HOW LATE IS TOO LATE TO SAVE YOUR VIDEO?

There is a great quote*: "Every movie is made seven times and involves both sets of grandparents."

While this is a great way of expressing how incredibly difficult and involved the process of making a feature film is, this has very little practical value from the perspective of WHAT IN THE F^CK DOES THAT MEAN?!! The traditional stages of making a film are Development, Pre-Production, Production, Post-Production, and Distribution. I guess the other steps are about... financing? Is he treating conception as a different step than writing? I don't know.

But the idea that each step in the arduous process of movie making in and of itself is weighted more or less equally is one I can get behind. For the purposes of this blog, I'm going to say this: EVERY MOVIE IS MADE THREE TIMES.

The first time when it is written.

The second when it is planned and filmed.

The third when it is edited.

That isn't exactly brain surgery, but it's useful to think of these steps as separate. Each of these steps require a radically different set of skills to do, yet each has a HUGE effect on the finished video. So let's go into it, shall we?

MAKING YOUR MOVIE THE FIRST TIME: WRITING
When you stop and think about it, the written word is diametrically opposed to a movie. It literally is a different medium. A camera can't capture someone's thoughts. A written story needs to spend time explaining in detail what intuitively comes across on screen. A camera is always doomed to show too much. Etc.

The process of writing a script for a video is often one people find tedious and frustrating. There's always the temptation to jump the gun and start shooting the second you reach 'Fade Out', but here's the thing; no matter how brilliantly it is filmed a bad script can't make a great film. The reverse is true too; Chinatown is a better script than a film.

...I can't really tell you how to write a good script within the confines of this article, but here's what I can say: writing is re-writing. With few exceptions a first draft is never so good that a second or third pass can't improve it. In more professional circles, it's not unheard of to do a couple dozen (my record is twenty-two). Subsequent drafts you want to edit for brevity, clarity, pacing and flow.

Everybody's process is different, and you have to find your own. Mine involves cue-cards.

MAKING YOUR MOVIE THE SECOND TIME: FILMING
From the placement of the camera to the set up of the light to the pacing and performance, anything happening in front of the camera shapes the experience. Everything communicates.

If you place the camera low it makes your subject feel more imposing. That might be appropriate introduction to your villain.

Or a parent from a child's perspective.

Or for delivering a fact about superheroes.

The same line can take on different meanings if it's instead filmed from a high angle. Or with different line delivery.

MAKING YOUR MOVIE THE THIRD TIME: EDITING
You ask ten different people to take the same footage and cut together a scene and you will have ten different scenes. Clever editing can hide issues with performance and production. Creative editing can make an otherwise bland video suddenly interesting. You can give a video a distinctive look and feel simply in how the footage is assembled.

And yes, if you've got a troubled film, a show can actually be saved in editing!

...Okay, lemme give a tangible example.

This episode had no script. I had a list of points I wanted to make and had structured a rough guideline around them. Everything else was improvised.

In editing I found I had some major issues with the footage I had shot. More than half just didn't work well on screen. I ultimately ended up rewriting everything in post. Lines were used out of context. Ideas were dropped entirely. It was a challenge, but it was a satisfying one; I kept pushing to get the film down to it's leanest and most engaging. And what came out looks nothing like what I planned it to.

I was able to do that because I shot with an eye to give me options in the editing room. I had changed up delivery in the different takes. I had shot non-sequitur sequences. I had shot the same content from a second, tighter angle.

What a lot of budding filmmakers do is essentially edit while they're shooting; they'll only film from each angle however long they think they'll need. They'll only shoot one take. That's all well and good if the end film works, but it often won't. And if there's no coverage, it means you're stuck. Or it means re-shoots.

But really the point to take away from reading this article is that each step of the process you are making the film anew. Not until you press export on the project and put it online are you done. And that can be a wonderful, wonderful thing.

Now it's your turn. Do you have a video where you completely changed direction after you'd written it? Or filmed it? Post about it in the comments! Next post will be dedicated to the author of the best comment.


*Sadly I do not know who made this quote save that they are a filmmaker and likely European. ...hey, by show of hands; who actually still remembers what this note is referring to?