Guerilla Film Makers Plus.pdf 2v622x

The Guerilla Filmmakers Handbook

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The Guerilla Film Makers Handbook PLUS! This bonus PDF accompanies the 3rd edition of the UK Guerilla Film Makers Handbook. Please do not copy or distribute it. It is the copyright of Chris Jones and Genevieve Jolliffe This booklet can be printed onto A5 paper, or even made into a booklet, if your printer s booklet printing. It contains a mix of box outs and interviews that did not fit into the 3rd edition, new material and interviews from the 2nd edition that are relevenat now, but perhaps somewhat superceded. We hope you enjoy it!

copyright 2006 Chris Jones and Genevieve Jolliffe

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The Guerilla Filmmakers Handbook

The Guerilla Film Makers Handbook 3rd Edition

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Chris Jones and Genevieve Jolliffe

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FAKERS FULL INTERVIEW

Claire Bee

Q - Why do you want to be a producer as opposed to a director?

Producer

Claire - It’s not what I’m good at. I’m creative in a sense of getting the story right for a cinematic piece, but not as well as other people. So, I’m not going to sit there and be a director when I’m better at being a producer. Q - What is the job of a producer? Claire - In a nutshell, as best as possible, taking something from a very, very small idea, all the way through to a theatrical release, television and DVD. Q - Is the job the same whether you are working with a low budget or high budget? Claire - I guess so. It depends on what you are actually doing. If you are making a movie for a theatrical release then yes, you are taking a script, or an idea someone has given you, and you are putting it into production. You are raising the money and you are getting it sold and seen. Q - How did you start? Claire - I started at school. I wanted to get into films, but no one in my family had any background in the film industry. So I really didn’t know how to get started. I spoke to teachers, studied an advanced GNVQ in Media studies and went to university where I did a professional broadcasting degree. I believed television was something that was quite strong in this country, but a Media degree wasn’t something that was really going to help me because it was just too broad. A degree is supposed to be a specialist subject, so I figured the technical side of television was the route to go. That’s where I met my business partner Todd Kleparski, and we discovered we had a similar thing that we wanted to do - make movies. We wanted to shoot on film, but being in a broadcasting university, it was definitely frowned upon obviously because you are making television product. So we decided to start doing short films at university with a couple of other guys, Mark and Ollie. Mark wrote scripts and he directed. Ollie and Todd both wanted to do cinematography. I wanted to produce, so we did it and used parts of our student loans to do so. Then people from the National Film School and the International Film School started hearing about me working on small budgets and decided I was good at it. They asked me to come and 4

The Guerilla Filmmakers Handbook

help them produce and my budgets got bigger. The biggest short I did was £10k at the London Film School. Q - What kind of education did you get from making the shorts? Claire - I don’t know how to quantify it but it was invaluable. There are so many lessons to be learnt, in all the areas of film making - one of them is set etiquette. Knowing whom you are dealing with and how to treat your crew because they make the final product. If you don’t know how to treat them, you are not going to get that product. You get to learn about all the different lab and post techniques, and how things are put together and the responsibility and decisions that are yours. Q - You seem to work with more traditional sized crews despite your reduced budgets. Claire - Yeah, I have. My aspirations are to make very high quality feature films, and I don’t know if that really does mean a big budget. It does help, but in order to get to that point, you have to work in those practices and learn how it goes together. The feature film we’ve just done, Fakers, was with a full-size crew and a very small budget. By doing that, you learn how to manage the budget. You have lots of mistakes, but it gets easier when you do the next one. It’s harder to get it together, because you’ve got to prove that you can get the money again, but the actual working practices of it should be easier because you’ve made those mistakes before. Q - How old were you when Fakers came together? Claire - Fakers happened a year after university. I was working for Kodak, selling film stock in Soho, trying to get a foot in the door with anybody as a PA. Richard Janes, the director of Fakers turned up in the shop and he’s like ‘I’ve got a quarter of a million pounds, and I’ve got this script, do you want to produce it?’ And after a year of being confined, not being able to be creative or make anything, I was like ‘Yes, I’ll do anything! Get me out of here!’ So, I took on this script and this quarter of a million pounds, and decided that we had to raise more money. We were trying to raise at least £850k to be able to shoot it and get it finished. Todd came on at that point and between us and Tom Chambers, who was signed up for a main role, we got to £555k. So we decided to go and shoot, and we did this all through EIS investment as well. Q - EIS, is it still available? Claire - Enterprise Investment Scheme, yeah. It’s not film specific; it’s a government fund. Basically, it’s something the government set up for high-risk small businesses. The key word is ‘high risk’, because most people can’t get an investment if they are high-risk business as it’s not attractive to investors. So the government does this so that investors get a little bit back in a tax break.

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Q - Do they buy shares? Claire - Yes. But they can not sell their shares in the first 3 years and the company cannot release any dividends / profits in the first 3 years. If the company has made a profit, they can buy those shares back at a different price. But, you can’t give those guarantees in your business model or else you are not classed as high risk because you are giving a guaranteed exit route. It’s all regulated by the SCEC (Small Company Enterprise Centre), so you have to get your prospectus approved. The SCEC are brilliant. If you’ve got any problems, you just go to them. You don’t need a big, expensive ant to do it. You can do it yourself; you just have to work with the SCEC. Q - Did your industry preconceptions change after working on Fakers? Claire - I’m a very realistic person. I’m a bit too realistic actually, and it can prevent me from making decisions sometimes. What I believed then was that you could make money from films. Not masses. But you’d probably get something back at least. It’s a business, you’re selling a product, and if you make a good product, I believed someone would buy it. Now, I realise it’s not that simple. It really depends on who is involved. The exhibitors have their deals. They have to honour the bigger movies, which have spent so much more money. Just because your film is good, it doesn’t mean it is going to get a theatrical release or that it will make money. All the critics from all the magazines saying it’s marvellous doesn’t matter. And for the record they didn’t say that about my film! Though our target audience was Nuts magazine readers, and they gave it 5/5. Q - Did you think the screenplay was ready when you shot it? Claire - Paul Gerstenberger wrote the first draft in three weeks so clearly the script wasn’t ready at that point. The script was strong, but it wasn’t tight enough. We continued developing the script but still went into pre-production and we did re-writes right the way through the shoot. Even when they were shooting the finale scene, it was a totally different scene from what was there originally. It just wasn’t scary enough. Paul and I were talking to Richard ‘It’s not scary, it’s not scary!’ he said ‘Trust me, I know what I’m doing.’ ‘OK, but can we write something just in case?’ Paul rewrote something, spoke to Richard again, and the next morning I turn up on set, watching the monitor, and there’s Art Malik doing this scene that him and Richard pulled together. It was petrifying; it was the scariest moment because I wasn’t sure I had done the right thing. Did I push to get that scene scarier? Q - What was the budget, and where did it come from? Claire - The money was all privately invested, it was all people who knew people, who wanted to invest though an EIS scheme and who understood the risk, believed in the script, and believed in the director. They knew people, and they’d chat over bridge, and decided they like the film. We were very lucky. We shot on £550k, but the final audited costs come out just over one million pounds including post. We didn’t have a full production team. So there was only myself, Todd, the 6

The Guerilla Filmmakers Handbook

ant and our assistant on board. It would have helped having a proper line producer - somebody who is very experienced to manage the budget. We were all paid less than the runners, which was great bargaining with people’s wages. That’s how it got shot, but the budget would have worked better if we had spent more money on areas like location department, and pre-production, and having a stronger production team. Q - You found somebody with some wealth, and that created an interest within that group? Claire - One investor had some money to invest in the arts. He decided that our film was a good idea and told his wealthy friends about it. They decided that they wanted to invest in it as well and it spiralled from there.

Websites to help you find crew www.shootingpeople.co.uk www.craigslist.com www.film-tv.co.uk www.mandy.com www.productionbase.co.uk www.shoots.com www.ukscreen.com www.filmlondon.org.uk www.artism.com www.media-match.com

Q - How did you approach casting? Claire - We only had eight weeks for pre-production, which included casting. Before we actually went into pre-production Richard was very clear that he wanted Art Malik, so we actually approached his agent at PFD to get him on board. Luckily enough, Art Malik is the kind of actor who is open to everything and just wants to shoot scripts that he likes. He got the script, liked it, and therefore came on board. After that it was a case of who Richard liked for the key characters. Tom Chambers, who played Tony, was someone Richard had worked with before on a short film and hadn’t had the big role. Richard felt he was perfect for the role of Tony, so he was cast early on. Then we worked with our casting directors, Elaine Fallon and Tania Polentarutti, who suggested up and coming actors that would be interested in low budget film making. And that’s when we got suggested Matthew Rhys and Kate Ashfield. I’d seen Matthew before, and I loved him. Richard hadn’t seen his work before, so they met, he liked him, and he was cast. The fun roles were the cameos - the art gallery dealers. They were trickier because they were wellseasoned actors, so they were hard to pin down. We didn’t get Rula Lenska till the very last minute, but I’m so glad we did. Q - In hindsight, would you have tried to cast named actors in the lead roles for sales reasons? Claire - Unfortunately, what sells a film these days is, ‘Oooh who’s in that film? Ooooh it’s Tom Cruise!’ ‘I like him, let’s go see him!’ So in hindsight, yeah, it would have been easier to sell the film if we had an A-list cast in the principal roles, or at least one person in a principle role. In reality you are not going to get that unless your script is something out there, something that is truly amazing, and it’s the kind of actor who is open to that sort of thing. Johnny Depp is one for 7

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Things to do if shooting overseas 1. Investigate the country’s and it’s individual region’s relevant tax incentives/tax relief. 2. Talk to the relevant film commissions who can supply you with photos, brochures, s (i.e. hotels, extra casting agencies, equipment etc.) and any necessary resource guides. 3. Research other productions that have filmed in that country so to be aware of any problems. 4. the country’s immigration departments to find out the policies for bringing in your cast and crew into the country. 5. Hire or find production managers or coordinators who’ve shot there before. 6. Hire a local production or unit manager - that speaks English. 7. Check whether the cast and crew will need any immunizations or vaccines before they visit the country. 8. Make sure everyone has a current port and that it will not expire during the production (check also that it will also not expire within 6 months even if your shoot is for one month). 9. Find out about the local country’s unions and work with them to ensure their . 10. Meet with local authorities to find out if permits are required. 11. Find a good freight company that specialises in the entertainment industry to handle all your shipping including necessary carnets etc. 12. Find out if the country of production accepts carnets or if like Taiwan it accepts a different type of carnet.

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14. Inform your own insurers of your filming activities that take place out of the country making sure that you have proper coverage. 15. Being in a foreign country, you will need to get local insurance. Make sure you’re fully covered. To find local insurance companies, check first with your insurance broker who may have relationships with companies in that country. Bear in mind that in certain countries, if you’re not fully covered you can face different procedures e.g. in Spain, you must have the correct driving insurance or you could find yourself staying in jail until it’s resolved. 16. Find out what the local laws are in the country of your production and the procedures if you’re pulled over for either speeding or drunk driving. 17. Find out what the emergency medical procedures are (i.e. such as calling the country’s equivalent of 999) and find out where the local emergency medical facilities are. 18. Find local doctors / dentists that speaks English. 19. Secure the services of the necessary paramedics/doctors and fireman for your shoot. 20. Calculate the local currency conversion and find out where the best bureaus of exchange are for your cast and crew. 21. Find out if the country is PAL or NTSC – for either your own playback equipment or to recommend your cast/crew to bring their own necessary converters with them. 22. Check if you have to form a separate company in that country in order to operate. 23. Set up bank s with the local bank in order to pay your local crew.

