Lesson 2 - Action!
Hi boys 'n girls! This here is the second installment of free film school. In this lesson, we're going to deal with what is probably the singular most foremost thing to production you a victorious filmmaker; absolutely getting off of your duff, picking up a camera and just doing it!
Guinea Pigs Sounds
Matter of fact, if you already have a camera of some sort, why don't you take a itsybitsy break and go out and shoot something. Go ahead! I'll still be here when you get back. Then we can talk story some more, but right now, go shoot!
Okay, you're back. Wasn't that fun? That's the best infer for doing anything, you know? Having Fun. Matter of fact, that is the incommunicable formula; Fun equals Success!....but, there I go jumping ahead again.
You know there are so many worn out old quotes about motivation, but some of them are absolutely true. Woody Allen said: "80% of success is just showing up". There are so many wannabe filmmakers who think about it, talk about it, read about it, dream about it, write about it... But they never absolutely do it! They never show up for that first shoot.
The longest journey begins with a singular step, and the most victorious filmmaker must begin with shooting his first film or video. Today with high-definition cameras even in smart-phones, there's absolutely no infer why whatever who wants to do it, can't make a movie. It all boils down to; do you really, really, absolutely want be a filmmaker? Yes, you do? Ok, Why? What is your motivation? I'll give you a hint for the best infer there is; starts with an "F"... And ends with an "N"... The only thing missing is U! Corny, huh? I know. Well, this film school is free, but you will have to pay the price of having to put up with my lame sense of humor and godawful puns. Still cheap.
So today, I want to recapitulate the infer why I began production films. I frame if I expound to you how a guy who never even picked up a video camera in his whole life suddenly decided to make a film that went on to sell enough to, not only recover output costs, but to generate a steady revenue stream and continue selling all over the world, maybe that will inspire you to do the same. I roughly entitled this segment of free film school "How I Did It". I'm specifically mental about that scene in Young Frankenstein where Gene Wilder finds a book in his grandfather's library. I love me some Mel Brooks movies! I frame "Action!" is more acceptable for film school to encourage folks to plainly take that first step... So, Action!
I got started in digital video output in a very strange way. Not absolutely because I wanted to, I was ordered to. You see, I was managing a few restaurants in Waikiki as Director of Operations. One day,. The owner of the restaurants, my boss, told me to make a Tv commercial. He wanted me to hang a large flat screen Tv at the front entry of the bistro and run a market on it, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. He also told me to get it done as fast as I could and, oh yeah, don't spend too much money!
Well, I had never made a market before, but I knew man who produced a documentary on the Waikiki Beach boys and I knew he could film and edit. So, I called Eric Jordan, the talented producer, cameraman, and editor of "Waikiki; Riding the Waves of Change" and of the soon to be released documentary, "Paving the Wave" Eric is also one heck of a nice guy. Eric lives in Yuba City, California, but he just happened to be arrival over to Hawaii in a incorporate weeks.
Eric listened to me and agreed to film and to edit the market for a reasonable price. I was happy. My over bearing boss would be off my back. I could relax. Then Eric said those fateful words "but you have to write the script and direct it. You can send me the script by email".
Okay......
Well, I had never written a script before, but I went ahead and started writing one. I just wrote what I opinion the camera should see, step by step. I tried to give exact directions on paper for how the camera should move in or move out, fade in or fade out, and sent it to Eric by email. Now, of course, I did not have a clue about traditional script format, or that I should be using courier font, or really, any kind of clue at all. I just knew what I wanted the market to look like and I put it down on paper. Sometimes ignorance can be a plus. You don't know how you're "supposed" to do something, so you just go ahead and do it!
Eric read the script and he liked it, so we set up the shoot. The day before the shoot, the owner gave me his input "I want you to show a close-up shot of the lobster tank and have a waiter dipping live lobsters out of the tank!"
Well, that would have been all fine and dandy, except the cheap bastard I worked for had a grungy looking lobster tank 20 years old. It was tucked in the projection of a dim and dingy waiter station, all built up with crusted salt. The damn thing didn't look at all challenging in real life. It right on would not look good as a close-up on a big screen Tv!
I told Eric what the owner wanted and I said "Eric, we can't do this, that firkin' thing is nasty, but I have an idea for something that will show we have live lobsters, and it will give the video a sense of place for all the tourists!" The day of the shoot, we took a big pail of salt water and put two huge lobsters in it. We walked down to the beach and gave them to Fritz, a handsome Waikiki surf instructor. "Fritz", I said "if you help me out, you can keep them both and treat your girlfriend to a lobster evening meal tonight when you get off work."
