If you believe you will fail, you are gauranteed to do so.  If you think that way find, in yourself, the off switch for that line of thinking!

As artists, we are prone to doubt.   Even Steven Spielberg once said, “I never felt comfortable with myself, because I was never part of the majority. I always felt awkward and shy and on the outside of the momentum of my friends’ lives.”

Why is that so?

• Through our art, we are articulating, defining, visualizing something that hasn’t been done before.  And it’s scary to put ourselves out there like that.
• Most artists have a personal vision, not a corporate vision.  That, in and of itself, means we fly solo.
• While we are passionate about our art, we just want others to get it without us having to explain it.  That has a tendency to isolate us.

So, where do we go with this solo-flying vision?

Here are some suggestions:

• PUT YOUR VISION INTO WRITING-2 SENTENCES AT MOST:  Now, say it out loud to yourself in a mirror until it is concise and sounds convincing.  That will become your elevator speech.  When you run into someone with money or someone who is in a position to help you out, you’ll be glad that you have that in your hip pocket.
• YOUR DREAM/VISION HAS TO BE ON PAPER: I say this because everyone has a friend who is going to write a book.  In Nashville, where I live, everyone has a song they are going to write!  The only thing that separates them from someone who has done it, is that the someone who has, has done it.  If you’re passion is filmmaking, and you gave a gift for writing dialogue, get black-to-black down on paper.  Now you have a thought-out story line that will make more sense to others when you share it.  It also says that you’re serious about your vision.  If you can’t write, find and secure a great short story that will make good premise for a movie and start there.
• SURROUND YOURSELF: Don’t surround yourself with “yes” friends, surround yourself with positive thinkers who will give you positive, but honest feed back.  (Operative words here are, “surround yourself”)  As artists, we all need a reality check once in a while to bounce your ideas off of.
• BUILD A SUPPORT GROUP OF TECHNICAL AND ARTISTIC VISIONARIES: Start today to put together people who are on-board with your idea.  Even aspiring filmmakers can’t make great filmS on their own.  They will at least need some technical help.  Inspire the help that you draw in to be as passionate about your project as you are.

I’m interested in hearing your thoughts.  What is holding you back from accomplishing your creative dream?

I have several “tricks” in my bag.  These are ideas, tangible items, specialty items that I carry around and pull out to give my shots, as a DP or Director, a little extra sparkle, sometimes, a little added dimension.

Often, they create “an immediate read,” tricking the audience quickly into a time of day, a scary situation, a peaceful emotion, etc.  These often work as well for photography as well as they do for production.

I often use these items to create foreground, middle ground, or background giving my shots depth that they wouldn’t have otherwise.  If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s a flat shot, low contrast in lighting and little effective use of depth of field.  Many of my tricks are to create foreground as shown below.

In the shots above, 1) we used a level in the foreground, in a level position, to show poor building techniques (leaning studs) in the background, 2) slats of beveled glass in the foreground that we could see through as we dollied past them, that created a wall or barrier where one did not previously exist, and 3) a swinging, dimly-lit light bulb in the foreground with defocused colored candles in the background to create an ominous feel.

So, here is a list of some of items that I’ve discussed so far:

• CLEAR LIGHT BULBS:  I wire these to a bare wire that can be plugged in and suspended from a C-stand.  I frequently use a dimmer to dim it down to a very low output.
• DIMMERS.  These are a must on every set for my trick lights, such as those mentioned above, as well as my source lights.  They allow you to quickly dim down your lights to match the intensity of other source lights.
• BLACK WRAP:  This is handy to create small areas of dappled light, to cut light patterns, to flag light from an area in a quick pinch.
• BEVELED GLASS SLATS:  The ones I use are about 3 inches wide and about 3 feet long.  They, too, may be suspended from a C-stand in the foreground.  Another option is a series of prisms that create a very interesting foreground. Below is another example of where I used the same beveled glass slats in the foreground, in front of pictures suspended from twine.  I had a fan blowing the in room to move the pictures and to spin the glass, defocused in the foreground and background.
• SUSPENDED TREE BRANCHES IN FOREGROUND: If you’re shooting exteriors, you may not have a good foreground exactly where you need it.  So, cut a small branch off of a tree and suspend it out of focus in the foreground by a C-stand…or, a production assistant will do just fine!  A branch can also hide something you do not want the audience to see or may create a barrier between the audience (the camera) and your subject(s).

