Granted, there are many industries who operate under the own arcane gobbledegook. ‘Management speak’ is often touted as an example of language gone loopy. Movies, however, are a very public affair and if you have the slightest interest in getting under that glossy and glamorous sheen to see how they are really made, then you will soon come across some very mystical incantations which will befuddle your brain and murk your mind. Reading like something out of “The Lord of the Rings” are words, phrases, job titles and techniques from “Gaffers to gobos, dollies to doughnuts, apple-boxes and Auteurs.” Were you aware that if you are at all interested in looking through the camera then, one day, you may have to put your face against a “teddy bear’s asshole”? I’ll leave you to find that one out for yourself.

Anyone getting to grips with film terms and movie terminology should be rewarded with a certificate of achievement and a badge. If you have ambitions to study film technique, make films yourself or just appreciate the art and craft of movie making, then at some point you will begin to encounter these obscure and esoteric nuggets of mouthery that are found nowhere else. They are mysterious and strange and, like some ancient Masonic code, designed to act as a barrier to those who are merely curious and of the fair-weather variety.

To the committed seeker though, they represent the first layer of initiation into the movie world. They are the first test of worthiness which you must conquer before those who have travelled before you will even consider looking down upon you and letting you fetch them a cup of coffee.

What sets film making apart though is - it is a creative industry which recognises talent when it sees it. This means that if you are working alone doing something you love – animations, short films, independent feature films on a low budget - there is always the possibility that your work may be seen by the right people. If this happens then you may find yourself propelled into an opportunity that may have taken much longer to arrive in the normal scheme of things. If this happens to you - fantastic, make the best of it.

Is it that easy to get you or your film noticed?

But wait a minute here. This is a long shot. If you have been interested in movie making for a while or been to a few festivals or chatted to other film-makers, then you will know that there are an awful lot of people who are convinced that they are the next big thing. How many times have you heard the following?

• My movie is really different
• It’s never been done before.
• I’ve got a great script!
• We got a great actor for the main part so it will be a success.

I’m all for success. It’s good when people succeed. But the creative medium of film and video has more than its share of overly confident people. Some might say delusional. When you consider the amount of individuals graduating from various film schools and film courses around the world and the amount of independents working to achieve their dreams then that is quite a number in terms of competition for attention.

The cream of the crop.

The cream will rise to the top though. So if you do have a project that is good, don’t be afraid to get it out there. This is particularly true if you have a good script. A lot of first time screenwriters have fears about losing their copyright or having their idea stolen but you really can’t let this stand in the way of letting people read it.

Paths to being a film-maker.

If you are starting out and are interested in the process of film making then how do you go about learning what you need to know? Well there are several paths open to you to begin with:

1. Read as much as you can on the subjects that interest you – acting, drama, animation, producing, directing – whatever it is there really is no excuse to not get started with this one. You can read biographies, technical manuals, American Cinematographer Magazine and countless others.
2. Join on-line groups and forums based on film making – there are many of these – CML is a good one for everything cinematography.
3. Make a short film and submit it to competitions and festivals – use any image device or camera you can find, such as the “Flip” or a camcorder and shoot something – use your friends and family. Once you’ve done it, get it out to a few festivals. If it doesn’t do much the first time, try again. Enter into a film school or media course – From short four week courses to weekends to longer two year courses, there are a lot of options to choose from. The best courses have a highly practical element and this is what you need – hands on time. No-one in the business is interested in a certificate – they want to see what you’ve done.
4. Apply for work in a junior position within a production company or related business – This is the runner and personal assistant route. You will work like a dog for a while until you’ve proved yourself to your employers. If you have worked hard and are still there after a year and haven’t been given an opportunity – get out, they’re taking the piss, and you can do better.

Get started and keep moving.

You’ll find out which one of these is for you given time. If you choose the wrong path don’t worry. The most important thing is to keep going. It’s all about momentum and building your experience. Don’t stop moving forward because before you know it you’ve been doing it for a couple of years and you’ve made two, three or four films and have more experience than you realise.

“I tried to utilize whatever professionalism I found myself surrounded by and tried to get people who weren’t going to be frightened. On ‘Drive, He Said’, I had an organised crew and the organized crews that I’ve worked with are really trying to imitate the other crews that I used to work with – the so called disorganized crews. That really means that they had less people working. Every crew is disorganized to a certain degree.






