Steve Stockman's Blog, page 11

Dealing with Lousy Actors

I got your book for Christmas and I LOVE it !! :)  I’m 15 years old and this coming summer I am gonna be shooting my first HUGE movie!! (I have made many movies before but never one so planned and big)

So I made a huge mistake: I told my best friend that all her cousins could be in the movie as actors!! Problem is some I have never even met and the ones I have met I have no clue if they can act!! So my question is what to do now? What if they can’t act?? I cant just force them out, but I don’t want my movie to suck because no one can act!!

Thanks for the advice. And I will not make that mistake ever again!! I am a girl and I have always wanted to be a director! :) btw!! lol

–Brooke

You say “I can’t just force them out”, but if that’s what the film requires, you can.  In fact, you have to.  If the film sucks because you picked bad actors, nobody is going to watch it.  Including your lousy actors, who will be so embarrassed by their performances that they will hate you more than they would have if you had cut them.

Pros know this, which is why the metaphorical cutting room floor is littered with the bodies of actors completely cut from films.  I deleted a character from Two Weeks in the edit room.  Eric Stoltz was famously fired after shooting on Back to the Future began, and was replaced by Michael J. Fox (wikipedia the story, then see the film if you haven’t).  And in news from your actual lifetime, Spike Jonze canned Samantha Morton as the lead voice in his new movie Her (go see it!), and gave the gig to Scarlett Johansson.  All hard choices to make for their directors.  All of whom did the right thing for the film.

But I think you know this, or you wouldn’t have asked for help. And here it is:  Your help is called an audition.

Let your friend know that you can give everyone a role in the film but you have to find the right role for them.  After all, you want them to look great, right? People who are miscast look awkward, even pros.

Invite them to audition — to read a scene with you. In person is best, but skype works.  Some won’t want to bother.  That makes the decision easy– they’re out.  Some will suck, in which case the right place will be a silent role in the back, filling a seat in a restaurant while you shoot your leads in the foreground.  The good ones get the parts you choose for them.

One final thing, Brooke.  You want to direct.  That’s a good thing.  When you put “LOL” after that statement, you seem to be belittling yourself and your choice.  If you want to be a director, own it. Be definite.  The Director’s job is to make choices, and the first choice is to have the balls to be a director.  You do, so stand behind that choice without apology.

Good luck!

 

Did you know the audio version of How to Shoot Video that Doesn’t Suck is out now?  Here’s how to get a listen for free!

Steve Stockman

Audio Book Out Now– Get Your Copy Free!

Were you lucky enough to get a new video camera or smartphone for Christmas?  Are you itching to get out there and give them a go?

Luckily for you, How to Shoot Video that Doesn’t Suck is now an audio book.  Load it onto your smartphone and you can listen while you shoot video.  How cool is that?  Distracting, yes, but also cool.

It turns out the most interesting part of narrating your own audio book is that one forgets what one has written, and then is pleasantly surprised when it turns out there’s some good advice in there.  I almost ordered a copy myself. (And don’t worry– I used to do radio for a living, so it sounds okay!)

Get the audio book for free!

You can get the new How to Shoot Video that Doesn’t Suck  at Audible.com for nothing–zip–nada.  All you need to do is go here, then sign up for a free monthly trial of their “book a month” service.  At the end of the month you can cancel the service, and keep the book.  Or keep going, and get more audio books.  Up to you.

If signing up feels too risky, there is a free 5 minute sample of the book at Audible that you can listen to just for fun. No signup required.  Let me know what you think!

 

For some reason, the audio book graphic is square. Like a CD, I guess.

Steve Stockman

Holiday Music Video: I Am Santa Claus

I produced and directed this video in the ’90s for my good friend Bob Rivers.  Bob’s been doing Twisted Tunes for years, and we shot this Iron Man Parody video called “I Am Santa Claus”  in Seattle to support his album of the same name.

For tips on shooting YOUR Holiday video, click  Here and Here

Steve Stockman

10 Steps to Shooting Perfect Holiday Video

Ah, the Holidays.  Turkeys roasting on an open fire, halls decked, noses nipped by frost.  The time when we all get together and  pull out our cameras for the obligatory and oh-so boring Holiday video.

