MAKING A FILM
A THEORETICAL GUIDE TO SUCCESSFUL FILMMAKING
Written By:
JONATHAN PIVKO
Edited By:
Mr. Thomas Allen
MAKING A FILM
A THEORETICAL GUIDE TO SUCCESSFUL FILMMAKING
Catered to Lakeland Regional High School Film Festival Prospects
Written By
Jonathan Pivko
Edited By
Mr. Thomas Allen
Contact Info
Jonathan Pivko
Email:
Phone: (862) 588-0852
(Feel free to call me or email me with any questions, no question is stupid.)
Preface
This packet contains a theoretical guide to filmmaking organized in steps that NEED to be done in order to complete your film. It also highlights certain steps that, although not NECESSARY for completing your film, are BENEFICIAL in the end, helping to make a more polished, professional, and “better” movie.
This classification of steps is divided into two columns. Column ONE is labeled NECESSARY, and column TWO; BENEFICIAL. For example, scripting is considered a necessary step, but costumes are listed as beneficial. This is because a) costumes might not apply to your movie (documentary) and b) it is not truly necessary for you to have costumes in order to finish your film.
To clarify, this guide is not advising you to skip costuming or other beneficial steps, but suggesting priorities to keep you on track to a successful completion. By all means ambition is welcomed and costumes will only enhance your picture. However, obsessing over costumes when a script is only half finished is the path to filmmaking debacle, or as Yoda would call it, “The Dark Side.”
Furthermore, there is a reason this is being referred to as a “theoretical guide,” and that is because filmmaking cannot and never will be easily broken down into steps. Things overlap everywhere and underlap and throughlap and inlap. Things get all tangled up, and you, the filmmaker, are stuck in the middle surrounded by knots that present themselves in the form of questions, scheduling conflicts, technical difficulties, etc.
Making my high school movies, one of my most important and frequent jobs was not comforting the actors, or getting the light just right, it was trying to prevent things from falling apart. Continuing on after high school I realized this only gets truer and harder. Film production is not a natural thing, if it was, everyone would be doing it. We’d wakeup in the morning, eat some cereal, take a breathe of fresh air, and then grab our camera, gather 10-60 people and shoot our film. We’d easily get all of them to do what we want when we ask it, and at the end of an early day, we would watch our dailies and laugh at how much they surpassed our wildest imaginations.
Or not. Filmmaking is not a pleasure, it is hard work, and there is very little glamour involved in the actual process. It is the opposite of comfort and relaxation, and as the films get bigger so does the amount of stress. The key is to persevere. I have at least a dozen scripts I’ll never film and half a dozen movies only half shot. I’ve probably told people about two dozen movies I’ll never make or failed to make. But who cares? I certainly don’t. And if you want to make your film, you can’t either.
So when your friend calls you up last minute and says, “oh man I can’t make it to the shoot today, I have to go clip my nails and eat some cake,” don’t hang up the phone and cry. Making a film is declaring war against the world. You may lose battles but focus on the war. Call him/her back and reschedule as soon as possible. If they beat around the bush, put pressure on them. If they drop out of the movie defy them. Cast someone else and make a movie ten times better than the one you planned. Nothing in life is as gratifying.
Perseverance cannot be taught by any guide, or list, or book. It is simply something that must be learned. Train yourself to never quit and making what might seem like fun little high school movies will make you a better person in life.
This summer I spent many, many thousands of dollars to put myself in charge of 50 or so people for 5 weeks. I averaged 3 hours of sleep a night, 1 shower per week, and 7 plates of stress reducing pasta per day. I gained 10 to 15 pounds, even while carrying a 48 pound camera on my shoulder for 2 to 4 hours each day. And finally, after 10 months of pre-production and 40 days of shooting 65,000 feet of 35mm film at .56 cents per foot, I may never get 1 completed film out of the whole thing.
What I just described is the definition of insanity, but that’s what filmmaking is, no matter what size the production. So much time and joint effort is being put into the simple phenomena of light and sound working together in unison to mimic life. But you love it, or at least you’re interested in it, or else you wouldn’t be reading this.
So good luck with your film, may this guide help you on your adventure. But remember most of all, a film does not make itself, it gets made. So never give up, never quit, put your blood and guts into it…or as Yoda would say, “Use the Force Luke.” There is nothing more rewarding than knowing you gave it your all.
THE STEPS: In a Theoretically Chronological Order