Collaborating and Contaminating

Filming on set of Follow The Crows (by JWatts Video & Photography)

Film-making is a collaborative process, and it's important, when you're making a film, to not only work with people who are good at their jobs, but who you get on with and can build a relationship with. Some of the more successful film-makers of the past often use the same cast and crew, and this is because they have built a good working relationship with those people. They trust each other, the know what each other can do and they know that together they can make a decent final product.

Which is all well a good when you have a budget that matches your ambition, but when you're working on low-budget independent features like Follow The Crows, things become a little more difficult to control. We can't just go and get the best of the best, we have to be a little more lenient, but that doesn't mean we can choose the people most suited to the role, it just means you have to do a hell of a lot of research...

When it comes to a cast, they were compiled of actors and actresses that we had either worked with before, in some capacity, or who's work we had seen and enjoyed. We held auditions for some of the principal roles, but we also wrote the script to a lot of actors before they had even been told that there was a project in the works.

Other times there were actors who we had in mind who then, when they read the script, either weren't interested or just didn't fit the bill. This was most hard hitting when it came to people whom the character was specifically written for, but we can't let that get us down. One of the important things about film-making (and this is true of big budget productions or smaller affairs, like Follow The Crows) is that you have to be able to roll with the punches and make the best of your situation.

So, when an actor wasn't interested or just didn't "fit" the dynamic or feel we were going for, we'd start hunting around again. Then we'd write or rewrite the part around an actor who did work.

Some people would see this as a sort of contamination, like the script, and by extension the entire film, is moving away from where it should be, from that original vision. But I've never see it as that, to be me film-making is very much about making changes to the original idea, building on it, growing on it. I've had many experiences in previous work where someone has suggested a change and the film has become the better for it. Obviously the director's word is final, but a good director, like a good boss, accepts and knows when someone is better than them.

If that's contamination then I'm all for it.

One of the most important parts of directing is to know when the script and dialogue isn't working. An actor has a job, and that job isn't to act out the character as it is on the page, it's to become the character, to know the character inside out and to inhabit every fiber of them. If that sounds pretentious it's because it is, but it's also very true, and if an actor doesn't feel like one of their lines is working quite right or that they're character might react slightly differently, then you need to be prepared to work with them to make sure it's as good as it can be.

Filming on set of Follow The Crows (by JWatts Video & Photography)

This also goes for your crew. When hiring a crew for an independent feature like Follow The Crows, we had to be both picky and open to change. Picky in that we wanted a specific look or a specific sound, but open to change because there are people who might not be willing to work on a low-budget affair.

Luckily for us almost all of our first-choices said yes, and so we've managed to assemble a pretty stellar group of people to help bring this project to like. But that won't always be the case and you have to be prepared to work with what you can get to make sure that the film still works as well as it possibly can. Remember, everyone here is pushing for the same end result, a damn fine final feature.

So, with that in mind, this post serves as both a little advice on film-making and a very big shout out and thank you to all the wonderful people who have agreed to be a part of this very ambitious, very insane independent feature film. Follow The Crows will be excellent, and it's thanks to all of you.

When you have nothing, something is everything.