TRANSCRIPT:

Welcome to the Lights Film School video tutorial on using flags. A cinematographer once said that “Great cinematography is not about knowing how to turn a light on, it’s about knowing how to shape and mould that light”. The intention of his video tutorial is to help you understand that shadow is light’s creative equivalent.

Let’s begin by talking about what flags are:

Flags are pieces of black duvetyne held together by metal frames. Flags are generally held up by c-stands in an effort to cut or shape light and provide “negative fill”.

It’s important to mention that when using c-stands you should first position your flag exactly as you want it with the c-stand joints loose. Then when your flag is ready, tighten the c-stand joints in order to secure the precise position of the flag. This will not only help you precisely establish where your shadows will fall, but it will also save you a lot of time during your setup.

Many independent filmmakers rather than using black fabric flags and c-stands, will instead use tripods, clamps and black foam core. A large piece of black foam core can be purchased from an art supply store for around $10-$15 and it will have essentially the same impact. In fact, virtually any opaque object can be used to flag light.

Where to position your flag?

Knowing how and where to position your flag is important. A flag that is positioned close to the surface the light is being project onto will appear dark with clearly defined shadows and edges. However, as the flag starts to move towards the light source the shadow will become slightly more diffused with softer edges.

Moving your flag.

Once you have your flag in position you can start controlling where your light falls by re-positioning your flag. Here we wanted our flag close to our light to give a soft shadow with gentle edges that “feather out”.

There are many applications for using flags but let’s discuss how we can use flags to control the spill of light while filmming a subject.

Notice how we have a subject in frame and we are moving the flag back and forth. You can see the impact this has on the image. However, it should be noted that it’s easier to control flagging different layers if there is a noticeable separation of depth. So let’s pull our subject off the wall a little bit… Much better. Here you can see how the flag impacts the image as we move it back and forth. The flag’s purpose is to help filmmakers highlight the parts of the frame that are most important to them while muting the areas that are less important or distracting. Picasso even said it himself when he stated that “Art is the elimination of the unnecessary.”

But now let’s start from scratch building a shot from the ground up.

We’ll begin by turning our overhead lights on so you can see the room before we start to design our light. Now let’s walk around the set so you can see how the flags are blocking the light. This flag, directly in front of us, is stopping the 1K zip light from hitting the back wall. And this other flag is going to be stopping the light from hitting our subject. Notice there is only the smallest sliver of light shining through as we move in front of the flags. Most of the light is being completely blocked. We can now manoeuvre these flags to shape the light to our liking.

let’s go to black.

Notice how these two flags stop all of the light being projected from the 1K zip light from hitting the background. Now let’s introduce our subject to the shot. As predicted, only a sliver of light is making it’s way though the flags.

Now let’s look at what happens when we open up the background flag. Notice it has no impact on the subject who is still only being lit by a small sliver of light.

If we open up the flag on the subject the following will result.

But now let’s block the light on our subject and our background again. At this point we’ll turn on a small practical background light. We’ll also open up the flag hitting the subject so a sliver of light comes through.

Because we’re getting closer to our final composition lets now also turn the rim light on.

Let’s walk around the studio again. Here is the flag flagging our actor. Watch what happens when we move it right to left. Notice it has no impact on the background.

Now let’s look at the other flag that’s stopping spill from hitting the background. Watch what happens when we open and close that flag. Again, notice this has no impact on our subject. Having this flag stop the spill of light from hitting the background allows us to keep our background darker giving us more contrast and a dramatic and moody look. When we open the flag up the composition becomes flatter.

So now let’s punch into our final framing. Let’s look one last time at the impact that the flags have now that our rim light, background light and our key light are all turned on. Here we move the flag controlling light on the subject back and forth. Again, notice this has no impact on our beautifully lit background. Now we can experiment by opening up the background flag a little bit… But it was nicer with a darker, richer background, so let’s put that back. And here you have it… your final shot!

The idea here is to think about lighting in terms of layers and depth. Light your background, middle-ground and foreground separately by using flags to help you control the spill of light.

