The film industry is an unforgiving and extremely competitive industry. In this industry the slightest mistake can end up costing you big time and interestingly a lot of the mistakes are made during the film production stages. Even some of the most experienced people make these mistakes which ends up costing them their careers in some cases. Below we look at the most common mistakes and how to avoid them.
Influence of the actor
We probably hear a lot about new films when there is a big name actor associated with it and who overshadows the whole project. The problem with small film production houses or people casting big name actors is that they may be too polite to actually ask the actor to work the way they want them to. Also, some may even exhaust a fair portion of their budget on hiring a big name actor and then have to hire friends and family members that quite frankly ruin even a good idea. Your decision to hire an actor should be made on the type of story you want to tell and while the leading cast should be good the rest also need to keep things professional.
Shooting a scrip of your own
Many people who are new to film production may feel tempted to write their own scripts and then film accordingly. Some may be so committed that their script and filming is excellent that even people close by like friends and family members may be afraid to tell them that it’s a bad idea. In the film industry it is important to be critical but it can be hard to be critical if you’ve spent two months of your own time drafting a script. When most people are shooting their own script they will often detour from all the industry development processes plus conveniently avoid all the needed criticism which is not good to begin with. Yes with your own script it is possible to avoid delays and frustration but it is important that you get feedback on the screenplay or you may end up leading all the crew, cast and investors off the proverbial financial cliff. This is obviously not good for your career.
Casting close friends and acquaintances
This is often seen as an easy route during film making i.e. coercing your friends to take up roles. You may certainly find it easier to get your friends to take on mundane roles or even good ones as opposed to hiring a professional actor but it’s not good for business. Casting friends is a film production trap which can go terribly wrong in most cases because your friends cannot act and when they do the terrible acting is going to be hard to criticize so you’re unable to offer any good direction without tainting your relationship with them. So, save yourself time and a horrible review by hiring good actors or you’ll just end up wasting lots of money and risking ever being considered a film maker again.
Running into copyright issues
Interestingly this is a very common yet deadly film production mistake that many people including some experienced people may sometimes make. You can run into copyright issues when your film shows the logo of a vehicle, the name of a business or a bar but without the permission of the business. This means that if you have a Hyundai which is being driven by your actor who goes to kill drug addicts, you need to make sure that Hyundai is OK with this, because even though you may own the car you do not own the right to show the logo of that vehicle in your film. Leading film makers like Australia based Tom Haramis advises that people seek permission from a business’s legal department which is usually located at most large business’s headquarters and not the local car lot as it is commonly perceived. If you don’t get permission you have two options the first being either physically cover the logo of the vehicle or do it during post production. Either way it shouldn’t be shown regardless of what you may think or you’ll have a lawsuit on your hands to deal with.
Citations:
- Tutorial: Video Production Basics
Featured images:
- License: Royalty Free or iStock source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principal_photography#mediaviewer/File:Newark-film-production.jpg
- License: Royalty Free or iStock source: http://pixabay.com/en/film-production-movie-production-237406/
Mark is a film maker with over twenty years of experience. He learnt film production at a very early age but later attended acting and film school. This led him to start working on a number of commercial projects for leading production houses. Today he runs his own film studio and write extensively about film production.