Every movie has a totally different set of circumstances and problems, you know: how do you get the doughnuts from the Grand Canyon Motel down into the gorge and keep the generator running at the same time? It was very much a learning experience. My theory on it was that I didn’t know anything about it to start. I related to somebody who was a professional in their job. I would say, “I don’t really know anything about this, so If I go overboard or if I start bullshitting you in some way, just let me know. I won’t be nervous about it. Just tell me, you know, and I would like to learn because it’s not the only movie I’m going to do.” They were always helpful.

In other words, if you did nothing, the movie would get shot. If you want to sleep all day, the technicians would go on. They have their own style. It’s really how much you affect their style as opposed to vice versa.”

From “Directing The Film – Film Directors on Their Art“,
Eric Sherman, 1976, Acrobat books, Los Angeles.

“On my first film, the crew simply didn’t trust me…I remember arriving on the set the first day and asking the cameraman to set up the first shot. He looked at me warily and asked, “Why do you want to shoot it like that? Why don’t you start with an establishing shot?”

I told him that it was a matter of intuition, that I didn’t feel I needed an establishing shot in that scene. But that didn’t suit him. He insisted that I should give my reasons. I could tell that the whole crew was just as wary as he was. He had another idea in mind, and I had to fight him for an hour before winning the point. It was a very important shot – in fact, it ended up on the cutting-room floor – but it was a matter of principle. I had to impose my credibility as a filmmaker. And that lasted throughout the shoot.”

From “Moviemakers Masterclass – Private Lessons from the World’s Foremost Directors“, Laurent Tirard,  2007, Faber &Faber, New York.

Do actors need head shots?
10 by 8 head shots for actors are essential tools of the trade and a cost to be factored in to any aspiring actor’s budget. You want to be certain you’ve got it right from the start, as you could end up wasting a lot of money on poor head shots which fail to do you justice. These are your calling cards and many actors starting out fall foul of disreputable photographers for whom producing a picture which gets you work isn’t their highest priority! It’s better if you have some idea of what you need to get so you can avoid the worst of the bunch.

Here’s a list of the basic requirements and dos and donts to think about:

1. Make sure your face is centred in the frame and not favouring one side
2. The shot of your face should be sharp and well focused and not soft in any part. It is better if the background can go out of focus.
3. You want to look like an actor and not a model.
4. Your portrait should be color for the U.S. and black and white for Britain.
5. Try and eliminate any distractions on the background of the frame. When a casting director is scanning through dozens of pictures you want the fleeting glance to look at you and nothing else.
6. Don’t wear anything with logos or have anything in shot with names, graphics etc.
7. Avoid patterns in any clothing in shot i.e. shirt collars, scarves etc. No stripes, lines and so on.
8. No head wear, hats, caps, feathers!
9. Wear little jewellery, preferably none at all.
10. No makeup.

You’re not really selling your own personality here; you’re selling a version of you, a look or a set of features.

What you have to remember is that the photo isn’t about how you would like to look, but it’s how you actually look, real and unmade up, flaws and all. This is your uniqueness. A film director or casting director wants to see the person in the photo walk in to the audition; not someone who looks one way in their headshot then arrives looking completely differently.

Want more acting tips?

Why do we need lighting?

Lighting our films creates depth, atmosphere and a type of ‘reality’ that engages the viewer’s brain and helps create the believability necessary to sustain the world we’re depicting. Flat, dull and lifeless scenes just give the viewer a reason to stop downloading press ‘eject’ on the dvd player.

How do use light?

Light is used to ‘model’ the subjects or actors we shoot. Next time you watch one of your favourite movies check out any scene with faces in it. Chances are you will see a shadow on one side of the nose and a patch of brightness under the left or right eye. This indicates a light source placed in front of the subject, a bit higher than their height and also off to the left or right side by about 45 degrees. This is an important position for a light in order to create good ‘modelling’ on an actor and will probably be their ‘key’ or main illumination in that particular shot. This modelling is then built up with side lights, back lights, top lights and so on all helping to separate the subject from the background and realise that all important feeling of ‘depth’.