The two-minute elevator pitch is an integral part of Hollywood folklore, and it goes like this: when you have a movie you need to get made, you must have a two minute pitch ready and you must be prepared to deliver it at the drop of a hat. Because, living in Hollywood, one day you might just find yourself in an elevator with an executive or a studio head who – because he’s in an elevator with you and can’t get out until it reaches his floor – is essentially trapped with you. Trapped in the elevator with you, the studio head will have no choice but to hear your pitch, love it, shake your hand, and make you the next big Hollywood filmmaker before you’ve even reached your intended floor.

As we are all storytellers, we can plainly see – this is a fable of sorts. Surely it happened to someone at some point in some iteration, but frankly, elevator rides do not take a full two minutes and even if they did, this scenario is far-fetched. However, the core of what’s being expressed within this elevator fable is very true and it’s essential for every writer and director to understand and put into practice.

When you are working on a project that you want to get made, you must be willing and able to talk about it in a way that is brief, interesting, and compelling. Two minutes may not be a time constraint placed upon you by the world’s slowest elevator, but it sure is existent in people’s attention spans!

Whether you are seeking independent financiers to come up with your budget, pitching at studios to get a big Hollywood budget, or pitching to professors to get approval to begin your thesis film, you must have a compelling pitch prepared.

A pitch is like an appetizer and is meant to create an appetite for your film within those you’ve pitched to. You want to spark interest and you want them to want more – enough so that they’ll help you make the film. Don’t go into every little detail.

A good portion of what makes a pitch compelling is the ease and enthusiasm of the person pitching. Excitement is contagious. If you feel good about what you’re saying, people’s attention will be sparked. Remember, you only have two minutes, so use it to really paint an emotional and visual picture of the palette of your film. Describe the world; create a character people can automatically care about. Talk about the film like you’re describing someone or somewhere you know well.

In formulating a pitch, you might consider the following outline:

- Introduce the time and place of the film. “Hollywood – 1950’s”. Describe the place a little, paint a real picture – what does it feel like, what does it smell like, what’s going on there?
- Introduce a character. Give us something really human about him or her – really make him or her feel real.
- Describe the character’s plight. What is he or she up against? What is his or her journey going to be in this film?
- Describe what your film is about. Remember, what your film is about is not necessarily an outline of what happens in your film. It’s a description of the themes and goals of your film – what you’ll teach or communicate to your audience.
- Close with a hook – something to keep your audience wondering what might happen and wishing for more. A pitch that ends on intrigue is a perfect pitch.

Be prepared to talk about your script or project with pride and enthusiasm to anyone who will listen. You never know where opportunities lie!

By Lauren S. McGrail

INT. HOUSE – BATHROOM – NIGHT

EXT. RESTAURANT – DAY

INT. CONVENIENCE STORE – DAY

INT. denotes that the action is taking place inside.

EXT. denotes that the action is taking place outside.

The place (in the cases above “House”, “Restaurant”, and “Convenience Store”) is denoted next. If further information within the location is necessary (“Bathroom” above) it is noted after the initial place.

Lastly, the time of day is noted.

The slugline is a functional aspect of a screenplay and not only lets a reader know where to envision a scene, but also assists the production team in scheduling an actual film shoot. In scheduling a production it is absolutely necessary to know where to place the camera and what time of day to schedule a shoot for.

Often, writers will mistakingly think that a scene is strictly defined by any series of events that occur between two sets of sluglines. While this may be true some of the time, this is not necessarily always true. Several scenes can play out within one slugline. Just a scene may play out over multiple sluglines. In simple terms a scene can be seen as a unit of action that occurs within the story as a whole.

Let’s imagine a film that is about a convenience store owner who owes a lot of money on his store but also has a family who puts pressure on him to provide. This may not be the best story in the world, but it helps illustrate the point nevertheless.

