Ep. 62 Solving documentary production challenges: Troubleshooting tips!

Making a movie can be a daunting task, and there are many potential mishaps that can derail your production. 

In this video, we'll share the top tips and tricks we've picked up over our many productions to help you avoid disaster!

Including (but not limited to!)
-Fighting nature
-Sick crew
-tricky talent
-and faulty equipment 

Whether you're a seasoned filmmaker or just starting out, this video is a must-watch for anyone looking to avoid movie production mistakes. 



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https://www.moonshinecommunicationsacademy.com/blog



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LinkedIn Company Page Moonshine Communications Academy  https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/moonshine-communications-academy

#filmproduction #location  #documentaryfilm

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:03

Hello filmmakers, welcome back. Now, as the old saying goes, hope for the best and prepare for the worst. Now, depending on whether you're an optimist or a pessimist, you might hear that quite differently. But I find it a key philosophy when approaching filmmaking production because let's face it, anything that can go wrong will go wrong. And I have had some doozies over the years. So this podcast and the next couple following are all about troubleshooting for documentaries. So hopefully you can learn from my mistakes and everything that I've experienced in what can and frankly will go wrong. Now, don't you worry about it too much because myself and everyone at the Moonshine Communications Academy are here to help you on your journey. And we have overcome some pretty massive obstacles in our time. So I will share those with you as well. And why am I the one telling you about all this? Well, I am glad you asked. I'm Sue Collins and I'm your host on the Moonshine Moonshot podcast on making movies that matter. I'm also part of the team behind Moonshine Agency, an impact film production house producing multi-award-winning films that have a positive social impact. Impact films are films that 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. I've recognized that learning how to craft films is a challenging process. And when I was just starting out, it was very hard to find information and learn about filmmaking without doing formal study or without being under the wing of a mentor. So avoiding pitfalls, being pigeonholed, running out of funding, and simply not understanding the business side of the industry has meant that over the years I have seen 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've got to be much more open with my skills sharing so that you can learn from my experiences. And I've decided to do that through the Moonshine Moonshot online courses at the Moonshine Communications Academy. So make sure you check out the Academy, particularly the resources section, where you can access free downloads and check sheets and ebooks. And if you haven't come across them already, you can also do some great online courses, also available through the Academy, such as the Define Your Ideal Audience course, which helps you figure out who your project is best suited to well before you ever roll camera, and that is gold for any marketer. So, how do we kick off troubleshooting for documentary? Because there's just so many things that can go wrong. And the thing is with that, I'm just gonna premise that with they can go wrong, but you can usually fix them and sort them out, and you will still make your film. That is how I have made my films for the past 15 years. You just gotta keep going, and this is where tenacity comes into it. And especially if you make films the way I do, and much of it is done out in the world traveling and on location, you are almost certain to come up with tech issues, and so that's what I'm gonna kick off with. It's just the nature of the beast. So my advice is to be as prepared as you can, and you know, you never really know what's gonna go wrong, but there are some simple things you can have in your kit that can help get you out of a jam. Things like good lens cleaners for your lenses so that you don't have smears on the lens. That is a very important one. That should just be a stock standard one. So I hope you've got that in your kit. And another thing is something like a sun guard, and they're great little attachments that you can have that go over the monitor. So when you're filming outdoors, if it's really bright, sometimes it can be really, really hard to see the monitor, but you can get these great little guards at any camera store that sit over the monitor and that helps you to see, which means you're not spending the entire shoot trying to look through the viewfinder, which can get pretty taxing after a while. So another helpful hint when it comes to troubleshooting for your gear is to bring spares. So if you're filming, for example, in a really hot environment, and I have experienced this one quite a few times, particularly in countries like India and filming in the Northern Territory, it gets really hot. And if your camera is sitting in the sun, they might overheat and then they just shut down. There's nothing you can do about it, you've just got to wait till the camera cools down, get it into a shady spot until it gets into gear again. So to avoid that, firstly, try not to leave your camera exposed to direct sun in really hot weather if you can avoid it, or have an umbrella that you can hold over it to shade it. Um, and the other thing that can happen in hot weather is the batteries go flat very quickly compared to normal. So make sure you have lots of spare batteries for your camera, for your sound gear, for everything that needs batteries. Make sure you have fully charged spares on hand because they will go flat much more quickly than you would