What can I do to get noticed as a boom operator?

[Brian Drysdale]

You need to up your game before even attempting a feature.

Features are also about "real world events and issues", even fairy tales are about real dark things in the real world.

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay, I just thought documentaries were more political since it deals with actual real world events compared to fictional.

But even if I upped my game before a feature, and do it on a short film, I still have to up it quite a bit, so would spending quite a bit more money on it, and bringing in better talent be the right way to do then?

[Brian Drysdale]

Don't think of shorts as cheap thrown together productions. you don't need to spend money on film stock and lab costs, so you can put more into what's on screen. You're competing with some of the best up and coming talent. so unless you can produce a film that compares to their work and has some kind of personal stamp on it your shorts will get lost in the rush.

[Paul R Johnson]

Poor chef can spend huge amounts on ingredients and still burn the food. A good chef can make delicious meals from almost anything. A great chef with amazing ingredients produces the best!

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay, so is it about me driving a DP and actors to be good, rather than hiring better ones then? I was just told my biggest problem is the acting and cinematography, so what can I do then, to improve that?

[Brian Drysdale]

You don't drive them, you select suitable people for the roles and inspire them.

Regarding cinematography, it's a matter of selecting a suitable DP and giving them the appropriate tools. It also depends on what is meant by cinematography and if also includes the shots and their framing, it that's the case you may be better leaving it more to the DP and just give general instructions. It's surprising how little direction is given by feature film directors regarding the camera angles.

[Paul R Johnson]

If you hire a DP or actors and need to drive them to be better than they are, that's called training, or education. Directors choose trained people. They don't go into teacher moe and encourage them to do their jobs! It's about getting the best of of people, getting them to push their personal boundaries, take chances and even experiment within a framework.

Can I please urge you to NOT say "I've been told .....' You do it all the time and we just cringe waiting for the next crazy thing people have told you that you have believed. Have the courage to reject stupid statements, or at the very least, ask them to explain - which they never do, it seems.

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay thanks. I just thought maybe I should listen to other filmmakers who have done it, cause every time I try to do things my own way, I don't think I get good results. So I thought it's best to follow in the footsteps of people I know who have made more features compared to me.

But, I can try to pick suitable people without having to spend more money on it. I can try looking in other places for those people. As for cinematography, I thought I would choose shots and framing and storyboard those out, but I would want the DP to do the lighting, color and camera movement, since I am not as familiar there, if that sounds good.

[Paul R Johnson]

I suppose it is what you thing the 'D' in DP means as opposed to being a cameraman/camera operator. The troubles arise when the person selecting the framing and composition does it better than you do - do you go with their idea, because that's what you are paying them for, or are you sufficiently confident your composition is better?

That's why it's never a good move to be less skilled than your crew. The minute you lose control and their respect, you're doomed.

Many of us have said we're not very good directors, and just don't quite have their skill set - but you seem to be unshakable. You won't listen. We tell you to get experience but you resist. If you do loads of sound work, it will NOT make you a Director. It will however, make you a better sound person. A soundie rarely operates cameras, cameras are often uninterested in makeup. Costume people rarely know how to put a plug on. So many skill sets with very little crossover.

[Pete Cofrancesco]

To be brutally honest, Ryan has no business being a director, he hasn’t paid his dues on a professional set, his training consists of what he has read or what someone told him just like he copy pastes ideas from other movies. It’s a crazy quilt of opinions, rules and assumptions. I can’t fathom how he could possibly direct a feature film. I know there has been people who have acted/directed a picture maybe Ryan will be the first boom op/director.

[Josh Bass]

I think thats where making your own no/low budget shorts can be helpful...try things and fail and hopefully get better with each project but WITHOUT spending $20000. Maybe a few hundred on each short if necessary.

Working on pro sets in a low position and working your way up is another path, but I dont think sound department is the way to go as youll a) only get better at sound and b) often be too busy to observe the process and learn that way.

PA would be better probably, or somehow become an assistant to a director (NOT the same thing as as assistant director). A colleague of mine somehow was the assistant to the director of Enemy of the State (the Will Smith vehicle from years ago)...helped him out with various tasks, reworked the script with him every night during prepro or maybe during the shoot. Something like that would be great for Ryan but I have no idea how one lucks into that position, especially in Ryan’s area.

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay, I've been a PA on productions over the years so far. So far I've been making shorts for only a few hundred. I would like to correct the mistakes of the acting and cinematography not being very good. But spending money on bringing in talent from further away areas and allowing more people to choose from is not the way to go then?

[Josh Bass]

Better people help but another component is having the judgment to know when those better people arent doing something right. pro actors and DPS still screw up or at least do something different than what you wanted and you have to be able to tell when thats happening AS it happens, not in post. Throwing money at the actors and crew wont solve that problem cause that problem comes from you.

[Brian Drysdale]

You'll need to move up the budget scale if you want to bring people in. BTW the shorts here, that receive some funding through schemes, have much higher budgets than that, it includes production insurance, equipment rental and other costs. Of course, these budgets are now much smaller than when they were being shot on film and the budget included delivering 35mm prints. This is competitive and so involves selection.

A few hundred dollars would be for entering the film into festivals, unless you only enter the free entry ones. The US ones tend to cost money and you need to enter a few in order to get selected, especially if you apply to the ones that receive a lot of entries

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay. I want to get better at directing actors but it's tough. For example, one of my short films I wanted two actors to walk down a hallway and talk to each other. However, the actress kept stopping her walking and stopped to talk. I just explained that I wanted her to walk and recite her lines simultaneously. But she kept stopping, and I tried to explain to her after every take, where she kept stopping to talk.

Finally I just gave up after like six takes of it. But in this example, what could have done better as director to get her to walk and talk?