all this. Yeah, especially on film, which
27:13
was like dyes and tints and yeah.
27:16
For sure. And and also, you know, you can
27:18
make a dynamic lighting scene and then not have to worry quite
27:22
as much about the props that are in that location because it's
27:25
just the reflectability and not the actual color information.
27:28
That's not the whole color scheme of the room, it's just
27:30
did all these things exist in this time period?
27:32
Beautiful. Then we're fine as long as you
27:36
don't have too many mirrors. Yeah, yeah, that's tricky.
27:40
The reflective search surfaces you want to watch out for.
27:43
I want to shoot a scene in a House of mirrors.
27:46
That would be a good one. That would be a challenge.
27:47
That would be a very challenging 1.
27:49
I don't know if I could. I've shot some very interesting
27:51
shots with a lot of mirrors because you can get a lot of fun
27:55
angles and things, but I don't know a whole House of mirrors.
27:58
That would be tough. Yeah.
28:00
I don't know if I want to attempt.
28:01
That I would just go right into it with no rehearsals and a
28:04
camera and bring my actors in and just assume I'll figure it
28:06
out on the. Set on the fly.
28:07
Wait, what were we talking about in this episode?
28:10
On that note, rehearsals at the end of the day, especially in
28:14
indie films and low budget filmmaking, rehearsals are a
28:17
luxury. Yeah, they're, they're always a
28:20
luxury. Even if you're paying people,
28:21
you're going to pay them for the rehearsals.
28:23
Yeah, too. So, but it's, it's a balance.
28:26
It is. It's important to do, it's
28:28
important to be respectful of people's time, but it is
28:32
especially for safety, for certain things.
28:35
I would say if you have any stunts whatsoever, rehearsal
28:39
instantly becomes a non negotiable for sure.
28:41
It just does. You got to make sure that you
28:43
practice that. Yeah, yeah.
28:44
And if you want better performances out of people,
28:48
you're going to want to rehearse with them.
28:49
If you're doing something that's very heavy on the acting side
28:53
and you want to make sure that the actor has a correct
28:56
motivation in mind and that the actors are playing off of each
29:00
other, like just doing it a few times a day ahead of time, even
29:04
if it's virtually, you're going to be a lot happier than if you
29:07
just have them meet for 5 minutes on set and then go.
29:11
Go into no, we've we're long lost best friends and we have
29:16
this secret language we've built between us since we were
29:19
friends, since we were two. Yeah, and, and there's also
29:22
another reason why. That's another reason why things
29:24
can get a little clicky in developing film scenes or in
29:27
even larger film scenes, as that you end up working with the same
29:30
people all the time because of efficiency.
29:32
And you trust them, you know them and you know what they're
29:35
capable of. And especially if they're people
29:37
that are kind of, they get your vibe, they get your sense of
29:39
humor. Everyone works really cohesively
29:41
on set. They're all very easygoing.
29:43
It can be really easy to get those little like clicks and
29:45
groups and companies and things. For sure for sure, but it is
29:48
good to bring new people on once you get 1 established.
29:51
Everyone needs fresh meat sometimes.
29:52
Yes they do. Bring vegetarian fresh.
29:56
Meat. I think it's just the same.
29:58
Should we talk about our our Film Maker of the Week?
30:00
Absolutely. I'm, I'm really excited about
30:04
this one. So it's Gregory Pallerito.
30:07
I think it's the shining example of finding a silver lining.
30:10
When a baseball career ended abruptly due to an injury and a
30:13
shift to film thanks to inspiration from Tim Burton and
30:15
Big Fish, which I also love, led him to lean into his first love
30:18
writing. He opted to fall into college
30:20
professor's advice and make a film in lieu of grad school.
30:24
And that short film was a hit. Fast forward a few years and
30:27
Gregory is now in distribution for his feature Moments of
30:30
Youth, with some names you probably recognize, like Sherry
30:33
O'terry. And John Farley is, yes, the
30:37
youngest Farley brother. But despite its successes, this
30:40
film was not without its own level of chaos.
30:42
From nearly 600 onset COVID tests, all negative, thankfully
30:46
to actors, no showing to a location shutting down their
30:49
allotted shooting time to four hours from the permitted 16
30:53
hours. Gregory was able to think on his
30:55
feet, pivot creatively and collaboratively solve these
30:59
issues and more issues as they popped up.
31:01
Gregory says. I actually enjoy the process of
31:04
when when something falls through and I have to think on
31:06
my feet and pivot in the moment. It's one of my greatest
31:09
strengths as a director. Getting the film made is the
31:11
difficult. Getting the film made is the
31:13
difficult part. Making the film under whatever
31:16
circumstances is not. It's always a blast.
31:18
So make sure you check out Moments of Youth on Amazon and
31:21
we'll put a link to that in our show notes.
31:24
And great mindset, Gregory. That's awesome, I love that.
31:27
You're always when you're on set, It's just a matter of
31:30
getting through the motions. It's going to get done.
31:32
You're going to figure it out. You will always figure it out.
31:35
It will always get done. And I think that's been the most
31:37
inspiring thing from having this featured filmmaker of the week
31:40
segment as a whole. Yes.
31:41
Is that so many people are showing all the ways they've
31:43
overcome things. Yeah.
31:45
And I don't know, having 16 hours to film in a school, then
31:49
suddenly showing up to that school and being told no, never
31:51
mind, you've got to be out of here in four.
31:53
That's insane. That's wild.
31:55
And they did it anyway and that's so cool.
31:58
And they had to piece meal some things with like some parking
32:00
lot shots and I think he said they ended up with like 3
32:02
schools hodgepodge together to look like one.
32:06
But they made it work. If you know your shot list and
32:08
your script in and out though, you can think on your feet and
32:11
cut in the in the moment if you need to.
32:14
That does help. It's like, OK, well, how do we
32:16
still convey the most important information here?
32:19
We got it. We're losing 1/4 of or 3/4 of
32:22
it. So what 3/4 can we lose here and
32:25
still keep the story alive and keep the film alive?
32:27
That's that's pretty cool. It's awesome.
32:29
If you want to submit to Film Maker of the Week, go to
32:31
indiefilmpodcast.com/submit. You'll find the link there.
32:35
We also do film reviews, video film reviews, written film
32:38
reviews. You can find all that
32:39
information on that website as well.
32:41
And I think the last thing I really want to emphasize is just
32:48
rehearse. Rehearse.
32:50
Yes. Please rehearse just like we
32:51
rehearse this ending right now. So, well, This is why we do a
32:55
succinct farewell. Yes, we do.
32:57
Well, shall we succinctly say. Goodbye.
32:58
I think so. Bye bye.