Mr Messy, filmmaking and other stuff they don't teach you in film school

Be adaptable and roll with the opportunities: One of the key lessons shared in this ep is the importance of being adaptable as a filmmaker. 

Sometimes, unexpected opportunities arise, like filming an unplanned interview when talent comes to town or encountering unforeseen delays.  By embracing these opportunities and rolling with the punches, you can create a better film and find greater satisfaction as a filmmaker. 🎬

Listen in to find out why Mr Messy and indie filmmaking have more in common than you might have ever thought.

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome back to this week's podcast number 82. Um, talking more today all about the things that they don't teach you at film school. So what does Mr. Messi and indie filmmaking have in common? Well, when you set out to create a film, you might think that it happens in a linear process. And I know that I absolutely thought this myself. I want all my ducks lined up, funding secured, crew engaged, script written, and schedule confirmed. Then when we roll camera, capture everything on the shooting schedule, and then get it into post-production. I'm pretty sure after the first completion of the first documentary I ever produced, I literally collapsed back in my chair and declared, next time the funding has to be lined up before we roll camera. Well, huh? Was I pretty green to think that that was even possible? It has never happened in that organized, linear way. And that used to just completely do my head in because I like things to be organized and straightforward. I'm always in a race to simplify. I hate complicated, time-wasting stuff. I like efficient. But that is just me. And I really had to let that go because filmmaking is not a straight line. It is not simple and it does not go to plan. Welcome to the Moonshine Moonshot Podcast. I'm your host, Sue Collins, and if you've landed here, it means you're wanting to find out more about how to make filmmaking a sustainable career. And you're also curious about how to make meaningful work that fills your cup. You're ready to learn how to make movies that matter, build a sustainable career, and have a positive impact on your audiences. So you are in the right place. Filmmaking has so many parts, and I'm sharing what I've learned over the past 15 years producing impact films that reach their intended audience and support real-world change. So let's get started. Filmmaking particularly is not compartmentalized into development, pre-production, production, post-production, delivery. It just doesn't work that way. It all happens at the same time. And I said that really slow and with emphasis because you've got to really take this on. Filmmaking, all the different bits all happen at the same time. And that's somewhat problematic when you are submitting to funding rounds or to government departments like Screen Australia because they want it all neat and tidy, lined up in the nice orderly way that makes sense and it's easy for them to assess, with budget set to a format and everything just as they like it. Honestly, I recently had to explain in great detail to an auditor how production had been happening during pre-production and also in some of the calendar period that was post-production. All I can say is thank goodness for timesheets, call sheets, and location agreements to prove the crew hours and the tasks that they were on. So honestly, keep your paperwork, folks, in case you ever get audited. If you could see a line drawing representing the concept of how a film comes together, you would have a drawing that looks something resembling Mr. Messi. You know the Mr. Men character from the kids' Mr. Man book series? Big pink, squiggly lines like kids' crayon that all overlap in a kind of big blob shape, a mess with arms and legs, and luckily a really nice big smile in the middle. Because thanks, Mr. Messi, you now represent filmmaking. And why am I telling you this? Well, there's a few reasons. One is to help you with expectations meeting reality. If you go into a film project expecting things to happen in a particular order, you're gonna hit a hard to accept reality. Things don't come together the way you might want them to. And that could really curb your enthusiasm. It could delay your progress, or worse, it could have you halt altogether and pursue other priorities. Because let's face it, when you're the one putting a film together and you're the indie filmmaker responsible for making it happen, it doesn't take very much going wrong to have to put things on hold. Then you get distracted, you focus on something else, and boom, six months have rolled past. Filmmaking requires that you be adaptable. And films come together in different ways and at very different times. Documentaries never run a tight, predetermined schedule. There are absolutely deadlines that you have to meet. There's crew availability to consider, talent schedules to accommodate, but things will move and shift a lot. Problems will arise and in places you would never expect, and you'll have your resilience tested again and again. And it's a really big difference between narrative fiction and documentary because scripted content, it is actually much easier to schedule and to follow a more consistent pathway. And you can plan, you know, small blocks of time over a few weeks or a couple of months to complete the production phase, whereas documentaries can film over months or even years, and then you piece them together. And that's why you might start editing footage that you've captured well before you have filmed the next scene. There could be months between shoots, and to keep things moving along, getting into post as you go can be really helpful. It's also really helpful for just knowing things like what footage you're missing if you need more overlay or additional interviews, archival photos or videos, and it just can really help you find the story to do some editing as you go. And that's the fun of filmmaking, and that's what pushes you to make better films, find new ways, explore new options, work with different people, have your thinking tested and your eyes opened. Oh, I was just looking for a place where I could learn everything I need to know to make an amazing film that changes the world. It's such a shame that that place doesn't exist. Oh what? Hang on, it does. Oh, if you're looking for inspiration, ideas, tools, and ways to learn how to make movies that matter, head to Moonshine Communications Academy over at Instagram and all your problems will be solved.

