5 Most Common Mistakes Made by Independent Filmmakers

8/8/2019 5 Most Common Mistakes Made by Independent Filmmakers

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5 most common mistakes Made by

Independent Filmmakers:

Over the next 5 days were going to be adding new blog posts outlining the most commonmistakes made by independent filmmakers. Today our post covers

White Walls

Over the years weve been asked by our students what the 1 thing we think they need toimprove in order to make their films stronger. Well, usually when mistakes are made in film orvideo, its not just 1 mistake thats made (especially when youre first starting out).

There are thousands of possible mistakes to be made in each area of development. For example,if you cast poorly then your film is dead before you start filming. If you use an unskilled DOP

(Director of Photography) to shoot your movie then your production value will be compromisedand youll have a hard time getting audiences to sit through the mess that you put up on thescreen. If you dont work with a good producer you risk finishing your film, but then having it siton a shelf with no distribution deal.

The point being, there are countless mistakes you can make during the entire filmmakingprocess. At Lights Film School weve always encouraged our students to start building with astrong foundation. This is why our first lecture is on the art of storytelling and screenwriting.This benefits both fiction and documentary filmmakers alike. A great story and a great team(both behind and in front of the camera) are the two pillars of any great film. Without these twoelements your film will have weak legs and will likely fall apart by the time you get to the end of

the post production process.

That being said, there are 5 problems that weve noticed keep popping up in independent filmstime and time again. Working on correcting these 5 problems is a great start to helping you add astronger sense of production value to your independent films. This is by no means acomprehensive list. Not even close to it. But its a good start!

5 Common Mistakes Independent Filmmakers Make

1. White Walls

Production Designers are hired for a film to help create the environment for the actors and thestory. Many Hollywood productions are shot in studios so the entire set needs to be built fromthe ground up. In this scenario production designers, set decorators and art directors are allneeded to help build the world the characters will inhabit.

Independent filmmakers dont usually work in the studio environment. Instead they use naturalenvironments. For example, a independent horror film may use a conveniently located forest for


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2. Lack of depth

Independent Filmmaker Mistakes: Lack of

DepthWelcome to our second installment of 5 Common Mistakes Made by Independent Filmmakers.Today were going to discuss the topic of depth as it relates to films and documentaries.

There is a sense of flatness and 2 dimensionality in many independent films that hurts theperceived production value of the film. This is caused not only by the safe choice of frontylighting, but also by poor production design.

This blog post wont explore how to use light to help mould shadows around your subjects tocreate the illusion of three dimensions (as this subject deserves a blog post onto itself), but we

will discuss how you can incorporate a strong sense of depth by being aware of your foreground,middle-ground and background.

Many independent filmmakers (to their own demise) hyper-focus on one layer of depth withintheir composition. For instance, they may place their subjects in the middle of a room and put allof their attention into the middle-ground of the frame with no attention to the placement ordesign of their background or foreground.

Our previous blog post discussed the issue ofdesigning your background, and now this blog postwill discuss background and foreground placement.

Dont forget that film (like photography) is a two dimensional medium. Filmmakers need toincorporate depth and shadow to help create the illusion of three dimensions. This way audiencesforget they are watching a 2 dimensional interpretation of reality on a flat screen, and insteadtrick themselves into thinking they are looking at a real environment with normal spatialqualities.

A strong foreground element helps give the audience the feeling of being there. An object inthe foreground helps the audience position themselves in the frame. For example, look at the useof a strong foreground in the following image. Notice how it brings you into the frame?


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Even if your main focus is in the middleground you can always use a shallow depth of field tohelp isolate that layer in paticular. In many films, foreground and background elements are insoft focus while the middle-ground (if thats where the actors are) is in sharp focus.

In order to get this soft quality to your image, its helpful to use a long lens and position your

camera far away from your subjects. This will allow you to zoom in and slightly and blur yourbackground without loosing the context of the environment.

When people focus on something, our eyes naturally become selective. For example, while youlook at this screen right now, your eyes have adjusted themselves to slightly blur whatever isbehind your screen. The more space there is behind your screen the softer your focus will be.