Other items I have readily available:

• MONSTER GOBO: See below.  I have these on almost every set.  I typically use them to break up larger lights such as 1K HMIs or larger.  They are a quick way to dapple a light before we “blow” it through a window or into the background of a shot.This is about 4 feet square.  I have two of them and have practically worn them out.  You can strap black wrap or a black card across the middle to create a cut in your lighting pattern.
• GREEN SCREEN SILK: I use this only when I’m caught in a situation where I have no other options.  Most of the time, I use it for interviews when there are no great options for background.  I can then, in post, put them wherever I want them to be.  I also use it for close up shots outside to key defocused backgrounds in later.  A good example of where I might use this is when the background light, which I cannot control, it blown out.  After I shoot my CU in front of green screen, I pull the actor and green silk out and expose for the background and just shoot the background to drop in later.
• MATTE BLACK CLOTH: This is handy for so many things I don’t know where to begin.  Just use your imagination on that one.
• TILES: I have a box of tiles of many colors, shapes and sizes.  These are great for throwing onto a table under product.

I hope this expands your thinking to realize that a little imagination can go a long way to making an illusion that will not draw attention to itself but could give you that extra push that sets you apart from your competition.

But if you have little money and haven’t had the opportunity to do a lot of casting in the past, where do you start, where do you go?  (Actually, if you have little money, this would be a good read one of my previous blogs:  Good, Fast, Cheap…

First of all, where do you start?

• YOUR FRIENDS: However, a word of caution: Just because they are good looking or  look like the person you envision for the part, doesn’t make them a great actor.  This is simply the best place to start.  SIDE NOTE:  If you know that your budget will be modest, even before you write your script, consider what elements you have access to, school bus, great location, a great camera package for a limited time or for little or no money, a great actor you may have limited time with or a friend who is a good actor.  Write to that or those elements in the scripting phase.  The more of these great elements that you can put into your production, at little or no cost, the greater the production value your finished product will have.  So, start with your friends who you suspect will be good actors.  (I say, “suspect” here and I’ll explain in a later point)
• ASSOCIATIONS AND/OR CLUBS: This could be professional organizations, drama groups at your school or community, even Craigslist can serve for a broadcast cattle call.  Other options would be a drama group at a church, community group, etc.  Don’t overlook these groups.  Not only might you find what you’re looking for but you will also broaden your base of people who know what you do.  Who knows, you may also end up with additional production elements right under your nose that you didn’t know where there, props, elaborate costuming, etc.
• TALENT AGENCIES:  Don’t be afraid to make contact with your local talent agencies. If your budget is modest, be up-front with them about your budget limitations and, if they will allow you to do so, impart your vision and see what rises to the top.  The worst thing that can happen is that they send you new talent who do not have experience and need to build a resume but have a desire to act.  You accomplish two things: 1) you may end up with better talent than what you expected, and 2) you begin to establish a working relationship with a talent agent so that when you have more money, there will be a working relationship to build on.  They may turn you down altogether but I can tell you, agents are always looking for that next great client and if they’re smart, they will give you at least some time to hear your vision.

