Should I work with this composer again?

[Paul R Johnson]

..... and in Ryan's productions he is actually wearing so many hats it really shouldn't matter as he only has himself to deal with in the planning and production phases. Decisions are practical ones - you promised the location owner that you'd cause no disruption and be out and gone by 12.00, but at 14.00 you are still shooting scene 1, over and over again because the actors can't manage the dialogue, or the wall colour is blue not green, or the owner wants to unplug the light and make a cup of coffee from his only power outlet, or the costumes don't fit or, .................

[Ryan Elder]

Well one of the actors I've worked with, says that I would do a much better job, if I didn't try to fill so many hats, and I need more crew who can do more jobs, and I need a line producer as well, he said, so I can just concentrate on directing, and stop trying to be a jack of all trades, so I can master the one.

[Brian Drysdale]

Unless you've got the experience it's difficult to do all the jobs. Many of them you shouldn't be doing on the same day as the filming, however, on very low budget productions you may have to do a number of the jobs at some point.

On the filming day, your main focus should be on directing, although, other decisions have to be made. If you're not the most flexible person when going with the flow, you need to do more planning in advance. Ensuring that you have a good relationship with the people lending you locations would be part of this advance work.

Being a director involves making full use of your people skills, especially if you've got a low budget.

[Paul R Johnson]

Ryan this actor is spot on and it's what we've been saying for ages. One of the hardest skills to manage is delegation - finding the right people who will take on the individual skill areas and letting you direct like the Captain of the ship.

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay, it's just I was advised on here before to make zero budget projects, and I find it difficult to get a lot of experienced people involved, who can handle different departments, on a zero budget production.

[Paul R Johnson]

Ryan you've been advised on hundreds of subjects, yet you are surprised? Your real problem is scale. You want to make productions that need people to do these tasks but you don't have them, or cannot have them, but persist in the need to make them. You end up diluting it to the point it breaks. One moment you say you cannot afford it, but you've also told us that money is not the issue? Film making is always juggling compromises. If you have to be a one man band, that's not a killer. It just means you must temper scale and dump many ideas that are people heavy in favour of ones that are doable by you on your own.

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay, well I can spend big enough money to bring people in once, but cannot do it again I don't think. So I can try it once and hope it turns out well. The actor says to just concentrate on one area, so I can spend the money once on it, if it's worth it.

[Brian Drysdale]

Even on no/low budget films you can use other people as crew. The difference is they don't get paid to be the assistant director or art director or line producer/production manager or make up artist.

[Paul R Johnson]

Be aware that actors often have a tenuous link with reality, so their priority will very different from say, the technical folk - equally, if you deal with musicians, they are of course the centre of the universe.

It's just one of the things to remember.