TRANSCRIPT:

Welcome to the Lights Film School video tutorial on lighting on the “upstage” side of the camera. As filmmakers you’ll often be looking for ways to add depth and dimension to your images. One way to do this is to “light on the upstage side of the camera” – meaning the side away from the camera. This will mean that your shadows will fall towards the camera rather than away from the camera.

Before we begin let’s take a look at how this concept is used in cinema. Here we have a subject that is looking camera left with the majority of the shadow falling “towards the camera”.

Generally actors won’t break the “4th wall” and look directly at the camera. This means that one side of their face will be closer to the camera than the other side. The angles will often be very subtle, but you’ll soon find that one side of their face will be closer than the other, with only a few exceptions. For the purpose of demonstration we’re exaggerating the contrast ratio on our subject’s face but If we wanted to avoid such dramatic lighting we could always bounce some of the light back on our subject by using a bounce board or even just throw a rim light on him like “this” to give a better exposure to the downstage side of his face.

There are multiple ways you can keep your shadows towards the camera. You can achieve this look by working with flags, subject placement or light placement. But let’s start with the easiest setup. Let’s imagine we have one primary light source: A window. Because your can’t move the sun or the position of the window, this means you need to think of ways to position your subject and your camera in a way that will keep your shadows “towards the camera”. In our case, because we’re shooting in a black box studio and don’t have access to the sun, we’re using a couple of 650 watt lights from our “Arri baby blue kit” to throw some light through our curtains.

As usual, before we begin we’d like to show you our lighting setup for this shot. So let’s take you behind the scenes to show you how we setup and lit this scene.

It’s a really simple setup. We’re just using 3 lights. 2 behind the curtain acting as our subject’s main key light and 1 practical lamp hanging from the ceiling to give light to our background and seating area. So before we bring out our subject let’s light this scene.

Here is a wide shot of the studio before it’s been lit. Now let’s go to black and start to build our lighting from the ground up.

At this point you can see we’ve turned the lights on behind the curtains. We’re going to be sitting our subject on the bed so this light acts as our “key light”. The fabric the light is passing through acts as a sort of diffusion which softens the light.

Now let’s turn on our practical lamp. Notice it’s not positioned properly. We’d like the light to catch some of the flower and vase in an upcoming scene so let’s quickly reposition it so it highlights a more specific part of the frame… There. That’s great.

So that’s our scene lit. As you can see it didn’t take much!

Now let’s sit our subject in the scene. Remember that his key light is coming from behind the curtain. Just so you can see how we’ve done that we’ll zoom out so you can see behind the back wall.

Okay, let’s get back on topic. Now that we have the subject in the scene we need to find a way to position him. Since we want him to have nice side lighting on his face let’s position him so one half of his face is positioned towards the key light and one half of his face is positioned away.

Now let’s give him some action. Okay, now he’s reading a book. So we have our light positioned, our subject positioned and now we need to position our camera. Let’s give this shot a try.

This is really not a bad shot. We have a nice contrast ratio on his face, we have a strong sense of depth and a simplified colour palette. It’s not bad and it’s a perfectly usable shot. But let’s change our position so that the shadows on the left side of his face are directed towards the camera rather than away from the camera.

I like this shot much more. We still have our simplified colour palette, a strong sense of depth and nice contrast ratio, but now we have shadows that are positioned towards the camera rather than away from the camera.

Here is a similar shot with a slight variation in framing.

And here you can see all of our shots compared side by side.

Again, there are many exceptions to this rule, but you’ll often find that keeping your shadows towards the camera will give your shot more depth and a more interesting sense of dimension.

Video on Demand & Streaming

Video On Demand is something that’s gaining in popularity and has picked up incredible momentum recently. Netflix has over 20 million total subscriber. They’ve also had an astronomical increase in their number of subscribers in 2010. If Netflix was a cable company it would be the second largest, just behind Comcast (it may have actually recently surpassed Comcast in 2011). More and more customers are moving over to the streaming only plans. Customers want to choose what films they want to watch, when they want to watch them and they don’t want to pay much to watch them. They also don’t want to be concerned about late fees or scratched disks. DVD rental retail chains have been dropping out of our neighborhoods like flies. It’s been such a quick and visible transformation.

So the solution seems to be obvious. Filmmakers need to transfer their work over to a VOD model for rental income. In theory this sounds fantastic, but the technical and design platform is far too complex for most filmmakers to get up and running themselves. Similarly, it’s too expensive and time consuming to outsource the technology and design work. So why not just pitch your film to pre-existing platforms such as Netflix or Amazon? Well let us explain.

There are popular platforms that already exist but they are heavily filtered and primarily stock their catalogue from a roster of films that distributors own. It’s too much hassle for them to buy individual films from individual filmmakers. It would be a logistical nightmare. So while it is possible to get your independent film on Netflix, you have a better chance of getting in their catalogue if you already have a distribution deal. So for many independent or student filmmakers this leaves you back at square one: knowing that VOD will help your film reach its audience, but not knowing how to access VOD technology.

VOD technology requires the following:

Customer / sales tracking
Metrics
Geoblocking
Fast streaming capabilities
Hosting & bandwidth
A user friendly front end and backend
A strong marketing layout allowing filmmakers to embed trailers, posters, festival awards, cast / crew information and so on.

Enter filmbinder! It’s a relatively new service that allows filmmakers to post their short, feature or documentary films online for VOD streaming. The filmmaker plays a small monthly fee ($10 – $14) for the hosting and technology services and in return the filmmakers (you) get to keep 100% of their profits.

The idea started when the founders wanted to rent their own 18 minute short film online but no service offered them what they were looking for. So they built the platform for their film themselves and successfully rented their film 1600 times using their own technology. Next, they decided to offer their service to other filmmakers looking for ways to stream and rent their films online. Now all of the filmmakers on the filmbinder network just pay a small monthly fee to have access to this technology.

Now, it should be stated that filmbinder is not a netflix replacement. By default of having certain filters in place (i.e. working closely with distributors and buyers), Netflix is also a fairly reliable curator for media. There is a certain production standard that audience’s can rely on from them.

However, filmbinder doesn’t have the same curator responsibilities because the point isn’t to have a highly curated catalogue of films. Instead, the point is to give filmmakers access to the technology. It’s then the filmmaker’s responsibility to get traffic to their film’s landing page. I’m sure there is, and will be an increasing amount of traffic spillover from the main site however, I suspect the majority of your VOD rentals will come from your own marketing efforts.

In fact we asked the founders about this and they told us that “On average you get 1 rental out of every 90 visits and $1 for every 37 visits. Not too bad right? But the conversion rate of how many trailers get watched before one film gets rented out, varies from film to film.”