The Guerilla Filmmakers Handbook

example. He takes risks. So if you’ve got something that could appeal to that kind of person, then yeah you are going to get them. And you are going to get them within your budget, if they are prepared to make an investment themselves. Q - How long did you shoot for? Claire - We shot for 10 weeks, and we broke over the Christmas and New Year period, then shot the last week in Spain. Q At this level of budget I’m assuming you have a large staff. Did you have any problems getting permission to shoot? Claire - Oh yes! When you have every single gallery owner on set for the day, you can’t just show up with Rula Lenska and Edward Hibbert on a chair, and sit there like it’ll be fine. Yeah we had to have a full unit base, a full feature unit and you can’t just turn up on London bridge and ‘quick get a shot!’ because it is just not going to turn out right for what we are trying to do. This was pre-Ken Livingston as well, so getting permission in London was a nightmare. Parking was a nightmare. Luckily the one thing we did do right is get a really good location team and a fabulous unit manager, Linley Bettles. She was amazing. She kept that unit together and when there were problems like lawn mowers and builders making noise, she managed to get them to stop work. That’s where those crew were invaluable. When you are shooting in London, you have to have the right location team and security team to work with the environment. You can’t just say ‘I’m a film, I’m here, everyone’s gotta get out of my way!’ Q - Was it shot on 35mm? Claire - No! That was a budget thing. We intended to shoot on 35mm, but not being able to secure the rest of that money, and the budget being so tight, we thought ‘What can we do?’ We did tests with the camera and decided that actually shooting 16mm anamorphic and posting via a digital intermediate route was a pretty good choice to go with quality-wise. We saved 70% of lighting and camera budget by dropping to 16mm, so we could put that money into locations. Our location manager was still scouting during shooting, which meant they couldn’t be tech reckies. So we didn’t know what lighting packages were actually needed, so we rented far greater than we needed to cover our arses. Therefore the sparks and driving were affected by it, and that’s where we went over in our budget. Q - Did you do any re-shoots after the main shoot? 9

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Claire - We didn’t do a proper re-shoot. The one problem we did have was with the main gallery. There had been such a high quality in all the other art galleries that it had to be quite special. The location that was secured a week before we were going to shoot it, but no one had managed to recce it, save for only the Location Manager, and we trusted him to get it right. The day before we managed to finish a little bit early, so the heads of department said ‘Right, OK, let’s go down there’. Richard had to call me and say ‘Claire, it was awful, we just can’t shoot here it is terrible.’ So, 10’clock the night before the shoot with Rula Lenska, who is booked, I had the question, what are we going to do? So I said ‘Right we are not shooting, we are pulling it.’ It would have been insulting to the crew who are all on a really low wage and are investing their time to then go and shoot one of the main locations in a place that is not right. So we called Rula at home, woke her up, and told her we were really sorry, but you are not coming in tomorrow. We are putting it on the other side of Spain. So in effect, there was like a week’s re-shoot tacked onto the end, and we had to get everyone to try and do deals if possible. Q - How long was post-production? Claire - Post-production was a whole other journey in itself. To lock in took about 8 weeks in total. By this point we had an investor that was prepared to give half a million, which was to do post and all the deliverables. As the contracts were being drawn up, he vanished. It was horrific because we’d still been running up hefty bills for weeks. So we had to shut down the production office and stop editing, though we luckily had a locked picture. Then my Mum got really ill - she was dying and so I had to be with her. Richard and Todd were full throttle trying to work out how to secure some money to get the film completed. In June all three of us went to Cannes to see if we could do anything at all. Meanwhile back in London, we were trying to sort out who was going to do all the final elements of post - sound, digital, transfer, title sequence, grade, all that kind of stuff. Our favourites were LipSync, and Videosonics, for sound. They were calling Richard saying, yeah, great we’ll do it, and we were said ‘Sorry, you can’t do it, we haven’t got the money’ and they were said, ‘well let’s see how you go, we are still very much interested, we are going to juggle the space for you.’ While we were in Cannes, we met the Future Film Group, who told us about their super Sale and Lease back with Equity investment, so we could procure 20% of the budget, which was just enough to get post-production done. So that’s what we did. They said they’d start work knowing that we didn’t have the money secured because with sale and leaseback there’s lots of paper work to do. Some of the original investors chipped in as well. Q - In of your edit, do you think there was a better movie in it than what actually got completed because you were rushed through post-production? 10

The Guerilla Filmmakers Handbook

Claire - No. We were very wise about all of that because we knew how strong a tool editing is. We did one cut, had a screening where we invited people who we knew hadn’t been involved in the film at all. We also invited along very well established editors and producers. Afterwards they told us to do this, do that, change this, that will do better there. So we felt confident with what we had. Q - How did you approach sales and distribution? Claire - I was trying to raise extra investment and thought distribution might be a way to do it. None of us had ever done distribution before. We got through the editing stages, but as for selling something it’s a totally different ball game. We weren’t sure if big distributors like Pathe or UIP could get involved and help fund us. So, we started ing them. Some people ed us, like Miramax because the minute you appear in Screen International without a sales agent they think, ‘Oooh, movie we can buy’, so they start getting in touch. Then they start wanting to see stuff. So we sent out the off-line edit and nothing happened. In a way, we felt like it did damage because they’d seen the film before it was fully complete and not yet at its best. Q - So in your rush to try and make a deal, you in fact significantly weakened your position, by showing them an incomplete product/project? Claire - That’s how we feel. It’s different if you’ve got bigger stars and all that kind of thing. But when you are an unknown director, unknown producer, and up and coming British talent, it takes a truly splendid script to make you sit up. Q - So you had to make the film to know that you should have distribution to make the film? Claire - Exactly. If you are going to make your first film, make it. Get on with it, and make it. Make sure your script is right, that’s the important bit as I’m sure you’re aware of! It’s tricky if you don’t know what you are doing business-wise, because sales agents and distributors can lock you into agreements that you wouldn’t know how to argue your way out of. However the important thing to is that they are doing business with you because you have something they want and there is your bargaining power. Our problem was we got to a point where the film was finished and now we needed to start selling it. We got a bit scared maybe, or just a bit anxious, thinking we have got to sell this NOW! So we invited as many sales agents as we could think of to a screening. Portman really wanted to do it, but they were only interested in doing television. Then Content come along, a brand new sparkly company, who are part of Content Films in New York. So you think ‘Oooh, big company, great! They are really interested in us, and they wanted to represent us, so we made an agreement and they have been our sales agents since last November. Now they are the biggest Sales Agent in the country. Q - So a year down the line, how much money have you got from them?

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PACT / EQUITY LOW BUDGET SCHEME This agreement for films budgeted under £3 million allows you to only pay the actor’s daily / weekly rate plus 50% or 70% (depending on your budget) instead of the normal 280% for worldwide rights to your actors’ performances. For low budget film makers with any kind of money, this can make real sense as it takes a whole set of problems off your table, namely contract and heavy negotiations with agents. We did it on Urban Ghost Story and it worked a dream. Points to consider... 1. All films budgeted above £250,000 need to be certified by an ant from the Production Guild. Under £250,000 need only a summary budget. 2. Once certified, send ant’s letter, top sheet of budget, letter identifying financiers, start date, length of shoot, location of shoot and a letter from your production company stating you want to for the low budget film agreement to the Producers Rights Agency (PRA) arm of Pact. 3. Include the number of cast roles that would apply to the agreement and their cost as there is a 5% minimum of the overall budget to qualify.

4. There is no limit to where you can show your film or in what media. 5. There’s a hold back period of one year from first theatrical release before film can be shown on UK television. 6. If no theatrical release, then hold back period of 15 months from the date of delivery of the film to its principal financier is applied. 7. It takes three to four days to a production. 8. You don’t have to be a member of Pact or Equity to use this agreement, but you still must pay the levy.

Claire - Zero! Sales agents are tough. They have to spend money because they have to go to all the international markets. You can audit their s, all that kind of stuff, but there’s nothing that can stop you the film maker from feeling like absolute shit when you look at their s and think ‘Oh my God, it’s costing that much money to sell the film!’ Q - How much have you earned them? Claire - I think the film has made about $260k worth of sales from the smaller territories like Scandinavia, Russia, Portugal, and Greece. Japan is the surprise one. They’ve taken theatrical as well. Their theatrical release comes out next spring, But the big territories like , and America won’t bite because it’s a UK film and if it’s not going to get a sale in it’s own territory, then why should they take it? So the UK theatrical release became the golden apple. This is the thing we must achieve and it just wasn’t happening. Then comes along Guerilla Films with David Wilkinson, who is truly amazing. He works his arse off for you. He pulls out all the stops. He comes up with the wackiest ideas, for getting the film known, and he concentrates purely on independent UK films. London is really tough because you have got your niche audiences, which is just too much to compete with. The problem with Fakers is that it is a commercial film, but it doesn’t have the usual commercial bells and whistles like a big star. So it 12

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doesn’t fit in the art-house market at all because that audience wants something that is totally different, something thought provoking, not purely entertaining. So David sees the film at Cannes, then approaches us and says ‘I’m interested. I want to take the film for UK rights and do a theatrical release.’ He doesn’t have money, so we have to raise more money for a theatrical, which we realised anyway, as we didn’t have a P&A budget. He didn’t want to go through a sales agent, so we had to get Content to release the UK rights back to the producers for us to do the deal, which took a little bit of time. But they did it in the end. They realised that that was going to help all the other territories, so that’s what we did and we raised a further £35k for the theatrical release.

FILMMAKERS CODE OF CONDUCT Every film company should follow a code of conduct when filming on location. Many counties/boroughs may have their own film maker’s guidelines which they expect you to adhere to. These guidelines relate to road markings, lights, equipment, generators, cranes, night filming, parking, stunts/special effects, health and safety etc.. Check out your local film commission and if filming in London, the Borough Film Services on the Film London website at www.filmlondon.org.uk. In addition to the standard codes, it’s a good idea to make sure that your production company has it’s own policy on how to act when on location. 1. Make sure that all signs that are erected or removed for filming purposes are removed or replaced upon completion of the use of that location. 2. Rubbish bins should be made available by the production and cleared at the end of each day’s filming. 3. All signs posted to direct the company to the location must be removed. 4. All sets and props will be removed upon completion of their use. 5. Production, cast and crew vehicles will observe the designated parking areas. 6. All trash must be disposed of properly on completion of filming. All catering, craft service, construction strike and personal trash must be removed from the location.

7. The cast and crew shall not bring guests or pets to the location, unless expressly authorised by the company. 8. Cast and crew will refrain from the use of lewd or improper language. 9. Observe designated smoking areas and always extinguish cigarettes in butt cans. 10. At the conclusion of the filming process, it is the desire and the intention of this company to leave the location as it was found prior to the start of the production. 11. The production company must make good any damages or mess caused by it’s activities immediately after filming and notify all parties concerned. 12. you are guests and should always treat the property and the public with courtesy and respect.

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Q - So how did you feel the theatrical release went? Claire - We did a very minimal print run because we only had £35k in the P&A budget, but had to find a way of getting it into one of the major chains, like UGC. So we involved Smart Car, who appears in the film heavily, by running a competition to give away a Smart Car and weekends with Smart cars, which helped out with some of the costs. So we had this package where David from Guerrilla Films then went to UGC and said Smart Car is giving away a Smart Car in conjunction with the film, we want to get it to as many sites as possible. UGC came on board and they’ve been amazing at pushing the film. We released on 8 sites for the first week, and then shifted to another 8 sites for the next week and so on. It stayed at Shaftsbury Avenue for two weeks. I think it’s done about sixty or seventy sites. Q - One of the aspects that rarely get talked about is if you think, honestly, the film is good or bad? Is it different enough? Claire - I really love Fakers. I love the story, I love the performances, and I love the way it looks. What we achieved for the budget is amazing. It has it flaws story-wise and we needed more development time. So, I think it’s OK. Q - If I said here’s a million pounds, what would you make with that million? Claire - I would have made a horror movie or a romantic comedy - something that was much more defined in its genre. Fakers was intended to be a commercial film that you could go and enjoy. That is why it won’t sell so well because to be a commercial film you need a star name attached to it. Q - What do you think was your biggest mistake? Claire - Not becoming a lawyer! Which I’m now doing. Not pushing for more story time probably is the biggest thing. Q - What advice would you offer a producer? Claire - It is really weird doing this interview, because your book is something we used throughout the process, when we were making decisions, it helped like you wouldn’t believe! If you are starting from scratch, I definitely would have some sort of job to fall back on to be able to pay the bills, you must, must, must get experience. I’m not saying years and years and years, but at least get on set for a couple of features. Try and see how a production office works. Really research your production ant and the line producer. Those people control your budget and if they are not right, there goes a lot of money you’ve just worked hard to make. Make sure you know what you are saying to investors. Don’t say to them, ‘you will have your money back in a year.’ Make sure they get independent advice or otherwise, a few years down the line, those investors are going to be in a position where they want their money and you can’t get it to them. Don’t make it difficult for yourself. Don’t lie. Yes you need to bend things sometimes to get it to the next 14

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position, but if you tell great big porkies, you are going to give yourself hassle for the rest of your life. It’s a really small industry; so don’t play people off each other - especially facility houses, post-production houses and crew. If you can’t secure that person for that much money, then you can’t secure them. Don’t be bullied into those positions either. There are plenty of people, and you will get the right talented crew person if you want them.