Each year magazine and newspapers publish millions of column-inches on the painstaking process of cooking a turkey, and virtually no column inches on shooting good video.  Which seems wrong in that turkey will last 4 days, but bad holiday video will haunt you for years.

This year it’s going to be different.  We’re taking a stand.  This year I’m kicking off the war against horrible video with  my checklist of the 10 steps you can take to perfect Holiday Video.  Even better, I’ve linked each step to more detailed posts, just in case you want more.

Ready?  To make your Holiday video something you’ll truly treasure, instead of something you’ll never look at again, read on:

1) Think about your story.  Stories have a beginning, middle and end.  “The night we got our Christmas Tree” starts with the family piling into the car, THEN shows us the kids walking through the tree lot checking out the Douglas firs, and FINALLY Mom finding that one perfect tree and everyone agreeing.  Beginning, middle and end.  Just thinking about how your story goes– before you shoot it– will make your video better.

2)  Shoot Action.  Every shot in your video should have a noun and a verb, just like those sentences Mrs. Cooper taught you about in 3rd grade. “Sarah whisks the gravy” is a shot. “Sarah” without action?  That’s a photograph.

3)  Shoot short shots.  You don’t need 30 seconds of Uncle Larry snoring in front of the TV after Thanksgiving dinner. Five seconds of that is enough to get the point.  Which is my point– when you know what the shot is about, it’s time to end it.  Practice shooting 5 or 10 seconds (of action, remember?) at a time.

4)  Shoot for the face.  Home video is always about the people.  What they’re doing now, and how they change over the years.  Everyone you know will look totally different in 5 years.  Make sure you capture who they are now.  As a bonus, faces are where the emotion is.  If you want to really feel your video 5 years from now, show us your relatives’ faces, well lit and close up, when you shoot this Holiday season.

5)  Zoom with your feet.  Zoomed in shots from far away look shaky. Walk closer to your subjects and zoom out (stay wide).  The other advantages:  it puts you in the action, and the sound will be better  because you’re closer.

6)  Pay attention to that little video window on the back of the camera. If it looks bad when you shoot it, it will not magically look better when you watch it later.  If someone’s face is too dark, move.  If they’re out of focus, fix it.  If you don’t like the way the frame looks, re-frame.

7)  Interview your relatives.  We often forget to interview people at family gatherings.  But kids say the darndest things– things you’ll want to remember (and play back) when they’re adults.  Grandmas say the darndest things too. And so does anyone who’s been hitting the Holiday Cheer.  Frame your questions so they don’t yield one-word answers.  “What do you think about Santa Claus?” will get you a lot.  “Are you excited to get presents?” will get you a nod.

8)  Represent your kids. They may be too young to shoot their own video now, but in a few years they’ll watch your video to help fill in their memories.  They’ll want to know more about Grandpa, they’ll want to see what their little friends looked like then, they’ll want to see detail in the video of the whole family opening Christmas presents.  Great video with lots of detail is one thing you can get them that costs nothing.

9) Don’t shoot the boring stuff.  If you’re bored shooting it, you and everyone else you inflict it on later will be bored watching it.

10)  Change your point of view.  Put your camera a foot off the ground in front of the fireplace and shoot back at the living room.  Shoot at kid height.  Put a GoPro on top of the tree.  Or in the refrigerator.  Get creative.  Have fun!

Of course you’re buying a copy of  How to Shoot Video that Doesn’t Suck   for the video person in your family– but did you know the audio version is coming out any minute?  Watch this space!

 

Steve Stockman

Video is Never finished…

“Video is never finished.  It’s just taken away.”  I don’t remember where I first heard this old saying, but I wish I had said it.  Do I get to take credit for it if I repeat it a lot?  Probably not, sadly.

But I’ve been repeating it a lot this past week as we’ve just aired the 7th and final episode of the first season of Brew Dogs for the new Esquire Network.  And gosh darn it if it wasn’t pretty good  (if you missed episodes, you can watch on demand here).

But it wasn’t perfect.