What’s even better is that Filmbinder is entirely customizable. You can host your services on your own website if you like and they are happy to do any customization work for you if you want to experiment with a different template.

Working With Your Existing Distribution Deal: Geoblocking

Even better, is that filmbinder can be used by filmmakers with already existing distribution deals. Their geoblocking feature allows you to exclude territories, so you can honor your current or any future distribution deals. By default, your films will be available in all 240 territories worldwide. If you are constrained by exclusive deals in certain territories, just uncheck them under the FILM tab in your admin panel. So if you have a distribution deal in Canada and the USA you can block those territories from being able to rent your film.

Filmbinder is non-exclusive. You keep all rights to your film. You can use filmbinder to complement your current distribution – and you can look for other distribution in addition to filmbinder.

Although Amazon offers a similar service, they also take roughly 50% of your sales. Filmbinder is great because if you worked it out on a percentage basis their monthly fee only works out to about 1.5 – 2.8% of sales. So their base price is $14 / month. If you sign up for a year it drops to $10 / month. The price includes up to 100 rentals / month as well as the streaming of your trailer. But as the ambitious filmmaker that you are, you probably want to know what happens if you stream more than 100 / month. Well we asked them to give us the numbers for 500 rentals / month and 100o rentals / month. They estimates are below.

How Much Does the Service Cost? **All numbers below are with a yearly subscription plan**.

Rentals / month | Monthly Subscription | Revenue at $5 / rental | Commission Equivalent
100                                      $10                             $500                                            2.00%
500                                      $50                             $2,500                                         2.00%
1000                                    $100                          $5000                                           2.00%

And since we appreciate your commitment to checking out the Lights Film School Blog we asked the guys at filmbinder if they could give our readers a discount. They agreed to give you a 25% discount. Just use the coupon code: LIGHTSFILMSCHOOL. So your numbers look as follows

100                                   $7.50                           $500                                           1.50%
500                                   $37.50                         $2500                                         1.50%
1000                                 $75                              $5000                                         1.50%

Future Plans & Recommendations

We also asked them if there was any chance they would introduce a “buy” model which would allow filmmakers to charge more for the purchase of a digital download, rather than just a rental option. Nil responded by saying ” most filmmakers and viewers prefer to stream films. We had a couple of filmmakers and a couple of viewers asking for a download-to-own option. If there is more demand for it, we can develop such feature. For now we just redirect viewers to the filmmakers, if they ask for a DVD.”

Nils, one of the founders, will be keeping an eye out on the blog so if you have any questions or recommendations about filmbinder.com please feel free to post them below. This is a very interesting business model for us independent filmmakers so it’s worth opening it up for conversation bellow! Looking forward to your ideas and questions!

Lights Film School chatted with  Director Ben Briand (Twitter) about his beautiful short film entitled Some Static Started. You’ll find the 8 minute film and our in-depth interview below. Enjoy!

Hello Ben and thank you for creating the short film “Some Static Started”. It’s a beautiful, brave and inspirational short film that I was totally overwhelmed with when I first saw it. You have a growing body of impressive work under your belt, including your previous short film “Apricot” which won the Vimeo audience award for Best Narrative Film. Your ad spot “Soccer Can” also recently won Silver in the Young Director’s Award (YDA) at Cannes. “Some Static Started” has also already had you nominated for the Australian Director’s guild award for Best Short Film. These are huge accomplishments and we all thank you for taking the time to chat with our filmmaker audience about your creative and technical processes. Let’s jump right into your brain.

Out of the gates you hit your audience with some pretty suspicious images. The man’s reaction seemed totally disjointed from the physical reality of the environment. he sits calmly in a blood stained room. At this point I knew I was in for some type of twisted ride. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Can you tell us a little bit about your story and where it originated. Also, I noticed that both “Apricot” and “Some Static Started” rely on dreams and memories as the main narrative thrust while using the present as a tool to move your story foreword and provide some context. This gives you creative permission to do some pretty bizarre things. Is the adding of that sort of supernatural element what excites you most as a filmmaker? The ability to break the rules of logic and space?

One morning I was thinking about cutting off my beard (that’s me in the film) and I just caught the idea of a bleeding man talking to me as I did it. Why would he be talking to me and why would I be cutting it off? Well maybe I had done something to him. Then the rest of the idea simply flowed from there. Some Static Started was the most pure film making experience that I have ever had. I wrote it one morning and then acted very quickly to get people together, who all came on board with no fuss and were excited about making something that was quite simply an experiment. There was nothing at stake when I made Static, so I had a wonderful sense of freedom. I paid for it (with my fee from Apricot) and cut it in my own time. That freedom can be felt in the narrative, I didn’t know where it was headed, but I trusted that it could end up somewhere interesting because of how it had been set it up. I often use the themes of memory and identity not as a gimmick but because I believe they are what makes us all individual. That subjective experience defines how we navigate the world. The way my films are to me are how if feel the world might really operate, with information, past, present and future all sliding over one another. It’s a very intuitive process on my part feeling my way through it, interviewers and critics seem to be able to intellectualize the way the films work much better than I can.

What’s interesting is that even though you don’t seem to want to be confined to reality, you nevertheless shoot in very real environments. This is one of the things that I think really helps you stand out as a filmmaker. Even though your film is very designed, it never detracts from the narrative element. Of course this happens because your narrative is so engaging and interesting, but it’s also because you “rough up” your design to make it look a little more natural and lived in. Do you find walking this thin line between romanticizing your images while at the same time keeping your audience in a physical space they are familiar with difficult? I sense you have a preference towards classic and nicely designed scenes (both location and wardrobe). How much of this is painted, designed, propped etc. For example the shot at :46 (above) really stood out to me. I feel like the color integration is perfect . The wardrobe matches the environment. Everything from the blanket on the couch, the way the colors integrate with each other, the way the wardrobe interacts with the furniture and the texture of the background. It all seems meticulously planned to me but at the same time it doesn’t draw unnecessary attention to itself or overshadow the more importune part of your film: The story.

I don’t think about walking that line too much otherwise I will kill it. I like a unifying aesthetic where everything feels like it belongs together and if something doesn’t then there should be a reason. Giving credibility to the world on film is absolutely important otherwise the delicate story will fracture and shatter. I have worked many times with wardrobe & production designer Alice Babidge who is Australia’s best designer in my opinion. She mostly works in theatre and has been snapped up by Cate Blanchett and Sydney Theatre Company as her resident designer. Her eye is impeccable and we sync very well. That is often why I get her to be across the whole aesthetic of the film rather than simply one department. We like worlds that have a petina to them, that feel lived in and have a history to them. Those motel rooms had great potential so it was a very careful series of choices to amplify what was already there and a few things were changed, such as the bed sheets and propping. We both became obsessed with an old tea bag that had we found had been used weeks before and left in the room, all dried up. It just perfectly explained the lazy cleaning job done on the motel room and what kind of place it was. If you look really close it is in the corner of some of the frames.