Now that you’ve found several prospects, a couple of suggestions on how to proceed:

• SEND EVERYONE THROUGH THE CASTING PROCESS: They may be your closest friend but still insist that they “read” for you before you promise them the role.  This accomplishes two things: 1) Let’s face it, when you’re sitting around with your friends, your acting-wannabe friends can take on one persona.  When you put them in front of a camera they may not be able to pull it off.  You don’t want to find that out once you are on set or location.  2) Reading them puts a clear line between you, as the director, and them as the actor…very important.  They will get to see you as a director who has a clear vision of what he wants and expects on set.
• LOOK FOR SPONTANEITY: If a budget is modest, and you can’t afford great talent, when you read them look for two things: Spontaneity and how well they can memorize lines.  A great way to do this is to give them the script before hand so they have time to read it, understand it, and rehearse how they would interpret the part.  Then once you’ve read them a time or two with script in hand, have them put the script down and do as much of the part as they can from memory.  Assure them that they do not have to have the script verbatim but you want to see what they can bring to the table by improvising through what they do remember.  This will separate the haves and have-nots very quickly.  You may find out that the person whom you thought was a great actor, under pressure, cannot remember their own name from here to the end of the block.  You may also find that without a script in hand they are not able to comfortably act.  These are all very important points to learn before you have a crew standing around waiting for them, and you.
• RECORD (VIDEO TAPE) ALL OF YOUR READS: This is very important.  I guarantee, if you read many actors, they will start running together after a short while.  You’ll want to go back and watch all of the reads at a later time before you make decisions.  I always ask prospective actors what the availability will be for my production dates.  There’s no point in even considering them if you and they know that they will be not be available for your production dates.  This could save you a lot of time.  However, even if they tell you that they are not available for your production dates, go ahead and read them.  You may find a great actor for your next production.

Having a good vision for your project and being able to articulate it will come in handy.  A talent agent who feels as if you really do not have a clear vision is not going to subject their talent to your project.  Also, good talent will submit themselves to your vision as long as they trust you.  You want to be able to exude that confidence to them so that they will trust you.  That will make for clear sailing!

Here are some of my thoughts to get the conversation started:

1. Do you prefer to engage in the creative process as a team or on your own?

2. What do you use to stimulate your creative process, other visuals or drawing on your own experience?

3. If you aren’t living up to your own creative potential, why?  Is it because you hold yourself back or you’re in a job that holds you back?

4. Should this be structured more as a workbook or a read?

5. Are my past experiences helpful as case studies or would you prefer that I stick with just the facts or suggestions on how to engage others or to jump start your own creativity?

Now it’s your turn.  What are your thoughts?

So, my title, Two Minds are Better Than None is written because we have a tendency in this business to hold everything very close to our chest.  But all final production would be better if it’s creative were bounced around before we go into production.I’ve seen two pieces of production on Vimeo recently by young production professionals that was obviously shot from the hip, expecting to make something of it in post.  I preach methods to the contrary!

Here are my suggestions:

• DON’T BE AFRAID TO ADMIT YOU NEED ANOTHER MIND:  Nuf said.
• FIND A CLOSE, CREATIVE CONFIDANT:  Let’s face it, this is a competitive business and we don’t want to give anything away.  But, find someone who is creative, someone you want to work on your projects but doesn’t aspire to your position.  One of my closest friends is a song writer.  While he is a very good wordsmith and a superb musician, he also recognizes that some of his best work comes from co-writing with others.  Find someone you have creative fluidity with, someone you can share ideas with freely.  It may be, in fact should be, someone who is going to be involved in the process so they’ll have a sense of ownership in your project.
• BUDGET TIME FOR CREATIVE:  There is nothing more frustrating to me than to have a project that must go into production without time to think it through, to analyze the essence of the message, so that I make sure we nail it on set.  Actually, I walk away from projects that won’t allow me that process.  After all, it’s my reputation on the line.  And, if it doesn’t work, who do you think they are going to blame…you got it, the director.  Budget time to bounce your ideas off of people you trust, those who understand media and what makes it work and, most importantly, those in your intended demographic.
• CREATIVE BLOCKS CAN BE OVERCOME: I’ve written about this before but don’t let a petty thing such as “writer’s block” get in your way.  For me, when I hit a brick wall, I turn to photography, of all kinds, both shooting and studying the work of others.  There is something visually stimulating to me about looking at the creative, abstract, even the absurd creative of others.  It may not be usable but it will certainly opens my thinking.
• INVITING YOUR CLIENT INTO CREATIVE IS NOT USUALLY THE BEST IDEA:  Long point, but perfectly understandable when you’ve been doing this as long as I have.  Most clients will already have in mind how they see a concept, treatment, production play out.  Clients, or those who don’t work in this business, tend to be very literal.  It’s perfectly fine to get their ideas but don’t commit to them without doing some creative thinking on your own.  You need people who are going to objective, not fundamentally subjective.