Shooting In Wales There are no parking meters (some restrictions, though). You don’t need permits to shoot – only permission from location owners. And there are plenty of sheep if you need them. But if that wasn’t enough to go film in Wales, your project may qualify for from the government. Sgrîn Cymru Wales’ Production Department is responsible for istering and allocation Lottery funding and other public funding for film production and development in Wales. The department also provides a comprehensive programme of advisory and networking services to production companies, individual producers, directors and writers which includes advise on funding sources and potential financiers. Priority goes to projects from Welsh companies (including UK and international co-productions) and projects, which have Welsh writers and directors. In addition to this, the department manages training, various short film production and writer development initiatives such as the Moonstone Lab, The Script Breakfast Scheme, The Script Doctor service and it also distributes information on the Media Programme Development grants through their Welsh Media Antenna. Feature Film Schemes: Script Development Funding: Up to 20,000 or 75% of the development costs can be funded if partnership funding is already in place (this being no more than 12.5% of the overall budget). Feature Film Funding: Up to 250,000 or 50% of production costs can be funded, once again, only if partnership funding is already in place - although, a conditional offer can be given as long as you can prove interest from the financiers. Applications to the above schemes can be made at any time, and Sgrin advise that applicants discuss their application with them prior and fill in an Advanced Notification Form as an intial application for features. Once this is approved, a formal application is made. Funding is in the form of an investment that is to be recouped through revenues from income from the film, in relation to the proportion of the investment. Details of all the schemes can be found at: www.sgrin.co.uk or them at Wales Screen Commission/Sgrîn Cymru Wales 10 Mount Stuart Square Cardiff, CF10 5EE, Wales Tel: 44 (0) 2920 333300 Fax: 44 (0) 2920 333320 Web: www.walesscreencommission.co.uk E-mail: [email protected].

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SHOOTING IN SCOTLAND Scottish Screen: Second Floor, 249 West George Street, Glasgow, G2 4QE Tel: 0141 302 1700 Fax: 0141 302 1711 Web: www.scottishscreen.com 1. Develop world class production business in Scotland 2. Attract major productions to Scotland. 3. Champion a culture of investment in screen industries 4. Nurture and develop talent and audiences. 5. Preserve and present Scottish screen production. 6. Encourage and international outlook 7. Drive screen policy from school to statute. Can invest up to 500k into feature films Invest in about 6 films per year, 40 projects a year in development representing about 10% of applications received. Most projects they come from Scottish production companies with projects usually shooting in Scotland. Lottery Funding Five deadlines per year. Scottish Screen will fund up to 25% of a production’s costs with a ceiling of 500k. Twenty First Films s low budget Scottish feature films with budget of no more than 600k intended for theatrical exhibition. Five deadlines per year Scottish Screen will fund up to 75% of a production’s costs with a ceiling of 300k. Partnership funding in kind is acceptable as long as it is matched by partnership funding in cash to the same value. Also provides training and development.

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Script development funding Scottish Screen will contribute between 2k25k and up to 90% of the development costs. Scottish Screen must be paid a 50% on their investment. Applications for under 25k can be made at any time as they’re assessed on a rolling basis. Project Development Fund s advanced development of Scottish feature films, docs, animation – intended for theatrical release. Scottish screen will contribute btw 5k-75k and btwn 10-50% of project’s costs. Exceptions my be made for contributions of up to 75% of projects costs. Scottish screen must be paid a 50% on their investment. Four deadlines per year, May, August, Dec, Feb. Applications for awards of below 25k can be made at any time as they’re assessed on a rolling basis. Distribution and Exploitation s Print and advertising costs of Scottish feature films intended for theatrical release in Scotland, UK and worldwide. Four deadlines per year, May, August, Dec, Feb. Applications for under 25k can be made at any time as they’re assessed on a rolling basis. Eligiblity – distributors seeking to release a film or proudcers with a distributor attached. Scottish screen will contribute up to 50% of distribution and exhibition costs. Partnership funding in kind is acceptable as long as it’s matched by partnership funding in cash to the same value. Company Development Programme s companies in developing a slate of projects for feature film and docs intended for theatrical release, tv drama and factual projects aimed for broadcast, animation and new media, interactive t ventures. Deadline: annual. Applicants should be based in Scotland, but some of the slate projects may be developed outside of Scotland and with nonScottish partners. Need to show a feature or tv

The Guerilla Filmmakers Handbook

production track record and a slate of projects with financiers attached. Scottish screen will contribute up to 75k or 50% of the slate development costs. Exceptions may be made for contributions of up to 75% of the project’s costs. Partnership funding in kind is acceptable aslong as it’s matched by partnership funding in cash to the same value. Short Film Production Funding Scottish shorts, docs, animation intended for theatrical release. Four deadlines per year, May, august, Dec, Feb. Awards over 25k – awards below 25k can be made at any time as they’re assessed on a rolling basis. Scottish screen will fund up to 50% of a production’s costs. Partnership funding in kind is acceptable as long as it’s matched by partnership funding in cash to the same value. Guidelines: Individuals are NOT allowed to apply for these awards. Production Schemes: Scottish screen works with partners to deliver production schemes for short filmmakers: GLASGOW FILM OFFICE Glasgow Film Office, City Chambers, Glasgow, G2 1DU Tel: 014 1287 0424 Fax: 014 1287 0311 Web: www.glasgowfilm.org.uk Help budgets in excess of 200k and committed to spending at least 100k in Glasgow intended for theatrical distribution. Most of the projects they become involved in will have been referred to them by business development agencies, such as Scottish Enterprise Glasgow. Any new companies moving to the area are advised to Scottish Enterprise Glasgow to make their presence known. Awards New Writer Integration: This is to encourage production companies to work with new

screenwriting talent by ing script and project development for feature films, feature docs, commericals and other forms of Production Eligibility: Local independent production companies intending to work with new writing talent. Awards: 3 levels of development grants at 1k, 3k and 5k. Applicants must raise at least 50% match funding. Product Commercialisation To aid the growth of production companies by pinpointing buyers that might be interested in investing in development projects, formats, franchises and completed programmes. Eligibility: Production companies based in Glasgow with a strong business plan. Award – professional advice and guidance. In some cases, grants are awarded when appropriate. GUIDELINES: Productions must have budgets of over 200k or a commissioning value of over 50k. No application form and GFO do not receive unsolicited material. Projects are referred to GFO by Scottish Enterprise Glasgow. Production companies may email or telephone the GFO to discuss the project. GFO must receive a screen credit indicating development if a project from New Writer or New Director/producer schemes goes into production. In case of New Writer programme, grant must be repaid once production begins. GFO do not hold any rights in the projects they . SHORTS New Director/Producer Inegration: To encourage young filmmaking teams to produce short films with established production partners. Films to be shot digitally and under 25 mins. Grants up to 7.5k for an average budget of 30k, with an average award of 5k. Applicants must raise at least 50% match funding.

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DRIVEN Q - Where did the money come from for Driven?

Simon Cox

Simon - I made a five minute pilot and took it round to film and distribution companies. I wrote lots of letters saying can I come and show you or t ec Dir my pilot and my scripts? After knocking on what seemed like a thousand doors I got the money from a small distribution company who basically invested their money in me, not just the movie and idea - it was my energy and enthusiasm that seemed to close the deal. Originally I asked for £40k and they said you will never do it for that and gave me £130k. We shot Kodak S16mm and because of the deal I did with the distributor, it was only ever going to be completed as a TV movie so I didn’t have to consider blowing up to 35mm, I just stayed on S16mm all the way to final telecine. Q - As your budget was only £130k how did you pay your crew? Simon - The deal was that everybody got something. The average wage was £150 - £250 a week, unless they were an actor and their agent had specified that they had to be paid more. Q - Did you have any problems with cast or crew? Simon - The cast were on the whole wonderful, although I did have a slight problem with one of them, I think that it was a personality thing. Low budget films are very demanding and there were a lot of late nights - everyone got very tired, so tempers were short. It’s pretty much a miracle if you survive a low budget movie! The majority of the crew were very good, they were there because they wanted to be there. However, there were serious problems with a few people. I took on a guy to help produce - he was a nice guy, very friendly - but when we got into production he suddenly became a “producer” and we began to clash. Part of the problem was that he helped me crew up and he brought a lot of his own friends in. Halfway through the shoot those people teamed up with him and it became a bit of a ‘them and us’ situation - not very constructive. Being that this was my first film, I was intent on making it the best that I could and I found that some people were not behind me and were there for the ego trip. Looking back on it, we were tired and under pressure, so I can kind of understand why it happened. Q - Did this producer have any comments on the screenplay? Simon - Yes, I was convinced by this new producer to rewrite the script. I was 12 drafts down the line and I had lost focus so he suggested another writer who would have a better overall view and help 18

The Guerilla Filmmakers Handbook

focus the screenplay, to do a final polish so to speak. I was unhappy about this but I agreed as I had heaps to do like casting, locations, shot lists... But he didn’t do a polish, he went away and did a complete rewrite! At the time I thought it was a good re-write, but it had become a much bigger film suddenly I was on the roller coaster of production with a screenplay I didn’t know well. New characters, new locations, big effects... the world ending at the end! But it was too late and we just had to make it come hell or high water, I got focused and became determined to make the very best of everything, script, cast, budget, sets, locations.Once we were going though, the new script just seemed to cause endless problems. There were lots of phrases like lightning streaks across the fire ridden sky which looked beautiful on the page but when you come to the practicalities it was form over content with the script sounding to me much better than the story it was telling. Q - How many weeks did you cut for? Simon - We cut for 8 weeks altogether. That was three weeks during the shoot, and five weeks after. It wasn’t enough time, but again, I was under financial pressure to deliver and the film ended up being seriously compromised from a dramatic point of view. The deal I made with the financier was that I would get the last third of the money when I delivered the film. That meant that I was in the red for the final part of its making and I wouldn’t get out until I delivered the completed movie. So I couldn’t pay for the editing kit or the labs and the editor. Andi and I worked like bastards through the night trying to get this thing done and we ended up with a cut that was kind of OK. We were both too close to it and there was no objectivity, so we had to go with it. Ultimately, I found myself with a film that I was really unhappy with. It just seemed big, baggy and boring. It was a year later that I actually got myself into a position to re-cut having had some time to reflect on it. I did a major re-cut, dropping twelve minutes and then went out and shot some more scenes. Just tiny bits and pieces, but it really added to the drama and the momentum in the script. I spent a lot more time re-mixing the sound and building up the soundtrack, because originally we did not have the time or money that it deserved. The new version feels a thousand times better to me, its pace is more even, the shocks are better, lots more digital effects and all the boring stuff is gone. My advice to a new film maker is give yourself time. Take what you think is your final cut and show it to people that you don’t know and they will be brutally honest with you. Get their opinions and then take a little time to reflect because it really will make a difference. Q - The original cut had a lot of music - why? Simon - Yes, it had wall to wall music. We were under such pressure to deliver that when we mixed the film, I hadn’t even heard the music. We just sat there in the dub and said, yes that sounds great, let’s use it. In essence, the music was helping the film, but by the end, we’d over used it and it became too much. Again, no time to reflect on where we should punctuate the drama with music and where we didn’t need it. Musicians will write you more than you need, it will sound great, but you need to learn where you don’t need it and just say no thanks. 19

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Q - And how much money did you get out of it? Simon - Altogether I made about £3.5k out of Driven. And that was the fee that I took while I was making it. I had the idea in 1995 and I finished it in January 1999. Out of sales I’ve seen nothing and don’t expect to see a penny. Driven really has been a labour of love, the next film will bring the cash, hopefully. Q - What do you think was the biggest mistake that you made? Simon - If I could roll back the clock, letting someone else re-write the script was the biggest mistake. Driven became a film that I didn’t know and I didn’t feel comfortable with. You live and learn. You do the best that you can under the circumstances. In retrospect, many of my problems came about because I was making a low budget film, which means you need more time, but with money coming from a company who works in the professional world of TV. So often, we just couldn’t say, hold on, let’s wait and figure it out, because I had to deliver the film. If the money came from private investors, we would have made better decisions under less pressure, but then we couldn’t guarantee that it would have done so well in the market place. Q - What advice would you give to a new film maker? Simon - Follow your heart. Making Driven was the hardest thing I have ever done but it was also the greatest thing I have ever done. It is a bit like walking on Mars. When you have made a feature film, no one can touch you. You can approach all the big companies like Working Title and actually be seen as a film director, rather than as a wannabe. You have to take the shit and the knocks - every time a door shuts in your face you are one door closer to the one that is going to open. Stick with it and follow your vision. If you know in your heart that something is right then do it. And never take no for an answer. Don’t spend your time complaining how hard it is to make your film or how bad things are. Be positive and energetic, be nice and don’t be afraid to ask for what you want. INTERVIEW CONTINUES DEC 2005 Q - How much have you made from Driven? Simon - I bought back the rights and have been selling it myself on DVD, remastered and re-titled ‘Written In Blood’. And so far have made a few thousand. Q - What have you done since Driven was completed? Simon - I decided to take time out to sort out my life. I got married and had kids, got a mortgage and so on. I also reflected on what I wanted to do next. First I wanted to make a movie I would be proud of, one that would have people queuing round the block. I also wanted to be part of a business that was sustainable beyond a single film. Q - What are you doing now? 20