In one location, the following could play out:

You see here that two scenes are played out. First, Tom talking to Tommy Jr. about how he cannot send him to camp. Second, Tom talking to Goon #2 about the money he owes and when he’ll have it. Both scenes feed into the overall narrative of Tom’s plight, and both scenes happened in one physical space at one time.

A scene is a narrative device. If the film at large is the “story”, scenes are the mini-stories that occur within a story to propel it forward.

Scenes within a film will each have a beginning, middle, and end. If you deconstruct the above scene down you’ll find the following:

SCENE 1: BOY & FATHER

Beginning: Son asks to go to camp (scene starts with tears in his eyes as he’s rejected).
Middle: Son pleads with his father to let him go. His father denies his request.
End: Son runs out of the store.

SCENE 2: FATHER AND GOON

Beginning: Goon walks into store.
Middle: Goon asks for Money. Tom asks for one more day.
End: Goon leaves the store after a threatening gesture.

Next, make your scene is dynamic rather than static. Something needs to change during each scene and there needs to be some type of dramatic friction (i.e. characters in the same room with different desires, philosophies or ways of approaching problems). Each scene needs to have their own conflict and resolution. Again, let’s deconstruct the scene above to find the conflict of each scene.

SCENE 1: BOY & FATHER

Conflict: Boy wants to go the camp so he asks his father. Dad refuses to let him go. The boy enters hopeful and leaves disappointed. The Father enters stressed and leaves even more stressed.

SCENE 2: FATHER AND GOON

Conflict: Goon enteres the scene asking for money. At first he’s fairly friendly but suggests there is danger on the horizon. On his way out he becomes aggressive and hostile. The Father begins the scene stressed from his previous encounter. He ends the scene not only with his previous stresses, but now he’s also burdened with a physical threat.

Within both of these examples there is change. They end the scene differently than they started it. This is a big part of what makes a scene interesting and engaging.

Lastly and possibly most importantly, each scene needs to support the overall story and move the narrative at large towards its own beginning, middle, and end.

To help you visualize how a scene plays out on the screen we’ve included an example from a well known film below. Let’s take a look now at a 1 minute 53 second scene from “In Good Company”. Pay attention to the scene’s beginning, middle and end. Also pay special attention to the dynamism of the scene (i.e. she changes from being suspicious and skeptical of his presence in her house to intrigued by his honesty). Within this short amount of time she changes from wanting him out of her house to wanting to play a game of foosball with him. He also changes his story from “being invited over” to “inviting himself over”. There is also a bit of character exposition as he let’s us in on a few character traits (flaws) about himself such as “being guarded and anally retentive”. This is a great example of a scene that goes to show that a lot can be communicated in a short amount of time.

Prepared by Lauren S. McGrail

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

INTRODUCTION

Can you tell me a little about yourself and how “Fissure” came to be?

For 16 years, I worked in a cubicle in Corporate America doing technical and product marketing for two Fortune 500 companies. In the mid 90′s, I started to dabble in multimedia. As a child, I was around photography quite a bit. My father was a professional photographer, so I spent my entire childhood in his studio playing around with his cameras and photography equipment. But, in the mid 90′s, something interesting happened while I was working as an engineer — the arts went digital, and all of sudden, my technical prowess had a creative path.

I convinced my wife to let me use all of our savings to buy a video editing system. At the time, it was a Media 100 system with Adobe Premiere. So, I bought it and learned how to edit. Someone told me I should also learn After Effects. So, I did. I started small editing home videos and noodling around with the software. In 1998, someone actually paid me to do a small project for them. I thought, “Wow, you can make money at this.”

In early 2000, my corporate employer learned about my video production “hobby” and asked if I could do a tradeshow video for them. I jumped at the chance and over delivered, and they were pleased. All of sudden, I started getting calls from the marketing department for more tradeshow videos, promo videos and commercials, all the while still doing my day job as a product marketing engineer.

My “hobby” was soon generating some good money. My wife and I were using it to pay off all our debts so that we could start our own production company. In 2005, I resigned my cushy, corporate job and started my own production company, Top Pup Media.

