Blog #4: The Filmmaking Process

We have more control over the filmmaking process than any previous generation.  Our resources are enormous and continue to expand with each and every day.  Evans' Practical DV filmmaking discusses the importance of the internet in the filmmaking process.  This article gives a general overview of the process and what goes into each step along the way.

The first step is Planning.  The more you develop a film before you start shooting the better.  Great planning is essential and will save you a ton of time.  When you start getting you ideas out of your mind and onto a piece of paper or a hard drive, you begin to truly understand your film and its flaws.  Once you understand your story's flaws then you can create a more complete film with better continuity.

Planning includes visual blueprints, early visualizations, storyboarding, and scriptwriting.  The visual blueprint is essentially a rough outline of film.  The early visualizations are typically small drawings of possible scenes for your film.  Storyboarding is a detailed scene-by-scene breakdown of the film as a whole.  This usually includes frames with written descriptions below.  The last aspect is the writing the actual script.  From there you just edit and perfect until you are ready to begin shooting.

The second step is Shooting.  Shooting hardly ever goes as planned so, as a filmmaker you have to develop a Plan B and sometimes a Plan C beforehand to save time.  As a low budget filmmaker, you are probably working with people who are not getting paid and you have to do your best to prevent them from becoming impatient.  They don't have to be there so don't waste their time with poor planning.  You must also be good at improvising because like I said before shooting hardly ever goes as planned.

The last step is Editing.  This is just a further development of your project.  When you have accrued all of your footage, you then put everything together for the final stage of the filmmaking process.  Editing is a tedious, but vital stage in the overall process.  Editing is all about structure, order, and timing, but you also have to be creative and spontaneous.

There are so many opportunities available for low budget-filmmakers and this is a very exciting time.  If you create something good enough, millions of people could potentially view your hard work.

Source:  Evans Practical DV filmmaking Intro