You can use this article as a guide to making your own films.
Some of it might seem obvious and most if it will come along naturally but, it’s good to have a structure to work against.
We made The Butcher Man for a competition with a set of guidelines we had to stick to although they were very loose. It meant that we had to come up with an idea from scratch.
The Idea
Now normally, this comes first, how about we make a film, with a monster, we’ll make a really bloody horror film! We would usually have an idea as to what it’s generally about, who’s in it, what it looks like and most probably have a few cool scenes we want to have (we often start there and make the film around those!).
For this film we had to create all these from the monster idea. We thought about ghosts and psychological horror but we needed a monster. Matt happens to have a collection if strange items he’s come across over the years and these are a great source if inspiration. We found a pig mask and remembered a script he had made for it once.
We came up with the idea of a monstrously big man who, somehow inherited the head and face of a pig. Perhaps through years of farmers cross breeding this creature came into existence. But how would he survive in this world? Shops weren’t an option for him so he would have to fend for himself. After a while of thinking and coming up with horrific violent scenes we came away shocked at our own sense of macabre and with a strong script idea.
The Butcher Man Script
Here’s the Teaser / Test Shot and Titles
The Script
By this stage we had pretty much everything we wanted in our heads. We just needed to put it on paper. Sometimes we skip this stage and storyboard it straight away but it’s a good way of concerntrating our ideas, developing characters and sending to a cast to get their interest which is what we needed.
We start by thinking of a name for our film to encompass it. We thoght of pigs, meat, butchers. A man who is a butcher who is a pig. The Butcher Man was born.
It might change but it’s nice to put at the top of a blank page. We wrote down our ideas and as we had to write them down they became more detailed and vivid, the characters came to life with dialogue and personalities and backgrounds. I would reccomend putting down what ideas are fresh in your head, then build up characters and the rest will generally write itself. Remember, it’s not nessecaryly what goes into your script that makes it great it’s what’s behind the script, what doesn’t go in and what you know as a director or a writer that can make it good.
We had an idea of a complete script and phrases to say but for the short film, we only needed a section of it. To see what that was, watch it here.
Actors
You can compromise on most things in this section but actors are a part that are going to be really noticable if you use the same people over and over! They’re also the most difficult to get. You can ask your friends and a lot of them will probably ask you, but you need to be sure they are dedicated, don’t need insurance (sometimes you might want to cover them in toxic blood or have them jump off bridges, try not to hurt them!) and are going to be there at every shoot they are required.
We usually use our friends or try to get into an acting circle to prize some of their best. This is where knowing people gets you far, if you don’t know anybody don’t worry, find someone who does, join an acting school (we are always in our films anyway!), you can reuse actors once you get them in other projects so it’s a great investment. If you have some cash to spare go on a site like shootingpeople and bring some people down, act professional and buy them lunch and it might work out better for you.
Remember that the excitement level and momentum may be lost very quickly and you don’t want someone pulling out half way through. They also need to be flexible. With us, we have day jobs and committments and they will have as well which makes it difficult to get everyone together so set a shooting timeline. If they can’t make it, try finding someone else or make sure the others can work around them. Planning and organising is essential.
With The Butcher Man we had an awful incident on set with our main actress Hetty. Trying to stop a door with a sledge hammer ended up with a badly cut hand. With the house we were filming in due to be torn down in the next week we had to improvise. We could have either tried to keep the hand out of shot or rework the script but eventually we decided the only option was to find someone else. It wasn’t what we wanted and it was hard enough letting down our main actress but the show must go on. If we hadn’t, there wouldn’t be a film and we’d be letting everyone else down. We found a great actress, Sarah, and used Hetty’s shots for the opening scene. It worked out really well and we ended up with some amazing shots as well as a great film intro. Directing a film is all about changing, adapting and improvising but keeping the vision the same.
Props
Props make a lot of difference to the look of your film. They are also important for the script. Make sure you can get everything you need in time for the shoot or deviate your story to take them out. If you can, try and save money on props as they will eat up most of your cash. Sometimes though, you have to just bite the bullet and buy the real thing.
If someone you know is interested in clothes, ask them to kit out your actors as they’ll probably know more than you about where to find what you want. Tell them what you’re lookig for though obviously! Try using old clothes, charity shops or whatever way you can come up with to have a look for your film. For our last film Harmon’s Letters we spent a lot on army surplus clothes but have the opportunity to reuse them.
We find that props help our imaginations, having a good store of them let’s you wonder how to use them and where they would make an amazing story.
Storyboading
Now you have the ideas and the script, prioritise a few scenes that are technical or just important and start with them, you can storyboard the whole thing and that’s probably a good idea. We often think we know how it’s going to go in our heads, then get to the shoot and forget or improvise making us regret it. We like having a scene list so we don’t forget to put anything in and It’s a much better idea to have a record and a guide, even if things will be different on the day.
A good idea is to break your film into scenes, locations and shots. that way you do all your filming at one location in a day or two meaning you don’t have to go back. It sounds obvious, but this planning means you don’t have to shoot the film in sequence! Make yourself a shot list and tick off the ones you’ve done. Not so you don’t repeat them but so you know which ones you’ve left out. If you have an idea on the day, go with it, you can always cut down footage but you can never go and get more afterwards.
Pre-Production
At this point the story is complete and the schematics are in place. Films don’t often make it this far in our experience so if they do, they’re worth holding on to. As you can see we had already made a test shot to know we were onto a good thing, we also had a competition entry to work with so we knew who and what this film would consist of.