Filmmaking: Mixing Pros with Amateurs

The six-minute short film Family Law, produced by Royal Entertainment in association with Powers Productions, saw a mixed cast and crew of professionals, semi-pros and amateurs.  While everyone gave their best, I saw a unique difference between the experienced and the non-experienced.

Knowing in advance that I would be directing a mixed crew, I called a meeting at the beginning of the shoot to share how I work, and explain on-set etiquette. I also talked with several members of the cast and crew in advance to get a feel for their backgrounds and abilities. During those discussions, I asked key questions of each person, according to their production role.

When the inevitable problems arose on set, the professional would immediately notify his or her department head and the issue would be addressed in time for the problem to be overcome. Some of the amateurs, who wanted to make sure they did everything perfectly in hopes of being on the next production, kept quiet about their mistakes. This silence resulted in costly postproduction nightmares.

CJ Powers works with Francine Locke and Dan Bredesen on Family Law

I noticed that when asked a difficult question, most newbies told me they were familiar with what I was looking to achieve and confirmed that they could do it. The pros shared that they might be able to accomplish what I was looking for and then asked me a series of questions to clarify their understanding of my vision. Once on set, I realized that the professionals gave me exactly what I asked for and it became very clear that the amateurs hadn’t understood my goals, let alone … Continue Reading

Movie Directors and the Rehearsal

By CJ Powers

Most Christian films require a lot of rehearsal, due to the lack of professional talent hired to play the lead roles. When casting a friend, religious celebrity or anyone else who hasn’t mastered the craft of acting, it is critical that movie directors draw from the individual actor’s personal experiences to flesh out the character.

The best way to draw out deep emotional experiences that can be leveraged to bring the character to life is to begin with a monotone reading of the script. This task is extremely difficult for most inexperienced actors because they desire to bring inflection or energy to the reading. Nonetheless, it is important to keep the actor from demonstrating any form of emotion during the first reading.

Faculty members Rene Gutteridge and Cheryl McKay
study a script at the 2009 Gideon Media Arts Conference

… Continue Reading

SILENT FALL – A Study On The Global Impact Of Abortion

Evan Davis, Director of Harvest Media Ministries, recently initiated production on a documentary entitled Silent Fall, which is to be a study of the global impact of abortion. This interview is the first of a three-part series which will follow the makers of Silent Fall through pre-production, production, and post-production stages.

Christian-Movie.com wishes Evan and his team all the best as they embark on their worldwide mission.

Evan Davis: I began producing promotional and educational videos for Christian ministries in 1988 and quickly realized that the need for professionally produced communication tools among ministries and mission organizations was virtually endless. I joined up with Harvest Media founding partner Gary Roberts in 1996, with a shared vision to serve and encourage ministries through the production of relevant and high-quality media tools. Gary’s technical know-how and skills as an editor and camera operator complimented my writing and directing strengths. The Harvest Media team continued to grow … Continue Reading

The Gaffer’s Role

By Daniel Silver

The gaffer is the chief lighting technician, but he does more than shine light on sets and actors: he works closely with the director of photography in deciding what lights will motivate the scene, what overall mood is desired, and how lights will tell their own story.

To better understand what a gaffer does, you need to know what tools he has at his disposal. His greatest tool is his team — he makes use of a large team of technicians to accomplish his goals. His right-hand man is the best boy. The best boy is in charge of keeping track of equipment and making sure that the lighting department has easy access to it on set. He ensures that the lighting department has adequate power and acts as an emissary to the other departments. Finally, the best boy serves as the first person in the chain of command that other members of the lighting department come to with problems. This frees up the gaffer to focus on implementing his lighting plan.

The best boy has a team of electricians that helps him load and unload the equipment. Under his supervision, the team of electricians helps implement the gaffer’s lighting plan. While the gaffer is setting up, he relies on the electricians to make adjustments to the lights or lamps. “Through the exchange of a few words or hand signals, or clairvoyance, the electrician … Continue Reading

Composing Music for Film Trailers

By Brian Steckler

Though I’m generally hired to produce artists, write songs, and mix music, I’ve scored tons of commercials and have created my fair share of library film and TV music in all sorts of musical genres, from big sweeping orchestral cues to in-your-face modern rock. The library that I do most of my cue writing for focuses mainly on film trailers. Their main clientele is a group of trailer editors at the major studios.

My job is to write generic trailer music that can be used in whatever way is useful. Most often, I’m asked to write aggressive rock, hip-hop, or electronica with full orchestra on top, for action or thriller-type movie trailers. That said, I’m also frequently asked to replace a temporary cue that the editor used in an initial cut of the trailer that has the right sound or energy, but is either unavailable or too expensive to license in the end. Those cues can be any style.

Brian Steckler’s studio, The Stickhouse

Typically, I’ll write cues that are from 40 seconds to … Continue Reading