The Shut Up and Shoot Documentary Guide

A Down & Dirty DV Production

Anthony Artis

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781136065897
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Film & Video

So you want to make a documentary, but think you don't have a lot of time, money, or experience? It's time to get down and dirty! Down and dirty is a filmmaking mindset. It's the mentality that forces you to be creative with your resources. It's about doing more with less. Get started NOW with this book and DVD set, a one-stop shop written by a guerrilla filmmaker, for guerrilla filmmakers. You will learn how to make your project better, faster, and cheaper. The pages are crammed with 500 full-color pictures, tips from the pros, resources, checklists and charts, making it easy to find what you need fast. The DVD includes:
* Video and audio tutorials, useful forms, and interviews with leading documentary filmmakers like Albert Maysles (Grey Gardens), Sam Pollard (4 Little Girls), and others
* 50+ Crazy Phat Bonus pages with jump start charts, online resources, releases, storyboards, checklists, equipment guides, and shooting proceduresHere's just a small sampling of what's inside the book:
* Putting together a crew
* Choosing a camera
* New HDV and 24P cameras
* Shooting in rough neighborhoods
* Interview skills and techniques
* 10 ways to lower your budget
* Common production forms

CHAPTER 1 Preproduction

DOI: 10.4324/9780240824444-1

Plenty of people have bright ideas. Plenty of people are geniuses, but will never know it, because they don’t execute.

—Fat Joe

from the documentary Paper Chasers

Shut up and shoot.

—Anthony Q. Artis

Learning the Filmmaking Process

Know this: Filmmaking is not magic or rocket science. All the crafts and practices of filmmaking can be learned. Pretty much anyone can be a filmmaker (or even a rocket scientist for that matter). All you’ve gotta do is study and learn what the task involves, then methodically do it, step-by-step, and at the end of the day you will have a film (or a rocket). Whether or not your first efforts take off is another story, but you will be well on your way to success if you study, practice, and–above all else–persist at it.

Filmmaking, especially in the digital age, is constantly evolving. The tools and practices of the industry are all continually changing and you need to stay up to be Down and Dirty. If you weren’t in film school, once upon a time, it would’ve really sucked to be you, but right now you have many options in addition to film school to learn and hone the craft. I say use them all… You’ll need them.

Film Books

You’re already off to a great start with this book, but you need more books. In my personal filmmaking journey, books have been invaluable to expanding my knowledge and understanding of filmmaking. Film books come in many flavors and styles. Some are simply collections of inspirational filmmaking anecdotes, some are technical blueprints, some are more academic and philosophical, and others are in-depth case studies. I have found they all have something to offer. Ask fellow filmmakers what they recommend.

(At http://DownAndDirtyDV.com you can find a collection of specific film books I recommend.)

Film Books

DVD Extras

DVD extras are probably the best thing to happen to film education in a long time. It’s truly miraculous that we can now stream movies–in HD even. But one thing that was lost in the trade-off are behind-the-scenes DVD extras. Whenever possible, try to watch the DVD versions of your favorite movies that include director commentary and other extras that detail the filmmaking process. Apart from telling you specifics about their production methods, you can learn a lot about how a real crew functions and how the film actually came together from idea to distribution. Moreover, many of these DVDs also contain storyboards, set and costume sketches, director’s early works, research material, scripts, crew interviews, deleted scenes, and other previously unseen elements of the filmmaking process. Try watching a movie once, then look at the making-of documentary (doc) and all the extras, then watch it again with the director/crew commentary. After that, you’ll never look at that film the same way again. Every time you look at it, it will be like taking a mini-film studies course.

DVD Extras

Podcasts

The newest entry to filmmaking instruction is podcasting. If you’re not down with podcasting yet, you really need to get down, because you’re sleeping on some amazing free resources. In short, podcasts are audio and high-quality video clips that can be downloaded, saved, and played on your computer or your iPod or other portable media player. There is of course my own Double Down Film Show Podcast, which I highly recommend. And there are also many other great audio and video shows out there that can help you understand the filmmaking process, if not teach you in outright step-by-step lessons. The filmmaking podcasts out there include feature interviews, tutorials, call-in Q&As, news, Web links, interviews, product reviews, trailers, shorts, and even feature-length films. See the Resources section on the companion website for a list of filmmaking-related podcasts.

Podcasts

Workshops

In major cities all over the country there are filmmaking workshops, panels, and classes that will help you learn the craft of filmmaking. These range from scriptwriting classes to hands-on workshops to Q&A panels about industry issues. Time and price also vary from one hour to one year or free to thousands of dollars. There is something out there for everyone from kids to old-school video veterans. Filmmaking organizations typically sponsor panels and workshops, but there are also commercial and college workshops to help every level of filmmaker expand their skills and knowledge. Down and Dirty DV offers short guerrilla filmmaking workshops, but there are plenty of other workshops out there with different focuses. Poke around on the net, ask fellow filmmakers, and comb your local college course listings.

Workshops

Online Learning Sites

One of the more recent learning resources to mature is the realm of online skills learning. Specifically sites such as http://Lynda.com, CreateLive and http://FilmSkills.com all offer in-depth tutorials on everything from DSLR shooting to editing and special FX software to how to light. If you like this book, I recommend you check out my own Fundamentals of Video courses on Lynda. com, which cover many of the same topics in this book.

http://Lynda.com

Instructional DVDs

Books are cool, but ultimately filmmaking is a visual process that’s easiest explained in pictures. There are a number of DVDs out there (seemingly all with the subtitle “film school in a box”) that will help walk you through the technical aspects of the filmmaking process step-by-step. From lighting tutorials to camerawork to non-linear editing, there’s probably a DVD product out there to teach almost every aspect of filmmaking. If guerrilla is your style, check out the Down and Dirty DVD Series at http://DownAndDirtyDV.com.

Instructional DVDs

Filmmaking Web Sites

There are endless filmmaking blogs and Web sites online. You can look up do-it-yourself (DIY) projects, case studies, articles, tutorials, get your filmmaking questions answered, join an online filmmaking community, research equipment and prices, and on and on. Sites such as Vimeo’s Video School or http://CyberCollege.com offer free and low-cost filmmaking instruction in the form of online tutorials and instruction. See the Resources List on the companion website for more film-related Web sites.

Web sites

Magazines

Magazines are a great way to stay down with the latest trends and practices of the industry: in-depth case studies, equipment reviews, tutorials, and interviews with today’s filmmaking movers and shakers. Some mags, such as StudentFilmmakers and DV, are offered free to qualified people in the industry. As far as I can tell, qualifying usually involves giving up your e-mail address and filling out a brief survey once or twice a year. It’s a fair trade-off and beats the cover price.

Magazines

Crewing

Any place where people are making films and videos is a great place to learn the process up close and personal. If you are willing to work for free, there are infinite opportunities to work on film and video crews. (I call this OPM Learning, because the only thing better than learning from your own mistakes is learning from Other People’s Mistakes on Other People’s Money.) Crewing is cheaper and less stressful and painful with many of the same firsthand learning benefits of working on your own film. More important, you will have informal teachers and you will meet and feel out people who you can later recruit to work on your own projects. I’ve worked for no money a hundred times over, but I’ve never worked on a project “for free” in my life. The knowledge, skills, and contacts I’ve acquired while helping fellow filmmakers with their efforts have been invaluable to me. I never think of it as working for free, but learning for free. In the best case scenarios where there is a real budget for crew and yo...