So we are now in the full swing of production for our six minute films. The six minute films were written in a writing class last quarter. Now we are adding (hopefully) finishing touches as well as learning how unbelievably expensive it is to produce them. The winter quarter schedule is much different than the fall 410 (first year directing student) schedule.
This is how it breaks down this quarter. 21 students (18 directors and 3 cinematographers) are divided into three groups of 7 for the six minute film. This time we fulfill the same positions as on the two minute shoots but have more freedom in terms of hiring outside crew. Typical extra crew includes
- Make-up artist
- Casting director
- Second assistant camera
- Script supervisor
- Costume designer
- Producer
- Production Assistants
- Second Assistant Director
- Production Designer
- Set Builder
- Caterer
And so on. It adds up quickly. They say that a decent rule of thumb for budgeting the six minute film is $1,000 a minute, but even with my fairly simple project I am straining to reach that number. Movies are very expensive.
Our schedule for this quarter is as follows:
Monday
12:00 – 4:00 PM Cinematography with Tom Denove. Here we do some more advanced work, such as lighting faces, as well as reviewing what we already learned.
5:00 – 7:00 PM Symposium with Becky Smith, our 410 Teacher this year, as well as three older TAs. In symposium we go through all the nuts and bolts of producing our six minute films. Some people, myself included, will be using SAG (Screen Actors Guild) actors, which requires a lot of paperwork. We also discuss casting, locations, rehearsal, postproduction, and other various production issues.
Tuesday
10:00 – 1:00 PM 410E Production with our various teachers, Becky Smith, Gyula Gazdag, and AP Gonzales. Here we workshop our scripts and talk production in our groups of seven.
Thursday
1:00 – 4:00 PM 410E Production This is the second section of our production class.
This is the entire schedule for the first four weeks of the quarter. After the first four weeks there is no more cinematography or symposium and we meet once a week from 5-8 in our individual groups.
This is when production begins. Each person rotates through the 7 positions of seven different films, all shot from Thursday to Sunday of each week. It will be a grueling, and I’m sure very rewarding quarter.