You’ve done fashion work in the past. Can you talk about the influence of fashion on your films?

I find most fashion imagery vacuous. However I am drawn to the abstract nature of it, as I am in films. Fashion references film all the time such as Terrence Malick and Days Of Heaven, Fellini, Lynch’s muses and almost every Godard film and these are the film makers that interest me so I see why they loop back on each other. I think ‘fashion films’ are the new ‘music video’, a perfect storm of art and commerce. My fashion work is never polished, it is about the inclusion of imperfection. Flawlessness is very off putting to me.

Your locations are beautiful. Can you talk a little bit about how you look at space. What did you look for specifically when you started your location scout for a motel room? Is that really a motel room or did you just design it to look that way? How close was the actual environment with the environment you had envisioned in your mind when thinking about the story?

I really start making the film when I begin location scouting. I am always interested in how the light falls across a location, be it natural or the fixed lighting such as lamps etc that already exist in that space. To me location is about texture and texture is defined by the light that it interacts with. My first choice of location originally in the script was actually an empty town house, but after looking at it the texture of the space didn’t suit where my head had taken the film, so I began down the motel path. I think it’s good to stay open to potentially better options right up until the last minute.

Another highlight of this film was the acting. The actors were spectacular. Where did you find such a talented bunch? In Apricot as well you had an incredible cast. Can you tell us a little bit more about your casting philosophy and what you look for in an actor?

Sam Smith (The Bleeding Man) is the only professional actor in the film, and I had worked with him in my MTV film Hammer Bay. The bearded guy is me, the girl, Tess was a model I had met in an few commercial auditions and the ‘handsome men’ are artist and photographer friends who simply had a look that felt right. My process with casting is that I look for strands of the character in the actor themselves. I also think it is important to be flexible on the day, if a character organically heads to a certain place and it works, then i think that it is important to adapt to where it is going. All too often performances in short films don’t work because the director is trying to force a square peg into a round hole.

Beautiful lighting at 1:03 (above). Do did you light this shot?

No, just natural light coming in through the window with some fill bounced back on Sam’s face. Cinematographer Hugh Miller is remarkably fast and incredibly effective with a kino, piece of poly and a black. That was pretty much the kit for the film.

Side question: Did you tile the washroom to add color to it, or was it already tiled (above)?

Exactly how it was in the location, hence the extended time for finding a location with such authenticity.

Again, I notice your beautifully angled light for your exterior shots. For example at 2:16 (above) and 2:20. Did you chase the light on this film as well? It’s not uncommon for filmmakers to like side-lighting and back-lighting, but on indie projects it’s often more difficult to organize because you’re rushed for time.

We just left 30 mins at the end of the shoot to pick up some observed Motel shots and those are what we got. It’s all a matter of good scheduling and that comes from many years of working on commercials too. I believe the more times a director can walk on set the better. It blows me away when directors make a feature after having only made one or two short films, because it took me the last 10 years to really feel comfortable on a set. Also, because I worked with natural light for many years at University (a lot of the time on corporate and doco style work) I learnt to observe how and when the light falls on the location when there were no lights or gaffer trucks. This observation happens mostly during location scouting. There was only one light on Static, and that was a simple 4 light kino bank and a single C stand.

Speaking of, how long did this film take you to shoot?

I think we shot it all in about 8 hours.

How long did it take you from script development to publishing?

I wrote it one weekend and shot it 2 weeks later. Apricot had a very long gestation period so Static was very much about ceasing the moment and the thread of an idea. I didn’t want to over cook it by thinking too much about it.

How many locations did you shoot in? Were all the rooms and hallways in the same building or did you need to travel to different locations and then stitch the images together to make them look like the same location?

The whole film was shot in a 15 meter radius, the rooms were right next to one another. I would never really do something like travel to another location for the hallway shots, because the integrity of the location was consistent and intact already so there was no need to screw with that.

Referencing the shot at 3:21 (above) – What a beautiful shot. Can you explain your lighting setup for us? How much control did you exercise over the styling of this shot (wardrobe / bedspread etc). You’re also great at ensuring a nice sense of depth in most of your shots. You seem to always be looking for a nice foreground, middle ground and background. is this second nature to you now or do you still need to remind yourself to look for these visual elements?

We only used the kino as a bit of back light on Tess and a little bit of fill. Hugh Miller (DOP) threw up a black behind the camera. Everything else was already the actual lighting state in the room, the fluro lights and the sunlight from the window was already doing the job. Again, I went for that location because of the authenticity in the function it needed to perform. I needed a cheap motel that would be found on the side of the highway for the film and that’s exactly what the location was, so I didn’t feel the need to disrupt that. I like the way Kubrick didn’t score his films from scratch, most of the latter films such as The Shining, Clockwork Orange and Full Metal Jacket he used pre-existing music. He thought what was the point in making something up when there was already so much great music in the world. I sort of feel the same way about locations and their light, they just have to be found.

As for the foreground, mid and background elements, it is second nature to me now. I even do it when I don’t have a camera near me. I tend to frame things in my mind as I go about my daily life. I’ve heard of compositors and retouchers doing the same thing, fixing the world as the move through it. I am sure DOP’s like Arkapaw and Miller are relighting cafes and bars in their head 24 hours a day.

Did you have a particular color palette in mind before shooting this film?

Muted earth tones and aqua blue and green. You see that in the bathroom vs the browns of the room. That was all decided on once the room was found so that the world stayed intact. Apricot was striving for a feeling of bright beauty in the light and design as it was about something becoming very clear to the characters, Static is much more about diving into the darkness, so we were interested in something a little muddy. Black also features heavily in the wardrobe.

Referencing the shot at 4:30 (above) – This is kind of a side question but is the exit sign a prop? Is the mirror a prop? Can you tell us how you lit this scene?

The whole shot is lit and propped as it was found. The mirror and the exit sign were there. The light was spilling in from outside. Sometimes I find it important to ask if anything actually needs to be done to the space and in this case it was a choice to leave it alone. I originally had Tess’s character coming from the other end, but in that moment I caught sight of the other end and simply saw her character standing at that end in my head, filled with dread. Hugh Miller (DOP) is wonderfully generous and will give anything a try, as long as he could get some kind of exposure he was happy to run with the dark and muted look of the film.