The Guerilla Filmmakers Handbook

Simon - I have always loved film, but HD has now won me over. Not the prosumer cameras and formats, but the pro equipment. I set up Stormrider Films with a business in mind. I needed investment and I needed a sustainable business. So I pit together a business plan for a company where I would buy all the equipment so we could make a film completely in house, and at the same time, run that company as a facility for rent. I have spent a couple of years writing and refining business plans, meeting with business angels and bank managers, and frankly, have become more of a business man than producer. Still, I needed to learn the language these people speak, and I soon learned that they were not going to invest in a single high risk venture such as a film, but they would invest in a business with secondary incomes. It all really kicked off when I met a financial strategist who helped me reshape my business strategy, my business plan, and then made the right introductions. Since then I have set up a full facility with a Panasonic HD Varicam, with the full post production workflow covered in house. As I speak, I am painting a wall with special green screen paint for visual effects sequences. Q - What is your film called? Simon - The Kaleidoscope Man, a sci-fi actioner. Q - Where are you based? Simon - I chose to move out of London so I could enjoy a quality of life with my family. To get out of that rat race. I have found that I am less distracted and certainly more productive. Having made on film as well, within the media community here in the Midlands, I am a much bigger fish in a smaller pond than I would be in London. For me that makes everything that much easier. Q - Having filled out many forms for money, what advice would you offer on that score? Simon - Don’t just look at the obvious organisations like the UK Film Council. There are lots of other places to look, but you need to learn their language, and they need to feel like they are making a sound investment. Think it through completely, write a business plan, ask yourself where you will be in five years and take your film and yourself very seriously. www.stormriderfilms.co.uk

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KEY ART Q - What is your job?

terworth Martin BuPtart nership Creative

Martin - I design key artwork and posters for films. I start by reading the script, watching the rough cut, or the completed film, then I have a meeting with the client and hash out what kind of artwork would work best for the film. This can be done through group presentations or on a one on one basis.

Q - How can you make a really killer poster if you don’t have a lot of money? Martin - You need a logo that is going to stand alone. A stylised title that catches the eye, such as ‘The Blair Witch Project’. In advertising you may not be able to afford a large space, so you want to get the title right. It is a common mistake not to think about this. What is the title? What is it about? Who is in it? You need to think about all those things, but especially the title. Q - What elements do you need from the filmmaker to put together the key artwork? Martin - Photography is always nice. It doesn’t always happen. Sometimes it happens after the film is shot. I would advise any film maker to put aside two half days, or one whole day when the cast is all together at one time and do some nice portraiture. Maybe there is a moment in the film that says pretty much what the film is about and you should get shots of that. But definitely cover your cast and any scenes or sets that you think could be iconic for the poster. It is really impossible to get all these people back together, a year later, when you are doing the marketing campaign, especially if they are on a TV series or working on other projects. Q - Are the images usually shot on high quality digital cameras these days? Martin - Not always but usually. Often you don’t get a lot of close ups so you are stuck having to blow things up and not getting the best resolution and it can pixelate. If the images were shot on film you have the grain, which tends to be a little kinder when it is blown up. Q - What software do you use? Martin - Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. Quark, too. Q - How important is having a website for your film?

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The Guerilla Filmmakers Handbook

Martin - I think a website is very important right now. If you are in pre-production you should have a holding page in order to make people aware that something is happening. Then you can go back to it as things grow. It is very common now. Look at King Kong. www.kongisking.net presented its production diary from the moment it started, and for the geeks that is a really nice thing for them to keep track of what is happening - even if it is only stills. Word of mouth gets going and you start to build a presence. Q - How many drafts of the artwork do you usually go through before you settle on the final version? Martin - It’s difficult to say in general, but one thing is for sure - the bigger the film, the bigger the committee, the more phases you go through. This goes back to how you brief your designer. If you know what you want, if you can pitch it as a type of film, such as a romantic comedy, horror or Alien meets Ghost, and you can guide us in the initial presentation when we first meet, then there will be one or two strands and certain visuals that we can pursue and know will work. Then you hope to make in-roads into where they like the logo, the colors and everyone is happy. And if you brief them well, you can stay within budget. Q - What is the spec and format that a film maker needs to deliver the various elements in? Martin - You need a good DPI for the resolution. Say 300 DPI. As large as you can get is best. Keep everything separate so that someone who comes along with a different format can manipulate them. If you have a flyer that is portrait, keep the elements separate because you might need to print it landscape at some point. Also in Photoshop, don’t flatten your images when you send them. Keep them as layers so that, for instance, we can change English text to Japanese text without having to redo the whole poster. We can just change the text layer. Q - What are the common mistakes that you see? Martin - People’s heads being the wrong size for their bodies on the key art. Some people do body double shoots where they take someone’s head and put it on someone else’s body. Blandness is another problem. You don’t want it to look like everything else. You do want it to look like a movie poster, but I think we are in this quagmire of everything looking like an American comedy. And if you do something that is a little left of field, that stands out a bit, then you have a better chance of it attracting people’s attention. Q - What advice would you give a new film maker about making a poster? Martin - Don’t make it too personal. Try to stick to the project that you actually want to sell. Try and create something that will represent the film you’ve made. On a general note, treat people with respect and you will get a better product. 23

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Traditional Photochemical Post for Film It’s been around for a century, it worked for Spielberg, Hitchcock and even Tarrantino... and as I write this (early 2006) Ken Loach has reportedly post produced his film in this way.. Yes there is another way other than digital! Shoot film and stay on film all the way through to making your Universal HD Master. Why? Well it’s cheaper, especially for short films or features where there are no special effects. Yes there are limits to what can be done photochemically, but you will end up with a 35mm print. Check it out. See if it fits your way of thinking. Note. Most of this text has been drawn from the Guerilla Film Makers Handbook and as such, some interviewees are no longer in business. Nonetheless, there expertise is as relevant today as ever. Note also that Soho Images are the only UK lab to now offer the full lab service for Super 16mm to 35mm blow up.

Post Production Notes See next four flow charts. Post production is the area where most new film makers make the biggest and most expensive mistakes. Here are a series of flow charts that provide a solid, tried and tested route, plus a brief explanation. On set, the camera team shoot Super 16mm negative at 25fps. The sound recordist records on DAT at 44.1 khz (though you can also just as easily use 48 khz as long as you ensure everyone knows and understand how that will impact on your post production workflow). Both the unexposed rushes and the DAT tapes are then sent to the labs, along with camera report sheets and sound report sheets. Overnight, the negative is developed and transferred on a telecine machine onto BetaSP with timecode. The sound is then synced to the picture and laid off onto BetaSP (or DVCam is more likely now) as a guide, and clone DAT tapes with timecode that matches the picture are run off. These clone DAT tapes now become the master sound elements. The following morning the rushes are sent to the cutting room. The editor files all the notes and report sheets, then stores the clone DAT tapes in a box on a top shelf. The editor will come back to these clone DAT tapes later. The editor then digitises the footage from the Beta (or DVCam) tapes, taking care not to digitise unwanted sound or two tracks of audio when the sound was recorded in mono. This will save time later, and storage space now. 24

The Guerilla Filmmakers Handbook Super 16mm Camera Negative shot on set (25fps)

DAT Audio recorded on set (44.1khz)

Neg and DAT sent to lab each night

POS T PR ODUCTION POST PRODUCTION

Lab processes negative and telecine onto Beta SP

STAGE 1 Lab syncs up sound and puts onto Beta SP, then makes clone DAT of sound - Clone DAT becomes master sound

Negative held at lab for use later Beta SP and clone DAT delivered to cutting room

Clone DAT stored away safely for use later

Beta SP rushes digitised into Avid

Editor assembles the movie

Cutaways shot to bridge problems in the assembly Editor fine cuts the movie including new shots and scenes

Audience screening to make sure drama is working Cutaways shot to bridge problems in the fine cut

Negative held at lab for use later Go to Stage 2

Editor locks picture Go to Stage 2

Clone DAT stored away safely for use later Go to Stage 2

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Negative held at lab for use later

Clone DAT stored away safely for use later

Editor locks picture

Editor sends EDL to neg cutter who checks EDL for frame overlaps and duplicate footage

Editor adjusts picture slightly if overlap or dupe errors detected.

POS T PR ODUCTION POST PRODUCTION

STAGE 2

Editor Re-Locks Picture

Editor breaks time line down into 35mm reels under 2000 foot (approx 18mins) Editor generates EDL for each reel and sends to neg cutter

Neg cutter rechecks EDL and all is fine

Neg cutter gets master neg from lab.

Neg cutter cuts the negative and conforms the rolls for the film

Cut Negative is sent back to lab Go to Stage 3

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Editor goes through edit and cleans dialogue tracks and checkerboards sound

Editor generates EDL for titles and opticals and sends to Neg cutter with explicit written instruction with frame counts and edge numbers for opticals house

Editor generates Audio EDL for sound editing

Neg cutter breaks out optical elements & sends to opticals house with instruction

Opticals house generate titles and opticals on 35mm Go to stage 3

Editor sends Audio EDL and clone DAT tapes to Audio House for track laying Go to stage 3

The Guerilla Filmmakers Handbook

C u t N ega tive is se n t b a ck to la b

O p tica ls h o u se ge ne ra te title s a n d o p tica ls o n 3 5m m

L a b G rad e r m e e ts with d ire cto r a nd D oP a n d d iscu ss th e 'lo o k' o f th e p ictu re

E d ito r se n ds A u dio E D L a n d clon e D A T ta p es to A u d io H o u se fo r tra ck la yin g

Ed ito r la ys off co p ies o f p icture from Avid to B e ta a n d VH S

D ialo gu e tra cks a u to -co n fo rm e d fro m clo ne D AT 's

L a b m a ke first Su p e r 16 m m An swe r P rin t a nd scre e n s fo r film m a ke rs V H S to com p o se r wh o write s m u sic to p ictu re F irst A n swe r Prin t is re je cte d a nd su bse qu e n t ve rsio ns a re m ad e u n til eve ryo n e is h ap p y with th e p ictu re 'G ra de '

F o le y a rtists p e rfo rm s clo th e s ru stles a n d fo otste p s an d is cu t in

S o u nd Effe cts a n d atm o sp he re tra cks la id in

L a b m a ke s Su p e r 1 6 m m In terp o sitive P ro d u ction m usic, clea re d m u sic a n d com p o se d m u sic la id in L a b m a ke s 35 m m Blo w U p In te rn e ga tive

A ll a u d io tra cks la id o ff o n to form a t co m pa tible with du b b in g th e a tre pro b a b ly D A 88 or O M F I

D ub b in g ch a rts p re p a re d (if ne e d e d )

L a b sen d s 35 m m n e ga tive to N e g C u tte r

N e g C u tte r inserts a ll titles a nd op tica l e ffe cts a nd re tu rn s 3 5 m m N e g to lab

F in a l M ix a n d M & E M ix a t d u b bin g th e a tre . S urro u nd pro ce ssing in D o lb y o r D T S S te re o (if re qu ire d)

L a b m a ke s 3 5m m m u te A nswer P rin t to che ck for p ro b lem s a n d o p ticals gra d in g

F in a l M ix a n d M & E M ix laid off o nto D A 88 / M O D isk o r co m p u te r file s.

R e gra d ed 35 m m P rin t m a d e u p - P ictu re a gre e d a n d is n o w com p le te d o n 3 5 m m

D A8 8 / M O D isk se nt to L a b wh e re O p tical S ou n d tra ck is p ro du ced 3 5 m m fu lly gra d e d p ictu re a n d stere o so u n d track m a rrie d

POS T PR ODUCTION POST PRODUCTION

STAGE 3

F ilm m a ke rs vie w fin al p rin t a t in h ou se th e a tre a t la b

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Telecine and grade, with DVNR to 25P HDCamSR Universal Master

Sound house process final mix and M&E mix and compress / limit the sound

Sound house lay off processed mixes to DAT, DA88 or Audio files

Compressed final mix laid onto tracks 1 to 6 on Universal Master HDCamSR and M&E mix laid onto tracks 7 & 8

POS T PR ODUCTION POST PRODUCTION

STAGE 4

Independent Quality Control check run on Iniversal Master Tape (optional)

Copies and clones of masters run off

One HDCamSR master left with lab

One HDCamSR master left with Sales Agent

One HDCamSR left with film maker Sales agent make all needed tapes and disks from Universal Master.

