Recently I produced a short film as an experiment to see what it’s like to be “just” the producer on a film.* I wrote a screenplay and asked some friends to help me make it. They kindly obliged and we spent Tuesday, January 29th in downtown Raleigh shooting the short film. Here are miscellaneous thoughts about the shoot. Enjoy!
Build a great team
This set was full of smart, motivated, patient, and professional people. That fostered a really great atmosphere. There were lots of laughs, compliments, and (dare-I-say) new friends made on set. When someone asked for help with a certain task, people jumped at it with fervor. It was incredible. I had so much fun.
Manage craft services
This is the first time I’ve been in charge of craft services on a production. Busy Bee catered our lunch, and they did a fabulous job. It was one of the reasons I wanted to shoot there — I love their food. One of the great things I heard on Tuesday was, “Wow, this is some of the best food I’ve ever had on set.” What a great comment!
There were ways to improve craft services on my end, though; namely having a person dedicated to managing it. While going to the grocery store, picking up the coffee, and working on the catered lunch prior to the shoot was easy enough for me to handle, it became difficult to focus on food-related tasks on the day of the shoot. It would have been great to have someone else in charge of those really important things.
Back up plans
Things rarely go as planned. This shoot was no exception to the rule. We had some tech difficulties throughout the day like dying batteries, missing cables, and failing software. There were some no-shows, and we had to call for extra extras. A few other minor things happened. So, yeah, things rarely go as planned. I was very happy that I had back up plans in place. I’ll do even more of that on the next production.
Delegation
My theory is that people who volunteer to be on the set of an indie short film want to feel valued, not bored. So I tried to keep folks busy. When I delegated a certain task, I got a huge smile and big thanks in return. That was a great feeling. People will, hopefully, remember how much they enjoyed being on set — no matter what their role was in the production.
Delegating also freed me up to be more forward-thinking on set, which is important for a producer. I was able to focus on the bigger picture once again, and that came in handy plenty of times. So now I can do that from the get-go next time.
Get assistance
It’s impossible to be everywhere all the time. There’s too much to do in a very short amount of time. This is why the end credits are so long on films. There’s plenty of work to be done. I could have used one dedicated, trustworthy assistant because I was juggling too many things at once. (That goes hand in hand with delegation, of course.) Finding someone that understands the bigger picture, my goals on the production, and how to help make it happen would have been really helpful on this production. With that kind of help I can be less stressed, more focused, and better prepared. (In theory.)
I want to get an assistant so that I can do more, and do it much better next time. A person that’s a real self-starter, needs little direction, can think for themselves, pays attention to the tiniest of details, and seeks ways to make my life easier would be a dream come true.
Conclusions
There were really great comments shared yesterday. The general feeling from everyone made it seem like a really positive experience on set, and that makes me very happy. I’ve looked through some of the footage and am very pleased with it. Now we’re moving into post-production.
More to come. Stay tuned! 🙂
*I use the word “just” because being a producer is incredibly challenging. The word isn’t meant to minimize what a producer does. Instead it’s meant to explain that I have previously been a writer-producer-director, and this time around I wanted to focus on producing. Got me? Good.