Low Budgets and High Hopes (page 2)

Knowledge of your subject pays huge dividends in other ways as well. Knowledge breeds creativity. Take the case of a documentary called Nightmail-a film made during the 1930s in Britain. The idea with this film was to explain how a train travelling between London and Scotland delivered the mail. On the surface, you couldn't find a more ordinary or less inspiring subject. The creator's knowledge of the subject, however, gave him the confidence to break away from the obvious means of presenting the information. He used strong and powerful visuals of the train, the railroad tracks, telephone lines and scenery whizzing by to build a lyrical statement. They created extraordinary visual rhythms that meshed with the factual content. By simply following an informational script, you run the risk of turning out a product that would deliver content but would lose the audience without strong visuals to back it up. Immerse yourself in a subject and you'll usually find creative ways to present it to an audience.

Good research will also come in handy when it's time to interview people who are experts in a particular field. They won't expect you to know more than they do. After all, their knowledge on the particular subject is the reason you're interviewing them in the first place. On the other hand, you don't want to be unprepared because the people you interview will be both more responsive and more understanding if they feel you take them seriously. Be prepared so you can follow up on responses when you sense the opportunity. Like a defense lawyer during cross-examination, you need the ability to think quickly on your feet. Solid research under your belt gives you knowledge, and knowledge gives you confidence that translates directly into higher quality interviews.

Interviewing and research are strongly linked in other ways as well. I once worked on a project about women who were bronco riders in Montana back in the `30s and `40s. The director did her initial interviews with a tape recorder; no camera was present at all. She accomplished many things at once. First, by conducting these "pre-interviews" she was able to do research on her subject. Second, she was able to highlight the most interesting stories so that she could be more focused when she returned with the entire crew. Third, and perhaps most important, she was able to establish a relationship with the people she was talking to. When she filmed the final interviews, her rapport with the women radiated through the whole program.

The goal of pre-production is to conserve resources by careful planning. You want to obtain the maximum results for a given investment of time. With most big-budget projects, practically every expense is pegged to the amount of time each task takes, from equipment rental to day-rates for crew. Even the weekend hobbyist who is shooting a project alone must keep close tabs on the amount of time taken to get the job done because time is an element that most of us have in limited supply. Setting up a realistic and effective shooting schedule could well be your most important accomplishment. Treat your shooting schedule as a large puzzle. You want the pieces to fit together in a way that gives you creative freedom and makes economic sense. For example, you wouldn't want to schedule two interviews that might run long in the same day. On the other hand, it might be necessary to schedule a shorter workday to correspond with conflicting schedules within the project. Work these details out beforehand to relieve yourself of the burden during production.

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