Ep. 61 Why you need to capture still images for your documentary production!

There's more than just filming needed to make a movie - you've got to know how to take production stills!

And it's not just for some fun photos to show your friends (as great as that is!). So in this Moonshine Moonshot, we're looking at WHY you need to take stills, how to get the perfect action shot for a poster, different ways to utilise behind-the-scenes pics and the key to getting the hero shot for your publicist. 

Bit more to it than you thought, right? Don't worry, we've got you.

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:03

Welcome back, movie makers. If this is your first time listening, welcome to the Moonshine Moonshot. This is your ultimate guide to making a documentary film. In the last few episodes, I have been doing a deep dive into production, and in this episode, I am continuing on that trajectory and breaking down all you need to know about capturing stills. Because sometimes a screenshot just isn't going to cut it. Now, if you work in feature film, often they hire a professional photographer to turn up to shoots and take stills specifically for that production. But documentary, this often doesn't happen and it often gets forgotten because it is another thing that you need to do on shoot. So that's what this episode is all about. Stills, photos, why you need them. Five reasons you've got to capture stills for your documentary film. And why am I the one to tell you about this? Well, I am so glad you asked. I am Sue Collins and I'm your host on the Moonshine Moonshot podcast on making movies that matter. And I'm also part of the team behind Moonshine Agency, which is an impact film production house producing multi-award-winning films that have positive social impact. Impact films are designed to take an audience from passive viewing to being an active participant. It gets them doing something, getting involved, and being part of a solution. Now, the solution that I've got is that I've recognised that learning how to craft films is a challenging process. When I was just starting out, it was really hard to find information and learn about filmmaking without formal study or without being under the wing of a mentor. And I was very lucky to have some great ones. So that meant that I was able to avoid pitfalls like being pigeonholed, running out of funding, or simply not understanding the business side of the industry. But for others, I have seen people, many people with a lot of talent, give up or simply move on to more stable work. But my hope is to see the industry thrive here in Australia and beyond. And I recognize that to do that, I need to be more open with my skills sharing. So I'm doing that. I'm sharing more of what I have learned through many years of filmmaking through this podcast, The Moonshine Moonshot, and also with online courses over at the Moonshine Communications Academy. So make sure you check out the Academy, particularly the resource section where you can access free downloads like check sheets and ebooks. And we're constantly trying to build that out. So there's lots more. So make sure you keep checking in regularly. And if you haven't come across them already, there are some great online digital courses also available through the Academy, such as Define Your Ideal Audience, which is a course designed to help you figure out who your project is best suited to well before you even roll camera, and that is gold to market your film downstream. But anyway, today it's all about stills. Why you need stills? And I'm going to give you five reasons. And the first reason is firstly, you're going to need stills for your promotional material, and that means posters, thumbnails, websites, social media posts, and any other advertisements you might run. In this digital age, taking a screenshot does seem like an optimal way around this. And it is a last resort that you can fall back on. But it really depends on the quality of the screenshot you capture, and this can vary from device to device. So I would highly encourage you to hire a photographer to take as many stills as possible. But as I said, in documentary, that is not always practical. So I actually think just have you know a DSLR stills camera in your kit so it's on hand and ready for any shoots that you're on. And it's gonna make it so much easier for you when it comes to the other side of your filmmaking, which is releasing your film and all the promotion that goes with that. Look, I have spent hours scrolling back and forth through footage, trying to capture a suitable screenshot that I can use as an image, even just on social, but it is so complicated. I mean, you you think you've got the frame perfect and then someone's eye is slightly closing, or they've got their eyes closed, or someone's arm is blurry, even if the other person smiles and looks perfect, or someone starts to look away, or whatever it is. It's just it's actually really hard to get a freeze frame on footage when people are speaking, because when people are speaking and moving, it's just so much harder to get a pose for a still. So, as I said, it's a fallback, but better is just to get that still shot in the first instance. Reason number two, the hero shot. And by this, I mean all those slick images. Like, you know, whenever you jump onto Netflix, for example, there's you know, uh one example that comes to mind is uh, you know, Ryan Gosling facing one way, looking over his shoulder to Carnage and Mayhem behind him. You know, I guess that's a very specific example, but