Great sound design at 6:20. Was this thought about during the pre-visualization process or did you find this sound idea in editing? (her putting her hand over her mouth and further muting the sound?). This really helped you punctuate your point.

This is an example of being malleable when filming and looking for the interesting things that can come out of problems on the day. I originally wanted her to scream her lungs out. But when it came time to roll, we realized that we would have been thrown out of the location, because there were guests in all of the adjacent rooms. As far as the motel was concerned they were happy for us to shoot there, but they weren’t going to have a woman screaming at the top of her lungs for an hour. So I caught onto the idea that it could be even more effective if when Tess’s character screams, that nothing came out. Basil Hogios (who scored and sound designed both Apricot and Static) and I like to talk about aural ideas very early on so that sound is integrated into the telling of the story, not simply added as an after thought. He has a great ear for spacial textures and we played atmospheric music through the entire shooting of that sequence and as a result Tess slipped into the vibe of the sounds. So when it came time to score the film the atmospherics were taking a lot of of cues from her performance. It’s interesting how it all feeds into each other like that.

You also wrote this film. Can you tell me about your writing process?

Some script ideas are suddenly hot and alive (Static) and others are refined over and over (Apricot). I think the more a film driven by a feeling, the less I like to overcook the script writing process. This often makes for more ambiguous and abstract work, but I think there is not enough of abstract narrative cinema in popular culture anymore and there is definitely a place for it. Whilst it may put some off, it seems to really excite others from what the response has been and it help me to stay fresh. But with all of the scripts, including the feature film I am developing at the moment, the ideas arrive to me as a whole. They seem to just appear in my head, with a beginning, middle and an end. However, they are often murky and with every pass of the script, it is like scraping away a layer of mud, revealing what the story could be in the next layer. It’s a very sensitive process for me and I think of it like a boxer, training for a fight who watches their diet and what they put in their body, except I monitor the films and music I consume during the writing process. It’s not a conscious thing, I just get thrown easily and it makes it hard to listen to that little voice inside that is telling you to trust certain things that you have set up.

Your team is unstoppable. You have great photography, great costume design, great music and sound design, great hair and makeup, great casting and great editing. How do you assemble such a strong team? What advice would you give to other filmmakers who are just starting out and are looking for others to help them bring their film ideas into the world?

I have worked with many different people in order to find the personalities and working methods that suit the projects. Commercials and the low budget music video world helps that because you can learn very quickly what you don’t like as well. I believe that likeminded people move in similar circles and so often you don’t have to look very far. If you are looking beyond your ‘back yard’ or pool of associates, then you are probably going to be barking up the wrong tree because chances are that person approaches and thinks about things in a different way to you. Taste is a big factor as well. That common ground is really important. Also, realize that if your vision is strong enough and you loose a member of your team, then it isn’t the end of the world. If your DOP drops out, trust that your ideas are good enough that someone else will do an equally great job with another interesting point of view.

What did you shoot this film on?

RED with some 7D second camera shots. (Same as Apricot)

What did you edit on?

Final Cut Pro

What lenses did you use?

Cooke Master Primes

Your camera work for “Some Static Started” was incredible. Can you talk to us a little about what you wanted your camera movement to communicate to your audience. How did moving the camera (or not moving it) help you tell your story. If you could give an example or two that would be great.

Static uses thriller motifs, so I wanted you use that language more than I had in Apricot (which uses Horror and Fantasy camera and editing language). To me, when you have no money and no time with a thriller, it is about what you can’t see. Nothing that I could ever dream up and write could be more horrific than what that female character sees in the bathroom at the end of Static. So why try and show it? The audience does a better job in their own minds and it is much cheaper. I wanted the viewer to be begging the director to just show them a little more so that they could piece things together a little easier. So that is why the frames are so rigid like at 1.29, because I never wanted the audience to think that there was a chance the camera would simply drift across and reveal some huge piece of information. If the viewer was pretty sure the film language wasn’t going to give that to them, then they would have to stay on their toes, and if they stay on their toes they become more tense, greater tension means a more effective film.

What was the budget for this film?

$2000 and a lot of favours.

What sound equipment did you use?

A cheap shotgun mic hardwired directly into the camera

What did your lighting kit consist of?

A small 4 bank Kino, a piece of poly, a black and one C Stand.

You never went too wide with your compositions. I never felt like your film was claustrophobic but I wondered if it was very intentional not to bite off more space than you can chew. Is the use and design of space something you are conscious about? How do you look at space?

I think about it very intentionally and if it is a large room, then I like darkening it down, for example this commercial I did a couple of years ago. The space felt right in texture, but wrong in size, so DOP Hugh Miller and I shut it down with darkness. Static on the other hand was shot in tiny rooms that could only fit a few crew members, so i was very happy to be able to see everything in the space, almost in the hope to open it up.

You had support for this film. At the end I see mention of “first cut” “definition films” “China Heights”. How do these organizations help you?

I would have a difficult time making my personal works without First Cut, Definition Films and guys like China Heights Gallery. Firstly these they are my friends so creatively there is respect and support and secondly they do what they can, if they can. Basil Hogios’s audio collective First Cut have worked on paid, semi paid and non paid jobs over the years and the same with Dave Gross’s post production and camera hire at Definition. It’s such a positive feeling when people offer to work on things for little or no cost, it shows that they believe in the project and that is such a strong force behind having the confidence to make these films.

Thank you greatly Ben for sharing your ideas about filmmaking with us. We’ll be sure to continue following your progress. We expect great things from you. No pressure of course

INFLUENCERS FULL VERSION from R+I creative on Vimeo.

IFP FILMMAKER CONFERENCE
September 19 – 23, 2010 – NYC

Taking place during the 32nd annual Independent Film Week, IFP’s five-day Filmmaker Conference: The Future of Film, is the must-attend event that welcomes the independent film community to participate in discussions on financing for docs and narrative films, finding an agent and manager, outreach and audience building, working on a micro-budget and much more during a full week of case studies, panels and debates.

Buy passes by THIS FRIDAY 9/3 for a chance to pitch your film, tv or new media project to top executives.

All Students receive a 20% DISCOUNT, just simply enter this discount code: EDUC10 when purchasing your pass.

Don’t pass up your chance to learn the ins-and-outs of financing, producing and distributing your movie and sustaining a career with reps from BBC, BMI, Cinereach, College Humor, Cinetic, HBO, Impact Partners, Kickstarter, Magnolia Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Roadside Entertainment, Sony Picture Classics, Sundance Film Festival, SXSW, Tribeca Film Festival and many more.