Producer organises video trailer, clips tape and EPK from Beta SP / Digibeta Masters

Digital Print made from Universal Master If UK Digital Theatric Producer makes DVD Screener tapes for the industry to self promote

Once the footage is digitised, the editor can now start creatively cutting the movie. Each day more rushes will appear and each day these scenes will be cut, until all scenes are cut together. The scenes will then be ed up and the film makers will watch the first assembly. The first assembly is always awful. Don’t get depressed. Fix it. Re-edit, re-cut, re-shuffle... Extra shots or cutaways will probably be needed and the producer will arrange for a weekend shoot to cover these. After inserting these new shots and a lengthy re-edit, show the film to an audience. Try to find a small screening room or theatre with video projection and screen the film. Ask the audience of non film makers (who don’t know you) what they thought and establish if there are any plot issues that just don’t work. If there are, re-cut and re-shoot if needed. Once everyone is happy, the editor can lock picture and cut the movie up into 35mm length reels (max 2000’ including leaders). Look for ends of scenes in which to make these breaks, or during 28

The Guerilla Filmmakers Handbook

slower sequences without music. These breaks represent where your reel changes will occur and the film can get very damaged at these places - you don’t want a four second chunk of your movie to disappear in the middle of a crucial scene just because a projectionist at some far flung festival didn’t care about your print. The editor will generate a CMX 3600 EDL (or preferred EDL for the neg cutters) and send it to the neg cutter. The neg cutter will then check for duplicate footage and cuts where overlap frames have not been left. If there are any problems, the editor will have to re-cut to fix them. Once all negative issues have been resolved, these new EDLs, along with a VHS of the picture, will be sent to the neg cutter. The neg cutter will then get the master film negative from the lab and conform it to the EDL cutting list and VHS tape you supplied. This will be an A and B roll Super 16mm negative cut. Once the neg has been cut, it is sent back to the laboratory. As soon as possible, a VHS with burnt in time code (and audio time code on Ch2 of the VHS audio) will be sent to the composer who will write music to picture (or a Quicktime of the reels). At the same time as the negative cutting and if the editor has time, the editor can clean up the dialogue tracks and checker-board them for tracklaying. Once this is complete, the editor will run off a BetaSP (or DVCam, but check what they accept) of each reel, with burnt in timecode on the picture. The editor will also generate an audio EDL for all the sound. This Beta, the EDL’s and the clone DAT tapes will be sent to the company who is doing the audio track lay, the Sound House. The sound was recorded at 44.1khz (or 48 khz) and it’s important that everyone - sound house, musician etc. - works at the chosen sample rate so that the entire audio post production process remains 100% digital throughout (or as close to). The sound house will re-conform the dialogue tracks from the EDL and clone DAT tapes. They will then continue to improve the sound, add or replace dialogue if needed (ADR). Once done, they will add sound effects, atmosphere tracks, spend a day with a foley artist spotting the film, and generally brighten the acoustic quality. Once the music is available that will also be track laid in. (alternatively, you as long as you digitised the sound correctly, yo umay be able to export an OMF file from Avid or F of the sound, and deliver that to the Sound House). Once all the sound is in place, the sound house will prepare Dubbing Charts, or the dubbing theatre to see if they have software that can read their EDL’s. The Sound House will then lay off all the sound onto a format of media compatible with the dubbing theatre, probably OMFI media files. Note - it is possible that the sound House of your choice will also produce the final sound mix, thereby negating the need to move to a separate Dubbing Theatre. Note - with all digital media not on tapes, such as EDL’s and OMFI files, it is a good idea to perform tests to make sure everyone can read and write each other’s formats, disks and software. Don’t believe people when they say it works, TEST IT! 29

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At the same time as the audio track lay, the lab will begin work on the print. The lab will make a Super 16mm first answer print. In this print, the Grader will have made all the shots work in of density and colour balance. The DoP and director will watch this print and discuss the changes they need. Generally, there will be several attempts until these elements are entirely locked down - DO NOT move onto the next stage unless you are 100% happy with the picture grade, even if the lab attempt to coerce you. Once you have locked the picture grade, the lab will produce a Super16mm Interpositive. Then they will produce a 35mm Internegative. These two stages will probably take a month, regardless of what the lab promise. Once the Internegative is complete, it will be sent to the negative cutters, along with the Optical effects and the Titles from the opticals house. These new elements will be cut into the 35mm Master negative. The 35mm Negative will then be returned to the Lab where it will be printed this is the 35mm Check Print, or Mute Answer Print. Again, the film makers will watch this print and discuss any changes. Generally, these will be minor as all the grading hard work has been done, although there may be grading issues with the titles and optical elements. At the same time, the Dubbing Theatre will probably be mixing your final sound. It takes a long time to mix and it is expensive. It is important to make all your decisions before you go in and know exactly what you expect from the dubbing mixer. Note - at this stage, and indeed all stages, it is worth stating that the project was shot and is being post produced at 25fps, and that the sound was shot and is being post produced at 44.1khz (or 48khz). You will premix two elements separately, dialogue premix, then the atmospheres and effects premix. You will then do the final mix, adding foley and music to the pre mixed dialogue tracks and atmos and effects tracks. This will be the final mix. If you have chosen to mix in Dolby or DTS Stereo, this is the stage where you will process the sound accordingly. After you have done the final mix, you will do a second mix, the M&E mix. The mixer will remix the film, but pull out the dialogue tracks. These two mixes will be put on a clearly labelled tape, probably a an MO Disk or DA88. This DA88 tape will be taken to the lab where they will shoot an optical version of the sound onto 35mm film. This sound will then be combined with the 35mm negative and your first print will be produced (check this with the lab and Dolby). This print will then be screened with full sound and picture. Hopefully all goes well and it’s time to go down to the pub... but not for long.

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The Guerilla Filmmakers Handbook

Once the theatrical version of the film has been produced, you will need to make video masters. First you will need to process the sound. Cinema sound is too dynamic for TV so it needs to be compressed. Take the master sound mix, both full sound and M&E, back to the sound house and they will it through a compressor limiter. This will ‘squeeze’ the dynamic range, making the quiet bits louder and the loud bits quieter. These compressed mixes will then be laid onto DA88 or DAT (with timecode) or more likely, exported as a series of WAV files or AIFF or even OMFI files, and they will become the Video Master Sound Mixes. The lab will produce a low contrast 35mm print which you will take to the Video Mastering facility. Do not use a cheap company, go to the best and pay the rate or you will be back doing multiple telecines. Take the 35mm Low Contrast Print and Video Master Sound to the Video Mastering company. They will lock up the 35mm picture with the sound and telecine (at 25P). The picture will then be graded for HD and recorded onto a workstation, after which grading and cleaning up of the image will take place. At the same time, the full sound mix needs to be copied onto tracks 1 to 6 of the HDCamSR, and the M&E mix onto tracks 7 and 8. From that single 25P Universal Master, you can make any other masters you like (including a Universal Master for the USA at 23.97P) After completing your master, it should be cloned for the Sales Agents, Distributors, relevant creatives such as DoP / Director / Editor etc. As the producer, NEVER let the master out of your hands. Note - it is essential that all video masters contain the full mix and the M&E mix on the audio tracks. It is essential that the video masters are technically ‘legal’ - that is the video element does not exceed 1v or drop below 0.3v and that the audio never exceeds PPM 6. Note - film making creates a lot of ‘junk’. Find a box where you can store things like DA88 sound mixes, EDL’s, Beta tapes etc., and store it away, probably forever... but you never know. , the lab will also be holding onto anywhere between 50 and 100 cut up original camera rolls, 30 DAT tapes, umpteen various interpos / interneg elements. After the first year you will have to pay for this storage, or find a relative with a spacious, air conditioned loft! IMPORTANT - There are 1001 ways to post produce a film. This is a generic route that works, although at every stage, there are other ways of post producing with a view to extreme economy. Companies have different kit and different ways of working. The best way to approach post production is with as much planning as possible, make your s, do your deals, then meet and talk through every detail - don’t leave anything to chance or what you feel was implied will bite you where it hurts and when you least expect it. 31

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The Guerilla Filmmakers Handbook

Main shoot sends exposed negative to the labs

Labs produce rush print which is viewed by production team.

Overview Of The Traditional Laboratory Process

Rush print goes to editor and is cut Cutting copy is viewed, and grading is agreed with lab

Negative is cut by negative cutting company

Cutting copy or slash dupe is used for sound editing and final sound mix

First answer print is made and viewed to check grading etc.(may run with sound)

Optical sound of final sound mix is shot and processed

Interpositive is made from cut negative (optional if only one or two prints are required) Internegative is made from interpositive (optional if only one or two prints are required) Dupe check print with combined optical sound

Low contrast print made for telecine (may telecine internegative or cut negative) Bulk print copies made

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The Laboratory Brian Dale of Technicolor Q - What is the job of the laboratory? Brian - To take the exposed raw camera stock, process it, probably make telecine rushes, or maybe print it, then deal with the post production of that material in of producing the necessary facilities up to and including bulk release prints. Television transmission tapes may be made by the lab or an associated company, but more usually by a specialist facilities house. Q - How important is it for the production team to meet the laboratory person? Brian - The technician becomes the 'technical eyes' of the production and it’s vital the producer and director meet him, to understand who they are and what they will be doing. Also, the cameraman and editor should meet the lab - he is a named individual who will be completely responsible for looking after the production, right the way through to the answer print and maybe beyond. If you’ve got a problem, a good man will be able, subtly of course, to suggest the changes that may be necessary to improve the look of the picture. After meeting the cameraman and discussing the ‘look’ he is trying to achieve and after the first one or two days rushes, the man will be able to advise what changes, if any, should be made - indeed it’s his job to report on technical problems like hairs in the gate or a boom in shot for example. Q - What is the lab report sheet? Brian - The report sheet is a list of scenes and takes which contains key numbers as well as the printing lights (a laboratory measure of the exposure of the red, green and blue emulsion layers). It’s a listing of all the material that’s shot, roll by roll, scene by scene, key number at the start of the scene, key number at the end of the scene, or in the case of telecine rushes, a timecode reference, colour grading and any comments from the man. Q - What is the camera report sheet? Brian - The camera report sheet comes from the production and is usually produced by the camera assistant on the job. It lists the material in use, by stock type, batch, roll, everything down to the strip number. If there is a problem and with the best will in the world, stock manufacturers, all have their problems from time to time, they need to be able to trace back. It’s an advice document for us to tell whether there is any special effect, whether there’s been any problems or if there’s been a jam in camera, so that we can deal with it accordingly. It will also give us information on scenes and takes, preferred takes, those takes that are to be printed and those takes that aren’t. 34

The Guerilla Filmmakers Handbook

Q - How should they supply the exposed negative to you? Brian - Tape the can lids down, have the rolls of film gaffer taped together, with the camera report sheets (or better still, box everything up), and drop it off at film reception at the lab. Some labs offer a collection service from designated sites. Q - What happens about sound? Brian - Sound is an entirely separate channel as far as we’re concerned. The only time that we would see sound at this stage of the operation is if all the materials from the shoot were coming in to us and we’d simply been asked to the sound on to an audio facility where the sound tapes are transferred. In the case of film rushes, it is normal for the assistant editor to sync up the sound with the rushes and to project the picture - mute picture with the separate mag soundtrack. In the case of video rushes transfer, if sync sound is required, then the master audio tapes will need to be delivered along with the negative to the telecine facility, be it in the lab or another company. Q - What are the differences in the way 16mm & 35mm is handled? Brian - Fundamentally there's no difference in that both are received the same way, but separated into Super 16mm or 35mm channels. They are processed in the same way, different machines, but the design of the machines is identical. Generally, 16mm is graded roll by roll, so you come up with a grading light for a complete camera roll which is an average of all the scenes on that roll. With 35mm, selected takes will be circled on the camera report sheet which will be extracted from the negative roll and printed or transferred so you end up with 2 rolls of 35mm negative - one of which is selected takes and the other B Roll, (unused takes) which is stored away, to be called up if alternate takes are needed, but in general it will probably never see the light of day again. With regard to 16mm and Super 16mm - most labs have a mixture of Super 16 and Standard 16 equipment, and the Standard 16 equipment doesn’t have the relieved edges that are necessary for Super 16 film. To ensure that your Super 16 film doesn’t get tangled up in a Standard 16 winder or something like that, then it is vital to identify it as Super 16 on the can and on the camera report sheet. Q - Can rushes be viewed at the labs? Brian - Yes, rushes can be viewed at the labs. We would need prior advice to make sure we have enough theatre or viewing space available and that your man was here in the lab - subject to that, it’s no problem at all. Q - If a film is cut using traditional techniques, what happens after the fine cut is completed by the editor?