One of my most respected colleagues in production is a DP/steadicam operator.  You do not have to go very far on my website to find his name.  www.silverleafentertainment.com.  I still fly him into Nashville for my bigger projects.  James has a way of challenging my creative thought, sometimes in ways that are too abstract to use but it expands my thinking to a point where I land some place I wouldn’t have on my own.  We’ve known each other and have worked together for over 25 years, off and on.  One of the key reasons that I trust James is because, while he is an excellent DP and steadicam operator, he has not interest in directing.  We have co-produced together, and he knows that I’m going to have input to lighting, but we don’t step on each others toes.  That makes him a very good sounding board, creatively involved in my projects, but not competing for control.

The most popular circle on a set is around the director, when the project is going well.  When there are creative problems on set, the loneliest person to be is around is the director!  Find someone you trust and read scripts out loud to them, send your concepts and ideas around the block with them over lunch, let them interact with your concepts for authenticity of message and demographic, and you’ll be that much more confident when you go out on location.

I often write about where we “find” our creative, where we start and how we evolve to where we end up.  Here’s an example of an existing project that my client wanted me to see because the principals are the same but the concept needed to be updated.  The existing video led our creative thoughts to a graphic novel theme, which in turn led to a hybrid modern day/1930s era, the era to the music, which became a 21st century graphic novel theme on screen.

The existing production, on VHS, had been created decades ago, stressing the importance of creating a will.  As you can imagine, it was quite corny, utilizing card art and very Leave It to Beaver-esk.  But the points were good and still held up, related to creating a will, anyway.  We wanted to create something that was out of the ordinary but not so abstract that it wouldn’t be viewed to the end.  This is what we came up with…

CASTING: Casting for the visuals was important but not nearly so, I felt, as for the voices.  So, we started with the voices.  First we found the voice of the “Dad”, Jack Average (Cam Brainard who is the voice of Disney)  You may find his voice and the Narrator’s voice on the website of Spotland Productions in Nashville.  Cam was difficult to schedule because he has every afternoon booked with Disney but worth the wait because he gave me every nuance I was looking for.  For the “Mom”, Auburn Average, I called on one of my favorite actresses, the very versatile, Lori Stegner, an amazing talent!  The “Sam Spade” rip off was more complex.  I didn’t want to mimic the tonal and linguistic qualities of Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart), though we did steal some of the character’s lines from movies. That voice came from Dave Hoffman, the voice of Nissan, also difficult to schedule because of his commitment with Nissan.

We first recorded all of the voices, each at separate times, a scheduling issue more than for any other reason.  We then spent a few days mixing the voices, SFX and finding the perfect music.  Here is the final project.  It lost some of the many great lines because, once complete, it felt about 90 seconds too long so we cut some of the great, albeit, throw-away lines.

See the complete video: Creating a Will

AUDIO: Though the production itself did not include recording sound, I had a sound man on set to play back the mixed track.  We set many cue marks so that he could readily jump to any place on the track I called for at any given time.   This was important because I needed for the actors to hit several moods and several particular reactions.  Allowing for the sound to fill the sound stage, gave actors a feel for the “why” from my direction, it all made more sense to them.  They had seen the script before production but, because I shot stills, there was no need for them to memorize lines.  The SFX and music in and around the VO lines really helped to set the stage for the actors, none of whom where the VO talent.

VISUALS: We briefly considered  shooting video on each of the actors but dropped the idea for two reasons: 1) It meant that the actors would have to memorize lines and I really wanted to focus on their look and less on their acting ability.  It is Nashville so we have some great talent here but when budget is an issue, and it was on this one, we had to consider our talent more for their “look” and less for their acting ability.  The other minor hiccup we ran into was that, because of scheduling on production day of the actors, we had to stagger our talent throughout the day.  They never met each other on set.  That just meant that I had to be pretty good at mapping out scenes where I wanted to have all three “on” set at the same time.