Two dimensions or three?

Film and video lighting is about creating three-dimensionality in a two-dimensional medium. Without the contrast of light and shadow, shooting with a camera – even if it’s the best camera in the world – will produce images that are flat and uninteresting. It is up to the film-maker working with a DP (and everyone else) to create that interest and bring the film to life.

Do we need lamps?

If you don’t have access to lights or don’t know how to light properly, you can still work with what is available naturally. Some directors of photography only work with light found on location, practical lamps and so on; some use combinations of mirrors to direct sunlight into the correct positions without any electrical lamps at all. You might say you are only limited by time and your own inventiveness.






Use what’s available.

If you don’t have room in your budget for lighting equipment then sunlight and location ‘house’ lights will be your sources. You will have to position your subjects in the most favourable positions. For example, when shooting outside, a good rule of thumb is to keep the sun behind the camera and off to one or other side (similar to the 45 degree key light); this will create at least some basic modelling on your actor. It is always a good idea to avoid having the sun in front of the camera lens or behind the subject that you’re filming in order to minimise under-lit faces, flares etc although this is one way to achieve any silhouette effects.

Sunshine and rain

If you are outside on a cloudy day there isn’t a great deal you can do to make things look good if you’re lacking in lights; everything will be pretty flat and shadowless as the sky is one big source of diffused light. However, sunlight will create very bright and very dark shadow areas in the same shot and exterior shooting almost always involves the generous use of reflectors; these are specially made or improvised highly reflective surfaces that can be used to direct light into shadow areas making them less dark. This ‘fill’ in or ‘bounce’ light makes the contrast less noticeable and the ratio of light (the range of exposures) easier for the camera to deal with.

Lighting styles

Lighting for film also involves choices such as what ‘style’ to use to best express the story we are telling. Soft and hard lighting, high key and low key and high contrast/low contrast and others all help to generate different reactions within the viewer by communicating visually, the various aspects of the human experience.

Cameras don’t yet match our brains

We are blessed with an incredible image-making system built into our brains that helps us interpret the world we live in; it is very difficult for a recording medium to reproduce that to the level we’re used to. It’s getting closer all the time but we still need to build those three-dimensions to transport our audience out of the cinema, bedroom or beach hut and into our film’s reality. The most important part of filmmaking will always be the story and if that’s good enough you could shoot on pixel vision and still make it compelling for people to watch but the art of cinematography and the skill of the D.P. will enhance and complement your movie-making immeasurably and produce a more satisfying and memorable experience for everyone.

Why waiting is hardly ever a good idea

The longer you wait the harder it is to get going. Inspiration and the first excitement of that initial motivation ebbs away like an outgoing tide and you have wait sometime for it to return in full force. Other people you have got involved begin to lose interest where before they were brimming with enthusiasm at the thought of helping you out. Like mostly everything in life, there is a moment to act and if you let those moments pass ‘Murphy’ or ‘Sod’s law’ will make you wait even longer the next time you are ready. Use that beginning energy to seize the moment and throw yourself into the process. Start moving forward from your ‘eureka’ moment and much of the time lots of the things you need will fall into place. But you have to start with drive and energy.






Nobody wants to fail

If you put off making your film it is probably because you don’t want to fail at it. That’s understandable. But so what if you do? Fear of failure or fear of making a mistake keeps a lot of potential filmmakers frozen in place.

• I’ll never have another idea as good as this one.
• I’m too young to write/direct
• I’m too old to write/direct
• I’d better wait till I know more about filmmaking
• I don’t know how to work with actors
• My script isn’t perfect yet
• I don’t have the confidence

Recognise any of these? These are some common fears which keep us stuck where we are. We can only learn by doing; there’s only so much reading you can do before you reach a brick of wall of knowledge. The rest must come experientially, by doing. Confidence comes by doing too.

Don’t get obsessed over the first film

So many film-makers I have met become obsessed over their first movie script. It’s their baby and everything about it has to be just so. The problem with this is that these guys think when they turn it into a film, it is going to be a masterpiece and propel them into the film stratosphere. Don’t try and make your first few films into masterpieces…they are highly unlikely to be and all you will do is waste precious time tinkering and fussing over irrelevant details when what you should be doing is cranking out decent movie after decent movie. When you work like this you are learning your craft all the time. You are laying the foundations of future great works! You are building a show reel, making contacts, doing deals; you are developing as an individual and as a filmmaker.

