Blog: Sunday, Aug 15

I always knew that shooting movies was a pain but I never realised how much more of a pain shooting them in the UK was. Here it rains then it's sunshine and then clouds pass over and then they disappear. The light waxes and wains and disrupts continuity. The temperature swings from hot to cold to hot again and the wind whips up and dies down and it's off with the coat, off with the shirt, back on with the shirt, off with the shirt, then reach for the sunblocker and then up with the umbrella. I've developed a ruddy complexion and back ache from standing up for fourteen hours a day.  When I do my own shoots in Hong Kong, despite them being undermanned, I manage to get through them without half as much physical effort or climate battering. And here I was only acting as the Assistant Director. And being the AD is a pain when the crew consider themselves the arbiters of what is a professional work rate and the only person you can really chivy along is the director, who of course thinks they are in charge. There is an urban legend that a good AD is what makes a film set work like clockwork but for a small crew they seem a pointless encumbrance. One does get to say Roll Camera, which gives you a sense of importance on the set but they are extraneous when you have a DOP running the show.A very good rule on set that film school imparts is that nobody, and I do mean nobody, speaks to the Actors other than the director. And nobody else other than the heads of department speaks to the director. On a small crew this means the DOP alone. Unfortunately, on the no to low budget end a lot of the assistance comes from friends and favours. The director has to socialise to make sure the help is not feeling put upon and exploited, which of course is what they have to be if they are to be any use whatsoever! All this mysteriously muddies the clarity of the end product and undermines those all important production values.I have always though that the only interesting job on a film set is the directors, and my experience so far on this course confirms it. Everyone else is waiting for lunch, which probably becomes the most important thing you can organise that will maintain morale. Probably the first thing a low budget film maker should check upon is the cost of decent catering, then he can exploit the crew just that little bit extra.Many years ago when i was organising the London Screenwriters' Workshops we were all very keen on "Writers' Rights" and opposed to the "auteur" theory. Anything that separated the writer from the production process and belittled their role in the creation of the end product was anathema to us. We lobbied for the right of the writer to be on set and whispering into the director's ear. We got a lot of lipservice from the likes of the BBC about honouring moral rights over the creative content of a show, and the moral right for the writer to be present on set. But nothing much changed and I can see why.There is very little role for a writer on a film set and although the writer fantasised about being available for script changes forced by the practical necessities of production, and thus able to maintain story integrity better than anyone else, the reality is that these changes usually happen before you get on set. After that you have to trust to the script supervisors to monitor inadvertent or on-set script changes, unless the writer really wants to take over that role and work under the discipline of the set.Despite the shift in my appreciation of what the crew does do, what does come across strongly is that the script is the most important component of the film, not the director, and all the rest is industrial process that a crew should have been well trained in. When they are not well trained, then all you have is the script and all you can hope for is that the low production values do not distract from the story. The director interprets the script, designs the look, the shots, and uses the tools and skill sets of the production to create the end product, but most directors are as much a product of the package as they are manipulators of it and those that go beyond it are writer/directors and/or developers of technological innovations and new methods of film making.Another thing that comes across is that the "Film Look" has less to do with the kit, or the narrow depth of field digital film directors obsess over, and even less to do with that "Film Look" filter you get in Final Cut, and more to do with the culture of the crew and the method of shooting. The video film maker covers a scene as if it were a sporting or news event. You run the scene and you grab your shots as it unfolds. The film crew impose restrictions upon the event and run it to fit with focusing and framing traditions commonly used in Hollywood. You might have some cultural differences, some mixing and matching of types of framing that do not work within the standard Hollywood genres, but for the most part the same rules are followed.Did I know all this before I started this course? Probably, but now it is imprinted in my bones if my aching back and sun burnt face are anything to go by.