GREEN SCREEN: I made the decision early on to shoot all of the actors in front of green screen on set.  This allowed me a great deal of flexibility in post but also allowed for a much more simple set up on production day.  However, because of budget, I was shooting with a Canon 5DmarkII.  Because of its compression format, I didn’t want to shoot video…the compressed format makes clean keying difficult.  So, we shot stills.  The camera is a 21 mp camera so it gave us not only all of the detail we needed for keying, it also gave us a lot of real estate for manipulating the distance of the actors from the camera in post without losing quality.  We accomplished our keying in Keylight in AfterEffects CS5.5.  Though we have 16gb of RAM memory in our Mac with FCP, we bumped into memory issues.  So we “viewed” all of our work in 1/2 resolution.  On occasion, we had to render a time or two to get the final output where we wanted it since we couldn’t see the final detail before we rendered.

LIGHTING: I really like modeled lighting.  And, incidentally, really hate the lighting of news and other interviews these days.  However, after I shot several tests with actors, I determined that flatter lighting was better as modeled lighting created some strange-looking expressions when too contrasty.  So, we flattened out the lighting more than I would have on any other set.

CARTOONIFICATION:  For the cartoon look, we examined many, many options.  What looked good on one expression, did not look good on a background, for example.  So, after pushing through several options, including a look in Illustrator, we decided on AE’s “cartoon” effect.  However, what we noticed very quickly was that what looked good on the detective, didn’t look great on Auburn.  The same was true for Jack.  So, we developed a look for each one that we were able to copy and paste to each shot.  The other thing we noticed is that what looked good on the actors, didn’t look great on the backgrounds.  So, we actually ended up using the cartoon effect in Adobe Illustrator for the backgrounds.  We developed a look that worked pretty well for each.  We only then needed to defocus some of the backgrounds to give the impression of a natural depth of field fall off.

BACKGROUNDS: I had a very good idea of where I wanted to place each of these actors before we shot in the studio so I had rough storyboards with the backgrounds drawn in.  If you pursue this concept, I strongly recommend, though, that you shoot your backgrounds ahead of time so that you can motivate every light on set to the sources that exist in your backgrounds.  I had done this with a series of interviews a couple years earlier and it was magical how seamless the interviews looked after we keyed in backgrounds when the lighting matched what we did on set.  But, I didn’t have time to shoot the backgrounds ahead of time so I shot them after the fact.  After all, the concept was quite forgiving in that graphic novelists wouldn’t have given that much thought to the lighting that surrounded the “actor” as they drew them in.  Also, our flatter lighting helped in this endeavor.

I had a blast working on this!  And, the client was very pleased with the result,..and that’s all that really matters, isn’t it?

The best information that I could find on setting this up can be found at the following link:  http://www.3drender.com/glossary/colortemp.htm

It would be helpful to read through 3DRender’s info and then come back to proceed and I thank them for their advance work.

GRAPHIC: color temperature conversions

Check out the chart of gels and their color temps here: http://www.rosco.com/us/filters/roscolux.cfm#colors

TITLE: Winter Lake

I shot this last winter behind our house.  Were it not for the snow-it was actually not a sunny day but a bright one-this would look more like a summer day.  The darker exposure (I under exposed this shot by about 1 1/4 stops) and the fact that I shot it at 4000K makes you believe it is a cold, winter day.

Perhaps you learned this in school but forget it.  In my case I probably didn’t pay attention that day because I couldn’t connect with the application.  Perhaps you didn’t learn it at all.  If that’s the case, it’s time to go back to school!  Everyone on the visual end of production should have at least some knowledge of the Kelvin scale, always referred to on set as “K” when used with a temperature such as “32K”, short for 3200 degrees Kelvin.  Generally speaking, most of what we do on a film, video or photography set revolves around the standards, 32K or 55K, each short for 3200 degrees Kelvin (tungsten or incandescent) and 5500 degrees Kelvin (average outdoor light on a sunny day)  But variations of that are where the magic happens!

My first experience with this was when I was hired as a PA only months out of school on a spot that was being shot on 16mm film for a Mexican food restaurant in Houston named Ninfa’s, short for the very successful entrepreneurial, Hispanic woman, affectionately referred to as “Mama Ninfa”.  Mama Ninfa started her first restaurant in 1973 and then opened a larger restaurant in 1976 in Houston that became an instant success.  This spot was filmed in her Houston home on a dark, dreary, cloudy, rainy day.  However, this Christmas spot, which revolved around a phone call of a hypothetical friend or family member who lived up north, called for Mama Ninfa to talk about the sunny, warm Christmas in Houston.  It was mesmerizing to me how the director used light to “trick” the audience into believing what he wanted them to believe.

First of all, they built a box of c-stands and speed rail outside of her kitchen window.  Then, with a 5,000 watt HMI (also called a 5k but not to be confused with what we’re talking about here), from outside, they focused the light on the exterior of the window. (HMI has become a generic term for all lights that fit the Hydrargyrum Medium-arc Iodide family.  Their color temperature, while it can and will vary, is generally between 5,500 and 6,000K, or 55K and 6K)  A 5K has a pretty good punch and so it punched through the curtain and window quite nicely to create what looked like beautiful sunlight blazing through the window.  So, instead of the dreary 4k (4000 Kelvin), cloudy light coming through the window, from the inside of the house, the director created a convincing shot.  By the way, he then further warmed the light up a bit by filtering, or gelling, the light with 1/2 CTO (color temperature orange) to give the light an early morning look.  This is the magic that I want to address…filtering.

If you set the color temperature on your camera to 32K, you are shooting what? An indoor scene that could be lit by “practicals” or existing lights in the home or business where you are shooting, and probably enhanced by or exclusively lit by incandescent fixtures such as any lighting instrument that puts of a light balanced at, or around, 32K, your Lowell or ARRI kits, for example.  What always amazes me is how easily the mind is tricked.  If you light an indoor scene, camera is balanced at 32K, and you put an instrument in the background, hallway or “blowing” through a window that is balanced for 56K, at just the right intensity, your mind reads the scene to be shot at night, even though it may be broad daylight outside.  It is the 32K light against the 56K light that makes your mind think it’s night and that takes place when you know how to “treat” your lights so that you accomplish the desired effect.

If you spend much time watching old black and white westerns, you’ll notice that they almost always had a night shot that was in fact shot outside.  Lighting instruments in the early film days were huge and weighty so a lot of lighting outside, especially in some of the remote locations where they shot, made artificial lighting prohibitive.  If you look closely at those scenes, you’ll notice the hard shadows that no moon would ever make unless you were very, very fortunate to be shooting on a very bright, moon lit night.  Never happened.  What they did was shoot day for night by under exposing their shots to varying degrees.  When color came along, they typically shot these scenes with a film stock that was color balanced for tungsten to give the final result a bluish look, or they filtered their camera lens with varying degrees of blue filter.  Again, by under exposing and tinting blue, you accomplish “day for night.”

In a similar way, you can treat you lighting instruments.  If you are starting with a tungsten instrument (balanced for 32K) and you need for it to fill outside or be a key light source outside, you will need to filter your instrument with a full CTB (color temperature blue) filter, and if your camera is set to 55K, you will be able to shoot the scene as if an exterior scene.  You will also find gel to accomplish varying degrees of that.  For example, if you want to shoot at 56K, because you are shooting outside, and you want to create sunlight in your scene, that may not exist, you can gel your tungsten light with 1/2 or 1/4 CTB.  This would cool your light down but not to the extent that it would take you all the way to 55K.  So, in effect, you could create sunlight on a cloudy day when it didn’t really exist.