Up that point, I had made about 5 short films, with our latest “Growing Up” winning the audience choice award that year. Winning this festival really encouraged me to take my filmmaking to the next level, which was to produce and direct a full- length feature film. We put out a query for scripts, and after receiving more than 450 submissions, we selected the script “Fissure” as our debut, feature film project. I knew this story was the one when I was completely captivated by the script after only twenty pages into it!

WRITING

How long did the script take you to write?

Nick Turner wrote the script. It took him about a year to write it.

What filters and methods did you use to ensure your script was put past enough people that you could be confident with it?

I really appreciate Nick’s patience as we ripped apart his script. The first thing we had to do was get the page count down. The original script was something like 115 pages, and that would put our budget too high, so we trimmed the script down to a tight 89 pages. We also worked on changing the ending as well. I was wanting more of a commercial ending instead of his original ending, so Nick worked with me and came up with an incredible ending. I also had other writers help me with a few polish passes as well. By the end, we had gone through about 11 revisions from his final version.

CASTING

How many actors did you get applications from?

We had two actors we cast out of LA, James Macdonald and Scarlett McAlister. The rest were cast locally here in Dallas. We put out our breakdown and were quickly flooded with headshots and resumes. My local casting director and I sorted through them and picked out our top 5 or 6 actors per role, and scheduled auditions.

How long did you cast for?

Casting the smaller roles happened pretty quickly — within a few weeks. We had two key roles we wanted to fill with some name talent, so we spent longer on those. I hired an LA casting director to help me with the bigger roles. We worked together for over a month going out to some of the other names we were interested in.

How did you run your auditions?

Our two LA actors were auditioned through tape. I sent them sides and they recorded their auditions on tape for me. The local auditions were all done in person. Since I was ramping up production, my local casting director managed the first round of local auditions by herself, finding the top two or three actors per role. Then I auditioned all the call backs.

PRODUCTION

How long did your film take to shoot?

We shot the entire film in 18 days — three 6-day weeks. One of my script requirements was to use limited locations. For 2 weeks, we shot in the Ulster home, and the final week, we shot around town in various places. Through some strategic “day for night” shooting, we were able to keep somewhat normal hours, shooting from 7am till about 7pm almost every day.

What was the budget of your film?

Our budget for the entire film from production to marketing was under $300K.

What were some of the technical things you found most limiting? Lighting? Moving locations? What is the advice you would give to filmmakers who are looking to run as smooth of a set as possible?

Amazingly, our production ran smoothly. We were under budget and on schedule for the entire production. And, it wasn’t because of my producing ability–it was my line producer, Jennifer Beasley, and my first AD, Bobby Basterache.

My line producer was amazing. She managed the crew and the operation of the production. Even though I was the only producer on the project, Jennifer took over the day-to-day operational responsibilities so I could focus on directing. Bobby, the first AD, was in charge of the set. I never had to schedule anything or tell people where to be or what to do. My advice to filmmakers is to make sure your line producer and first AD are top notch. In doing so, it’ll take a lot of pressure of you.

What camera did you shoot on?

We used the Panasonic Varicam for our movie. The 720p, 24 fps was a great format to work with. It was very filmic, and the DVCPro format provided a very affordable post path for us as well.

How did you go about licensing music for your film?

The music for the film was scored from scratch. I worked with a musician and audio team out of Burbank who did the score, the foley, the sound design and the final mix for me. I also had a custom song written for our closing credits. Custom music is much easier to license and secure for productions.

EDITING

How long did your film take to edit?

After shooting the film, I had all of the footage–every take–sitting on my editing computer. I spent the summer of 2007 editing the movie. Since I loved editing, my goal was to get it as close as possible to a solid first cut, and then hand it over to a more seasoned editor to finish it out. After three months of editing, I showed the “rough cut” to my co-producers, and they were surprised at how far along the edit was. They told me with a few tweaks, it could be locked quickly. I tend to be a perfectionist when it comes to editing, so “rough” for me is quite finished. So, instead of hiring an editor to finish the edit, I saved the money and worked with my creative team to nail down the edit.

