At the beginning of your career a great way to gain experience and get samples of work under your belt is timed film making competitions. They can be hell on wheels to get through, but if you’re on a good team you could end up coming out of it with something worthwhile.
Creativity is an interesting thing. Put under pressure people are forced to perform, and have no time to stand around umming and awwing wondering if they are making the right decisions. There is no time to be questioning every decision you’re making. It’s a case of do or die, and strangely I find most people flourish in this environment. They take chances they wouldn’t otherwise, and try things they wouldn’t normally get to do.
When you’re under time constraints there is no time for the analytical mind to take over which can be the killer of good work. Working on the fly is a very worthwhile exercise, and one that shows you what you’re made of.
The first thing is finding a group of people you want to compete with. That is the most important ingredient of all because you could be working on no sleep for 24 or 48 hours, and you need to know those around you aren’t going to turn into miserable people, and they are invested enough that they aren’t going to crap out on you. You want people you know and like – or at least have an interest in getting to know further. Because trust me after you’ve been through this experience they will become either very good friends or enemies.
The next thing is you need someone on your team who can write… and quickly. Most competitions provide you with directions the morning of the competition with either story points or props to be incorporated and then say GO! You need to have someone with a vivid imagination who can pump out a story really fast. Everything starts with a good script, and if you don’t have that it’s almost pointless moving forward. This is also a chance for several members of the team to collaborate and start cooking up ideas, with them being funneled through one person who is entrusted to document the best of what is being thrown out there and turning it into something workable.
The next key ingredient is people who can act. You need decent cast members who can fill the roles you’ve come up with so versatility is very important. Yes you can try and tailor your script to fit the people you’ve picked, but if they’re limited, you’re limited in the story you’re going to be able to tell that fits within the parameters of the competitions guidelines.
As with the crew members you have to make sure your cast is committed. My first experience was a nightmare due to a hyperventilating teenager who didn’t want to be there and eventually bailed on us. The script went out the window and we ended up turning our submission into a documentary about a film imploding because we had no other option. Because this human being let us down there was no way to get a replacement so the script we wasted time writing went out the window. Big mistake and one I’d never make again! If you can avoid writing teenagers and children into your story do that because they don’t have the ability to get through an arduous shoot. In my case we didn’t even get off one shot before things started to go south so we had nothing except a bunch of crew members standing around contemplating having a stiff drink, while trying to figure out where to go from here.
Finding professional actors if you can manage it is important because they’ve been on a set before and know what to expect. Our situation was with a newbie, and that killed us in the end because this person was unprofessional and prone to histrionics. I turned into a shrink that day instead of a producer. You don’t want to be dealing with unexpected occurrences like cast or crew members who don’t know and understand what it means to be a professional. Even though this is only a competition and not a paying gig, you need people on your team who are going to conduct themselves like they’re being paid the big bucks to be there, because they take their contribution seriously.
You also want people on your team that have stuff to offer like potential locations to shoot at. Offices, apartments, or an in at a local coffee shop that will be happy to let you spend a few hours doing your thing. One of our crew lived in a house and his roommates were good enough to skedaddle for the day and let us take over their space. This provided us with indoor space, outdoor space, and a street out front to shoot on. Having a few potential places up your sleeve is very wise when you’re going in a competition so you can choose the best that fits the story you’ve been able to come up with.
The size of teams are generally limited, so you also want people who can wear several hats and aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty. I was the producer but also did wardrobe, hair and make-up because that’s part of my skill set. I also doubled as the writer for the fateful script we weren’t able to use. Think about the roles that go into making a film and make sure your bases are covered. You don’t want to end up with a camera operator who isn’t capable of lighting properly for example.
It’s important to surround yourself with people who can think on the fly. People who can think outside of the box and are good at coming up with solutions to problems. Because problems will crop up as they always do, and it’s not like you’ve got the luxury of time to think about what your solution is going to be. It has to be instantaneous. Something goes wrong and boom – here’s how we’re going to cope with it. This is a good exercise for your paid work because that’s the reality of working in production. If something goes wrong you still have to make your day and complete whatever is scheduled, so there’s no messing around. This trains you how to respond to emergencies like one of the key props has gone missing. It forces you to always be thinking what your plan B is going to be.
You’ll probably come out of it like a bear with a sore head and need a few days to recover, but I would recommend going through the experience at least once. If your completed film comes out at the top of the heap and is recognized with an award this looks great on a resume and gives you the start of a reel of your work you can show to potential employers.
I was amazed at the quality of some of the films that were completed within only 24 hours. The ingenuity and talent that went into completing them was nothing short of awe inspiring. It showed me what can be completed with very little money being spent, and other serious constraints.
There are a lot of lessons that can be learned while competing in a competition. The most important of which is it shows you how you react to working under pressure… because our industry is full of pressure on a day to day basis. It’s a bit of a training ground so you are prepared for the inevitable bad days that come along in your career.