Again, the color conversion chart…

GRAPHIC: color temperature conversions

This also holds up in photography.  When shooting stills, I never leave me camera in “auto” white balance mode.  It’s unthinkable.  But that is so because I have a firm grasp of the Kelvin scale.  I want to choose what time I place the viewer at the site where I’m shooting, and I’m able to do that by tricking them to believe whatever time I want it to be, early morning, late afternoon, etc.

CAPTION: Bulb and Candles B-roll shot for a testimonial about a woman who practiced spirit worship.  While it was abstract, it worked very well for the content.  See the story: Lilliam

Imagine cleaning out the garage and installing new shelving to have a place for everything that was previously on the floor.  But, instead of lining the walls with shelves, you place the shelves in front of the garage doors.  It’s “good”, in the sense that you made floor space for your cars but…you get the picture.

Great production is no different.  I know how to make great pictures; feel free to check me on that, www.silverleafentertainment.com.  But if it’s abstract for the sake of abstract, or just pretty pictures, but doesn’t hit an intended demographic, what does it accomplish?

I have to admit that I have written, produced or directed productions that didn’t work.  But, in my defense, should you stumble on to some of those productions, my client made me do it!  That is true but it was at a time in my career when I needed the work more than I needed the production to work. After putting up valid arguments, a few of those short-lived clients chose to push through a concept that didn’t meet their demographic.  At this point in my career, I would probably walk away from a client or project that veered that way.

Here are my suggestions for keeping you between the ditches:

• HAVE A THOROUGH UNDERSTANDING OF DEMOGRAPHIC BEFORE YOU CONCEPT: Always ask a client who they believe their demographic is.  If they can answer the question, test their information.  If they cannot offer a clear picture of who they believe their audience is, you may actually be in a better place to help them define their demo and then generate creative that meets their demo.  In either case, research, research, research.  Come up with your own conclusions and be able to back it up when you present your creative to the client.
• DON’T “CREATE” WITH YOUR CLIENT:  After all, that is what they hire you to do.  I like creating on my own.  Clients often muddy the water with detailed discussions on budget constraints, the who’s who of people who will approve or not approve the creative, office interruptions and so on.  Don’t be afraid to suggest that you want to put your best creative minds on it and that you will get back with them in a time frame that is acceptable to both of you.  Your creative will be more pure and more free of constraints.  And, don’t be afraid to find good, creative minds to assist with this.  Two minds are better than none!
• RESEARCH YOUR DEMOGRAPHIC TO ENSURE IT’S TRUE: Don’t take a client’s word on demographic, unless, of course, it’s Nike or someone who invents demographics and then backs it up with really great creative.  My clients don’t fit that profile.  It takes a lot of money to invent audiences.  But once you understand their demographic, test it against those who fit their demographic.  ”Act” it out for those in the demo to see how they react.
• READ IT OUT LOUD OR ACT IT OUT: Once you are confident that you have the right message, read it out loud or act it out to test timing and authenticity (for your demographic), and to ensure that you do not have any words or phrases that are unnecessary.  Airtime is far too precious to waste on “words” that add nothing to message.  Certainly do this before you hand it over to actors.  You do not want to kill precious time on set rewriting script, unless absolutely necessary.
• GET BUY OFF FROM YOUR CLIENT: Always ensure that your client is good with your concept and what it will look like before you shoot a frame.  If your budgets are anything like mine, shrinking by the hour in these tough economic times, you’ll want to make sure you squeeze everything you can out of your production dollars.

Too often, inexperienced filmmakers shoot footage without regard to what they are going to do with it in post.  While that may get them by for a while, it’s very risky.  And, they’ll find that, without concept planning up front, it will not always get them exactly where they want to land or they’ll be forced to make compromises in post.

Therefore, good concept design in scripting and pre-production is paramount.  And concepts that require unique shooting and lighting techniques should be tested when you’re unsure about the outcome.

Up front, let me say that effects (plugins and what is otherwise found in edit or graphics software) are not evil!  They provide opportunities to produce looks that, in the past, took more generous budgets, for filters and lighting, and often larger crews, to create.  However, they should be used to enhance a great concept, not usually to be the concept.