Slightly softening the sharpness of your background helps you isolate the area you want youraudience to focus on. However, many filmmakers dont want to use extremely shallow depth offield because they want their background to provide context and important environmentalinformation. If your background was completely blurred then your audience wouldnt have a

sense of the environment.

Watch the following Nuri Bilge Ceylan trailer for his film Three Monkeys. Pay attention tohis use of shots with a strong foreground, middle-ground and background.

3. Lack of design (makeup / hair / wardrobe)


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4. Weak story5. Camera movement

The 30 Degree Rule

The 30 degree rule is rule used in filmmaking with the purpose of creating continuity betweendifferent shots within a larger sequence of shots. It should also be noted that the 30 degree ruleisnt a scientific standard. Many filmmakers use an anything more than a 10 degree change inangle while others say no less than 25 degrees. However, a 25 to 30 degree minimum change inangle seems to be the agreed upon norm.

What does this all mean? Well, when moving your camera between shots the camera should bemoved a minimum of25 to 30 degrees (with a maximum limit of 180 degrees) to avoid jarringtransitions also known as jump cuts. This helps you seamlessly piece together a larger sequenceof shots in a harmonious manner.

Between shots you can change your cameras depth, perspective and angle. All of these changesshould be motivated by your story and flow with the pacing of your film or documentary. Youllneed to think both about the artistry of each shot and what the camera is trying to communicatebut youll also need to think about the technical fundamentals of each change in position.

Lets say for example that you have 1 actor in a scene who is lighting a cigarette under a tree.

You now have choices as to where to put your camera. Lets say in this scene we want to exposethe facial expression of our main character so we might start with a wide shot to show contextand then change your angle by 30 degrees and move into a medium shot or close up.

Big transitions like this help hide small continuity differences (especially when you cut on theaction) which is great when youre shooting a film ordocumentary with only 1 camera.

Filmmaking Lesson: How and Why to Use

Lenses in Your Indie Films

Camera lenses have a significant impact not only on the look of your film or video but also onthe mood youre trying to establish. If you choose to use your cameras 1 default lens youll

undoubtedly be forced to compromise your visual story.

This is because lenses help establish depth, positioning and object priority to name only a few ofthe more obvious changes.

If you currently have a video camera you may be thinking to yourself that this blog post ispointless because only more professional cameras have access to lens attachments. However, this


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simply isnt the case anymore. You can read this post about 35mm depth of field attachments.Now even the most basic video cameras have the ability to use and change lenses.

Lets continue. There are many types of lenses that you could use in your films, documentaries,shorts and music videos. However, for the sake of simplicity were going to outline 3 of the most

common. If you add these three lenses to your filmmakers toolkit youll have newfound visualflexibility when youre composing your scenes.

The three lenses we recommend are:

1: A regular lens: This is a 50mm still camera lens2: A moderate wide angle lens: 24-35mm still camera lens3: A moderate zoom lens: 80-200mm still camera lens

As a general rule of thumb, lenses going below 50mm starts to become wide angle. Extremewide angle lenses would be 17mm or 14mm. The smaller the number, the more exaggerated the

wide angle lenses. 14mm would actually be considered a fisheye lens. Lenses going above 50mmwould be considered telephoto lenses. The larger the number to more powerful the telephoto

capabilities are. For instance a 100mm is less exaggerated than a 500mm lens.

There are other lenses such as extreme wide angle lenses or extreme telephoto zoom lenses, butif youre just starting to build your lens kit then these lenses are not as practical for everydayshooting. In the future you may want to experiment with them, but for now they are notnecessary.

One other thing to take into consideration is the speed of the lens. If youre using a depth offield adapter for your video camera then youll already be experiencing a loss of light since the

light will need to travel through more layers of glass. When you attach a lens onto your adapter,the light needs to travel through even more glass and a smaller lens opening. Therefore you runthe risk of underexposure if you dont set your exposure manually. It may also make low lightshooting conditions more challenging. To overcome this you should look for fast lenses. Theseare the lenses that have a small number as their widest possible aperture opening. For example, ifyou look on the ring of a lens you may see the following sequence of numbers.