For more information about the Conference and to purchase passes go to: www.filmmakerconference.com

I wanted to get involved in as many productions as possible this year to show how flexible I can be and to also refine my skills as a filmmaker. My ultimate goal one day is to become a successful British filmmaker in narrative film. I have a passion for storytelling and clearly evident in most of my work so far. My target is to Direct 3 short films by the end of 2011, which is very ambitious I know!

When did you enroll in Lights Film School and how long has it taken you to work through the course?

I enrolled in the Lights Film School in November 2009 after a long time searching for suitable online film schools. I run a Video Production company in Northern Ireland and leaving that behind to physically attend a film school was not an option for me. This was the perfect choice and one that I do not regret making. It has taken me just over 8 months to complete the course due to other work commitments. The important thing for me was to take my time on the assignments in order for each piece to be a true reflection of what I could do.

What do you feel are the biggest advantages to the Lights Film School program? What has been the biggest highlight of the program for you?

The biggest advantage in following the Lights Films School programme is the fact that there is no deadline for completion. This meant that I could fit the course in and around my work. To have my films positively and constructively reviewed has been a major highlight for me during the program. It is important to get your work out there and into the public domain. It’s a scary process but one which is crucial in order for you to move forward as a filmmaker. Lately, I have witnessed many filmmakers become so defensive about their work once they start receiving constructive criticism. Remember, you are never going to make a film which is adored by everyone.

You recently shot a documentary in Africa. How did you get that job?

The Africa documentary came about through a friend that I knew in the Television Industry. He needed a camera operator with experience in the field and I was his natural port of call. I used to work as a freelance camera operator and editor for his Television Company in Belfast. He was and still is a great mentor to me.

What were some of the biggest technical difficulties shooting within Sudan?

The biggest technical difficulty for me in Sudan was exposure control. We were filming in such extreme colourful, bright and contrasting environments. I have always been trained to shoot video manually and I had to be quick to adjust the Iris control on the camera. Although, technically difficult at first, I soon became confident and I returned to the UK a much more skilled camera operator.

Is video activism something you’d be interested in exploring in the future?

I always like to keep my options open and if it is the right story to tell then I would commit myself to the project.

You’ve recently shot a music video on the Canon 5D Mark II. Can you tell us a bit about that experience? How long did it take you to plan / shoot / edit?

It was about 2 years ago when I was sat in my office drooling over 35mm adapters for my main camera. I was also contemplating applying for a loan to buy the gear when my good friend, Rick Trainor from Red Sky Photography brought his new DSLR camera round to show me. It was the Canon 5D Mark II and I had no knowledge of what the camera could do. Rick showed me a video that Vincent Laforet had done for Canon called ‘Reverie’. I, like many, was totally blown away by the ‘film like’ quality and knew that this was the start of something exciting. I had always wanted to Direct a Music Video and I was contacted by a local rock band who liked my previous short film work. They had a rough storyline but I took the idea away and wrote up the ‘Face The Future’ script over a weekend. In my initial meeting with the band, I produced the script and a list of props that was required. This was a big production but the band was extremely keen to get all the bases covered before shooting began. Most of the scenes were either shot outside in the dark or inside dimly lit rooms. It was then that we started to become more impressed with the Canon 5D Mark II and its low light capabilities. A lot of my friends helped me out on the production and I couldn’t have done it without them. We filmed over 3 days, in the rain for most of the shoot, keeping up motivation in the crew and cast was so important for me as well as Directing the Music Video at the same time. I love editing, just as much as I love Directing and I am very protective during the post production phases of my work. I like to tell a story through colour and I take a lot of time and effort in my colour grading. As a result, the final edit of the Music Video took me about 2 weeks to finish. I know that in the future and on large productions, I’m going to have to sit on the shoulder of the editor which I am happy to do so, I’m just not ready to let it go yet!

You’ve used very high design in the “Good Girl” music video. Was experimenting with elaborate design something you planned or was it the decision of the musicians? Did you need to do a lot of the set design yourself or were the environments “design friendly”?

When the girl band ‘Voodoo’ approached me with an idea that they had for a video, I was keen to take it away and develop the story further. We only had one day to shoot the ‘Good Girl’ Music Video, so pre production had to be squared away. The band had strong connections with the club scene in Belfast so responsibility was given to them in finding potential locations for the shoot. After a location recce, two locations were chosen that were perfect and covered most of the scenes. We did no set design which was an added bonus too!

You’ve incorporated a lot of strong compositions in your music video. Did you storyboard for this video?

Although I have an A Level Qualification in Art and Design, I still find storyboarding a difficult task to undertake as a Director. When writing or reading a script, I can see every scene in my head and know how it is going to be shot, even down to the slightest detail. I am very fortunate to have a Camera Operator and Director of Photography who can transfer my thoughts and produce the results for me on every occasion. We have a strong friendship and partnership which has been crucial during this filmmaking process. I do see the true value of storyboarding and I will be on the hunt soon for a local illustrator to join the production team.

Can you give us a little insight into what your next project will be?

Rick Trainor and I are currently in the middle of an extreme sports shoot based in Northern Ireland. The project is profiling gifted, local extreme sports athletes whose ambitions are an inspiration to young people and sports enthusiasts alike. The main aim of this project is to gain a little exposure for recognising the individual efforts and talents of the few selected athletes whilst providing them with video/photography for future sponsorship and also raising their status in the local community. The disciplines we are covering are: Surfing, Skating, BMX, Downhill MTB, Free Running and Wakeboarding. It has been a challenging project but we are happy with the shots collected so far. We should have the project finished in a few months and will be online via the website and the Lights Film School Blog. Watch this space!

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1. Can you introduce yourself and your project as well as tell us how it all came together?

Dawn: My name is Dawn Mikkelson and I am the Executive Producer and Co-Director of The Red Tail. Living in Minnesota, Northwest Airlines was one of the big hometown companies. Everyone knows someone who has previously or currently works for NWA (now Delta). When the mechanics went on strike, it was a unique time for this company in that the hometown public had grown sick of this airline taking taxpayer dollars, making big promises for jobs, and then letting its top management walk off with millions of dollars while the workers were making less and less. I started the film in the fall of 2005, wanting to look at NWA as a working example of what appeared to be happening across the country to the working class. It started as a film that was much more about a company, with the workers as secondary characters. I met Melissa about 6 months into production. She joined me as an intern whose father was a striking mechanic. Through conversations I learned that she had footage of her father and the first few critical weeks of the strike. As Melissa and I got to know each other better, it became clear that her family’s story was a much more compelling way of approaching this overall situation of the working class. We decided to join forces and she and I share the directing role in The Red Tail.