I’m lucky there was an air date, because even as I watched it on TV, I was thinking, “You know, we could just cut that a little tighter…”  And because I work with a team of flaming perfectionists, we would have worked on it for weeks, spending time and money to play with alternative edits, add  funny bits, or change out shots.  Heck, we could have worked on it for another few months!  But fortunately, networks do not take kindly to missing air dates once they’ve, you know, told people the show is going to be on.  Thank God, or we’d still be working on it now.

You may be less fortunate (as I have also been) if you’re working on a video that’s doesn’t have a business deadline.  If you’re the boss, you can convince yourself that if you just shoot one more day…go back for a bit more b-roll…edit that last scene a little differently…add some effects…the video will be perfect.  Eventually.

This, of course, is a trap.  If you polish hard enough, you may find 100 alternate ways to cut your video.  But they won’t necessarily be better, just different.  By the time you’ve done four or five different versions you’ve probably found most of the interesting stuff.  After that, you’re just wasting time.  Maybe procrastinating, putting off that moment when people will see your work and judge it.

At that point, it’s time to ship.  Take the project away– from yourself.  Post it, hand it off.  Get rid of it.  Put it out there.  Stop telling people you’re “going to” and start telling them “you did.”

It will feel good.

Steve Stockman

Am I Using B-Roll Right?

I was once taught that B-roll is best cut in 3′s, but in this piece I couldn’t get that to work with the pacing on the dialogue. Does the edit feel forced in this piece?

What other “rules or tips” of editing would help me?

–Brian Wilcox

I am not a huge believer in “b-roll” as a concept. The name “b-roll” implies “not ‘A’ material.” It’s often thought of as extra stuff we shoot when there’s time that we’ll use to patch holes later.

In a truly great video, every single shot has focus, action and story. Anything that really is filler gets cut. You won’t find any “b-roll” in Gravity or Captain Phillips, for example. But you will find it randomly patching holes in bad reality TV.

As for the “rule” about using b-roll in 3′s– that’s a new one for me. I’m not a huge fan of rules in general, but I’m really unclear on how this particular rule could be assumed to help tell story or evoke emotion in all videos. Every video is different. I’d continue to trust your instincts and feel for each piece.

Rules aside, here are 4 tips that might improve the editing of this video:

1) Editing starts with the script. I got lost more than once in your narrator’s words. Can you simplify what he really means by branding? Think about your videos as poetry– even haiku. Fewer words can carry more impact if they’re better crafted, more evocative and surrounded by great images.

2) Every shot should have a purpose. How does each shot illustrate the speaker’s point? An image can amplify or conflict with the narrative. It can clarify, make jokes, show action or an emotional response. If a shot isn’t working for the story, cut it.

3) Edit ruthlessly. The opening 15 seconds is a montage of stunning images that tell us absolutely nothing. Your speaker could have been talking from frame one (maybe over some of the images) and we could have seen him much sooner. Every frame needs to convey information.

4) Insist on action in all shots- even “b-roll”. All strong shots have a hero, a beginning, middle and end. Cut the ones that don’t.

Great looking piece, Brian.  Nice work. If you re-edit, send it along and we’ll add it to the post!

Do you follow me on Twitter? Perhaps you should. 

Steve Stockman

Five Tips to Deal with Reviews and Reviewers

Part II of II.  Read Part I here.

Every artist faces critics.  And every artist faces choices about how to deal with them. Some claim to never read their reviews (Show of hands if you believe them.  Nobody?)  Others wallow in the bad reviews, ignoring the good. (Show of hands again– Everybody!)

Assuming that you (a) can’t stop yourself from reading your reviews and (b) don’t want to wallow, you might use these five tips to process reviews or other critique:

1) Pay attention– or not. You have the right to ignore critics.  Even if you can’t stop reading them, you don’t need to consider them once you’re done. You’re the artist.  If you don’t like what you hear or just don’t care to engage, stop here.  You created something.  You put it out there.  You don’t owe them anything more.

If you do want to think about your reviews, consider:

2)  How does the criticism make you feel? Don’t be victimized by anyone whose goal is to make you feel bad. Your video took time and effort to create, but any moron can scrawl a comment on YouTube in 10 seconds. If all they write is “Stoopid video” they don’t deserve your time or attention.