1.8, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16

or

4

, 5.6, 8, 11, 16,22

, 32

The smaller the range of numbers at, the wider the possible opening of the aperture. In lesstechnical terms, the lower the number the lens starts at, the wider the lens is opened and thereforemore light can come through.

In the examples above the lens that starts with 1.8 is faster than the lens that starts at 4. If youare buying lenses from Ebay the seller may post their lens with the following classification.


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50mm f/1.8

This means its a 50mm (regular angle) fast lens with an aperture opening of 1.8 (wide).Although its counter intuitive, the smaller the f number, the larger the opening.

So how do all of these details affect your video footage? For starters, different lensescommunicate depth, distance and space much differently. A wide angle lens exaggerates depthand the distance between objects and includes more of the surrounding environment. Zoomlenses on the other hand make objects appear closer together than they really are and these lensesexclude more of the surrounding environment. 50mm normal lenses are meant to communicateto the viewer images that reflect roughly the way the human eye sees.

Lets look at practical examples of how these differences affect your footage.

Example: Wide Angle Lens (24mm f/2.8)

Example: Normal Lens (50mm f/1.4)


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Example: Telephoto Lens (85-200mm f/4)

Notice the differences between the 3 images. A tripod was set up and the positioning and thecamera settings remained the same for all three images. Nothing changed other than the lensused. Notice the difference between the amount of landscape shown in each image. The wideangle lens includes the most information both vertically and horizontally and the zoom lensincludes the least amount of information both vertically and horizontally.

Its also important to notice that the zoom lens squeezes the objects in the image closer together.Notice the mountains look closer to the buildings than in the wide angle shot. This is importantto know because if your shooting dialogue scenes you may want to make your characters seem


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either further apart or closer to one another depending on the mood youre trying to establish.Wide angle lenses make your characters seem distant and cold, while zoom lenses make yourcharacters seem close and welcoming. Its not uncommon to shoot your over the shoulder (OTS)shots using telephoto lenses.Wide angle lenses become useful when youre shooting in small spaces. They allow you to show

more of the environment which is something normal lenses dont allow you to do.

Youll need to choose your lenses based on the specific location and the mood youre trying toset. However, as you can see from the visual examples above, lenses make a dramatic differenceon your image. Older lenses can be picked up for reasonable prices off Craigslist or Ebay. Thelenses use in the examples above cost a total of $175 for the three of them. Search around forgood deals. Youll be happy you did!

Cinematography: Color Simplicity

Cinematography is such an important part of the filmmaking process its a shock that moreindependent filmmakers dont spend the necessary time to fully understanding the artistic andtechnical components of color that aid in the construction of breathtaking footage. Lights FilmSchool recommends that our students read books on painting and photography to betterunderstanding the expressionist period, the impressionist period, lines, shapes, composition,isolation and last but not least color and color theory.

This blog post will focus on color and the benefits of color simplicity within a frame. However,in the future we hope to add additional blog posts covering the wide spectrum of other topicsmentioned above.

Color simplicity is the process of limiting the array of colors that make it into the4

walls of yourimage. Photographers spend a lot of time trying to find color simplicity in our visually chaoticworld. Filmmakers have an even bigger challenge because our cameras move, which means thecolors in our backgrounds and foregrounds will always be changing.

That being said, many filmmakers have found great compositional strategies that allow them tokeep their frames organized from a color standpoint. The Cohen Brothers last film No CountryFor Old Men started out with a breathtaking montage of landscape images that used aminimalist approach to color. In fact, the entire film was very well thought out from a colortheory standpoint.

How to compose for color simplicity

To compose your footage for color simplicity you really need to understand what the colorssay symbolically and how they interact together. Please look at the color wheel below.


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Analogous colors are colors that are next to each other on the color wheel. These colors, when

they appear together, provide a smooth and continuous tone. Colors that are located opposite toone another on the color wheel are complementary colors. When complementary colors appearnext to each other they provide more of a dramatic and high contrast look.

Neither color strategy is correct over the other, but it is easy to both see and feel that the responsefrom the viewer will be much different when they look at each image. For example, look at thefollowing two photographs.

