Keeping TV Affordable Story
DIRECTOR vs. DP.
Hiring a DP is absolutely essential. Hiring a Director is not. The DP—Director of Photography—gives a spot its look. A Director can add a unique vision (although sometimes not your vision). And with careful pre-production, most limited-budget spots can be done without a director, especially if there is no on-camera talent to direct. Put in perspective, you can hire a world-class Hollywood DP for the same day rate as a local, low-to-mid-level Director.
SOUND IMPROVES THE PICTURE.
Steven Spielberg spends twice the money most directors spend on sound production. Why? He knows that the THUD foreshadowing the T-Rex can be scarier than the beast itself. Great sound completes the picture at a fraction of the cost.
IS IT 35, 16 OR 24P.
Today, the difference is more in the eye of the professional—not the average viewer. We recently bid-out a project on film and video. Film stock, processing and transfer came to $18,000. Video—under $100. High definition 24P video is now used in major motion pictures. When lit like film and color corrected like film, it can take a trained eye to detect the difference.
POST-PRODUCTION. AVID.
Final Cut. They’re not just for editing any more. These are creative tools that can add a new dimension to a spot. Effects, transitions, boarders, animation, plus all the tools in PhotoShop.
STILL vs. LIVE ACTION.
Ken Burns’ documentaries showed how photographs can be as dramatic as live action when you move across them, into them and out of them.
- Up close and far away
- For original photography, close-ups and long shots without people work best.
- Two shots are better than one
- By slightly moving-in or out of one photo, while dissolving to another shot at a different angle, the eye sees motion in all axis, like a zoom & truck or zoom & pan.
- That picture sounds real
- By adding a rich sound effects track while moving on a photo, you create the illusion of a true on-location shot.
STOCK-UP!
Want a romantic night shot of Paris? Want tomatoes ripening on the vine before your eyes in time-lapse photography? Still or live action, the world of stock images has become a sophisticated business. And every month stock houses acquire boxes of vintage film, left-overs from movies and documentaries’and some filmmakers are shooting footage just for stock use.
KILLER TRACKS.
Stock music is now big business. Even name-brand musicians are favoring this ready-made market over the cut-throat competition of the record biz. From major orchestral arrangements to catchy hooks you’d listen to at home, stock music can make a small budget sound bigger.
NON-UNION ACTORS
Following the Law of Unintended Consequences, the 2000 Actors strike created a new generation of talented, non-union actors who work at fixed rates, without residuals. From stage performers and comedians seeking day pay, to lawyers and housewives with Second City or University training—they’ve made it affordable to use on-camera talent without breaking the bank every 13 weeks.
BRING IT TO LIFE—ANIMATED IT.
Animation is a broad term covering Disney-type cell drawings to pre-packaged computer-tricks. There are now so many talented people pouring out of schools, that the cost of this digital wizardry has become competitive. From dancing logos to constructing a city in seconds, animation can no longer be ruled out because of budget.
BLUE SCREEN PUTS YOU THERE.
So, you want to shoot somewhere your money can’t reach? All you need is a picture of the place and a sheet of blue paper. By properly lighting the talent to match the image, you can now do on a small budget what Hollywood has been doing on the big screen—putting any one, any where.