Once the edit was locked, I handed it over to our colorist and our sound team for finishing it out. It took them another couple of months to wrap it up. We had our finished product by the end of that year.

MARKETING & DISTRIBUTION

Are you your film’s own publicist? What have been some of the most effective methods in finding an audience?

I’ve used a couple of publicists at various phases of the project. During our festival season, I used someone to help me with the PR and the news interviews. It was very helpful. The following year, when we moved into distribution, I used another PR person to help with the press releases and news interviews. Today, I’m doing all the marketing for the film.

Did you start your marketing efforts during your pre-production phase? If so, what strategies did you use?

One of the key things I did to help build awareness for the film was to setup a blog of my production experience. I started blogging the process from day one of “I want to make a movie” all the way through to distribution. Other filmmakers were encouraged by the information. I like to learn by doing, and so I wanted to share what I learned along the way. It became a great avenue for building my audience.

You’ve had different degrees of success with different social media sites such as twitter, Facebook and myspace. Can you outline how you’re using each social media site and how each one is performing for you?

Of the three social media sites, Twitter was the most effective in getting the word out. It was a quick way to get the word out and connect with other movie folks. Facebook was good for capitalizing on those connections and building the audience. It was also good for scheduling events and promoting screenings. MySpace was a disappointment. It’s more of a music community, so we didn’t have much success with it.

Are there other audience building methods that you’ve used that you’ve been surprised with for better or for worse?

We scheduled some private screenings around the US, and I was trying different ways to get people to the theater. Facebook and Twitter were okay, but not generating the response I had hoped for. So, I started searching for some “meet ups” in the area, and plugged into the filmmakers, writers and movie fans, and this was very successful. I was able to drive lots of traffic to our screenings.

You’re using Youtube’s rental program. How is this working for you? Would you change anything about the program?

We’re just getting started with the YouTube rental program, so it’s very new at this point. My two biggest questions are how to drive traffic to the rental and will people really sit and watch an entire feature film on their computer? If Google TV were in mass market right now, it could be a very viable option, but it may be a bit premature at this point. In the end, it still all comes down to marketing–driving traffic to your film.

Are you using other VOD platforms as well? Can you give a comparative analysis on which ones seem to be working better than the others?

At this point, we’re not doing anything else. I’m speaking with a guy now who can get Fissure into iTunes, and he feels it would be a pretty good revenue path for us. So, we’re still exploring a few different options at this point.

AFI has seemed to be a helpful resource for you. Can you explain your relationship with the organization and how they have helped you gain exposure for your film.

AFI was purely a film festival experience for us. AFI Dallas picked up our movie for the festival in 2008, and screened it at the festival. It was a great experience, and it provided some excellent exposure for us.

What is your film festival strategy?

Film festivals are good, and you should be a part of them. Get plugged into “Without a Box” and find some key festivals to apply for. Focus on festivals that fit your genr and apply wisely. It can get expensive, and you’ll find that you receive more rejections than acceptances, so be ready for that.

What was the biggest technical lesson that you’ve learnt during your filming process? In other words, what would you not do again for your next feature film?

From a technical perspective, our production was quite smooth. Our camera and lighting crew was amazing. Our post production workflow was solid. Because of my technical background, we had a very smooth technical production.

However, there are a few things I would change regarding the business and marketing side of things. Name talent is essential. You need to really focus on name talent, because when you start sending out screeners to distributors, they always ask two questions — who is in it and what is it about? Talent and genre are your keys to get in the door with distributors. It’s very important. Also, start your marketing early, from day 1. And, know who you are marketing to. Make sure you have a very clear understanding of who your audience is and market specifically to them. Don’t waste your marketing energy and dollars trying to reach a broad, vague audience. Be specific. Focus equals impact.