Example of Analogous Colors

Example of Complementary Colors


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This is how you color simplify an image. You simply limit the assortment of colors that make itinto your footage which allows you to control both the mood and tone of the scene as well as

provide color symbolism.

To help enhance color simplicity you might also want to play around with color balance andcolor highlights. Look at the following photograph for example. Notice the image ispredominately cool (blue) with only a warm (orange) highlight. Playing with color highlights is agreat way to add interesting color components to your film footage.

If youre a filmmaker, understanding color, color theory, color psychology, color simplicity and

color balance is a must in order to be able to effectively set the tone of your scene as well asisolate your main areas of interest. Distracting colors, just as much as distracting objects, addunnecessary visual confusion and clutter to a scene. By simplifying your colors you help isolatethe more important areas of your footage.

Cinematography is such an important part of the filmmaking process its a shock that moreindependent filmmakers dont spend the necessary time to fully understanding the artistic andtechnical components of color that aid in the construction of breathtaking footage. Lights Film


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School recommends that our students read books on painting and photography to betterunderstanding the expressionist period, the impressionist period, lines, shapes, composition,isolation and last but not least color and color theory.

This blog post will focus on color and the benefits of color simplicity within a frame. However,

in the future we hope to add additional blog posts covering the wide spectrum of other topicsmentioned above.

Color simplicity is the process of limiting the array of colors that make it into the 4 walls of yourimage. Photographers spend a lot of time trying to find color simplicity in our visually chaoticworld. Filmmakers have an even bigger challenge because our cameras move, which means thecolors in our backgrounds and foregrounds will always be changing.

That being said, many filmmakers have found great compositional strategies that allow them tokeep their frames organized from a color standpoint. The Cohen Brothers last film No CountryFor Old Men started out with a breathtaking montage of landscape images that used a

minimalist approach to color. In fact, the entire film was very well thought out from a colortheory standpoint.

How to compose for color simplicity

To compose your footage for color simplicity you really need to understand what the colorssay symbolically and how they interact together. Please look at the color wheel below.

Analogous colors are colors that are next to each other on the color wheel. These colors, whenthey appear together, provide a smooth and continuous tone. Colors that are located opposite toone another on the color wheel are complementary colors. When complementary colors appearnext to each other they provide more of a dramatic and high contrast look.


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Neither color strategy is correct over the other, but it is easy to both see and feel that the responsefrom the viewer will be much different when they look at each image. For example, look at thefollowing two photographs.

Example of Analogous Colors

Example of Complementary Colors

This is how you color simplify an image. You simply limit the assortment of colors that make itinto your footage which allows you to control both the mood and tone of the scene as well as

provide color symbolism.

To help enhance color simplicity you might also want to play around with color balance andcolor highlights. Look at the following photograph for example. Notice the image ispredominately cool (blue) with only a warm (orange) highlight. Playing with color highlights is agreat way to add interesting color components to your film footage.


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If youre a filmmaker, understanding color, color theory, color psychology, color simplicity andcolor balance is a must in order to be able to effectively set the tone of your scene as well as

isolate your main areas of interest. Distracting colors, just as much as distracting objects, addunnecessary visual confusion and clutter to a scene. By simplifying your colors you help isolatethe more important areas of your footage.

Digital filmmakers are becoming increasingly interested in understanding the technicalcomponents that their film ancestors needed to know in order to create professional looking filmsand documentaries through the Hollywood studio system. Digital filmmakers are slowlybecoming less interested in the speed of digital technology and the quick point and shootcapabilities of their digital cameras and are now deciding to slow down and learn how to pushtheir digital cameras to their technical limits. They hope to achieve a similar professional look tothe films were all familiar with created with the technical (not always artistic) expertise of the

large film studios.

One area of growing interest to filmmakers is color temperature and white balance. DigitalFilmmakers are starting to realize that in video productions the devil is in the details. Footage isoften uninspiring and doesnt lives up to the filmmakers expectations. They seek the stylisticqualities of the film look but they dont know what to do to achieve that level of cinematicprofessionalism.