Fritz put on my mask and snorkel, waded out from the beach, dunked under the water and we filmed him some times, arrival up out of the ocean with two live and kicking Maine lobsters in his hands, big smile on his face. During the shoot we had some outtakes of Fritz cavorting around like a school kid with those poor crustaceans. He was waving them around, and production fun of his co-workers. He shouted "This is my friend, Lumpy and this is my friend Bruce!" The fact that we we're all laughing and playing around made the whole thing seem, not like work, but just like having fun at the beach.
Eric and I shot some more typical Hawaii shots of palm trees and canoes (Eric referred to these as "B-Roll Shots"), then we went back to the bistro and shot the chef chopping veggies, flipping food around in a skillet with flames, and some shots of happy customers at a table. Everyone had fun with this shoot too. I held two shop lights for Eric and watched him with his camera work while we were in the kitchen. Eric said the incandesent bulbs would add more warmth than than just the flourescents in the kitchen ceiling. He was right. At the end of the shoot I could not believe how incredibly happy I was. It was absolutely fun for me to do something other than waiter schedules, inventory, schmoozing customers, overseeing cooks, and schlepping grub.
Eric and I passed the footage back and forth by email and he edited the market agreeing to my direction. A incorporate weeks later, Eric sent me the Dvd. I popped it in the Dvd player for the Tv that I had mounted and started playing it at the entry of the restaurant. I was amazed at the output ability that we had achieved with one digital video camera, non-professional talent, and lowly shop lights! Folks walking by the bistro stopped in their tracks and watched the whole thing. Many of them came inside to dine. It played over and over in a loop and firm increased by 30% overnight!
My boss was so happy with the results, he told me to make an additional one market for our other bistro down the street and mount a large flat screen Tv outside that entry too. I called Eric and he told me the same thing "Well, I'm absolutely arrival over to Honolulu again soon. Sure, I'll do it, but you have to write a script and direct it again. By the way, I absolutely liked the way the last shoot worked out so well, you're pretty good at this!" I had to admit too, I was having great fun writing and directing.
I was like Frankenstein's Monster with a big huge smile on his green face when he discovers fire: "Arrgggh, Creativity Good!"
The next market we made came out looking equally impressive. This time, I started picking Eric's brain a itsybitsy more about his camera work, about video editing, and about his experiences as filmmaker. I didn't absolutely know it, but the film bug had just bitten me. I knew I was having a blast, but I didn't know that I was hooked.
About this time, I began to contact some burnout and disillusionment with my chosen work as bistro manager. I had been working 6 days a week, working every holiday, working late nights for over twenty years. I was commonly on call by phone 24/7. I was permanently used and abused by a megalomaniac bistro owner who didn't seem to give a rodent's derriere how many millions of dollars I had made him. He would call me late at night, waking me up from a dead sleep, just to tell me to do something that had just popped into his head. Something he could just have absolutely sent me an email about, or called me in the morning. Final straw? He even tried to get me to do his son's school homework report!
One day, while waiting for some menus to desist printing at Kinko's, I started reading a book on sale by the counter to kill some time. It was written by a guy named Timothy Ferris. The book was called "The Four Hour Work Week" and it absolutely put things in perspective for me. It made me interrogate exactly why I was busting' my hump for man else, when I should be trying to maximize my own gain. It made me realize that I had been sacrificing any ability of life for quite some time. Here I was living in Hawaii, but when did I have time off to enjoy the beach? When I did get a day off, or took a few days off for "vacation", I was still chained to the cell phone. My over-all salary looked pretty good, but when I averaged it out per hour, I barely made minimum wage! My blood pressure was straight through the roof, I was pissed off most of the time, and when I got home, I knew I wasn't much fun for my spectacular, wife, Jayne.
It absolutely didn't make a lick of sense. Especially, when at the end of the day, I was completely and utterly expendable. I had been at this game long enough to have seen, first-hand, that bistro supervision is a capricious career. One small down-turn in the cheaper and a corresponding drop in sales, most bistro owners will cut whatever they can to articulate profitability for themselves. Usually, that means the guy at the top is substituted with man cheaper. I ended up putting the book on my bosses tab and taking it back to the bistro to read.
As I read more of this excellent itsybitsy book, I read about how to generate revenue streams by inventing and marketing niche products based on your own personal knowledge or skills. I came upon a challenging episode about a woman who decided to generate an revenue stream by producing a "How To" Dvd.
