Directors–Include Publicity Shots in Your Shot List.
By Rodney Robbins from the Charlotte Creative Community Board:
With all those lights and all that great looking talent, you have the perfect chance to shoot stunning, attention grabbing publicity stills. Instead of thinking of these shots as add-ons that slow down your already Super Tight production schedule, I say schedule them in and SAVE time! Do your publicity shots after the last take, before you strike the lights, that way it takes 2 minutes to get a great shot in stead of 20. Here are some shots to consider adding to your Shot List.
Close-up of lead crying or laughing
Two shot of leads arguing or being VERY expressive
Director giving notes to talent on set
Medium shot of actors pointing at lines
Actors playing with (er…um…I mean Rehearsing with) props
DP and producer with camera
Gaffer and DP or director setting lights
Writer and director framing a shot
Talent and director pigging out at craft services
People usually find these “candid,” behind the scenes shots much more interesting than a wide shot of the entire cast and crew. May I also suggest that you go ahead and feature individuals in your shots, make them STARS, but for different media outlets. Let the talent be the stars of main stream newspapers–they love that stuff. PAs can be stars in their college newspaper. Producers can be stars in business journals and newsletters. Directors and photographers can be stars for weekly newspapers and journals. I hope this helps.
Best wishes,
Rodney Robbins
MVP is proud to announce that our Civil War triage scene for G.H.O.S.T. was a resounding success! We had a fantastic turn out of extras comprised of talented musicians, hopeful actors, and knowledgeable horror fans. Our special make-up FX expert Todd A. Britt was on hand to apply liberal amounts of make-up to our eager cast. After a few hours splashing blood on one another, tweaking mustaches, and adjusting the lights – we were ready to shoot another fun scene for G.H.O.S.T.. The shots turned out better than expected and the costumes provided by seamstress Angela Pritchett helped make the scene that much more authentic. Thank you all for another hard night of work. Be sure to relax and enjoy yourself for Halloween. We’ll see you back on the set on November 7th for our big finale. Thank you all.
The Mutantville Players converged upon the haunted opera house in Albemarle, North Carolina for another amazing night of filmmaking last night. We filmed another encounter with something from the other side last night! I can’t tell you what happened or to whom – but I will say that you will be scared out of your pants – so be sure to wear two pairs when you watch this.
Our intrepid heroes, Streebo & Brento, made a special trip across the skies of guerrrilla filmmaking to begin work on the editing of our latest short horror film – G.H.O.S.T.. Going into our first editing session – we had just under three hours of footage from the two weeks of shooting G.H.O.S.T.. We decided it would be a good idea to build the first assembly during production. This way we know if we need any additional shots or pick ups while we still have all of our cast available to us. It took us roughly five hours to pull the footage needed – but we’re all set and ready to go. We’ve already discussed editing possiblities and the angles we want to use. Next week – we’ll start building the first rough cut of the movie. Be sure to keep checking back for more documentary like updates as we continue the movie making process for G.H.O.S.T..
I’m quickly running out of superlatives to describe our adventures on the set of G.H.O.S.T.. What can I say? We have an amazing found location with the opera house, we have a talented cast, and a dedicated crew. Everything is going nice and smooth. We had a few crew members forced to withdraw from this weekend’s shoot due to illness – but you were all there in spirit. We hope you recover fast because we need you right back on set next week! Those that were in attendance had a blast as we filmed several key sequences in the film including the creepy caretaker Maximilian’s warning speech as he tries to scare the G.H.O.S.T. team away from the haunted opera house. It wouldn’t be a haunted house movie without a crazy guy trying to scare everyone. Things are proceeding according to plan. There’s still a ton of pre-production, prop work, and designs to be completed before this coming weekend’s shoot – so catch your nap and get ready, G.H.O.S.T. is running ahead at full speed. Thank you all for your hard work. We’ll see you on Saturday!