KEY LINKS

The movie website: http://fissurethemovie.com
The movie trailer: http://fissurethemovie.com/media.html
Online movie rental: http://j.mp/WatchFissure
Online movie buy: http://www.fissure.tv/store/

If the video contest is run well, it could be a great win-win opportunity for both filmmakers and corporations. Filmmakers get the the opportunity to work with larger companies in the hopes of winning the competition and gaining exposure, while the companies themselves, get opportunity to nurture relationships with emerging filmmakers and receive free advertising. It’s not a bad collaborative idea.

The video contest itself will create its own buzz by bringing together a large network of ambitious filmmakers as well as the filmmaker’s own network. If the company running the program really advertises their video contest well, you’ll stand a chance to gain a substantial amount of exposure by simply participating in the event.

Secondly, it’s also nice as a filmmaker not to have to come up with a new concept. If you’ve been suffering from an “ideas block”, these contests are a great way to get your creative juices flowing again. The company will likely provide you with a slogan, a prop, a theme or at least the main concept for the short film or commercial. Your job as the filmmaker is to find your creative angle within that theme and try to add as much production value to your commercial as possible, while at the same time telling the story that the company is having you set out to explore.

Let’s look at a couple of the more popular video contests that have happened recently. Louis Vuitton runs a video contest in association with Wong Kar Wai called the “Journey Awards”. They explore the theme of a “journey” and they give filmmakers the text they want associated with the visuals. All you need to do as the filmmaker, is use your imagination to best incorporate the text into a compelling visual story.

If you win either the Jury Prize or the People’s Choice Award you’ll win $25,000 and your film will be seen in Louis Vuitton stores around the world. Not only that but the jury is made up of some of the most famous filmmakers and business people working today. Wouldn’t it be an honor to have these people see your work? Here is an example of a recent winner.

I like the “Journeys” video competition because it caters to artistic expression. If on the other hand comedy or action is more your thing you might want to consider joining contests such as the Doritos video contest.

Again, this video contest allows filmmakers to compete for the top 6 positions. Each of the top six positions wins $25,000. If, after this, America votes your video as one o the top 3 contenders your video will be aired as one of the Doritos Super Bowl commercials. Not only that, but if your video gets first place on the USA Today ad meter you’ll win 1,000,000. Below you’ll find the winning video from this competition.

If you’re interested in keeping up to date with online video contests there was a website designed specifically for this need. Visit the Online Video Contests website.

Shadows serve many purposes and come in an assortment of stylistic designs to support a filmmakers creative vision. A vignette is one of those lighting designs.

A vignette is simply a gradient of darker tones located around the edges of the frame. This lighting effect can be achieved on set during filming process, or later on during post production. Using a vignette can you help accomplish many things, including:

1. Establishing the mood of a scene
2. Isolating a particular part of a shot
3. Vignettes can also help you add texture and the illusion of a third dimension in a two dimensional medium.

When working with static shots many cinematographers would rather incorporate a vignette (if the scene called for it of course), into the lighting design on set. They would achieve this effect by lighting the edges of the frame with less intensity than the center of the frame. This helps create a gradient of light that trails off as it approaches the edge of a frame. Since audience’s are generally drawn towards the lightest part of the frame first, the vignette helps to further isolate the brightest parts of the composition (i.e. the main subject).

________________________________________________________________________

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
________________________________________________________________________

Here in an example that uses natural light to create a vignette.

Alternatively, you may choose to include a vignette in post production. There are often vignette template effects in popular PC and MAC editing suites. However, you may also choose to design your own custom vignettes using the manual lighting effects these software programs supply. Here is an example of a vignette created in post production.

If you have a short film that has successfully incorporated the use of vignettes to help you accomplish any of the goals discussed above, please feel free to post links to them below.

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.

________________________________________________________________________

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
________________________________________________________________________

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.

1. Ensure your actor understands who they are

This sounds like common sense, but it’s important you work your way past the shallow depths of your character archetypes and really dig deep into who your characters really are. You can study any great film and find that much of the brilliance of strong story telling is exposed through great performances. Essentially the backbone of any strong story is strong performances. In order to get your actors to give strong performances they must both attach to the script and the characters in the script.