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Brian - Obviously, the first stage would have been to process the negative as it comes from the production and supply a rush print which the editor cuts. Once the film is cut, we would then hold a cutting copy screening with the grader - the guy who’s ultimately going to balance the colour and density of the image - plus the cameraman, director, producer and usually the editor, all of whom can have creative input. Comments will be made by all present and the grader will take notes from rather generic like we need more density, we need this colour - whatever the changes are that are requested from the existing cutting copy. The grader will convert this subjective guidance into an objective assessment of client requirements. The negative will then be neg-cut, either in house or usually with a neg-cutting company. The big consideration here is that it is in the production’s interest to talk to the laboratory about what they believe the schedule to be. The laboratory will be perfectly honest about it, they won’t try and grab themselves more time than they actually need, but this particular stage is very important. It’s where the original negative meets a pair of scissors and if there is too much pressure in of schedules, needing to see answer prints and check prints… let's say it's probably not desirable to put pressure on at this stage. We would then print it, taking into the comments that were made at the cutting copy show. We would look at it internally - the grader would assess it, to see if he had the result on screen which he anticipated getting - the result of the colour changes, modifications he’d made. He would probably put it back in for a reprint, once or maybe twice, in order to make sure he was confident with what he had and then he would be in a position to show that to the production. We would then screen that first answer print for the production. If there are any problems, we’ll do a reprint, fixing the grading that the production isn’t happy with - the production doesn’t pay for this extra printing. The problem for us here is when you have four people all saying different things - I want more blue - No, more red - I want lighter - I want darker - you end up getting into a loop that you can never get out of. Everyone should be present or just one nominated decision maker for the production and the decision should be binding - it’s important to avoid both Chinese parliament, repeat screenings or discussions, simply because one key person couldn’t make it. That can cost time and is frustrating. Q - Leaders can be a problem, i.e. they can be BBC or Academy - can you supply the leaders that you prefer to be used? Brian - Yes, we would normally supply leaders on negatives and duplicates. The Academy count down leader is standard for independent productions. We could also supply the BBC leader, but it's important to nail down exactly which type of leader is going to be used throughout the production. For the matching sound leaders, simply use the Academy leader which can be bought on Wardour Street or wherever. Q - If the master sound mix has been done, is it possible for that mag to be sunk up and the film screened with sound? Brian - Absolutely. It can be run with separate magnetic sound (sep mag). However preferably, if the optical sound transfers have taken place, we would produce a married print for the first screening. though, on first answer prints, neither Super 35mm or Super 16mm can have a married

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The Guerilla Filmmakers Handbook

optical sound track, but you can run with separate magnetic sound. Q - What is the optical sound? Brian - The master sound can come to us in a variety of formats, optical disk, DAT and occasionally nowadays 16mm or 35mm mag. That master will be transferred onto film, with a special lab camera, as an optical representation of the sound. That optical sound can then be printed alongside the picture for a married print. When that print is screened, the projector can read the optical sound and the audience hears it. Digital formats are now well established such as DTS, Dolby Digital, SRD or SDDS, but the old style analogue optical sound always runs alongside it, just in case there’s a problem with projection. Q - How does blowing Super 16mm up to 35mm work? Brian - Firstly, an Interpositive would be made from the Super 16mm A&B roll cut negative, at the same grading lights as the answer print that has been approved - so all the grading would then be locked in. Then we make a 35mm blow up Internegative from that Super 16mm Interpositive, and from that, 35mm prints. That means we have a 35mm printing master from which we can make as many prints as you want, perfectly graded, without touching the original negative. Alternatively, if you’re not looking for many prints, maybe only one, you can make a direct blow-up from the Super 16mm negative. However, producing prints from an original cut negative is a process with which you must take a great deal of care as you don’t have any protection should damage occur. Again you’re talking about the material where all your hopes and aspirations are lodged. Also, because special care must be taken when printing from an original negative, the costs are much greater. It should always be practice to budget for an Interpositive to be made, at the earliest possible stage, for protection of the original negative - this is regardless of the subsequent handling and printing the original negative may or may not receive. Q - What happens to the master neg once its been printed? Brian - It will be vaulted. Most labs will store material, or you can take it out and vault it somewhere of your own choice. However, in the lab, it’s secure and the conditions of storage (temperature & humidity) are maintained. It’s not a good idea to keep it in your garage or under your bed. Q - After the first answer print, are subsequent prints cheaper? Brian - Yes they are. Any print from the original neg is going to be expensive by comparison with a print from a dupe (internegative). Most labs have a sliding scale of discount, depending on how many prints you are ordering on that dupe. Q - What is the procedure should the master neg be damaged by the lab? Brian - If the damage is on the Internegative, we would go back to the Interpositive and make a new

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Internegative for which the producer wouldn’t be charged. If it’s the master negative, then things become a little more problematic. I can only speak for this laboratory, but our procedure is to be totally honest with the production company, apologise and accept the ear bashing you’re quite rightly going to get. All labs have commercial protection in their and conditions which effectively protects them from expensive claims due to accidental damage. A good lab wouldn’t hide behind that and would be prepared to talk to you about what can be done to alleviate the problem. The neg should always be covered by other insurance anyway. That insurance would be provided by the producer and not the lab though. It's therefore vital for the producer to insure the negative, right up to the time that you get your Interpositive made. Q - What is Super 35mm and how does it work? Brian - Very wide images, commonly referred to as Cinemascope, are usually produced using a special anamorphic lens that squeezes the image when shooting and unsqueezes the image when projected. One problem with this is that the extra glass means you need more light to expose the negative properly and the lens hire itself adds expense. Super 35mm is an alternative to anamorphic photography. The image ratio is 2.35-1 and it’s shot on normal 35mm film. You simply shoot the 35mm negative as normal, but with the viewfinder marked up for Super 35mm (so the camera operator knows where the edge of frame will be). As with Super 16mm, more of the film area is exposed (where the soundtrack traditionally lives). The camera operator must keep in mind that the image will eventually be widescreen (2.35-1) and so the top and bottom of the image won’t be used - there will be markings in the camera eyepiece so everyone knows what the frame don ewhere, Lon Road, Anytown, Som is. You then produce your rush print, grade it, Acme Films, 123 Any neg cut it, all in the same way as normal s Lab n ose Ch The To Somewhere 35mm. At the Internegative stage, on an P London W11 5N optical printer, you put the anamorphic 21/4/2003 squeeze in. Then when you make the final projection print, it has the anamorphic Dear Sirs, einafter called “The Y DISTRIBUTOR, her eo, and television in AN to d squeeze and when it goes to theatre, they nte gra e hav vid We of Film Distribution, Distributor” the rightsfollowing Film:unsqueeze it on projection and put it back to the on TERRITORY wide screen format. YOUR MOVIE allow the Distributor is your authority to This communicationing materials in your possession, for the: access to the follow uring the Film and Trailer requirements purpose of manufact example) gative & SOUND for LIST MATERIALS (Ne ure tion with the manufact that all costs in connec It is to be understood are at the sole cost of the Distributor. nts of their requireme by against the materials Three r. ose any lien upon or Also you will not imp or obligations incurred by the Distributo copies reason of any charge enclosed for signature and return two copies of this letter are to this office.

Signed Acme Film

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Countersigned Laboratories

Counter signed Distributor

Q - So in the middle there is an optical process which is going to be slow and expensive? Brian - Yes, but the extra lab costs may well be outweighed by the savings of not having to shoot with an anamorphic lens and don't forget, you use a greater negative area in shooting. It's simply a

The Guerilla Filmmakers Handbook

matter of paying your money and making a choice. Q - Like the dubbing theatre the labs are expected to perform miracles in of grading you’re not able to turn blazing sunshine into the dead of night are you? Brian - We’d have a pretty good go, but no you’re right. There are limitations. However, effects like day for night are achievable, though less necessary with modern, high speed film stocks. Q - What is the laboratory access letter? Brian - It's a letter that specifies who has access to the negative. It could be for different people in different companies, or it could limit the number of prints. It's simply a means of controlling who has access to the material, usually the negative, internegative and optical sound. Typically, sales agents and distributors will need a lab access letter. Q - Can you achieve artistic effects in the lab, like make Super 16mm colour neg B&W? Brian - Yes. If you want to end up with a B&W movie, then there’s a strong argument for shooting in B&W in the first place. However, if it’s a decision that has been made after shooting, the lab can produce a new B&W negative through various intermediate stages although, it tends to look softer on screen than B&W original negative. Then there are the softening and mood effects which can be created by controlled negative exposure. I once talked to a producer about a particular cameraman who was very artistic, where artistic is 1 stop underexposed, very artistic is 2 stops underexposed, and very, very artistic is three stops underexposed. Seriously, it depends on the look you want. People do deliberately underexpose by a stop or so in order to get a harsh, grainy, appearance and overexpose for the opposite reasons although modern film stocks don't always react the way you expect, so you should always do tests. The earlier you talk to the labs the better. You should be shooting tests and viewing them with a grader. Q - Is the Super 16mm frame the same aspect ratio as the 35mm? Brian - It depends. If you’re going to shoot Super 16mm on 1.66-1, you haven’t got a concern. If it’s to be blown up to 35mm for theatrical release, you should be aware that cinemas usually project at 1.85-1, so you would need to accommodate extra headroom at top and room at the bottom of the picture. The viewfinder in the camera should be set up this way by the camera hire company. Q - What are the most common mistakes made by the production team? Brian - Communication is obviously an essential factor. Not completing the information on the camera report sheets, making sure messages and comments are received, particularly with regard to cutting negative or moving negative about (which is always confirmed in writing). Also, always shoot tests with the camera and stock you have chosen before shooting a film.

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Negative Cutting Mike Fraser Q - What is the negative cutting? Mike - Whenever you shoot a film, you always edit it on what is called secondary material, you never touch the master until the final conformation of your film, be it on video tape, be it on film, whatever - you only ever touch a copy. The negative cutting is the final conform of the master negative to match the final edit you have decided upon. The final edit usually comes to us either as a film cutting copy or some form of edit decision list (EDL). Q - Am I correct, in saying that once a film is neg cut you can never go back and re a cut? Mike - Certainly on 16mm there is no going back, but on 35mm we have a method whereby you can extend shots without loss. Q - How long does it take to neg cut an average feature film? Mike - An average feature film, lets say 110 minutes long with say 800 cuts would take 2 weeks or so. It can be done quicker, and it depends on how many people you have working on it. Q - Are there any special requirements when cutting super 16mm? Mike - Yes, stability is important because it’s single perf only. Super 16mm is often blown up to 35mm so the s have to be very smooth and seamless. It is vital to find out if the negative cutter has worked with Super 16mm before and that he is set up for it, otherwise you could end up having to go to great expense and re-neg cut the whole picture. Super 16mm is cut A and B checkerboard. Every shot is on an alternate reel so that the s don’t show and you can have dissolves etc. With 16mm and Super 16mm you have to have an overlap which effectively destroys the frame before and after every shot. The important thing to about 16mm when in the cutting room or edit suite is that you must always lose one frame at the beginning and one frame at the end of every single shot of your film - that’s the absolute minimum requirement. Also, laboratory printing machines can only do dissolves at the rate of either 16, 24, 32, 48, 64, 96 frames. They can’t do anything else - if you want it done at any other length you have to have it done optically which will produce an interneg. Also when you’re doing A and B roll, you have to leave on 16mm at least 20 frames between a cut and the beginning of an optical or the end of an optical and a cut, and you must always leave a minimum of 4 frames between the end of one optical and the beginning of the next.