Melissa: My name is Melissa Koch and I am the Director, Producer and Editor of The Red Tail. I started this project in August of 2005 when the AMFA mechanics went on strike against Northwest Airlines. I saw the story of my father (an aircraft mechanic for 38 years) and his fellow mechanics struggling to keep their jobs in the face of outsourcing as a microcosm of what American workers, and many workers globally are dealing with — a global economy that prioritizes profit above human and social costs. I think it is often true that the strongest and most effective films are those that deal with issues the filmmakers have a genuine personal connection to and a very nuanced understanding of. I couldn’t pass up the chance as a filmmaker to look at the some of the most pressing issues of our time — capitalism, the global economy, outsourcing, corporate ir/responsibility, declining power of unions, and everyday people taking a stand — through the lens of my own fathers experience.

2. At one point in your filmmaking process you had two documentary teams join into one team with a similar goal. Can you explain how this came about? How did you divide up control and responsibility? Or was that even an issue?

Dawn: I think any time you have two creative, passionate individuals working together, you are bound to have conflict. But you are also going to create a film that is much more nuanced and full than what either would have had on their own. As I said above, we decided to do this together about 6-8 months after my production had started. We did a lot of emotional and storytelling check-ins to make sure that we were both moving in the direction we wanted to go. The reason I have the additional title as Executive Producer is that I have more experience and connections, so I was able to pull together resources for the project that may not have otherwise been available. The Red Tail is my fourth feature documentary and Melissa’s first. I also have a production company called Emergence Pictures that makes doc-style videos for primarily nonprofits, so many of the equipment resources and such came from my company. In terms of creative control and such, we did our best to hear one another and make all big decisions together. During the edit we had an external drive that we would shuttle between our two homes, so we would each take stabs at the edit and then come together periodically to tackle the bigger questions.

Melissa: Dawn started working on The Red Tail shortly after I started working on a film about the strike. She was approached by a flight attendant that wanted her video production company to make a film about all the Northwest Airlines work groups — the flight attendants, mechanics, & pilots — and what the company was doing to them. I saw one of Dawn’s fliers advertising that she was raising money to make a trailer for the film. Knowing that Dawn had more resources and experience, I contacted her to see if I could assist in production in hopes that we could forge a creative partnership down the line if that made sense. After interning for her for a while, I proposed we change the direction of the film to follow an aircraft mechanic to China to meet the workers who are doing the outsourced work. Dawn agreed that the film needed both a more personal and more global approach, so we moved forward from there and eventually decided to share the directorial role. This process was complicated at times because we had varied levels of experience and different creative visions initially. Over time I think we came to a shared vision for the film, and I am certain the The Red Tail would be a very different film had one of us done it alone. I think uniting our different strengths elevated The Red Tail both creatively and technically.

3. Ethics in documentary filmmaking is a widely discussed topic. Based on the subject matter and locations of your film this issue was sure to come up. What were some of the biggest ethical decisions you needed to make as you progressed through the film? Did you learn anything about your own standpoint on these issues as you went through this process? Did you ever feel uncomfortable with a decision you were making and how did you deal with it?

Dawn: This is a big question with many potential directions to pursue. Some of the big ethical decisions had to do with the question of interviewing workers in China on camera. There is a sad history of documentary filmmakers interviewing Chinese workers, leaving the country, premiering their film, only to learn later that their subjects have “disappeared”. We did not want to be one of those productions. Because of this, we concealed the identities of our interview subjects. We were dedicated to speaking with average workers and to do that we needed to respect the fact that they had no desire to become international representatives of the Chinese Airline Mechanic.

The other main ethical decision was the choice to enter mainland China covertly with Tourist Visas versus Journalist Visas. Technically, we were not tourists, but as a documentary filmmaker, I NEVER identify as a Journalist either. Journalist visas also require that you have a government representative travel with you. We didn’t feel that that situation would allow us to do the work we needed to do, nor would our subjects speak frankly with us. So we crossed into China at the largest land crossing in two groups. Myself and Adrian Danciu (our Director of Photography) going first with most of the gear, then calling Melissa and Roy when we got in and letting them know it was safe to cross. We had many safeguards and plans for what to do if we were detained at the border or anywhere on the journey, but luckily this was not a problem. Upon returning to Hong Kong, we were told by union activists that there were two other film crews that went into mainland China at about the same time with Journalist Visas and both groups had their gear confiscated at the border on their way into the country. This said to me that we did the right thing by going on Tourist Visas.

Melissa: Of course, The Red Tail presented a multitude of ethical questions and challenges. Every documentary film does and should. The first ethical challenge that came up for me was how to deal with the racist and xenophobic discourse that surrounds so many conversations about outsourcing American jobs to China while making a film about outsourcing to China. Part of my vision for The Red Tail was that it would break down some of those myths and have real conversations between workers on both sides of outsourcing about what challenges each are facing in the context of these country-hopping jobs.

4. Is the trip to China based in the need for confrontation or understanding? How did this experience change from the beginning of the journey to the end of the journey?

Dawn: China was about understanding. The Koch family never blamed the Chinese workers for the situation they faced. And they got what they went for . . . .and then some. I also think it was about creating closure for Roy to really see where his job had gone and to take that journey with his daughter, which brought them closer together. It says a lot when your child really cares about what you’re going through and is willing to go to these lengths to honor your journey.

Melissa: My Dad has never expressed blame towards Chinese workers, but instead has always directed his frustrations towards the company he worked for and a government that allowed that company to outsource his job. The trips to Hong Kong and mainland China where never about confrontation. They were about connection, understanding and really becoming informed about workers perspectives who are part of the chain of outsourcing from the US, to Hong Kong, to mainland China.

5. How have you gone about getting press for your film? Are you your film’s own publicists? And what types of publicity have you found work best so far?

Dawn: We are our own publicists. We’ve been targeting the mainstream and indie media in every town the film screens and have had wonderful press opportunities. Through those opportunities, other press have learned about us including the Huffington Post, which was a great review and validation for us. We are currently focusing our energy on bloggers and organizations that are passionate about union, working class, globalization, and outsourcing issues, as well as professional organizations for teachers and librarians with the hope that this will lead to college/university screenings and DVD sales, as well as screenings and DVD sales to individuals.

Most beneficial is hard to answer right now, as we’re still in the thick of it. It seems that with every good review and quote that we can put on our website and other materials, the more receptive potential partners are to wanting to collaborate with us. So it is kind of a snowball effect. Locally, I have relationships with many of the indie and mainstream media and those relationships make it easier for me to pitch stories and get the publicity we want, but nationally and internationally, all bets are off. So any time we can get someone locally based to speak on our behalf to the media, the more likely we get press.