SPEAKER_00 7:06

Warning, results may vary depending on the questions, and success is not guaranteed. Always read the label Magic is anecdotal and the genie is not included.

SPEAKER_01 7:12

Now, another reason is that if you are rigidly stuck on a schedule, you'll miss opportunities. You'll be too busy with what you think should happen to be flexible when an unexpected opportunity comes up. For example, what if a key participant is coming to town, but you don't have them in your shooting plan for that week? And you don't want to book crew or find locations because you plan to see them interstate the following month. So you're gonna miss a great chance to film with them. That happened to us just last week. Phil, that I mentioned in an earlier episode, were filming his story on younger onset dementia and about his assistant's dog, Margot. And we don't actually have the project funded yet, but we started filming with Phil opportunistically whenever we've been in Sydney recently, and we found out that he was coming to Melbourne last week to see his daughter. And they were having a get together with friends, and it was a really amazing opportunity to film with him and his daughter because that doesn't happen all that often because Phil doesn't travel to Melbourne all the time because of the tyranny of distance. Now, unfortunately, Mike and I were already booked to be interstate filming for another project, and we could not change that plan, but one of our team went out and filmed with Phil instead. So you have to be flexible. Here's another example. A new project that we're filming called Conquering Skin Cancer. So I'm a producer and a presenter on this project, and a couple of months ago I had to have a small suspicious mole removed, and the result came back that it was a little more suspicious uh than my dermatologist would have liked. So not a cancer, but potentially it could have turned into something nasty. So for safety, my dermatologist decided that she wanted to take out what she called a margin, which meant another small procedure. So we took the opportunity and we filmed it. And weirdly, I was interviewing the dermatologist while she was doing the procedure, and this was not planned. How could I have known that I was going to develop a dodgy mold during this production? But there you go, you've got to be adaptable. Roll with the opportunities as they arise. It's going to help you make a better film and you'll be way more satisfied as a filmmaker. So as far as things that they don't teach you at film school go, I think all of this that I've just told you is up there. Your production mapped out will look like a lovely flow chart. It will be a work of art. But the reality, if you track it and you track the way it goes, it's more likely to be a hot pink Mr. Messy Squiggle mess. And that's okay. Just enjoy the process. So that's all I've got for you this week. But I do hope you'll join me again next week or head over to Instagram and find out what we're all up to at the Academy over there. So till next week, I'm your host, Sue Collins, and I will speak to you soon. Thank you for joining me today and every week here on the Moonshine Moonshot Podcast. If you're wanting a deeper dive into the topics being discussed on the show, then I would encourage you to head over to Moonshine Communications Academy.com and sign up for the weekly drop of moonshine via your email. Being on our newsletter community means we can support your filmmaking journey in a more tailored way as well as keeping you up to date with the resources we share on how to make movies that matter and so much more that we deliver inside your inbox every single week. So head over to Moonshine CommunicationsAcademy.com and at the bottom of the homepage you'll see a little box to add your email address and as a thank you for signing up, we'll also send you a bonus ebook to support your messaging. So voila, you'll be on the way to receive all the best content weekly.