Proper image control plays a large part in professional looking footage and white balance plays alarge part in image control. Therefore the purpose of this exclusive Lights Film School blog postis to discuss the importance of white balance and inform independent filmmakers how to change

this setting to enhance the look of their final product.

Correcting white balance before you start shooting ensures that you do not have any unsightly orunrealistic colors tones in your footage. Setting your white balance will allow your camera toidentify the color of pure white.

The problem is that the human eye is much more advanced than even the best digital and filmcameras. Our eyes have a decent ability to correct white balance just as they have the ability for


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selective focus. Cameras do not yet have these same automatic capabilities. Therefore it isimportant that filmmakers understand white balance and how to effectively change their camerasettings for optimal outcomes.

Without this understanding your true white colors may appear unnaturally blueish, orangeish or

even greenish. The last thing you need is your film subjects looking green and sick or havingconsistency problems in the colors of your shots. These technical errors draw your audience outof the illusion of your story and lower the perceived production value your films.

What white balancing does is it identifies what is white in your footage. It doesnt know whatwhite is until you tell it what it is. You can often do this with AWB (Automatic White Balance),but the results are not always desirable. That is why you may choose to manually change yourwhite balance.

When you white balance you are telling your camera to treat any object with similarchrominance and luminance as white.

Color Temperature

Its important that you understand color temperature before we start discussing white balanceany further. Simply put, color temperature is measured in Degrees Kelvin (K).

Color Temperature (K) Light Source1500 Candle3200 Sunrise and sunset3400 Tungsten lamp5500 Natural daylight

6000 Overcast sky8000 Shade on a sunny day12,000 Blue sky

The two color temperatures youll hear most often discussed are outdoor lighting which is oftenballparked at 5600K and indoor (tungsten) lighting which is generally ballparked at 3200K.These are the two numbers youll hear over and over again. Higher color temperatures (over5000K) are considered cool (i.e. Blueish). Lower color temperatures (under 5000K) areconsidered warm (i.e. orangeish).

Therefore if you are shooting indoors under tungsten lighting at 3200K you will set your white

balance for indoor shooting at this color temperature. In this case, your camera will correct yourcameras settings to ensure that white appears white. Your camera will either have an indoor3200K auto option (even the most basic cameras have this option) or you can choose to set itmanually. That is all you need to do to set your white balance. Once youve set your whitebalance you dont need to change it after each shot unless the color of light changes.

However, things get complicated if youre filming indoors during the day under tungsten lightingwhile the outdoor light is coming through a window. Now what we have is a mixing of color


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temperatures. What you need to understand in this situation is that there is no perfect whitebalance setting in a mixed color temperature setting. You will need to make a compromise onone end of the spectrum or the other. If you set your white balance to tungsten 3200K thedaylight colors will appear very blue. If you set your white balance to optimize for daylight5600K then your tungsten lighting will appear very orange.

If youre shooting a film you may want to rearrange your setting to choose one color temperatureover the other. Its best to try and keep the color temperature of the shoot the same. However, ifyoure shooting indoors during the day and you have outdoor lighting coming into through yourwindow but you only have tungsten lighting to light your subject, you might consider using gelsto change the color temperature of the tungsten lighting to the color of daylight. Alternativelyyou might consider blocking out the window with duvetyne or black velour and then just useyour tungsten lighting.

What if you want to add color highlights?

Adding color highlights easy once youve set your white balance. For instance if your shootingan indoor scene under tungsten lighting but you want to create some blue highlights on a bed youwould use the following steps.

1. Set up your lighting for your desired color temperature2. Set your white balance3. Afterwards you can set up lights above or below that temperature to add lighting highlights. Ifyou wanted to include a blue highlight you could use 5600K lighting and / or blue gels.

If youre interested in further reading consider joining our film school or buy our following bookrecommendation on film lighting:

Set Lighting Technicians Handbook: Film Lighting Equipment, Practice, and ElectricalDistribution (Paperback)

Filmmaking: White Balance and Color Temperature

5 Most Common Mistakes Made by Independent Filmmakers

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