10 Mistakes a Producer-To-Be Should Not Make
Low budget independent filmmaking is not a piece of cake. It’s hard work with a very little chance for success. It’s doing everything yourself, asking for money, begging for favours; it’s long hours, unprofessional crew and bad actors, well… you know how it is. But it’s not the reason for not doing it. We all have to start somewhere and it’s inevitable that we make mistakes at the start which is fine — only those who don’t try make no mistakes. It’s much better to not make them at all of course. If you try to save on wrong things in the beginning, you will end up paying more later. So save cleverly.
Sandwiches for lunch
Forget about it once and for all. Don’t underestimate the power of a hot meal! First of all, sandwiches are not much cheaper — it’s an illusion. Second, people hate them. The crew will still be hungry, disappointed and upset. They will feel unappreciated and they will be right. This saving will very unpleasantly bite you in the ass right after lunch, as you will see how high spirit and enthusiasm, which you had in the morning, will roll right down and turn into mass annoyance and desire to go home asap. Try asking them to stay over time after that and I’d be very surprised if they don’t suggest that you go and make love with yourself.
Cook lunch yourself, ask your mother/friend/boyfriend/girlfriend… or better find a cheap caterer. There will be hundreds of small businesses in your area, which will be cheaper and healthier than any sandwiches. You will save money, as they will know the right amount (while you will most likely either not cook enough or cook tons). They will deliver and serve, which will save you from sticking it into your car and dealing with it on the day. They will save time, as you don’t have to cook it the night before. And what’s more important — the crew will love you and appreciate the effort.
Focus puller “for expenses and experience only”
It’s just stupid! I’m telling that to you as a cinematographer and producer — it’s absolutely bloody stupid! You will shoot yourself not even in the foot, but in the eye if you do so. Would you like a student to flight your plane? Yes, it’s that important. You spend thousands on your project, hire good actors, DOPs and directors and end up with soft focus on the best performance takes, with over time caused by endless fiddling with unknown settings of the camera and doing 10 takes for focus, embarrassing the camera crew, exhausting actors and pissing everyone off. Please don’t do that to your crew and actors, don’t turn your set into a film school as you will be wasting everyone’s time, your money and your actors’ talent.
Pay people
Isn’t it obvious? Seems like not to everyone. Surprise, surprise — you get what you pay for! If you don’t pay at all — you can guess… Who will work for no money? Students and those seeking experience. If you are happy with them in your crew — go ahead, but think carefully in which department you can use students. Do you want them to handle for example lenses, worth 50 000 pounds a set, or pull focus, the circumstances of which I already mentioned before? The choice is all yours.
A good option is trade — if you can’t pay, don’t ask to work for free, offer at least something in return — your own skills on their project, flat for a shoot, car, furniture, your liver (if it’s still worth anything)… I don’t know, whatever you can, really, and get more professional people.
The ultimate beauty of insurance
Shit happens. Sadly, all the time. You don’t want to be covered in it. As we say in Russia “there are specially trained people to take the shit when it hits the fan”. Just pay them and you’ll come out of any nuisance nice, white and fluffy.
Happy hours
Don’t schedule insane amount of hours if you ask for favours, which you do on low budgets. 12 hours maximum including lunch. It’s no fun to work more if you are not paid extra for it.
Over time
A very simple thing, but the hardest one to achieve — don’t go over time if you don’t have the budget for it. You don’t ask a hotel manager “oh, can I please stay one more night for free as I haven’t had enough rest, but don’t have money to pay”, do you? So don’t take the piss and ask people to stay one (two, three…) hours over what you have agreed and what it says on the call sheet. It’s unprofessional and disrespectful to those who are already working for you for a lower fee.
Make sure you can control your director and DOP (or the 1st AD can) and keep them on track of time (because us directors and DOPs will always try to sneak in another take or shot in). Don’t be afraid to step in and refuse “one more take” because in the end of the day these takes will pile up into over-time hours and come out of your pocket.
Oh god! Parking in London is such a nightmare!
So let’s just hope that the crew will sort it out themselves somehow. They will, but it will cost you more money. To start with it’s not a nightmare at all, it’s just expensive. But what’s not in London? Just sort it out in advance otherwise you’ll still have to do it, but it will cost you time on the day on top of money.
Just remembered an out of the blue joke about nightmares:
Doctor to his patient:
So are you suffering from sexual nightmares then..?
Well… Why suffering?
The other day half of the crew including myself had to leave set at various times to re-park our cars, as the parking around was for 4 hours only. I counted minutes each time a key member of the crew had to leave, so we couldn’t shoot, which resulted in almost two hours of overtime just because of that. Why the hell not get cheap and stress free council permission in advance?
Can we do 135 shots per day with car chases, monkeys and helicopters and the quality should be like in a Michael Jackson video? We have a tenner.
No, you bloody can’t! Have the guts to say it to the client. It’s so tempting to lie or to believe that you can. I know, I’ve been there. But it will turn against you later when you disappoint the client with quality and they will badmouth you. Or will end up paying for it yourself to keep your reputation. Stick to minimal shots and simple clever ideas — that’s how you get quality.
If you don’t have money or one-shot storyboard as the makers of “Victoria”, stay away from:
- Obviously expensive stuff and:
- Car chases
- Children
- Animals
- Firing guns
- Fighting, especially with guns
- “Fixing it in post”
Unfortunately in most cases they look shit when done on low budget.
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