An example:  I produced/directed a TV special for PBS some years ago on teenage suicide entitled, Silent Epidemic.  I wanted to demonstrate that the decision to commit suicide frequently happens in a flash, at the moment of heightened internal conflict or conflict with others.  So, in order to communicate the raw nature of anger, we shot the footage on a high-speed, 16mm film, so it was grainy to begin with.  We hard-lit most of our shots so lighting was very modeled and contrasty.  We under exposed the stock 2 stops and then “pushed” the film 2 stops in the processing.  Below is a frame capture from the production.  We also heavily filtered each shot with a blue filter to severely “cool” the shots down, extracting all of the warmth from the scene.  We shot at 7 fps so that so that after all of the camera movement, manual zooms and actor movement, smear was created that further enhanced the effect of anxst.  It worked, as planned, very well.  I have since used the same technique in shooting video but instead of adding the blue tint on set, we colorize in post.  However, I still shoot the footage the same way, low shutter speed, create a grainy look by turning on the “gain”, and shoot off of the shoulder with occasional manual zooms as I move around my actors.

FRAME CAPTURE: Silent Epidemic

Again, I’m not saying that plug-ins and effects are bad, in and of themselves.  As a matter of fact, I use them quite a bit but typically in pre-production as I’m in search of a new look or something that will greatly enhance a concept.  So, if there is any filtration that I need on set, and any camera technique that I need to employ on set, we establish it up front and know that it will pay off in post. So, I’m not afraid to use effects.  But typically, a single off-the-shelf effect is one that you probably saw last week and will probably see again next week by someone else.  Know where you want to end up and shoot and effectualize your footage to get you there.  That’s good concept editing.

But what happens when you don’t know exactly what you want?

An Avid editor told me one time that if you’re sitting in front of your system, concepting, looking for a new look that you will employ on a new production, and can’t find your way, start throwing effects at a clip, ones you haven’t used or haven’t considered using in the past.  When I use the technique, what I end up with is generally a little of several effects but not just one of anything.  That gives me a look that I haven’t seen before.  Frequently, what I land on requires that we employ some camera technique or filtering process in production.  So, before I go out on production, I know that I can make the concept work all the way through post.  And, I know that after post it will communicate my concept to the audience.

Anyone can throw an effect on footage and call it “cool”.  Apply creative concepting on the front end and then making effects work to help you create or enhance that concept in post.  That is what will set you apart from your competition.

PHOTO: “Art” on Canvas

Working with creative people (or if you are a creative person yourself) parameters need to be set.  Left to our own vices, we have a tendency to create what makes us happy, not necessarily what works for the intended message. Allow me to preface that by saying, I’m speaking to those creative people who work for companies who employ them for their creative abilities in exchange for paycheck.

One of my favorite clients of all time was a Creative Director for LifeWay Christian Resources, Mary Katharine Hunt (Linkedin page).  She has since moved up to higher pay scales but she understood a couple of key components in working with creative people:

• SUPERVISE WITHOUT MICRO-MANAGING / Understand that if you leave creative people alone, they will not usually meet deadlines and will not necessarily come back with a usable concept.  Instead, give them specific mile-markers to hit along the way and then stay out of their way in between the mile-markers.
• GIVE CREATIVE PARAMETERS / Most creatives are in it to have fun doing it!  However, if they are going to give back creative that is usable, whether they want it or not, they need creative parameters.  Let them know that the “canvas” has “edges” and as long as they stay between the ditches, they may be free to paint edge to edge.
• UNDERSTAND WHEN TO GIVE OWNERSHIP AND WHEN TO TAKE IT  /  Most creatives need to know that they have some ownership of their work.  There is a delecate balance between giving creative ownership and keeping your hand on the reins to ensure success.  The balance will often be different for each creative person under your leadership.
• GIVE PRAISE / The ability to freely (not gratuitously) praise creative people is perhaps the most valuable character trait you can have if you are their supervisor.  Not only should they be allowed to feel as if they own the concept, but that when they deliver a good product, they will be praised, sometimes publically, for their good work.