She was into rock climbing and yoga. So, she had paid a videographer friend a incorporate hundred bucks to help her yield a uncomplicated Dvd entitled "Yoga for Rock Climbers". She made herself a uncomplicated website and by self distributing the Dvd there, she created an revenue stream generating a source of revenue for as long as she cared to sell it. The goal was to have a semi-passive income. Working only four hours a week looked extremely desirable and somewhat achievable. I started thinking, Hmmm; maybe I could do the same exact thing? But what kind of skill or knowledge could I use to generate a "How To, Instructional" Dvd?"
I was sitting in a projection booth of the bistro at the time. I looked around at the place and racked my brain. A tiny glimmer of an idea began in my brain. I began to ask myself foremost questions. Who coordinated the construction of this huge victorious bistro from the ground up? Me. I took a long look at the competent waiters as they gracefully moved from table to table. Who designed the training schedule when we first opened? Me. Who took these young college kids with no customer aid skills and turned them into extremely paid professionals? Me. Who was the one who wrote the bistro aid hand-operated line by line, drawing from over twenty years contact in the business? Me. What exactly did that make me? Why, that made me an specialist in bistro service! Suddenly, the proverbial light bulb went off right over my head. For me, it was a "eureka moment", and World Class bistro aid training Dvd was born!
I called Eric in California and said "Eric, how much would it cost me to hire you to co-produce a bistro aid training Dvd, I'll write the script, I'll direct it, I'll contribute the talent, I'll contribute the location, and I'll pay for all things out of my own pocket, all you have to do is film and edit it."
Eric started getting excited and gave me a frame that seemed to be a reasonable amount to me. I agreed. He said he opinion he should get a 30% residual on future profits. Agreed. He also said that I would have to fly him out from California. Agreed. I booked his flight and we were suddenly in pre-production!
I decided that I had better try to learn more about what I was getting into, so I went to Barnes & Noble. A book entitled " Film School" by some guy named Michael W. Dean caught my eye. It cost 30 bucks. an additional one book by an additional one guy named Jason J. Tomarac looked challenging too. It was called "The Power Filmmaking Kit". This one cost .99. I bought them both. So far, I had spent 0 on airfare and bucks on knowledge. I guess I was fully committed now.
The bad thing about managing restaurants is that you have to be there. All. The. Time. That doesn't mean that you have to all the time be working on bistro business, you just have to be there to keep an eye on things. The good thing about managing restaurants is you can sit at the back of the dining room in a projection booth with your laptop. To all intents and purposes it looks like your working on list spreadsheets or waiter scheduling, but what you're absolutely doing is writing your script and planning output schedules.
Here is one of the most foremost things that I learned from The 4 Hour Work Week. Until you can find a way to dispose it so that you can be self employed and have passive money streams, you will probably need to have a day job. The trick is to make your job work for you.
I know this is probably going to sound unethical right off the bat, but hear me out. If you ask most workers if they are paid enough for the work they do, or if they have job security, or if they are appreciated, they will probably respond no. If you ask them if they feel they are being taken benefit of by the firm they work for, most citizen would probably respond yes.
Now I have heard tell of some employers who absolutely do compensate citizen very well for their needful time, employers who absolutely do care about the employees enough to allow them ability of life. If you are lucky enough to work for one of those employer's, well then use your time off to write your script. If you're like I was, with no time off, and a boss who wants you to do his son's homework, well you gotta do what ya gotta do. Director Robert Rodriguez wrote in his book "Rebel Without a Crew" that he checked himself in as a human guinea pig for curative experiments twice in order to fund his first movie, "El Mariachi". He still has two pukas in his arm where they injected "speed curative drugs". You gotta do what you gotta do to fund your first movie, but my way doesn't hurt so much.
I decided that what I had to do was write a script and start my own business. I would call the training film World Class bistro Service. From that, I decided that I would call my firm World Class Productions Llc. Following Timothy Ferris' instruction, I went on-line and registered my business. Then, I walked over to Bank of Hawaii and opened a firm account. Suddenly, the tables had turned. My evil manager was paying me to work at my own company! I smiled all the way to the bank.
World Class Free Film School - chapter 2 - Action!How my guinea pigs handle loud noises! Tube. Duration : 0.93 Mins.Guinea pigs behaviour when the Hoover is going!
Keywords: Hoover, Loud, Noise, Guinea, Pig, C&C, Cage, Cubes, Coroplast, Corotherm, Piggiepigpigs, Chilling
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