6. On your website you have “view / host a screening” link. Can you tell us about this feature of the Openindie network?

Dawn: OpenIndie is still in it’s birthing stages, but essentially it’s a resource where audience members can request a screening of a film and when you as a filmmaker see that you have reached a point where you could get a good crowd in a certain city, you post your screening and everyone in that zip code is informed of the screening. They are also working on the capability of individuals holding screenings by paying a certain fee and having the film download onto their computers and then they can screen the film wherever they are. I look forward to this being fully functional. Ultimately, we would like to have audiences more involved in what they want to see and use the film for creating community dialogues.

Outside of OpenIndie, we just had two screenings in the Detroit area last week, hosted by AverageJoeInc.com, a online community of thousands of flight attendants. Most of them work for Delta. They rented a theater and coordinated logistics (including a truck with a big billboard promoting the screening that was parked in the airport employee parking lot for weeks). I attended the screenings and sold DVDs, which covered my travel costs. I look forward to doing more screenings like this around the country with AverageJoeInc.com and other organizations.

7. There was a considerable amount of travel required for your documentary. You mentioned that many of your flights were donated. Did you manage to find companies with the same interests as you, and did you use that to your advantage? How do you recommend other documentary filmmakers approach this strategy in their quest to get both finances and resources to support their vision?

Dawn: We had $0 from companies. Our flights were donated by airline employees from NWA and United, called “buddy passes”. This is a huge question about getting finances. In the case of this film, we had fundraising events from house parties to an evening of music with local bands at a large theater in south Minneapolis. Ultimately we functioned like a nonprofit in this venture.

I have used the same model in previous films as well.

8. You also mentioned that you found funding with “hundreds of individual donors”. Did you use a crowd funding model to finance the documentary?

Dawn: We did not use crowd funding, as it wasn’t really in use as widely when we were raising our main cash in 2005 to 2008. That said, I would consider trying it out now. We also raised money through online appeals to Facebook fans and an email list that is currently around 1000 people. Half of which were interested from my previous work and the other half that came on board specifically for this film.

We had a ton of community support, from donated places to stay to grassroots momentum around our screenings. People really wanted this story told.

Melissa: We raised the bulk of our funding in two ways. The first chunk of money we raised was through online donations on our website. Many strikers and other NWA employees donated, and we also contacted hundreds of organizations that have something to do with labor unions and working class issues and asked them to put a banner add that if clicked on would direct users from their website to The Red Tail. This directed a ton of traffic to our site and helped boost our online donations. Another successful fundraiser was an event we had with a silent auction, food & drinks, a preview of the The Red Tail, and several local bands who are part of the soundtrack of the film. That proceeds from that event covered our costs for the trip to and production in mainland China.

9. I notice that you’re using Amazon Video on Demand. How well has this platform serviced your needs as documentary filmmakers?

Dawn: Honestly, so far I’m not terribly impressed. It took MONTHS to process on their end, we get a very small cut of the proceeds, and we have no way of knowing where people learn about the film, where they were referred from, etc, because Amazon/Create Space keep this information from us. That said, it is one of the only online pay platforms that the general public knows about and so it was worth the experiment.

10. From a distribution standpoint what is some of the best advice you could give aspiring documentary filmmakers?

Dawn: At least half of your work on your film will be in distribution and the odds are that you will be doing this on your own, so you might as well learn to enjoy it. Here’s an article I wrote for MovieMaker Magazine on that topic.

Melissa: Create a distribution plan as soon as possible. If you can, do it before you start shooting your film. Independent distribution is exciting and tedious and the more solid your plan is ahead of time, the better position you will be in when you wrap post production and try to get your film in front of audiences. While it is important to have a festival strategy, it is also important to screen your film as much as possible in front of audiences (sell them your DVD’s!), press press press, link up with organizations and individuals who are passionate about your project, research all different distribution platforms and utilize them, create a great website that is active and participatory, say yes to as many opportunities as you can because they will likely lead to more opportunities.

11. How long did this documentary take you to complete

Dawn: Aug 2005 to July 2009. So 4 years.

12. What was the budget for this documentary?

Dawn: Actual budget was around $230,000-250,000. That would presume that everyone got paid for their work. Actual cash that paid for travel and a few additional expenses . . . More along the lines of $35,000.

13. You have quite a few theatrical screenings. What has been your film festival strategy?

Dawn: Thank you. Started with the top 10-20 international film festival and waited for a premiere. That said, we did sneak previews at ones before then that made sense for our audience, such as Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival (NWA hometown) and Reel Work May Day Labor Film festival in Santa Cruz. We’ve been active in contacting conferences and gatherings of our target audience and some of those contacts have paid off. And again, this is like a snowball. Once you have a couple, festival programmers and organizers listen to each other and the media.

One thing I will say, festivals are great for creating buzz, liner notes, good press, etc. These things all help you sell your film down the road. But I think one of the biggest mistakes young filmmakers make is to presume that a festival is the end of the journey and that some big distributor will then whisk them off into the world of success. This is rarely the case and shouldn’t be your only plan. Odds are that festivals are just the beginning of a long journey of distribution.

14. Both of you seemed to have very different ideas about how to approach your documentary’s story. Dawn seemed to want to use NWA as a case study and a jumping off point for a larger discussion on the topic of globalization. Melissa on the other hand was working on a story about her father that really humanized the documentary. From a narrative storytelling standpoint it seems that Dawn was focused on the film’s plot and Melissa was focused on the film’s characters. How important do you think it is to humanize these large political, social and economic stories?

For example, one of our students wants to start filming a documentary about food production methods, but he’s having a difficult time balancing “issue” with “character”. I cautioned him about not having a character (or characters) to embody on a personal level, the conflict your discussing on a whole. Can you talk about the pros  and cons of using this method of story telling?

Dawn: Historically, all my films revolve around 1-3 central characters navigating their way through a larger social issue.  From the ordination of a lesbian minister in THIS obedience to illuminate the struggle over sexuality and religion in mainline Christian churches to the intimate stories of Cree and Metis residents about how their lives have been devastated by massive flooding from a large-scale hydroelectric dam in Manitoba in Green Green Water.  The Red Tail was no different.  I was really struggling with The Red Tail when Melissa and I decided to merge visions for that very reason, as the film didn’t have those characters yet.  This film reminded me of the importance of this approach.

Ultimately, my approach to documentary filmmaking is an emotional one.  I believe that documentary film’s largest strength is its ability to impact an audience on an emotional level and that is the level where we make our big decisions, if we’re honest with ourselves.  Sure, we need facts and intellectual arguments to help us along the journey in deciding how we feel about an issue, but ultimately this decision is made when we FEEL the answer.  The impact of personal stories and experiences is the best way to get to that emotional answer.