In order to create colorful, textured characters your actors must know their character’s back-story. This means they need to study (or create) their past relationships, embarrassing moments, proud moments, accomplishments, bad habits, style of dress, influences, favorite TV shows, hobbies and political views to name only a few examples.

The only way you’re going to create great characters is by bringing them to life through giving them depth… and a lot of it.

Character depth is created through study and understanding. That is why it’s important to get your characters to understand who they are. The screenwriter should have already created character biographies  for all of the main characters. Give these  character biographies to your actors and allow them to use this as a jumping off point in their quest to design and understand their character.

As a guideline you should always aim to make your character biographies no less than 5 pages but generally 10 pages or more when possible. However, it’s important to let your actors breathe their own life into the character. Give your actors the opportunity not only to study, but also help create the character they will embody in your film.

________________________________________________________________________

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
________________________________________________________________________

2. Make sure you actor knows who they are speaking with

Once your character understand who they are they’ll be able to shape their behavior in social settings. For example, how would your character interact with their:

Boss?
New girlfriend?
Old girlfriend?
Mother?
Father?

Or what about interaction with strangers or interaction with a co-worker they find annoying?

Issues of power, control, love and compassion enter into all of these relationships. By ensuring your actors understand who they are speaking with you will help ensure cohesive character development. When an actor approaches a scene they should ask themselves 2 questions

- How do the other characters in the scene make them feel? (be as specific as possible with the answer to this question)
- How would they describe their scene partner(s) in one word?

3. Make sure your actor knows what their objective  is

Alfred Hitchcock once said that “Drama is life with all the boring parts cut out of it.” You must remember this when you’re creating your scenes. Don’t simply show the mundane elements of day to day life to show how great your grasp on “reality” is. You need to focus on your film’s themes and get to the point(s) your film is setting out to explore. One way to help you do this is to ensure your actors know what their goals are in a scene. Before an actor approaches any scene they should ask themselves “what do I want from my scene partner”. What are they trying to get out of this scene in particular? Just like the film as a whole will have a goal, so will your smaller individual scenes. It’s important that you identify what those smaller goals are. Are others in the scene stopping them from them getting what they want? Are they active in pursuit of their objective or are they passive? Are they successful? Do they fail?

Tying it all together

Let’s look at an example that helps tie all three of the points discussed above together. For simplicity’s sake we’re going to keep the example short and 2 dimensional. It should, nevertheless, help illustrate the point we’re trying to make.

Example: Imagine your protagonist on the phone with her mother. Her mother is inviting her over for dinner while at the same time cautiously pry into her life.

1. Know who you are:
Following these three steps above both the mother and daughter would have worked extensively on their character back-stories. Maybe the mother is a 60 year old divorced mother with one daughter. The mother is dependent on her daughter for both emotional and financial support.

Her daughter was competitive in sports growing up. She took dance lessons and her younger daughter played both basketball and co-ed soccer in high school. He graduated with Honors and when to Berkeley to get her degree in business administration.

2. Know who you’re talking to: The mother is intimidated by her daughter’s intelligence and success. Gone are the days of the mother’s authority. Yet she’s still managed to maintain her motherly concern for the well being of her only daughter and she takes the liberty to pry into her daughter’s life when she feels it’s necessary.

Even though the daughter seems like she has her life under control, her mother senses something is wrong (her suspicion is that her daughter is lonely and this, of course, concerns her). The daughter on the other hand feels abandoned by her father and doesn’t ever “want to be accountable to a man” as she puts it.

3. Know your character’s objectives: Lastly, we need to look at what the character’s objectives are. In one sentence what would you say the character’s goals are? Be specific and commit to your ideas about objectives and goals. Don’t say things like “maybe” or “perhaps”. It’s also best to get your actors to say what their objectives are.

For example the mother’s objective is to get her daughter to open up to her without upsetting or annoying her.

The daughter’s goal is to get her mom off the phone as soon as possible without being rude while avoiding the conversation about relationships.

I hope this helps you work towards strong performances with your actors.

Best of luck