You think you have all the time on the world, the people supporting you will be there helping, acting, holding that piece of fabric on the window all the time, the locations you have will be well lit and there will be no people around, not even the clouds will move while you take out your camera to shoot that great scene you’re looking at…
LIES!… The cake is a lie!
Not even the best planning can overcome all problems you will encounter while shooting something (Yes, I’m talking about using a camera… What else?). Shooting plans suddenly loses sense once you encounter one problem, all this because problems you encounter are like “Wild pokémons”, they appear when you don’t expect them or just when you think everything will be okay just by walking a bit on “the grass”… Try to remember “Moon Cave”, the faster you want to go out, the more frecuently you will have “Wild encounters”.
So… What to do if I find some problems during production?
First: Panic! Run around the desk, bite your nails to the bone and go to the corner in fetal position…
Second: If you can, skip the previous actions… Then, Dont panic! breathe, open your mind and see what you can do with the available resources, if you can, call people that can help you achieve what you want and always remember something, if you have time and resources, try to reprogram the shooting, if you are short in something (time/resources/actors/etc…) be creative, remember that some of the best things are not even planned…
Don’t get to possessive with locations. Locations can change everyday if it’s in a public space or if it’s an exterior… Also have in mind Mother Nature, wind, rain and that barking dog at the distance may not be in your plans at the time of shooting a scene.
Now, the cast… Oh the wonders of working with people… Sometimes I thing about having lots of carbon-copy clones, and hopefully they’ll be all the help I need for my projects, they’ll understand every aspect of the production and will do everything right at the first shot, even that double back jump from a moving vehicle… Sadly, that’s not possible, and you, no matter how good or bad are with something, you will need other people help to anything. So, get the best people you know to help you, and If you can get some professionals or more experienced and reliable people to do the work and remember, not because somebody is a friend or related with you means that he or she will be available at all times to do whatever you have in mind for the project… So, talk with each person involved on the project before start to let them know what you expect from the project and what will be their roles on it. But do it for real, or it will be a bummer to get to shoot a scene at 7:00 am on sunday and half the cast is still drunk on a house at the other side of the city.
Now, the time… That little thing that get us when we less expect it. Just try to get to schedule for as long as you can, if you can do something before schedule and save a few days with it just do it, postproduction and editing it’s very time consuming, you will thank that extra time to edit or re-color that key scene or just reshoot something that couldn’t be saved on editing.
And at the end, just try to have fun… Or you’ll be doomed, and easily bothered, and having headaches, constantly worried about everything writing long post on your blog. 🙂