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The Guerilla Filmmakers Handbook

Q - What do you need from the production team to enable you to cut the negative? Mike - We need to have logged the negative in the first place, we need either a cutting copy if it’s edited on film, or an edit decision list if it’s been edited on non linear. We also need full instructions if there are requirements other than what is shown on the cutting copy or EDL. Q - What happens to the negative when it’s cut? Mike - The cut rolls are sent to the laboratories where they are graded, frame cue counted, cleaned and printed, and you get a first mute answer print. If you are going to blow up to 35mm it is important to check with the lab the maximum roll size they can handle on their optical printer. It’s usually either ten minutes or twenty minutes, including leaders. Q - What happens to all the unused negative? Mike - It stays with the negative cutters, until such time the producer says junk it or store it or can I have it back? Q - How does non linear computer based editing affect negative cutting? Mike - For feature films, regardless of how you edit it, you still need to neg cut. Non linear editing affects neg cutting in a very specific way in so much as you no longer have a cutting copy to check your neg against. As non linear is digital, we do not get any kind of cutting copy to physically check against the picture, shot by shot. All you have to work with are numbers. Therefore it is absolutely vital that those numbers are generated by something you have total confidence in. If the numbers are wrong and you cut the negative you’re in a lot of trouble. There are various ways of doing it, but the way we’ve pioneered has always been the most frame accurate and in our view, the most comforting. We use software called OSC/R which in itself, has never let us down, it always produces the goods. There are other ways of doing it, other systems such as Excalibur, Computer Match, and also Lightworks and Avid have their own ability to produce key neg cutting lists - the only problem with that is that the negative cutting list produced out of a Lightworks or Avid is only as good as the information that the Avid and Lightworks received in the first place. If the telecine reader head has read the Key Kodes incorrectly or has been offset incorrectly it could be a disaster - and , there is no visual guide, no cutting copy to check it against. Q - What's the telecine head reading? Mike - The telecine machine must be fitted with a Key Kode reader which translates the Key Kode to numbers. On the edge of new negative stocks is a bar code - Kodak call it Key Kode, it’s their trademark. All manufacturers carry this type of ‘bar code’ now and they are all completely compat-

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Dissolve Shot 3

35mm is marked up for neg cutting in the same way as 16mm. 35mm is neg cut as a single A roll.

Shot 6

Shot 5

Sh 4

COMBINED IN LABS

There is no B roll unless there are dissolves or fades in the film. If there are dissolves, then a B roll is made up which comprises mainly of black spacer. The only negative on this B roll is the second half of any dissolve, or the clear spacer for a fade.

Dissolve

Shot 2

Shot 1

35mm Nega tive Negative Cut ting Cutting

Shot 7

To the right are rolls A and B with a 16 frame dissolve. Please note that a 16 frame dissolve needs 20 frames outgoing (not the 6 that are shown).

35mm Cutting Copy

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Note - some labs only use the B roll for the second part of a dissolve.

Shot 8

At the far right is a wider view of the 35mm negative. Roll A has several shots, roll B is black spacer except for the negative of the second half of the dissolve.

35mm Neg Roll A

35mm Neg Roll B

35mm Neg Rolls A& B. Wider view

The Guerilla Filmmakers Handbook

ible. Everyone refers to it as Key Kode but it is actually edge numbers in a bar code form. It reads those bar codes and converts them to edge numbers. You’re not always able to read the Key Kode because the negative may be fogged, certainly around ends, dissolves and splices etc. Problems can arise. For instance if a reader head goes through a splice and the next roll of material (with different Key Kodes) is fogged for the first 10, 20, 100 feet or whatever, the first thing that the telecine reader does is to stop reading. It merely accumulates the previous numbers which are incorrect because the neg has changed. It also flags the operator but if the operator doesn’t notice, you’re going to get 10,20, 100 feet of negative where the edge numbers have been incorrectly read. Q - In the telecine, how do you check that the Key Kode that is being read is correct? Mike - You can’t. There is no practical way of checking that the Key Kode that is being read is correct. That is why we do not log it that way - we log it on a bench, with a Key Kode reader. These numbers are later fed into the computer and should match the telecine timecode numbers, that is unless there is a problem. Either way, you are aware of the problem before the damage is done. Q - What methods of post production are available to a producer? Mike - Currently, there are several methods of producing an end result. Firstly is the traditional film edit where rush prints are sunk and cut by the editor. The final cutting copy is sent to us where we re-cut the neg to match the cutting copy. The cut neg goes off to the labs and is printed. This is the most tried and tested method that has worked for decades, but it is a little labour intensive on behalf of the editor. There is a general trend to non linear editing systems now and traditional film cutting may become a thing of the past. Method 2 - after the telecine of the rushes negative, you stay on tape, and you don’t come back to film. During the telecine you do a 50-80% grade of all your rushes, transfer them onto whatever final conform tape you want, Beta, D2 etc. That footage is then digitised from tape onto hard disk in your Avid or Lightworks - you edit the movie. Then you conform the final picture purely on tape - the final grading is done in the edit suite and you never go back to cut the original negative. There are advantages there but obviously the completed production can only ever exist on tape and unlikely to be projected in a cinema. Method 3 is pure non linear, where the rushes are telecinied and digitised into a system like Lightworks or Avid. The movie is edited and the computer produces an EDL. We use the EDL to cut the negative and the final neg is then printed at the labs. Both Avid and Lightworks have got ways of getting around the problems of productions shot at 24fps which can entail slowing down and speeding up - it’s all tried and tested but it’s something of which to be aware. There are other systems and without doubt new systems will have been developed by the time you read this. The system to opt for is the one your post production team has the most experience with, or with which they are happiest. Q - As traditional editing was mechanical, the speed at which film was shot was ''academic' with regard to the negative cutting. Is this the same for non linear?

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Negative Cutting 35mm / 16mm

35mm 35mm

35mm contains enough space between frames for the negative cutter to actually cut the negative and it up as one single roll.

16mm 16mm 16mm

16mm and Super 16mm is considerably smaller with virtually no space between frames. This forces the negative cutter to conform using A&B rolls.

Dupe Detection & Frame Overlap

Not all non linear editing systems will flag duplicated footage, or check for frame overlaps. It is essential that your EDL is checked before a single frame is cut to ensure that there is enough film to actually make up the master negative. Avid Film Composer will make this check for you, but most other systems won't. If your software doesn’t check, send your completed cut EDL to the neg cutter who will then check it for you.

Mike - No. It’s important if you are shooting a theatrical release, i.e. if you are shooting at 24fps that you are aware of how you are going to post produce as your film is 24fps and will be using 25fps timecode. If you shoot at 24fps and telecine transfer at 25fps, your picture is going to be shorter than your sound. The only way to get them in sync is to do something to either the picture or the sound, and you don’t want to do that. You want to keep the sound at the proper speed the whole time - AND the picture at the proper speed the whole time. One of the ways of doing it is with Avid - you shoot at 24fps, transfer at 25fps and take it into Avid. Avid can then slow down the picture to 24fps so that it will match your sound. Now you edit and send the final EDL to us and we do the neg cut. Lightworks has a similar method to combat this problem too. Q - White Angel was shot at 25fps to avoid technical headaches so it is possible to shoot a feature at 25fps and not 24fps. 44

The Guerilla Filmmakers Handbook

Mike - Every feature film that’s been shown on television here for years was shot at 24fps and transferred at 25fps yet few know the difference. Nobody watching television knows that the Guns Of Navarone or The Magnificent Seven has been speeded up by 4% to be transferred at 25fps instead of 24fps. It is fair to say that if you shoot at 25fps there are less headaches, especially if you cannot afford a Film Composer and are cutting with a cheaper non linear editing system. I would advise micro budget films to always shoot at 25fps. Q - What are the most common mistakes made by a film maker that you encounter? Mike - Not preparing the post production route in the early stages. Producers tend to think, Oh well, we’ll get that done later when we go into editing and they simply don’t give it enough thought, planning and preparation. Q - What extra things can a production team do to make your life easier? Mike - The most important thing is for the neg cutter and the editor to sit down and talk about how he’s going to do it. We’re talking film editing now, the way the cutting copy is marked up is vital, so it must be marked up in either a standard way or a way the neg cutter understands the editor's wishes. With non-linear editing you do not have a film cutting copy to check against. Therefore you are cutting to a neg cutting list, which has been generated by the translation of timecodes from an EDL (edit decision list). Therefore the translation has to be absolutely frame accurate. It’s very important that an editor on a non linear system understands the logging in of his material so that he gets the right tape numbers and so forth. If you’re using something like OSC/R it doesn’t matter, because OSC/R will sort it all out. On a more basic and cautionary level, always put plenty of leader at the head and tail of any reels, if you are going to blow up Super 16mm to 35mm, check with the labs that you have made the rolls up to the right length, label all your cans with as much information as possible - it's amazing how quickly material accumulates and people forget what's in a can. That often leads them to the last point, NEVER handle your negative - get it sent straight from the labs to the neg cutters and have your problems checked out by professionals in the right environment. absolutely everything you have worked for is contained in that negative.

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FILM LINGO: Above the Line – the cast, producers, writer and director of a film. Separated from the rest of the crew by an imaginary line of “importance” in a studio’s eyes. Alligator Grip - This is a spring-loaded lighting grip used to attach a light to pipes, molding or doors. Barney – Lightweight padded covering around the camera to reduce camera noise. Term comes from ‘Barney blanket’ – a horse blanket. Barn Doors – Flaps attached to lights that when opened and closed can manipulate the direction of light. Barn doors are also the place you clip gels, diffusion, blackwrap and flags to the light. Below the line – the people involved in the physical production of a film, which included post production. Seen as below an imaginary importance line that separates the creative executives and the physical production. Black Bag/Changing Bag - a changing bag that functions as a portable darkroom. This bag is basically two bags, one inside the other and is used from everything from loading film to fixing camera jams.

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Blimp - A fiberglass housing used to encase a noisy camera to make it suitable for sync sound filming. Blocking a scene – the act of setting up how a scene will be shot via the movement of the actors and motion of the camera. Bullets – clothespins used to attach gels to lights. So called because electricians and gaffers hang them off a string like a bandolier. The Cheat – technique used to make things fit that wouldn’t normally, such as moving furniture forward so a person or camera can fit in the space, or an actor not quite looking in the right direction of another in order to compensate for space restrictions. “Check the Gate” – to take lens off camera and look into the camera’s gate for hairs, emulsion buildup etc. If there is something found, you need to clean the gate and perhaps reshoot any affected scenes. Chicken Coop - An overhead, box-like light with a cluster of six, usually 100-watt globes, for top lighting of sets. Cinching - the practice of pulling the end of a roll to remove slack. Cinch marks are caused when the end of the film roll is tightened causing the dust to make a small scratch.

Clapper Board - This is a form of slate onto which filmic information, such as the production company, film name, director, cameraman, scene, take and the sound take number can be chalked onto. Cookie - a cutout pattern, cut out from a material and placed in front of a light to cast a patterned shadow. Crossing the Line – crossing the invisible line of action. Cutaway - shots done away from the main action, allowing you to delete uninteresting dialogues or mistakes in the main action. Day-For-Night - shooting night scenes during the day. To this properly you have to use camera filters and underexposure. If you are shooting on B & W film use a red or yellow filter to darken the sky. With color film use an ND or Neutral Density filter. Shooting Day-For-Night works best on really sunny days, either early in the morning or late in the afternoon, because the shadows are hardest then. When you shoot, avoid shooting the sky and you should also underexpose the film two or three stops below what your light meter tells you. Dolly - camera term referring to when a camera moves in or out of a shot. A dolly is usually done on wheels or tracks in order to produce a smooth movement.

The Guerilla Filmmakers Handbook

Dot - Shadow-forming device in the figure of a small round scrim. Establishing Shot - a shot used to introduce a scene or location to the audience. Generally, this is a wide shot of a building or landscape. Eye Light - a low-powered light to produce a lively reflection in the subject’s eye. The light is usually there to substitute the sun’s reflection you get when you’re outside. Finger - a thin rectangular shadow-casting device. Fishpole - a long lightweight telescoping rod, which a microphone is attached to for recording dialogue. Flying Moon - a lighting apparatus, which is used to create artificial moonlight. It is in the shape of a cube composed of aluminum pipes and covered with bleached muslin. It houses four 25,000watt HMIs and is lifted by an industrial crane to 80 to 120 feet. Flags - metal or foamcore boards used to protect the camera from stray light, creating a gradual transition

from light to dark and to avoid or control light spillage in your scene. Can sometimes be called gobos or siders.

Honeycomb - A grid used on soft lights to control the lighting design and direction.

Gels - large sheets of transparent tinted plastic used as a filter for a movie light, or to cover a window. There are two basic types: ones that will covert one color temperature to another (such as C.T.O. and C.T.B.), and others that come in a wide variety of colors.

Inky-dink - the tiniest focusable studio lamp with a Fresnel lens and a bulb up to 250 watts.