I would imagine you advised your student that there is danger in having any character “embody” any conflict, as it ultimately impacts that person quite a bit.  It is a lot of pressure for your subject, especially if the film does well, to be considered the working example of an issue in the public eye.  That said, the way we constructed The Red Tail and the way I construct my other films it is clear that these characters are just one example of multitudes of individuals.  After screenings, the biggest comment I hear is how Roy’s story reminds the audience of their own story or of the story of someone they love.  They see it for what it is, a small representation of a universal experience.  This is all presuming that the character you focus on is someone with much personal integrity and someone the audience will likely relate to.  Obviously the opposite effect could occur if you have a character that has little integrity representing an issue.

Bringing me back to The Red Tail.  Until I met Melissa and Roy, I hadn’t found that person that could really represent this story the way they do.  They are a family of honest people, who really don’t want to be the leaders of a movement, and reflect the type of folks you would want as friends and I am happy to say became my friends . . . The other great benefit of documentary film.

Melissa: As a filmmaker, I am drawn to deeply personal stories that give audiences an emotional access point to larger social and ideological conflicts. I think it vitally important to have a character/s that can bring an audience through a story, personalize larger issues, and make a documentary more compelling. If I take The Red Tail as an example — The story of Northwest Airlines outsourcing work, cutting labor costs, breaking unions, filing bankruptcy while giving huge bonuses to executives, and merging with Delta into the largest airline in the world is certainly an important issue, but for me it doesn’t make for a film on it’s own. Following my father’s process with a labor strike and then his journey to meet the worker that replaced him is the heart of the story. Without him as a character, not only would people not watch the film as much, they wouldn’t get as much out of it. His emotional journey and the struggle of the striking workers are what shed such blinding light on the larger “issues”.

We tried to take a somewhat narrative film approach to the structure of The Red Tail. We actually consulted with narrative writers and filmmakers more than with documentary filmmakers because we both felt that the more we could structure the film like a narrative, the more accessible and compelling it would be.

To your student who is interested in making a doc about food production methods, I would ask — What is your story? Is it someone who works in food production who is impacted by the methods? Is a consumer who is being effected by processing methods? Is it the small local farm/food processor that is doing it a different way and why? Is your character someone who is fighting to change food production methods? Find your story — and hopefully you will find your character/s with it.

Purchasing & Screening Information:

* To buy DVD’s, schedule a screening, or learn more visit http://www.redtailmovie.com
* The best way to hear about things as they happen with The Red Tail is to be our fan on Facebook. http://www.facebook.com/theredtail

A logline is generally a one to two sentence summery of your project. The logline generally consists of the following pieces of information:

1. The character
2. Their goal
3. The antagonistic force

As good sample log line would look as follows:

“A group of young, misguided rebels rush to save their leader’s sister from a gang of bandits”

There is no reference to subplots or character development. A logline is the script’s skeleton. Throughout your film or documentary your character may have many goals. However, with logline writing it’s important to stick with only the most important goal. Your character’s goal will generally be established by the end of the first act. But if you’re unsure as to what your main goal is then analyze your climax. During the climax is when your character will either accomplish or fail at achieving their goal.

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IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR EXPOSURE, RECOGNITION & EVALUATION THEN CONSIDER IMPROVING YOUR FILMMAKING SKILLS BY SIGNING UP FOR OUR INTENSIVE 4 MONTH ONLINE FILMMAKING COURSE HERE.

Message by:  Lights Film School
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When you’re writing your logline you should use a well chosen adjective to describe your character (i.e. isolated farm girl). When you juxtapose this adjective with your character’s goal your logline will have a stronger impact. For example, if your characters goal includes a strong social element, the fact that she’s been isolated for so long will mean she needs to learn to deal with more human interaction. The conflict in this situation writes itself!

When writing your logline you should also evoke questions from your audience by using words that create that reaction. For example you your character may be in a “mysterious land“ or on a “dangerous journey“. Words like this will help make your logline more interesting and engaging.

Please feel free to share your film loglines in the comment box below.

If you’re just starting out as an independent filmmaker, audiences likely won’t have read about your film in industry publications or national newspapers. Similarly, since virtually no independent films get wide theatrical releases you’ll need to work hard to get your film exposure. One way to do this is to  try and stop your potential audience in their tracks with great DVD cover artwork and design. This will increase your chances that they will pick up your film to read the synopsis on the back.

This blog post explores the topic of DVD cover design. We will discuss the design principles of DVD cover artwork and then we’ll provide examples from leading films and documentaries.

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IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR EXPOSURE, RECOGNITION & EVALUATION THEN CONSIDER IMPROVING YOUR FILMMAKING SKILLS BY SIGNING UP FOR OUR INTENSIVE 4 MONTH ONLINE FILMMAKING COURSE HERE.

Message by:  Lights Film School
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How to design DVD cover

If you haven’t already you can download our free DVD cover template. Once you’ve downloaded the template, you’ll need to design the front, back and side of your DVD cover. This blog post will focus exclusively on the design of the front of the DVD.

1. Set the tone & know your demographic
Is your film a sexy film? Artistic film? Unusual film? Celebrity driven? Comedy? Tragedy?

Identifying what your film is about will help you narrow down your design choices. You want there to be a strong correlation between the tonal qualities of the DVD cover design the film itself.

2. Decide on a color palette
Notice that the DVD covers below consist of gradients of 2-3 colors. By simplifying your color palette you’re simplifying your message. We’ve written a blog post about color theory and color simplicity here.

3. Decide on an image
Your image needs to represent what your film is about. It is often a character (usually the protagonist), but it can also be the film’s antagonist, an event, a location, a prop or an illustration to name only a few examples.

4. Decide on a font
Your DVD cover font is one of the most important design decisions you’ll make. Its size, style and placement needs to both complement your film and the other design components of the DVD cover.

5. Pick a design element and exaggerate it
Some DVD cover designers use pattern (see Sweetie below) or color (see Taste of Cherry below) , others use line (see Fallen Idol below), others use negative space (see The Last Emperor below). The point is to pick a primary design element (ie. shape, pattern, leading lines, texture, reflection, color etc)  to help make the DVD cover stand out not just due to content, but also due to style.

6. Stay focused and simple
Look at the examples below. You’ll notice the designer often only uses 1 image, no more than 2-3 colors and1-2 fonts in a simplified, well organized and easy to navigate DVD cover design.

Below are DVD covers from the Criterion Collection. The DVD artwork is for both films and documentaries.