3) Critique the critic Jay Z doesn’t take his notes from a 70 year-old country music fan.  Similarly,  you should only pay attention to reviews that clearly come from someone who gets what you’re trying to do.  “I love your video except it should have been in Paris and about a woman instead of in the Wild West and about a horse.  And can she be a Rabbi?” suggests that the reviewer is not on the same page you are.

4)  Is there an idea here? The best criticism sparks ideas. If a comment like “I don’t understand why the girl doesn’t kiss the frog in the last scene” leads you to something interesting, great.  If a comment like “I’ve seen better” doesn’t, you can set it aside.

5) Are all the reviewers flagging the same issues?  Even the most experienced video creator can miss giant glaring flaws in their work.  Usually these flaws happen when we’ve interalized our work so deeply that we fill in thoughts that aren’t on the screen– we see more of our intent than a casual viewer will.  When your reviews all make the same point about one aspect of your video, that can be a clue that you missed something you meant to put in.

 More on critiques and criticism here.

 

 

Steve Stockman

How to Deal with Disappointing Reviews, Part 1

I’ve been a really crap video interviewer over recent months– shooting live at events, editing and uploading to YouTube same day– with no previous experience (‘always bite off more than you can chew’ is my motto.)  But here’s the question:

How do you deal with the disappointment when you get poor reviews?

–John from the UK

I was all ready to go with a long post about disappointing reviews and reviewers, and how artists are free to ignore criticism, and why should we have to put up with bad reviews when it’s hard enough to create, and…

…and then I re-read your post.

Let me instead speak up for anyone who clicked on your video. If you KNOW you are a “crap video interviewer” “with no previous experience”, why would you be “disappointed” with a bad review?  It seems like your real problem would be controlling elation when you get a good one!

I’m not, ever, going to tell you not to practice your interviewing and editing.  And OF COURSE your stuff isn’t going to be very good when you’re just starting out.  But I do want to speak out in favor of not inflicting bad practice work on others.  Teachers should see it, of course.  Maybe fellow students.  But even your spouse will be grateful if you spare him or her having to sit through your very early, very awful work.

The minute your narrative changes– the minute you ARE happy with your work– share your brains out!

Until then, please take this pledge and keep your work…yours.

Next time:  Part II (perhaps the least surprising “next time” tease in history.)

Steve Stockman

Video vs. Real Life

Several readers forwarded this video.

It’s a great example of the principle of intrigue. Notice how the video sets up a game with the viewer– how will writer Charlene DeGuzman’s key point be revealed in each shot?  Once we know what her point is, we watch in horror, recognizing our own behavior over and over.

Instead of telling us answers, telling us what to think, this video invites us in and allows us to think.  Getting your audience to draw its own conclusions is so much more powerful than explaining.

And the point she makes about real life vs. electronics?  I love that too.

Got a video you love? Send it along. If I post your video, you’ll win…um…you know…some admiration.  Maybe a little glory.  Nothing, actually, but it’s the thought that counts, right?

Steve Stockman

Video in the Classroom: Free Downloadable Lessons

Are you a teacher?  Do you know a teacher?  Have you ever had a teacher?  If so, read on:

It’s the beginning of a new school year.  Which means one more year of school projects shot on video.  And hours of misery for the teachers who have to watch them.  If only there was a way to make student video better.  If only someone would create a set of downloadable lessons that could turn students into little Steven Spielbergs in a few short hours.  And if only they were free.

Well, they are.  Five free lesson plans that will take the misery out of classroom video projects.  Teachers (and trainers– this works for corporations too!)  have been downloading in droves.  And why not?  Shouldn’t classrooms or corporate meetings be fun?

Follow these lesson plans and your students’ videos will be 100% better.  Or at least shorter.  Which is also usually better (see lesson 5).

Click this link to download the Video Bootcamp PDF.  100% Free.  Nothing to buy, no email address to leave, no hoops to jump through.

Please feel free to tweet or email the link to your favorite teacher!

 

 Teachers:  Questions on how to use video in the classroom?  Ask them here!

Steve Stockman