How does a filmmaker decide which aspect ratio to shoot in?

[Ryan Elder]

Yeah I wanted to pay them acceptable rates for sure.

What if an actor is only available for a certain time period though, before they had to do other parts that would require them to change their appearance though? How long are actors expected to wait for a location to be found though?

For example one actor I worked with had to be in a different city in a few weeks, for another gig, so I had to get everything shot by then, so isn't it normal to send an end date goal for everyone?

[Brian Drysdale]

I would buy a book on production management and do a lot of reading about producing a film, because it sounds like you haven't got a clue. A forum isn't the place for learning this type of stuff and people can't spend time going into details because you can't be bothered to research what you're doing.

[Ryan Elder]

I can do that but why can't I also hire producers and production managers to assist with that though?

[Paul R Johnson]

The actors employed by us have appearance as part of their contract. If they have a beard at audition, then if offered the contract, they need permission to shave it off. If the contract is longer, then they may need to remain clean shaven. If you want Johnny Depp, you might need to shoot around his schedule. If you advertise for jobbing actors who get paid, they work around you.

Ryan - you're revealing more and more that you're not ready for this. Please - as it's your hard earned money funding this, make some decisions.

Produce a proper budget proposal detailing everything. prepare contracts, audition people and tell them if they cannot commit to these dates, then thanks for coming and goodbye.

If you book amateur actors and promise them money - then they need to do the job, but equally you need to then honour your side.

I do production management and I would NOT work for you because I would need you to understand my job role and all it entails and you have no clue - none at all! Directors rarely hire producers, producers hire directors.

What do you think these people will be doing? I'm serious - what would the producer actually do?

[Ryan Elder]

Oh well in the past I found it was better to get things done by a certain end date, rather than have it ongoing because one time I couldn't even finish a short because the location kept changing so much. So I thought it would better to finish things in a not so long amount of time, before someone becomes unavailable or a location becomes unavailable. That is how I make decisions unless that's the wrong way of going about it.

[Brian Drysdale]

Originally Posted by Ryan Elder

I can do that but why can't I also hire producers and production managers to assist with that though?

You need to know their roles, especially in the very low budget production you're doing. You don't have the budget to hire people, so you'll have to either do the job yourself or oversee inexperienced people attempting to do the job.

It's pretty obvious that you'll be heading towards failure unless you change your approach, because at the moment you appear dangerously naive, assuming you're seriously proposing to direct a feature film.

[Ryan Elder]

I feel that way too sometimes...

I am doing some jobs myself to save money such as being my own editor and recording all the post production audio, so far.

[Josh Bass]

I feel like you want to make a film so badly that youre not truly thinking of the almost infinite ways it could go wrong. Perhaps telling yourself “somehow itll work out.” I would say a better thought process is quite the opposite. You should be scared, terrified of all the problems you could run into (actor issues, location issues, script problems, etc.), and thinking “how could this possibly go right?”. Think of it like a leaky boat; every potential failure point is a hole with water pouring in. Start listing and finding solid solutions to all of those holes. When youve got a plan (a good one) for every one of those issues, and probably a backup plan, and perhaps a secondary backup plan, then, maybe youre ready.

The others are right about reading up and taking classes etc. Look at it this way...youve been asking questions for 6-9 months now. Surely in that time you could have read several low budget filmmaking books (sorry I dont have specific recommendations) that cost probably less than $40 each. A class in acting maybe costs a few hundred? So for, say, $80- $400 you could potentially save yourself from blowing $20000. Wouldnt that be worth it?

[Ryan Elder]

I am terrified but I don't know what else to do cause I do not have any more money to make more short films and even if I did, people would still tell me later not to make it.

I took a film school course, and acting classes, and read some books so far, but don't know what else I can do at this point but just go out and make it.

[Paul R Johnson]

Brian and I are trying to get you to focus on the important things, but I fear we're not getting through.

Ryan -
why do you want to make a movie?
What will the benefit to you actually be?
What will the people in it see for their work?
Do you have the skills?

To be honest, the last one is a concern. From what you have told us, you are inexperienced at everything.

