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6 tips for building film portfolio

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Analyzing just one scene in a film can be both fun and enlightening! Since you'll focus on only a short part of a movie, you'll be able to take a deep dive into the details and get an excellent understanding of the filmmaker's decisions....

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Five emerging filmmakers offer essential first-hand advice for how to bring your creative vision to life.

When I interviewed Spike Jonze several years ago, he introduced a Chinese concept called "wu wei", which he described as, "the art of knowing when to take action and when not to take action, of knowing when to push and when not to push." This type of advanced intuition is integral to any creative endeavour. There is a lot to consider when making your first short film - script, cast, aesthetic, sound design, location, the shoot and - crucially - communication with crew. But there comes a time when you just have to roll with the forces of serendipity.

One filmmaker interviewed for this article had to cut 12 pages from a 24-page script due to budgetary constraints, another had to adapt their vision on the spot because of relentless rain. The individual voices of five short filmmakers feature below, each separated by a distinct style and approach. If you possess the courage to take that first step into the unknown, and the commitment and passion to prioritise an artistic project, then you're already halfway there. Of course, challenges and hurdles will present themselves at various stages throughout the process. With that in mind, here are some essential tips for turning your filmmaking dreams into a reality.

Don't be afraid to lean on pals (but keep on networking)

"Friends are always willing to help you the first time," says Dean Loxton, a prolific short filmmaker, now working on his first feature. "The first time I made a short film, the actors were friends, the crew member I knew through a friend, the only person I didn't know was the sound designer. He was the only one that got paid." Working with willing pals cuts budgetary needs, but more than that, it creates a supportive mood. "It's good to have people that really care about you on set because it sets the energy," says Dean, whose work has been showcased as a 'Postroom Pick' to the industry and general public by BFI NET.WORK, which champions emerging filmmakers and funds short and feature film development.

Keeping business personal doesn't mean an insular bubble away from meeting new potential collaborators. "It always helps to have the guidance of an established organisation," says Rohan Blair-Mangat, a director for whom BFI NET.WORK has also provided a platform. "The key is to find your voice, create work, get it online and people will take notice. Websites like Vimeo are such a good platform for young filmmakers and you never know who is watching."

Once you've come to the attention of the enabling powers that be, things will start moving fast, so it's advisable to have different ideas bubbling away for when that magic moment of access happens. Aleem Khan made his first short, Diana, in 2009, and his second, The Wayfaring Stranger, in 2011 while working a day job in advertising. His latest short, Three Brothers, was co-produced by a mentor from a separate feature project, who got on board after Aleem sent out a gutsy email. "I was in the right space, I was growing and I was ready for that experience to happen," he says.

Don't flatten your communication style

Adopting business speak when approaching potential collaborators and investors can be intimidating if that's not your usual style. Yet it's possible - and desirable - to embrace your personal foibles. "Don't force yourself into another character that you're not," says award-winning director Noël Loozen, who wooed a high-profile grader to work on his first short with a bottle of whiskey. "You have to rely on the character that you introduced yourself with - you don't want to end up as an actor when you really want to be a director."

Ena Sendijarevic, who is taking her third short, Import, to Cannes this year adds, "I've seen some pitches and to be honest I like it most when someone is just being themselves. It's more worthwhile to invest time in the originality of your idea than your pitch." Of course, just how free you can afford be when it comes to indulging your communicative tics depends on the environment of the pitching session. "If you're talking to somebody from a big organisation, anyone giving you money, they'll probably expect to be treated a certain way in a certain language," cautions Dean.

Don't sacrifice your relationships

"Films reflect the way you see life, and when life is only about you being a lonely filmmaker, that is what the film will be about," says Ena. It can be hard to live well and stave off loneliness, just generally, without the added time pressure of birthing your first film baby. A good life hack comes back, again, to mixing pleasure with business: "When I left Central Saint Martins I was lucky to have made some good friends and we collaborated together; I would direct, a friend would DoP and someone else would produce. We still work together a lot almost nine years later," says Rohan.

Art school or film school is a great place to mix with like-minded souls, but there are other places to find your film family, like your actual family: "In Three Brothers, my mum did the catering, my dad did the transport, my brother was an extra. You just drag people in here and there," says Aleem. If you are making something personally meaningful then it makes sense to engage the people who mean the most to you: "I usually give my friends and my partner the script and ask for their feedback," says Dean. "They get involved with the story and they really want it to happen as much as I do."
To find out how to get all the support you need to make your first short film, visit network.bfi.org.uk and click here for BFI NET.WORK's latest Postroom Pick, Radical Hardcore by Dear Mr Quistgaard.
Published 29 Apr 2016

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A practical guide to making your first short film | Little White Lies

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Five emerging filmmakers offer essential first-hand advice for how to bring your creative vision to life. When I interviewed Spike Jonze several years ago, he introduced a Chinese concept called "wu wei", which he described as, "the art of knowing when to take action and when not to take action, of knowing when to push and when not to push."

