Filmmaking and Video Production are nearly one in the same now. Unless you’re shooting on filmstock, you’re shooting some video format or another. Birdcat’s right about there being a big difference between client based productions and full on ‘filmmaking’ be it documentary or narrative. There is a difference if you’re doing a television formatted flick vice a theatrical form film.
Biggest differences are the budget and the amount of time needed to plan and shoot. TV budgets even on high-end shows are generally smaller than theatrical ones. That is unless you’re doing something on the scale of ‘Rome’, ‘Game of Thrones’ or ‘The Borgias’. For all the production values of the ‘Sopranos’ the budget per episode pales in comparison to if they’d made a feature version.
The other difference is time. Unless you’ve ‘turned and burned’ getting short form films, commercials or webisodes out on a regular schedule, you can’t possibly appreciate how fast you have to work on episodic television productions. Whereas it may take hours to get a scene set up or reset during shooting on a theatrical shoot, for TV you end up shooting entire episodes in a day or less depending on your scheduling and efficiency.
Birdcat’s also correct in that filmmaking is much more involved than most ‘one-man-bander’s’ are prepared to handle. Lighting, set building, props, make-up, scene blocking, costumes, hair, scheduling and budget are all part of the blizzard of things to be managed before you so much as think about pressing ‘RECORD’ on your camera. Dealing with professional actors is also challenging as they sometimes are much more experienced with the process than a director transitioning from one-man band to collaborative filmmaker.
BC’s ‘rule #2’ about planning can’t be stressed enough. I absolutely, positively do not recommend ‘winging it’ at any point during the planning stage. Pre-production is the time where you can go from the fanciful ‘what if’ and ‘wouldn’t it be cool’ stage to coming up with a workable plan to get your flick made without having to spend much if any money. You start winging it come the production phase without having a baseline plan in place, you’ll end up spending a lot of money to cover mistakes, oversights and God-knows what else.
Now, when you make a film unless you finance the project from pre-production to post-production to distribution, you’ll have investors. They’ll take the place of ‘clients’ and you’ll have to do a far better ‘song and dance’ to keep them signing those much needed checks. Investors are a whole order of magnitude when it comes to your relationship. Basically, your investors are the ones you’ll be doing your best ‘Al Joleson’ trying to convince them to put up the money for what is needed during the process. You think dealing with a bride and her mother about that extra $500 for post fees were a hassle? Wait until you have a similar conversation with your Executive Producer for why you need 3 more cameras to cover a fight scene or why you have to rent a more secure soundstage to shoot a closed set love scene. Because if you don’t, the lead actress who you foolishly let her talk you into shooting the love scene last is now in 90% of the shot footage and you can’t cut her.
Ugh! And don’t get me started on actors and $%#@#%$! no-shows for auditions….
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