If you filled in a form, and it asked what you are most experienced and competent at - what would it be. Sound, Directing, Managing, Editing - you don't seem to understand the basics at all. I know you are really keen, but you've not shown so far any areas where you could excel?

You've made some really odd decisions and you've not been able to analyse and draw conclusions. It's always other people's faults.

Have you made a short you are proud of? One that has a story, got completed properly and people really like? or are you going to spend your money on the hope that the much more complex product will buck the trend and be amazing.

What have you decided to answer this topic. What aspect ratio is the project going to be in? By now, that's fixed I would assume.

[Ryan Elder]

I want to make a movie because it's the career I want to get into, and I feel it's time I took the plunge and accomplished the career goal I set for myself finally. Hopefully it will be a success. If not distribution perhaps people will like it enough to hire me for other jobs.

As for what the people in it will see for their work, well the actors will have had a payed job, that they can show off after hopefully, as well as the crew.

I think I have skills, as I have worked under other filmmakers mostly doing editing and sound, with the occasional acting part, but they keep asking me so I thought I must have something. I feel I have skills as a director, and want to improve on them.

Do I say it's always other people's faults though? I asked what I could do before to help direct the actors better. I blamed a location for not being available at the last minute, but do I say it's other people's faults?

The last short film I made I am proud of and it has most people liking it so far who see it. I wasn't overall proud of the others though.

[Brian Drysdale]

If you wish to improve your skills as a director, you don't need to make a feature film, making say a half hour drama would do that. it's still a short but you can sell it as a one of TV drama. It has the advantage that many of the longer form aspects come into play, plus your budget isn't so strained that you can't afford good actors.

Locations not being available at the last minute is an issue that directors can face, the real world intervenes all the time on film productions and you have to think on your feet. You can't use it as an excuse because the audience won't know this, they only see what's on the screen, so you adapt to the new location and make full use of it. If you've got a good script it will hold up, the shots may change, but that doesn't matter as long as you've got the performance from the actors and the new location doesn't run totally against the world in the story.

[Ryan Elder]

Well the reason why I feel I would do a lot better on the feature is because I have a lot more money to spend on it. I was told by others that I need to get better actors and better crew, and then the quality would go way up. And the money would more likely acquire those assets and the money would more likely have location owners more interested I think.

There is a group of filmmakers I helped on a feature and it was much better than their last feature. But they also had almost 100K more to make with it, so they could afford a lot better talent compared to the last one, which was made for extremely dirty cheap.

So I feel that having the talent would make for a better product. Isn't there truth to that at all?

[Brian Drysdale]

20k isn't a lot of money for a feature film, it'll just about cover the food, transport, the insurance, hiring some equipment, cheap locations and paying some actors at minimum rates for a couple of weeks at the most. The crew will be working for free, so this is a dirt cheap feature film. It's not a quality going way up budget, if it was a short film it would be, but not a feature film.

I know a first time director who made a horror film for roughly that type of budget about 15 years ago (But I suspect it was higher by the time it was all finished), but he had experienced production people as his friends working for free and a free crew who did it as a what the hell, this is crazy enough to do during a dead part of the year. He also had name actors, who were working on another film for the producer (he was making a funded feature film, but not a big budget production, back to back) and had a lot of down time, so their fees were covered by the other film. The schedule was based on their availability and this changed by the hour, fortunately it was mostly shot on one location.

All this required the director to get things done through the force of his will and personality, something you don't seem to be demonstrating. He was also very, very lucky and grabbed an opportunity when it came his way and the experienced production people kept him from crashing. Which would've been very likely if left to his own thoughts on doing things.

Has he made more feature films? No, but be still does fine art video installations and paintings (he's an artist), which what he did before..

It's worth noting that these productions tend to run out of steam after a week to ten days of continuous filming, the logistics and availability tends to run out at that point.

[Ryan Elder]

Okay thanks, but I was told to use 20k in case it didn't turn out well, that way, I won't be spending a much bigger amount.

But the features I have worked under for other people, a couple of them were shot for even less than that. The producer was of those features, was interested in my script, and so I thought if I could get him on board, maybe he would know how to help coordinate the money wisely, since he has done it on his own projects for less.