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The first challenge of independent filmmaking is always finding the budget to do what you want to do. Unless you happen to have a few angel investors in your pocket, you're going to be faced with some difficult decisions when it comes time to start filming.
What separates successful low-budget filmmakers from failed hobbyists is creativity, willingness to learn a variety of skills, and recognizing which things can be cut without hurting the final product. If you've got an MFA in Film you probably have a keen eye for this already, but the time will come when you'll need to put theory into practice with very little money.

To help focus your efforts on what really matters, we're proud to present something that should be on every filmmakers' bookmark list:

In general, aside from technology and location, the biggest expenses in making your film will be hiring professional services. The more of these things you're willing to learn to do on your own, the more money you can save. On the other hand, becoming a "jack of all trades" filmmaker can stretch you too thin, and certain things really deserve to be done by a professional.

By all means, spend some time researching every aspect of film, from writing to lighting, makeup, sound, and even acting. The more you know about these things, the more easily you'll be able to identify a professional who really knows his business from a cheap amateur who'll leave you with an inferior product. Along the way, if you find anything that you're really good at doing, you can work on polishing those skills.

"Must Haves" for Any Film Project

In any project, there are the things that would be nice to accomplish, and the things that are absolutely vital to the success of the film. Recognizing those categories early on is the most important thing you can do to keep your film within budget.
Here are a few things you can often afford to trim:
Multiple cameras. While covering a scene from multiple angles sounds like a great idea, it's often more trouble than it's worth. In fact, shooting with just one camera cuts back on a lot of headaches: You don't have to worry about synching sound, adjusting white balance, worrying about consistency or training multiple cameramen. Whether you're behind the single camera or you hire someone to handle it, it's so much simpler to shoot with just one, and using a single camera enables you to spend a bit more money on buying a really nice one.

Special effects. The easiest way to keep your movie affordable is to start with a quiet script that doesn't call for many effects. Even if you're shooting an action movie or horror film, though, you can work around many expensive effects. Don't discount the value of off-camera violence and easy camera tricks instead of pricey CGI.

Film. Format doesn't matter. Shooting film won't make you more artistic - it will just bleed out your wallet and limit you to the amount of footage you can afford to shoot. Unless you happen to have a high-end camera and a stockpile of film already, buy a decent digital camera and get on with your life.
In general, these are a few things that you cannot afford to cut corners on:
Sound quality. Poor sound will stop a movie dead in its tracks, and it can be impossible to repair sound in post. Check your sound frequently and re-shoot or record anything that needs fixing immediately so you don't risk having to scrap everything due to unusable sound.

Lighting. This is one of those things that you never notice until it's done wrong. Bad lighting can ruin a shot and screams "amateur" to anyone who watches it. Keep your budget low by sticking with simple lighting choices if you must, but don't scrimp on the necessary equipment.

Quality talent. Your actors are the thing that the audience will be paying the most attention to, and it's worth the investment to find good ones. An excellent performance will often redeem an otherwise mediocre film, which gives you some leeway in case other things don't go as planned.

Bear in mind that you don't necessarily need high-cost professional actors to get a good performance - newly-graduated students fresh out of acting school are a great source for exceptional yet affordable talent, as long as you don't mind the extra time it takes to separate the wheat from the chaff.

In addition, one of your greatest skills as a director needs to be coaxing a performance out of your actors. In fact, this may be the single most important thing you can do for your film. Take some time to study live theatre and see how stage directors and actors interact; take cues from this to help you get the most out of your own cast's performance. In the long run, becoming an "actor's director" will help you make better movies - and earn you a positive reputation among actors who will be eager to help you on your next project.

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The first challenge of independent filmmaking is always finding the budget to do what you want to do. Unless you happen to have a few angel investors in your pocket, you're going to be faced with some difficult decisions when it comes time to start filming.

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Lessons I Learned About Making Movies From Quentin Tarantino

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Pre-production is essential in the filmmaking process, because without proper planning, your production could run over time, the film could go over budget, or you could find yourself in the editing room with missing content. Some even say, "Production is pre-production." Whether its storyboarding, location scouting, or budgeting, each of the steps below plays a crucial role in the success of your project.