it's an example of a posed image. And it's unlikely that that was a screenshot. They've actually got him to pose, probably even on a green screen, to get that image specifically promoting the film. But of course, you don't just need these types of shots for epic action films. Header images are needed for every film. But a hero image is more than just your headers and your thumbnails, they are really important for your poster artwork as well. So I highly recommend you thinking about your hero image and what type of shot that you'll want for that throughout the filming production part so that you can make sure you've got it when you get to post and you really need it. So that was reason number two. Moving on to reason number three. You're gonna have to get everyone to strike a pose. You're gonna need a range of different shots, and the number one I would suggest is headshots of all your cast and all your participants. So, for these, you're gonna want a generous selection of high definition images to choose from. So, a great time to capture the headshots of your talent or participants is immediately after their interview while the lights are all still set and they're already in front of you, and it only takes a few extra minutes to get them to pose and take a range of shots. And voila, you have captured the headshots. And in my previous podcast about locations, I spoke to a film that Mike and I were recently doing, which was a shoot that we did in Sydney. And immediately after that interview with our participant, we captured several stills, which was while we still had the lighting set up and the participant was in position. And doing at the end like that was a really simple way to get those types of pictures. And you can see the example of what I'm talking about if you jump over to the companion video for this episode 61 on the Moonshine Moonshot channel on YouTube. Another reason you need stills is behind the scenes shots. So, this is reason number four taking lots of pictures on location of your participants on location, of your crew on location. Really useful for social media promotion, for your press kit, and sometimes that could form part of your poster. So you could check out a recent title we produced called Live the Life You Please, which is actually being released very soon. And there's an example of how we used a location as a background in the poster. We also used a still image of the participants, and then the graphic designer put everything together as layered artwork to achieve that. So it was a whole variety of different stills created the poster. So check out the Live the Life You Please poster for an example, and you can do that, just head over to live the lifeyouplease.com and you will see what I'm talking about there. But never forget the fun content that can be made with behind the scenes imagery. The great thing about behind the scenes picks is that they don't need the same level of quality as the hero shot. You can just get your crew to take shots on their smartphones. And I can say from personal experience, behind the scenes images are so useful for social media, and the audience loves a sneak peek behind the curtain, so definitely try and capture those. Now, reason number five, think big. The other place your images are needed is everywhere. You might be managing this yourself or through a publicist, but getting your stills into every form of media is a brilliant way to publicize your film. You know, often if you're sending an article suggestion to an editor and you have really high-quality still images that they can use, it is going to be so much more attractive to them to publish your article with those images than if they have to try and find images themselves. So always be thinking about what's going to be good for publicity in regards to stills photography. So there you go. There's the five big reasons that you need stills on your production. So there's the hero image that you're going to need. There's stills for your promotional and publicity. There is the headshots you're going to need of all your different cast and crew. There's behind the scenes of your locations and of your participants on locations. And there's the stills you're going to need for adding to any publicity that you do. So don't forget, it can be chaos on production. Taking photos can easily slip through the cracks and be forgotten. So the best way around this is to schedule it. Here I go again. I know. Schedule. Put it in your call sheet. Make sure that it's got some way to trigger you to remember to do it. And the last helpful hint that I have is when you're taking your jaw dropping poster shots, be sure to include a decent amount of negative space. Actually, this goes across the board for whenever you're capturing stills. Always get some that's got negative space so that you've got somewhere to put titles and graphics when you're using those images for other purposes. So there you go, folks. Hopefully that was all the info you need on why to encourage you to take stills photos throughout your production. But for the moment, relax, take a break, watch a movie, and then jump back here for next Tuesday when I am doing another episode of The Moonshine Moonshot. And I am going to be talking about managing your production. So more on that next week. Hope you head back over and listen in then. Hit subscribe on whatever podcast platform you're listening on. And don't forget, you can always reach me by DMing me on social media and it's Moonshine Communications Academy. Look forward to speaking to you next week.