How to Make a Short Film
Here you will find linked the short film and behind the scenes that are being dicussed in this article. If you like the film and wish to support us please go to this link and vote for our film:
Inspiration and Competition
Hello,
My name is Ryan Watson and im here to breakdown the processes behind my first offical short film Pizza Time 2020 and how it came to be.
This whole film began when i was watching a film riot video and the host mentioned a short film competition. I decided to check it out since i had always wanted to enter one before but never had the oppotunity to. Once i checked it out and saw that the prize was $200,000 dollars and the film only had to be 3 minutes long i knew i had to enter this competition. Immediately i was met with setbacks as i noticed that entries to the competition were closing within a month. This meant i had one month to go from idea to completed and uploaded short film while working out two other films at the same time.
I immedatelty contacted my friend Ben and we started discussing the lagistics of making this film happen. we made a rough schelude for pre production, production and post production. After discussing some general ideas we decided we would take a few days to come up with short film ideas to create. Neither of us had a solid idea inmind at the begining of the production but after a few days we pitched our ideas to each other. While there were some strong contenders the film idea for Pizza Time won out. With a goal in mind and an idea to follow that we both felt passionate about we decided to take the leap and make this film happen.
The Pre Production Stage
The Pre-Production stage was definitly the most intimidating stage of the entire production. This stage was alot of coming up with and refining ideas and plans within a short span of time. This stage would decide if we were actually going to be able to make this film or not. It was an exciting prospect because we have made plans for many short films before but have never made it even all the way through the pre-production stage before quitting. However, this time was different. We were determined to make this film and win this compeition no matter what.
The Pre-production stage start with breaking down the script for information such as scenes, shots, costumes, characters, props, locations and alot more. Following this we started working on all the legal forms such as release forms for the actors and crew and the risk assessment for production. My producer Ben took on most of that work while i focused on more of the creative side of the pre-production stage. Creating a storyboard/shot list was my top priority during that time. Decideding how the film would look in as much detail as possible was nessarcy to ensure we could shoot the film as efficently as possible.
Once these were decided it was time to call up our crew who consisted of:
- Jared Sexton: Cinematographer
- John Hunt: Runner
- Mitch Hughes: Boom Operator
- Gerogia Gililand: Makeup/Runner
- Paris Magor: BTS
Once we put together a crew of talented and skilled people who were willing to help us create this film it was time to put an ad up for the cast of the film.
Once the advertisement was posted onto the star now website we recieved over 100 applications for roles within our film which below us away. Funny story about that though is that most of them were applying for a minor role with only one line so it was difficult to find our leads inbetween all that. We eventually decided on our cast and contacted them informing them of the schedule we created for the shoot and gave them all the documents and supplies they needed.
The finishing touches of the pre-production process was mainly preparing the production design for the film and the catering for the set and purchasing the camera gear. While we have aditment gear of our own we wanted to step it up and rent professional gear. This decision ended up costing the production over $600 but we felt this cost was worth the increase in quality. With the gear purchased and being shiped we finished up the documents and prepared the cast and crew for the coming two days of set we had scheduled.
Production Stage
The production stage was the most exciting and stressful periods of the entire film as this was it if we didn't capture everything on those two days we were screwed. Our work began at 5am in the morning as the crew arrived at the first location and started preparing the set. We didn't have set stations for each department which left the set feeling rather unorganised which was frustrating. However, we got everything setup and ready to go by the time the actors started to arrive.
As each actor would arrive we would send them through makeup and then into the waiting room until they were required for a scene.The first location took place within the front room of my home along with the front yard which takes place at the begining of the film. These scenes had the most shots in the entire film so it became incredibly stressful to ensure that we got all the shots we needed. while we had to improvise sometimes and get rid of some shots we eventually got through the list and completed that location. For the rest of the shoot we drove around to different forest locations to film the "Pizza Guy" running around the forest with the pizza. Once we had completed those shots we called a wrap for the first half of the production.
The second day began with an easier start at 12pm on the side of a long rode that doesnt get used much. This part of the shoot was the most draining as we had little to no cover from the sun and had alot of shots to get. I ended up being pretty harshly burnt after that part of the shoot which made it difficult to direct the rest of the film. However, we powered through and got the shots we needed and all drove to the over side of the city for the final location. We arrived and greeted the residents of the household and became setuping up our gear. Working closing witht the actors and cinematographer we nailed the final scene and called a wrap for the whole production which felt amazing.
Post Production
After a few extremely quick weeks we had shot a complete short film and now it was up to me to edit it together. I assembled all the footage into one timeline and started grabbing the shots i wanted until i realised something was off. The competition only allows films between 1 to 3 minutes long with nothing more and less. Unforumtely we had shot the film to be way longer than three minutes. This meant we had to cut scenes and make a fast paced version of the film just to be able to release it for the competition. While this was a struggle i eventually find some good music to use which helped me edit the piece together.
A few days before the competition was due to close i realised that i had to get the copy right license for the music. However, the original owner of the song wasnt relying so i had to make an entiely new edit with new music withint he last few days. While it was definitly a hard edit i managed to create another above average edit and i subitted it just in time. While we faced problem after problem my team and i pulled through and it had finally paid off for real. My film was offically in a short film competition!
Reflection and Review
Reflecting on the processes of this film making experience id say i had a blast and learned alot from this experience and hope this will be the beganing of many short films i release. We had some set backs and we learnt some new skills and technquies along the way which i beleive will help me and my crew create even better short films in the future. I plan on writing and directing the final big film for my univerity degree which will be a major step up from the small time project we managed here. Although im working harder than ever to learn new skills and improve and im ready to tackle that challenge. I enjoyed working with all these talented people and if you would like to see more content by us be sure to follow my Youtube channels:
Dragon Knight:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC973T3CbKat1QRv12...
Ryan Watson: