Chris Jones's Blog, page 18

Shooting my first film on an iPhone – what we Iearned

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[image error]By Dana Pierre

For a writer, getting a script produced can be a major hurdle.  In my early writing days I completed my first feature script and armed with naivety, I attended a networking event in London in the hope of collaborating with a filmmaker and … well… hoping… for good things to happen to my script.

I soon learnt that perhaps I should have written a few low budget short scripts and networked with those projects first.

So, a few short low budget scripts later, I found it still wasn’t easy to get those produced. Many filmmakers I met were filming their own scripts and simply didn’t have the time to film someone else’s script. “You should film it yourself…” I was advised over and over.

Later, I heard about ‘Tangerine’, the low budget feature film shot fully with an iPhone 5s. That planted a seed. My own personal phone was an iPhone 5s. I mulled over the idea of shooting a short film myself.

With that idea on the back burner, I attended ‘The Breaking into Script Reading’ two day course taught by Lucy V Hay.  The last thing I expected was to come away from it with a commitment to make a film with two ladies I sat between on the first day of the course. This was the first time I met Kate Nowakowski and G Rockk. The final push of making that commitment was fueled by Chris Jones, filmmaker and author of the Guerilla Filmmakers Handbook. He gave a motivational inspiring speech, on harnessing the inner Wonder Woman from within ourselves, pushing our boundaries and making that film.

Feeling empowered and together with our combined determination, myself, Kate and G, brainstormed the initial ideas for the script during the networking drinks later that day. We decided we would shoot on my iPhone. We felt the iPhone was suitable as it would enhance the close and personal tone we sought for the narrative we had in mind.

Within six weeks we had a story, a low budget script, auditioned for a cast, prepared a shot list and did a recce. The day before the shoot we recruited a small crew at the Guerilla Filmmakers Masterclass. It was a gamble that paid off as we shot the film over the next 3 days.

Five things I learned shooting a film on an iPhone 5s

1. Its inexpensive

It cost just a few £s to download the Filmic Pro app on my phone. I borrowed a smartphone 360 degree adapter to mount the iphone onto a borrowed tripod (that networking DID pay off). I soon discovered the wonders of using a gorillapod, which was very useful for close to the ground shots.

2. Great quality footage, surprisingly!

The Filmic Pro app works great. It offered us various options to enhance the shots suitable for cinema screen experience. Filmic Pro settings include film resolutions, frame rates, aspect ratio, ability to set and lock focus, exposure and white balance as well as many other features. Of course I recommend using separate audio equipment.

3. It’s inconspicuous

Due to it being, well a phone, an iPhone works well for guerrilla filmmaking! Just film and go.

4. Getting close and personal

For close ups and extreme closeups, don’t use the zoom feature! Physically get up close and personal (and keep that resolution). Great if your actor is fine with it as it can get a bit intense. We got great quality close ups – and this intimacy WILL create a different and often more intense performance.

5. Storage space and battery power

As we only had the one iphone 16GB, we had to download the footage regularly while charging the phone. So I recommend having more than one iphone or one with a lots of storage space. Plan your shots well! And a carry a portable charger!

We are now in post production and looking for a composer – if you are interested, drop me a line. I hope these tips from a writer turned filmmaker has helped. The whole experience has been empowering and I fully recommend you consider your phone as a tool to get your film produced now.

Thanks Dana – if you want to chat about composing music for her film drop me a line and mail@livingspirit.com and I will forward your message to her.

Onwards and upwards!

Chris Jones

My movies www.LivingSpiritGroup.com

My Facebook www.Facebook.com/ChrisJonesFilmmaker

My Twitter @LivingSpiritPix

Sign up to my mailing list for updates on

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‘Only the valiant should create, only the daring should make films’

[image error]‘Five Came Back’ is a three part Netflix documentary about five Hollywood directors who ended up shooting and making documentaries for the US government about the Second World War, often from the battlefront and in genuine peril.

My parents lived through WW2 and my dad was a conscript in the years after the war, stationed in Egypt. My mum would often talk about hearing the planes fly overhead s they huddled in a bunker at the end of the garden, Nazi bombers on raids in Liverpool. In contrast, my dad never once spoke to me about his experiences. I had the very strong sense that it was too upsetting for him.

So I have a personal interest and connection through my parents to what is becoming an increasingly distant conflict, especially for younger generations. I was looking forward very much to this documentary but was not fully prepared for how heavily it would land on me.

It’s a stunning documentary series, filled with footage and story I had never seen or heard before.

Constructed over three episodes it  follows the journey for Frank Capra, George Stevens, John Ford, William Wyler and John Huston, five Hollywood legends who were increasingly drawn into madness and inhuman behaviour. D Day was enough to see John Ford disappear into bottles of booze and effectively end his filming of the conflict.

I won’t say too much as you should watch yourself, but what I will say is that for me personally, it re-ignited the reasons why I choose to do what I do.

To tell stories that make a difference.

All of these Hollywood legends returned to LA and in due course produced their best work….

It’s a Wonderful Life, Shane, Giant, The Best Years of Our Lives, Roman Holiday, Ben-Hur, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The Misfits, Rio Grande, The Searchers…

[image error]Of all their stories, Frank Capra stuck with me the most.

Director of arguably one of the greatest movies of all time, ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ was shown in the documentary in a clip from when he was recognised by the AFI and given a lifetime achievement award. His words, which you can hear and watch above and read below, really hit home and hard.

He attributed his success to…

‘The love of people. Add two simple ideals to this love of people. The freedom of each individual and the equal importance of each individual, and you have the principle upon which I have based all my films.’

He then offered a word to the new generation of filmmakers (which was at the time in the eighties and of course feels just as relevant today).

‘Don’t follow trends, start trends. Don’t compromise, believe in yourself.’

And then the gut punch.

‘Because only the valiant should create. Only the daring should make films. And only the morally courageous are worthy of speaking to their fellow men for two hours and in the dark.’

And so it’s only apt that over the last few days I have been reworking the screenplay for ‘Rocketboy’ with Judy. It’s time to shoot for the moon, or perhaps even beyond it.

Onwards and upwards!

Chris Jones

My movies www.LivingSpiritGroup.com

My Facebook www.Facebook.com/ChrisJonesFilmmaker

My Twitter @LivingSpiritPix

Sign up to my mailing list for updates on

events, books and free film making tools

How I Got My Feature Film On Amazon Prime and How Much I have Made

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By Tom Kerevan

In 2014 Tom Kerevan wrote and produced his first feature Tear Me Apart with director Alex Lightman and DOP Ern Herrmann. Made for £75,000 with no known actors, they eschewed the traditional sales route and made a tactical play for Amazon. Here’s how they did it and what they learnt…

This is a tough blog to write. How did we break into the top 80 movies on Amazon Prime in the UK? Well, I’m afraid I can’t give you the magic formula to the Amazon Video algorithm because I don’t know it!

However, after a lot of trial & error there are a few things I’ve noticed that seem to work, and a few that don’t. So what I’ll do is share the highlights of 2 years worth of research into releasing a film online.

First though, I’m going to be shamelessly un-British and ask for a favour in return up front: if you’ve watched Tear Me Apart, please review it on Amazon.

We have managed to climb the ranks of Amazon Prime, and now we’re competing with the huge studio movies with all their silly marketing $$$ – we’re currently just behind Gravity. Every review gives us the ammo we need to keep battling!

If you haven’t watched Tear Me Apart and you find this blog helpful in some way, then please say thank you by watching and reviewing it! https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tear-Me-Apart-Alfie-Stewart/dp/B01HSX96EW

And while you’re there, jump over to IMDb and give it a quick star rating too: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3562966/

AMAZON vs NETFLIX vs ITUNES

Before I dive into my top tips, I just wanted to cover an oft-asked question: why did we choose Amazon over Netflix and iTunes?

There are three very good reasons behind this decision:

Amazon is free. That’s right, it costs nothing to put your film on Amazon, and you can do it yourself. To get on Netflix and iTunes you have to submit via 3rd party aggregators, and they charge in the region of £1,500 per platform. With Netflix you’ll never see that money again, and iTunes you need to guarantee a minimum number of views just to break even. That didn’t really appeal to us.


Many disagree with me on this, but based on all the research I’ve done, I think Amazon is the future of film. One future anyway. They’ve only recently shown their first hand, and they’ve yet to really get out of second gear. Plus their combination of Pay Per View and Subscription is starting to blow Netflix and iTunes out the water (*Article and figures at end of blog.) Therefore, being in the mix now will, we hope, give us longevity as they expand.


Amazon is only available in 5 countries. Whilst this may seem like a negative, it actually works in our favour as it’s a more focussed platform covering just the US, UK, Germany, Austria and Japan. With iTunes you are able to restrict release, but with Netflix it’s simply ‘Domestic’ or ‘Worldwide’. In terms of maintaining control, this is important to consider – we can still sell the rights to any other territory.

TIME TO GO PRIME

Okay, so here are my top tips for giving it a shot on Amazon Prime…

Don’t rush into it!

Don’t just finish the film and whack it online. Your film needs to look like a proper film, which means you need to have been to festivals, had professional reviews, all of which is included in the artwork. It needs to be nurtured first.


Build slowly

As I say, I don’t know how the algorithm works, but it does seem to reward gradual growth rather than a sudden spike. So if all your mates watch it on the same day, that’s not going to do much. We released the film on Amazon Buy/Rent for 6 months first before we released on Prime.


Critical Mass

Like most things, it’s about critical mass. Once enough people have watched your film, it will start showing up on the ‘what other people watched’ suggestions, and that then feeds into the Most Popular lists. As with point 2, this takes time.

We saw a spike in the UK after about 5 weeks on Prime, so keep plugging it via every avenue available to you. We are now averaging about 600 hours streamed every day.

Facebook Advertising

Okay, look, on the surface Facebook Advertising looks amazing, but after 6 months I came to one simple conclusion – it’s just a money-making machine for Facebook. Nonetheless, it’s worth figuring out because if you target the right audiences it can certainly get you views, which will then help towards critical mass. Don’t expect to get back whatever you spend, but do consider using it as a loss leader.


Genres

Be liberal but not misleading. People often search by genre, so this is the easiest way to make your film discoverable. You can select as many genres and sub-genres as you like… so do it!

Tear Me Apart is currently:

27th in Thrillers
18th in Action & Adventure
10th in Sci-Fi
5th in Teen & Young Adult
1st in Indie & Arthouse

Note that we didn’t put it in the horror genre. We realised that it was not sitting well with horror fans who were expecting more gore, so it didn’t make sense to try and engage with that demographic. This reiterates why time, research, festivals and reviews are important.

Reviews

Reviews on Amazon are vital. They appear to feed directly into the algorithm. Just be aware that a ‘Verified Purchase’ seems to weigh more heavily, so it’s a balancing act.

We held a big UK Premiere at the Genesis Cinema and got around 250 people attending. The film was launched online the next day, so we asked everyone to review it. Of course only a small percentage actually did, but it helped get the ball rolling.

We also used this as an opportunity to hire some PR, put a press release out and get as many professional reviews as we could. This helped to create a buzz around the film, meaning that in the first couple of weeks of release we moved into the top 5,000 films on IMDb’s MOVIEmeter.

IMDb

And on that note, do not forget IMDb – Amazon owns it! Make sure the listing is totally up to date, including artwork. And get your friends to rate the film here too as the IMDb rating shows up on Amazon.

The professional reviews also get linked here too, and the more of those the better.

Artwork & Copy

There’s definitely no exact science here, but remember that you are pitching your film, not explaining what it is. The poster is the first thing they will see – does it stand out? Is it intriguing enough to click on?

And then sell them your product! It’s not just about the logline – use a combination of quotes and the story to tease them into watching the trailer. It’s a 1-2-3 punch with Amazon: Poster, Pitch, Trailer.

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WHAT DO YOU GET BACK FROM AMAZON?

As mentioned, it costs nothing to put your film on Amazon. You do have to go through some fairly tedious admin surrounding tax, but nothing a bit of googling can’t solve.

Once you’re on there, for Buy / Rent you get 50% of all revenue, after tax.

For Prime, it instantly becomes available for free to the 66 million and counting subscribers (which is more than Netflix has).

And what do we get in return? Well, something, which is better than nothing:

In the US, $0.15 per hour streamed.
In Germany, Austria and Japan, $0.06 per hour streamed.
In the UK, £0.04 per hour streamed.

We launched the film on Amazon Prime just before Christmas. No glitzy premiere, no press release, no Facebook Advertising (we’d already done that with the Buy/Rent release). We just shouted about it over our own Social Media channels.

AND THE NUMBERS ARE IN

It was a slow start, but somewhere in the middle of January views in the UK suddenly spiked, with US views remaining steady.

From Christmas 2016 to today (15th March 2017), we have had 2.45 million minutes streamed, or just over 40,000 hours, which has brought in around £2,000.

To be clear, we have not spent a single penny on marketing or advertising since the film has been on Prime. And the profit is about 7x higher than when it was on Buy/Rent without any advertising.

Plus, that’s only in a handful of territories.

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RETENTION OF RIGHTS

Here’s the kicker – we’re making money and we still own 100% of the rights. Obviously, yes, we’re trying to sell them in other territories around the world, and will do so for the right deal. But we’re also making another film this year, and if that goes well, then the value of Tear Me Apart could go up.

I’m not saying that Prime is the best path for every film, but with a bit of planning and lot of hard work in the build up, it can produce a small but decent revenue stream, and one that we hope to build upon moving forward.

Now we find ourselves competing with big studio movies and Oscar-winners, so we need your help. Reviews on Amazon and IMDb are all we have against their monetary might!

Thank you for reading and hope it’s been helpful.

Now off you go and review Tear Me Apart!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tear-Me-Apart-Alfie-Stewart/dp/B01HSX96EW

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3562966/

Tom Kerevan

March 2017

* http://uk.businessinsider.com/netflix-versus-amazon-tv-and-video-streaming-2015-2?r=US&IR=T

Creating Paz vs. Stuff – A Different Approach to Engaging an Audience

[image error]By Chris Reagan

In 2014 I became slightly obsessed with YouTube, specifically vloggers on YouTube.  By this point I’d made three incredibly ambitious short films, two of which had each taken over a year to finish.  Despite my best efforts and the time that had gone into making the films I was really struggling to find an audience for them.  Meanwhile, vloggers on YouTube were making videos about anything from their favourite films to tours of their bedrooms and raking in hundreds of thousands of views.  I appreciate now how much work vloggers put into reaching that level of engagement on YouTube but at the time, on the surface, it seemed incomprehensible.  Why were audiences more interested in engaging with the day-to-day activities of a YouTube than in engaging with a story?  Then something clicked – they were engaging with a story; they were engaging with the story of that person.  Yes the individual vlog may be about something innocuous like unboxing the new iPhone, but collectively those videos told a story and when you add the videos to the vlogger’s presence on other social media sites like Twitter and Facebook suddenly the story becomes bigger.  That’s when I had the idea.

[image error]Paz is a twenty-something vlogger from Brighton, home of her superstar vlogging heroes PewDiePie and Zoella.  She has a blog where she reviews horror films but her real passion is YouTube.  Unfortunately Paz’s desperate quest for fame brings her to the attention of a particularly nasty troll.  As the trolling escalates into cyberstalking and eventually real life stalking Paz’s fans urge her to report the problem to the authorities but Paz refuses.  She knows something about her troll no one else does and it’s a secret that she can’t possibly reveal to anyone else.  She has no choice but to face her antagonist alone.Paz’s story has been told in real time via YouTube videos, blogs and Twitter over the last two years.  I set a number of rules for the

project to ensure it was ethically sound.  Firstly Paz would never earn any money.  Secondly she would always have a positive attitude, both in her interactions with others and when talking about other works.  Finally, I would vlog about the entire process on my channel as I worked on it, the idea being that if anyone was curious about Paz a quick google search would bring up my name and the truth would become clear.  This way I hoped that when the truth was revealed no one could be all that upset about it.  That was the plan anyway.

[image error]Initially the idea that an audience may be more willing to engage with an individual rather than a piece of fiction seemed to work and the YouTube videos quickly gathered many more views than my short films ever had.  As the project developed, however, it became more and more difficult to know how to transition from a vlog into a web series.  From an artistic standpoint I occasionally found myself becoming more interested in presenting Paz as real than in telling a story.  I felt there were some serious issues worth exploring around online identity and our perceptions of reality when it comes to online interactions.  With Paz I had a unique opportunity to make something about those issues and it was a fascinating process.

At the same time there was a story to be told and Paz is about to come to the end of that story.  At the end of the most recent episode Paz decided to confront her troll/stalker outside her Brighton but this did not work out well for her.  She has since indicated on Twitter that she has formulated a plan to put things right, but the audience won’t learn the details of this plan until she puts it into action on Monday evening.

[image error]Here’s where I need help.  The final episode of Paz vs. Stuff will be uploaded at 7pm on Monday the 13th of March.  Having spent nearly three years developing, writing, producing and directing this project I’d really like to have as many people see the final episode as possible.  To this end I’ve set up a Thunderclap for the final episode.  If you have a minute please consider signing up and help me finish this unique project with as big an impact as possible.

https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/54133-paz-s-last-video

Paz’s channel – www.youtube.com/pazvstuff

Paz on Twitter – @pazvsstuff

Trailer – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTPjXRH7KOs

Episode 36 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1GQW8EaNGM&t=17s

Watch the Twisted50 Audiobook Launch and Awards Video

[image error]Just over a week ago we held the awards and audiobook launch for Twisted50 volume One. Talented filmmaker and Create50 staffer Viktoria Tolidou shot a great video of the event so that even if you couldn’t make it, you will get a taste of what went on.

And it was delicious….

Guests were greeted at the entrance to the venue with the news that a power cut had taken out all the lighting to the ground floors and that they would need to use the torch on their phones to run the gauntlet of horrors we had laid on for them before gaining access to the awards and party.

There were screams.

Watch… Enjoy… And do come to the launch for Twisted50 volume 2!

Chris Jones

www.Twisted50.com

Picture Locking ‘Seeing Him’

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Last weekend, editor Chris Frith and myself, picture locked ‘Seeing Him’. 

Everyone in the team felt like we finished the edit weeks ago, but I was also sure we could continue to make improvements. At this stage, I have learned that small changes can often make a big difference in the viewing experience. It’s also the moment where every single moment of excess is removed, refining the story down to the leanest machine it can possibly be.

We played around with dropping some lines of dialogue and in the process, the story became more ‘confident’.

By that I mean, there is enough on the screen to allow audiences to figure it out, rather than being spoon fed or the story being overly explanatory. To do this we need said confidence in the story, the performances, the cinematography, the sound, the edit, the grade, VFX and music.

But the gift in the end is a film that audiences lean into the film, rather than one that they lean away from.

Human beings like to work for our stories. We love mystery. We love to figure it out. And the fine cut is the moment we all step back and say ‘yes, the magic illusion that is this story, is now as perfect as it can be…’ And every story, every film is really an emotional magic trick or illusion.

Next, final picture grade, visual effects, titles, music and sound mix.

Onwards and upwards!

Chris Jones

My movies www.LivingSpiritGroup.com

My Facebook www.Facebook.com/ChrisJonesFilmmaker

My Twitter @LivingSpiritPix

Sign up to my mailing list for updates on

events, books and free film making tools

Watch the short film that catapulted director of Blade Runner 2, Denis Villeneuve, to the big time

[image error]In 2009 I was doing the festival circuit with my short film Gone Fishing. When touring festivals you start to see the same films and filmmakers pop up around you. And this film, ‘Next Floor’ by Denis Villeneuve, was one film I saw repeatedly.

Sometimes Gone Fishing beat it, other times it didn’t.  

It’s an astonishing film that is a lavish, visual and visceral experience. It’s clearly the work of a director in total control of their art, craft and vision.

In 2009 and, in the midst of the financial crash, it felt extraordinarily relevant. Today in the era of Trump and Brexit, it feels even more so. I don’t know why because I am not even sure what the hell the film is all about. But then I guess the best art reflects the viewer.

If you have Vimeo on your smart TV, do yourself a favour and watch it on the big screen with full sound. Here’s the vimeo link if you don’t want to watch via the embed above.

https://vimeo.com/75251217

Trust me, it’s worth it.

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‘Next Floor’ is also a stark reminder of the high standards in filmmaking required to win the bigger international festivals.

And here’s the Blade Runner 2 teaser which most likely you have seen… But in context, it’s worth a rewatch…

Onwards and upwards!

Chris Jones

My movies www.LivingSpiritGroup.com

My Facebook www.Facebook.com/ChrisJonesFilmmaker

My Twitter @LivingSpiritPix

Sign up to my mailing list for updates on

events, books and free film making tools

Join us for the red carpet Twisted50 book launch and Awards in London, February 24th

To celebrate the launch of Twisted50, we will be hosting an unforgettable party and awards ceremony in central London on Friday 24th February.

Tickets: £15 plus booking fee

Dress code: Fabulous and / or gothic

Expectations: Set to high!

Venue: The Cinema Museum, 2 Dugard Way, Kennington, SE11 4TH

(Nearest tube/train stations: Kennington (Northern Line) and Elephant and Castle (Northern and Bakerloo lines, and BR) are both within easy walking distance).

In attendance will be many of the writers of the stories in Twisted50, the voice over artists who have narrated the audiobook (launching on the night), the Create50 team, industry judges and of course, filmmakers and writers from our wider community.

And you know that we will be giving you way more than a fabulous party and awards.

You can expect some interactive gothic horror ‘live drama’ too. The lines between what is real, and what is Twisted50 will definitely blur.

Held at the old Lambeth Workhouse, which later became Charlie Chaplin’s childhood home, and is now the rather eclectic and mysterious London Cinema Museum, the evening will give you the opportunity to grab your collectable signed copy of Twisted50 (with as many authors as present to sign for you), as well as network and attend the awards.

We will also get great photos of you on the red carpet (that we will share with you for your own use on social media). And do expect surprises that will make your heart race in more ways than one. All good clean, grown up fun… Twisted style of course.

We will see you there!

Love Team Twisted50

PS… If you want to know what you can expect, below is the video we shot at the premiere of 50 Kisses, the last Create50 project we completed.

Twisted50 vol 2 Book Deadline Approaches… Get published in 2017!

As we finalise the mastering process on the Twisted50 vol 1 audiobook (more HERE) and continue prepping for an unforgettable book launch for Twisted50 vol 1 on February 24th (you should come – more HERE, you could be forgiven for forgetting that the Twisted50 volume 2 deadline is fast approaching.

So can you write a 2,000 word story? Fewer words is even better.

Now that the Twisted50 brand is established, a best seller, with a huge Google footprint, with Amazon rating and ranking, the hard work of launching a book series has been done for you.