Gray Card - a piece of dull gray cardboard that reflects 18 percent of the light that strikes it. This card is intended as a representation of an object indoors with average reflective potential. However, this card is not an accurate reading for flesh tones. Gaffers Tape - wide black tape that is better then duct tape for it leaves no sticky residue on your film equipment. It is also good because it can be ripped quite easily into smaller strips. You can fix anything with gaffers tape. “Hitting the mark” – when an actor stops at the correct spot in a scene for framing and focusing. The mark is usually a piece of white camera tape set on floor.

“In the can” - term that means the film has been shot and is ready to go to the lab. In more generally , it means that everything is finished. Kicker - a form of backlight that shines on your subject off to one side. This serves not to illuminate but to define the edges of it’s subject. Magic Hour/Golden Hour the time just before sunrise or the time just after sunset when there is enough light to get an exposure on buildings and on various landscapes but car headlights and building lights can still be seen as on. The color temperature of the daylight is pleasant gold color, which makes objects seem magical. Mark Slate – snapping the arm of the clapperboard against the main to provide a mark for the lab to synchronize the picture and the sound.

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The Martini – the last shot of the day. Meat Axe - An informal term for a small flag.

Practicals - household light fixtures that are placed to be visible in a shot (i.e. that would be there naturally like a desklamp).

Safe Area - When you shoot a film or video you must take into consideration that what you see through the viewfinder is often a larger area then your final product. You have to shoot and test to see how much of the viewable area can be seen. This includes any text you want to lay down on your images in post-production. Safe Area varies from one camera format to another.

Room Tone - This is the distinct sound every film location or set makes. It is used to bridge gaps in the sound track of a film, providing a consistent background.

Scrims - circular screens made of wire mesh placed in front of a lamp to reduce the intensity of light without reducing the color temperature or quality.

Rushes – video transferred shots from the day before used to check for continuity and performance problems. Called rushes because they can be produced quickly.

Script Doctor – a writer brought in to fix a script just prior to, or during production.

Mike Stew - unwanted background noise that is picked up by the microphone. Peanut Bulb - A tiny light used for hiding in confined areas.

Snoot - A funnel-shaped lightcontrolling device used on lamps in place of barndoors for a more precise light-beam pattern.

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Tough Spun - A highly heat resistant diffusing material made of synthetic fibers.

Second Unit - a crew that shoots scenes that require stunt scenes, crowd scenes, battle scenes and battle scenes. Basically they shoot any scenes that do not require sound. These scenes have a different director and camera crew then the first unit.

Sparks – a term for Electricians. Sun Guns - Camera-mounted lights that are portable and provide constant and shadowless illumination. Generally used in documentary or news production. Stinger – an extension power cord for running electricity Video village - slang term for the crowd that develops around video assist monitors on film sets. “A wrap” – the end of the day/ shoot. Wrecking crew - slang term for make up and hair because of the amount of product they have to put on an actor to look good on film.

The Guerilla Filmmakers Handbook

Glossary of Lab : A & B Cutting - A method of assembling original material in two separate rolls, allowing optical effects to be made by double printing. A or B Wind - The two forms of winding used for rolls of film perforated on one edge only. Anamorphic - An optical system having different magnifications in the horizontal and vertical dimensions of the image (used for cinemascope style effect.) Answer Print - The first Answer print is the first combined (action and sound) print produced by the laboratory from a cut negative for further customer grading comments. The final Answer print is a print which has been fully graded and accepted by the customer.

Blow Up - An optical enlargement of a film from one gauge to another, such as 16mm up to 35mm. The opposite of a blow up is a Reduction Print. Checker Board Cutting - A method of assembling alternate scenes of negative in A & B rolls, used fro 16mm, which allows prints to be made without visible splices. Cinemascope - A system of anamorphic widescreen presentation (Trade name). Clone - An identical copy, usually referring to a digital tape. Combined Print - A motion picture print with both picture and sound on the same strip of film. Also, referred to as COMPOSITE PRINT/MARRIED PRINT.

ASA or EI - Exposure Index or Speed Rating to denote film sensitivity.

Dailies/Rushes - Daily rush prints. The first positive prints made by the laboratory overnight from the negative photographed on the previous day. Used to see if there are any mistakes in the filmmaking process that need to be fixed immediately.

Aspect Ratio (AR) - The proportion of picture width to height.

Density - A factor which indicates the light stopping power of a photographic image.

Bleach By - A technique where, by skipping the bleach stage in the color processing sequence, silver is retained in the image along with the color dyes. The result is effectively a black and white image superimposed on a color image. Bleach By images have increased contrast, reduced saturation, often giving a pastel effect.

Developing - The chemical process which converts a photographic exposure into a visible image. Dissolve - A transition between two scenes where the first merges with the second.

Edge Numbers - Coded numbers printed along the edge of a strip of film for identification. Edge Fog - Exposure along the edge of the film from raw light, in most cases from a lightleak, due to the camera door not being taped. Edge Fog can sometimes be visible in the frame or sometimes outside of the frame effecting the clarity of the latent edge numbers. Fade - An optical effect in which the image of a scene is gradually replaced by a uniform dark area, or vice versa. Flop-Over - An optical effect in which the picture is shown reversed from right to left. Grading (Timing) - The process of selecting the printing values for colour and density of successive scenes in a complete film in order to produce the desired visual effect. Intermediates - General term for color masters and dupes. Interpositive - A colour master positive used as protection for the original neg and as a printing master from which the internegative is made. Liquid Gate - A printing system in which the original is immersed in a suitable liquid at the moment of exposure to reduce the effect of surface scratches and abrasions.

Dupe - A copy negative, short for duplicate negative.

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Mag-Opt - A motion picture print with both magnetic and optical (photographic) sound track records.

anamorphic negative has been corrected for normal projection.

Optical Sound - A sound track in which the record takes the form of variations of a photographic image.

Wet Printing - (See Liquid Gate). A system of printing in which the original is temporarily coated with a layer of liquid at the moment of exposure to reduce the effect of surface faults.

Pull Processing - A special type of processing where the film is developed for a shorter time than normal, usually to make up for intended overexposure.

Glossary Video

Push Processing - Lab technique where the film is developed for a longer time than normal, usually to make up for intended underexposure. It should be noted that only entire rolls can be pushed, not individual scenes. Pushing film will add some contrast and graininess. Reversal - The processing of certain types of film to give a positive image on film exposed in the camera. Skip Frames/Step Printing - An optical printing effect eliminating selected frames of the original scene to speed up the action. Unsqueezed Print - A print in which the distorted image of an

BITC – Burnt In Time Code. Time code numbers recorded from camera tapes and visually displayed on screen giving a frame-by-frame picture reference. BITC is used on reference copies of dailies, which in turn will be used for the off-line edit. BLUE (GREEN) SCREEN – Foreground subject is shot against a plain blue screen, on film or video, so that background images can be added electronically in post-production. Blue is chosen as it is the least naturally occurring colour in flesh tones. Green screens are also used these days as images on green blend with the foreground images better. CHROMAKEY – Technique which allows a vision mixer to substitute a saturated colour (usually blue or green) in a picture for another picture source. DEINTERLACING – Broadcasting or recording a video signal with only one of the fields of a frame. Gives the picture a grainer, and therefore, more filmic look.

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DVE – Digital Video Effect. Devices such as ADO, A53, Encore and Kaleidoscope for picture manipulation. DVTR – Digital Video Tape Recorder. Multiple generations or es on DVTR’s do not suffer from tape noise degradation associated with analog formats. DROP OUT – Momentary loss of signal on a video tape, showing up as randomly occurring white spots on the picture, present in worm or poor quality tape. 525 – This is the standard, specifying the number of horizontal lines that makes up the TV picture. 625 being the standard in the UK and 525 being the American version. FIELD – Area of a TV screen covered by alternative lines. Two fields are equal to one frame (picture). FRAME – Single television frame or film image. In the UK, 25 frames per second are scanned to give the illusion of continuous motion. Each frame is composed of two fields. In the US, it’s 30 frames per second. HUE – Colour tone of a picture. KEY – Effect that allows a picture to be superimposed over a background. LUMINANCE – The black and white information of a video signal.

The Guerilla Filmmakers Handbook

MATTE – An area blanked off within a frame in order to include additional material or remove unwanted material. MOTION CONTROL – A computer assisted camera and rig with multiple moving axles, enabling high precision, repeatable camera moves. N.T.S.C. – National Television Standards Committee. Colour standard used in the USA, Canada and Japan. OFF-LINE – A pre-edit used to establish edit points for the on-line edit, usually on non-broadcast standard equipment. ON-LINE – The main edit during which mixes, effects and audio are brought together using broadcast standard equipment in order to create a “master” edit. PAL – Phase Alternate Line. Colour standard used in Western Europe (except ), Scandinavia, China, India, Australia, South Africa, etc. PAL M - Aversion of PAL standard, but using a 525 line 60 field structure. Used only in South America. PIXEL – The smallest picture element on a television display.

Q-LOCK – Device for synchronizing audio with video machines. R.G.B. – Red, Green, Blue. Primary television colours before encoding to a composite signal if required. RESOLUTION – The definition (clarity) of a television picture, and the ability to determine small objects or the detail in objects.

TELECINE – A device for transferring film to video tape. Film can be colour graded during this process. TIME CODE – Binary Code recorded on video and audio tape recorders which uniquely indentifies frames. Used for synchronizing recorders and editing.

625 – This is the standard, specifying the number of horizontal lines that makes up the TV picture. 625 being the standard in the UK and 525 being the American version. SECAM – French, Eastern Europe and African colour television standard. Stands for SEquential Colour with Memory STANDARDS CONVERSION – The process of converting between different TV transmission signals. Usually refers to and from NTSC and PAL. T.B.C. – Time Based Corrector. A device required to correct time base errors of a VTR, which build up during operation. Needed in dubbing, particularly for poor quality material.

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Funding for England Northern Film and Media: (Tyne & Wear, Northumberland, Durham, Tees Valley) Central Square, Forth Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 3PJ Tel: 0191 269 9200 Fax: 0191 269 9213 Email: [email protected] Lottery in 3 streams: 1. investing in development and promotion of regional talent 2. increasing the size and competitiveness of the film and moving image sector 3. building audiences, participation, knowledge and culture

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Screen East: (Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Suffok) 2 Millenium Plain, Norwich, Norfolk, NR2 1TF Leavesden Studios, South Way, Hertfordshire, WD25 7LZ Tel: 01603 776920 Fax: 01603 767191 Email: [email protected] Web: www.EM-Media.org.uk Develop business, talent and opportunities . Organises it’s lottery into three streams. 1: Develops film and media businesses 2: develops and promotes screenwriting talent, and helps with development and assistance towards production and distribution of low budget films. 3: develop access to archive service and materials, develop exhibition, access and choice; Screen West Midlands (Herefordshire, Staffordshire, Shropshire, Birmingham, Coventry, Walsall, Wolverhampton, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Telford and The Wrekin) 31/41 Bromley Street, Birmingham, B9 4AN

The Guerilla Filmmakers Handbook

Tel: 0121 766 1470 Fax: 0121 766 1480 Email: [email protected] Web: www.screenwouth.co.uk Lottery is split into three streams: 1. develop viable film and media business 2. develop audiences and cultural partnerships 3. develop and discover regional talent. Max. amount: 10k for organisations, 5k for individuals. Partnership funding is required. Film London: London Boroughs: City of Westminster, Croydon Council, Enfield, Newham, Tower Hamlets & Hackney, Waltham Forest, London Borough of Wandsworth, 20 Euston Centre, Regents Place, London. NW1 3JH Tel: 020 7378 8787 Fax: 020 7387 8788 www.filmlondon.org.uk

City of Westminster: City of Westminster Arts Council, Room 70, Marylebone Library, Marylebone Road, London. NW1 5PS Tel: 020 7641 1017 / 020 7641 1018 Email: [email protected] Web: www.newham.gov.uk/filmfund Deadline: March No longer than 10 mins, 25 mins for docs. Max: 5k

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Eligible: Newham based production companies or professional freelancers who’ve not received more than 60k from public grants or schemes over the previous 3 years. Match funding not required unless project costs exceed max grant available. Tower Hamlets & Hackney Tower Hamlets Film Office Brady Centre, 192 Hanbury Street, London E1 5HU Tel: 020 7364 7920 Email: [email protected] Web: www.city-eye.co.uk Take One: 1st time filmmakers short films. Take Two: filmmakers with some experience to do short films.

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CORNWALL FILM FUND Pydar House Pydar Stret, Truro, TR1 1EA Tel: 01872 322886 Fax: 01872 322887 Email: [email protected] Web: www.ympa.org.uk