Concept

Still from Mr. Brilliant Idea by Nopow

This is where you develop your story, its structure, and plot points. Ideas often are drawn from personal experiences or ripped from the headlines. Maybe it's a story you were told as a child, or a product of your own wild imagination. At its most basic level, a concept should be able to be communicated in three sentences - the beginning, the middle, and the end, translating to acts I, II, and III. Your second act should always be the meat of the film, with the first and third generally bookends, setting up and resolving the main plot.

Treatment

Your treatment is an extended summary of your film, typically 1-3 pages in length, depending on the scope of the project. It covers the whole story from beginning to end.

Outline

Most writers will outline the story using index cards, so that they can easily arrange and re-arrange scenes. Once completed, give the scenes in your outline letters and numbers to stay organized. These will remain with the scenes all the way through production and post-production, so be consistent and logical about your system. You'll likely end up adding scenes later on, so set aside unique alpha-numeric combinations for those pickups.

Screenplay

When writing the screenplay, keep referencing your outline so that you never lose track of your story structure. Take advantage of great screenwriting software and tools, like Final Draft or Celtx, which will speed up the writing process. Once you're finished, go back and re-write it. Similar to the saying about preproduction, "writing is rewriting." The average script goes through ten drafts before even being shopped, and many more if it's optioned or bought. Once you think your script is as good as you can make it, share it with someone who's opinion you trust, and start getting notes. It'll never be perfect, but you have to decide when the time is right to lock it and move on to the next phase.

Screenplay by phildavison1959

Script Breakdown

The script breakdown is the process in which every single item needed for the movie's shoot is identified. This includes locations, props, effects - absolutely everything. It's incredibly important to pore over every detail in this process in order to estimate a budget and schedule.

Shot List

This is your shot-by-shot breakdown of each scene, with a description of the framing and other details, such as focal length, camera movement, and location.

Related Post Something Sketchy: A Beginner's Guide to Storyboarding

Storyboard

A visual representation of each scene in your film, your storyboards can illustrate character placement, blocking, lighting positions, focal length, and other notes. If you don't have the budget to hire a storyboard artist, you'll need to rely on your own skills, or maybe have your production designer pull double duty.

Finance

Filmmaking is an expensive business. The producer needs to secure funding to pay for the entire pre-production, production, and post-production process, in addition to marketing and distribution once the film is complete. Getting your film funded can sometimes take years. Therefore, some filmmakers move forward without funding and pay for their film out-of-pocket; then they sell or license the rights to it after it's complete. The funding can come at any stage in the game.

Location Scout

When location scouting for each scene, physically go to the location if possible. Observe things like the ambient light and sound. Bring the shot list to visualize each shot in the scene. If the location is outdoors, think about visiting it at different times of the day to see how the light and sound change. Check the weather. If you have a large crew or a lot of gear, think about access both for your crew members and production vehicles. Bring a camera to snap some photos of your locations - this will be helpful for the production designer when choosing a location. Think about what permits or property releases you might need at each location.

Tech Scout

Having locked all locations and produced the shot list, the director, cinematographer, production designer, line producer, and 1st AD go on the tech scout. The purpose of the tech scout is for the director to visit each and every location with the heads of each department and explain precisely what each shot will entail: where the camera will be, details of camera movement, what the actors will be doing, and what the look of the scene will be. Again, bring a camera to snap some photos. The cinematographer can use this opportunity to replicate each shot with a still camera.

Scheduling

After the tech scout, the 1st AD uses the director's shot list to draw up a schedule for each day of the shoot.

Casting

Casting is taken care of by Casting Directors, who are very good at finding actors that match the director's specifications. Obviously, the director makes the final choices, but the preliminary selection - which is the most time-consuming and tedious part - is done by the casting directors, who are, frankly, worth every penny they charge.

Production Design

After the scout, the production designer designs and oversees the production of set pieces, and arranges the procurement of anything that needs to be purchased, such as plants, furniture, and props. The costume designer does the same.

Related Post Production Design for Fun and Profit with Nico Guidote

So there you have it. Now that you've gotten educated on the pre-production process, it's time to move on to the actual production - which will go much more smoothly with all this proper work done up front!

Check out the images from this post and more pre-production related content in the collection below:
Top image: Group Of People Going Over Script by pathosmedia

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A Step-by-Step Guide to Pre-Production for Film and Video

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Pre-production is essential in the filmmaking process, because without proper planning, your production could run over time, the film could go over budget, or you could find yourself in the editing room with missing content. Some even say, "Production is pre-production."