You can take advantage of those who wrote before you and you can step into an success story.

So tips for success with Twisted50 volume 2.

Get more Twisted. The more Twisted the better!

Edit hard. Most stories can and should be refined and this is where the feedback on your story from other writers can really help.

Read more. Offer feedback on other stories on the site and get inspired by their work and INTO ACTION yourself. Create50 is ALL about getting into action.

Do it now… Well this weekend at least. Mull it over, then write that first draft in an hour or two and upload. Then you are on the rollercoaster!

If you want to write from the darker half of your soul, then Twisted50 volume 2 is a no brainer.

Get read. Get published. Improve your writing. Improve your resume. Make new friends. Now.

You can read more about Twisted50 vol 2 HERE.

You can listen to excerpts from the Twisted50 vol 1 Audiobook HERE.

And do let your horror friends know about Twisted 50, even if it’s not your cup of blood.

Hugs!

Chris Jones

www.Create50.com

PS Don’t forget the Book Launch Party on Feb 24th in London, it’s going to be unforgettable. More HERE.

Seven Editorial Tips For Fine Cutting Films

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We are in the final stages of fine cutting ‘Seeing Him’, a short film written, produced by and starring Vanessa Bailey. I have stepped into the directors shoes after my good friend Catherine Arton stepped down as director, entrusting me to finish her good work. I have already spent time working with our hugely experienced editor Chris Frith but wanted a fresh opinion.

So, last weekend I watched the most recent cut of the film on the big screen with editor friend Simon Reglar. It was illuminating and something we all too often forget to do.

Test. Test. Test.

I have learned the hard way to test the edit of a film before locking picture. And then to test it again. And again. Here’s what came up this time.

1. The Big Screen Reveals More

It’s obvious, but seeing the film on a big screen allowed a more cinematic experience and some editorial choices, particularly a couple of edits, stood out more than when viewing on a laptop. Give yourself permission to watch your film on the biggest screen you can find.

2. Watch with an expert

I am a HUGE believer in showing work as many times as possible before locking picture, especially to people who are not in the business. That said, the value of the opinions of expert editors (as well as producers and directors) cannot be underestimated. Editors in particular often have insight and can offer solutions too. They have zero attachment to the footage, production or edit and that’s a good thing.

3. Small changes make a BIG difference

Even the most minor of editorial changes made to improve the cut is very important. This is often something we can address in these latter stages, while other filmmakers will often rush to picture lock. Take your time if you don’t have a delivery date. Get perspective.

4. Crank up the mystery

Less is so often more, especially when it comes to film. Audiences LOVE to figure it out and ask… ‘What’s going to happen next?’ During writing and production, things can often get a little overstated and it’s certainly worth taking stuff out to increase mystery. Not to make it cryptic, but to make it mysterious, to cause audiences to lean forward and into the story, characters and unfolding mystery. One key scene at the start of ‘Seeing Him’ can definitely have the mystery cranked up and that can only help the film. Give yourself permission to try taking more out than you might normally do. You can always put it back and you might find it increases audience engagement.

6. Music music music!

Once in post, after the editor, the most important choice for any production is what to do about the music. I have written several posts about music use and abuse in the past, and for low budget films, these principles are open for even greater abuse. Give yourself permission to spend a lot of time seeing how different music and scores feel against the final edit. This can help guide the final composer, or to inform your own search if you choose to use library music.

7. Timecode

It’s obvious, but putting time code onscreen allows you to make specific notes that will be easier to interpret later. We often make notes fast and in the dark, so timecodes really help. His is especially important on feature films.

We will be launching the new site for ‘Seeing Him’ very soon so check back in.

Onwards and upwards!

Chris Jones

My movies www.LivingSpiritGroup.com

My Facebook www.Facebook.com/ChrisJonesFilmmaker

My Twitter @LivingSpiritPix

Sign up to my mailing list for updates on

events, books and free film making tools