Do your best but its not life and death

The trick to all this is too not hold on too tightly. Don’t be a perfectionist in the very early stages of your career. I’m not talking to the artists here, I’m talking to the guys and gals who want to work in the industry at whatever level. Getting it right, details and timings are crucial issues no doubt but don’t let them become an excuse for not moving forward to your movie goals.

Start with that picture in your mind

That’s how I begin writing; I have a picture that inspires me. It could be something like ‘three Knights on horseback on a hill overlooking a village’ or an ‘alien sitting in a restaurant looking at his watch as it countdowns to something.’ The point is, in the beginning there is very little to go on except this image but once I have it and it excites me enough I can start to ask questions about it.

Start asking questions

Questions are great for opening up the little material you have and expanding on it without you having to just think of stuff out of the blue.

Take the alien example above. I can ask questions such as:

• How did he get there?
• What’s his watch counting down to; is it the destruction of the earth?
• Does anyone recognise him?
• Where does he go after this?
• Is anyone chasing him?
• Meat or fish?

You get it anyway. What happens when I start asking these questions is that more images and ideas develop in my mind, some good, some not so good but a whole load of material will start to come together. It’s exciting at this point to think of the possibilities of the story; you can take it anywhere you want.






Follow the leads

Some of these new leads will inspire me again and form the basis of other scenes. At this point nothing should be discarded as it is too soon to decide or make judgements about what is relevant and not and what might be good in the long term. Later, much of this material may be discarded but for now every idea should be kept for possible eventual use.

Name the scenes

Now at this point I will separate what feels like different scenes and give them a short, one line description. Often they will not seem to link together in any feasible way but this again too early to question. If you try too hard to link scenes together before they are ready, you will only end up with a dull and ordinary script; due to the fact you are only using only remembered knowledge of how to write stories from what you’ve read, seen or done before. Your deeper mind will link your story together in far more interesting ways if you let it.

Don’t forget to start writing

The most important part of writing a screenplay is actually starting it! You have to follow an idea that excites you and that you feel you want to write about. It’s time to take that picture or line or whatever it is in your head and get it down onto paper. Don’t worry about a beginning, middle or an end just start with those images that inspire you and the rest will follow.

Well, when you jet off to that foreign film festival it’s easy to get carried away with the glamour and excitement of it all. There’s the wild parties, the hotel junkets, the beach photo-shoots and the booze. The innocent and naive first timer may make some crucial mistakes and tarnish their reputation for years.

Here’s just a few tips on what not to do at film festivals:

1. Jump on stage naked and run about during any presentations
2. Grab the mike from the speaker and start singing
3. Get so drunk you don’t know whether you’re a man or a woman.
4. If bearded, get so drunk you try to pull your beard off thinking it’s make-up
5. If clean shaven or a woman, get so drunk that you get violent thinking someone has shaven your beard off.
6. Fall off the yacht in a drunken haze never to be seen again. Well, at least they might make an interesting documentary about you.
7. Fall of the yacht between another yacht and get squashed..oooh
8. Go up to Robert De`Niro and say ’Yeah I’m talking to you, m**********r!’
9. Go up to Joe Pesci and say ‘do I amuse you. Am I here to amuse you? Now go get your f*****g shine box!”
10. Give a ten minute speech and start crying and blabbing like a baby..
11. Start a fight with another director who is better and won more than you.
12. When you lose in the competition shout ,“It doesn’t matter. One day I’m going to be bigger than Spielberg”…Er, no. you’re not.

“Directing is a nice job. It’s the best job for me. If i had to pay money to do it, I would do it…It’s problematical. It’s disapointing often. It’s very challenging. It’s frustrating as hell. It’s extremely demanding and totally satisfying work. And if I wasn’t doing this, I would have to do legitimate work for a living. There are guys out there really working for a living, cleaning streets or coal mining, teaching. Directing is playing. Acting.”

From “Directing The Film – Film Directors on Their Art“,
Eric Sherman, 1976, Acrobat books, Los Angeles.