expect. So keeping your camera out of direct sun when possible and having spare batteries, two really good tips that'll get you out of a jam. Um, so that's my first troubleshooting technique. Now, being prepared for where you're going, that sounds like a bit of a no-brainer. But when you're prepared, you can think through things like are you going to a place that has a thousand mosquitoes and is it humid and intense heat? And the reason this one comes to mind is I have been stuck in a few places now where it's been really hot and humid, and there have been monster mosquitoes, and I haven't had mozzie repellent, and it's really problematic. So always check if you're going somewhere, you know, more tropical. What is the mosquito situation like, especially if you go into a country that's got malaria? So you want to be really careful. Long pants, long shirts, and mozzie repellent. You can even get these stick-on mozzie stickers these days too. You can stick on your backpack if you don't want to put mozzie repellent directly on your skin. Recommend those. They seem to work. And you know, the other thing is what if it's going to be absolutely freezing cold? Do you have good cold weather clothes on? Because if you get really cold, it's going to be horrible. And I'm saying this because I'm a person who really hates getting cold. So the infamous elements, the other force that can come in to cause trouble no matter where you are, no matter what country you're in, and no matter what place. If you are outdoors, you can get caught out with the wind. And lapel mics need to be shielded underclothes because they won't stand a chance and you'll pick up all that whistling and rustling noise, and it will just kill your audio dead. So try to think through ways you can protect your lapel microphones when you're filming outdoors from that wind noise. You can also be prepared with things like you know, I'm sure you've heard of the dead cat or the warm bat, we sometimes call it here in Australia, which is that big fluffy thing that you always see over the boom microphones, and they are really good at muffling wind noise and blocking out that wind sound from your boom mic. So decent-size windshields they can be your best protection when filming outdoors. The other thing the wind can cause problems with is blowing things over, and so that's really dangerous with things like the lightweight lights, the portable lights that you can use that are really great for outdoor shooting. But you've got to be really careful that they're weighted down, particularly in wind, because it can catch them and knock them over, and that could really hurt somebody. So be very, very careful about the placement of your lights in windy environments and always use sandbags and try and make sure they're not a trip hazard. Goes without saying health and safety 101. Uh, that was my lecture on that. Moving on now. Um, rain. What are you gonna do if it rains? I have been caught out by this not too long ago. I was filming in Queensland um and we were in a very rural setting, very tropical, absolutely torrential rain. I'm talking, you could literally feel like you're standing under a high-pressure shower. It was so wet. The only place we could go that was undercover was a very dilapidated old, it was like an old outdoor stage, and it just had this one corner where it didn't have holes in its tin roof, and the tin roof did not make the sound any easier, I've got to say. But it meant that we could still film on this one little corner undercover, and um, you know, it was filled with holes, different parts of the stage were dripping with water, but we just had this one little corner and we made it work. But the problem was when we had to go home, it was about an hour's drive from where we were staying, and I I can't even believe even now, I can't believe how torrential this rain was, and not all of our gear could fit in the back. You know, we had people with gear under their feet, it was across our laps. We packed in every bit of equipment we possibly could, but there was no room for the tripod bag, it was just too big. So we had to strap it to the roof racks, and we honestly didn't know if you know, it was about 20 grand worth of tripods in this bag, and we had no idea till we got to the other end if it was going to survive the trip. And you probably think, why didn't you just wait till the rain stopped? It wasn't actually an option because of where we were filming and the roads, etc., and we could have got flooded in, so we had to just deal with it. And miraculously, when we got to the other end and nervously unloaded the tripod bag and got it inside, the outside was sodden, but it hadn't seeped inside, and the tripods were all completely okay. It was amazing, and I think that just speaks to having a high-quality camera bag. If you're using pelican cases, probably not so big of a deal. But if you're using more the canvas style camera bags, which is generally what we use just because they don't weigh as much and much easier and more portable. But the downsize is they can get really wet when it pours. But you know, it doesn't happen that often. I I haven't actually been caught out in the rain that many times. That one was particularly bad. Another thing to consider is health. Way, way harder to deal with when you're traveling is when someone gets really sick. Food poisoning or otherwise, it's just, you know, no amount of hand sanitizer and wearing masks. Um, it just sometimes you're gonna get sick. And and sadly, it's just one of those things you just have to deal with, and every situation's different. But you've got to look after yourself, you've got to look after your crew. So if someone is really, really unwell, do not push them to go on set because the chances are they're just gonna get everybody sick. And food poisoning is one of those things, it's just got to run its course. Um, but if it's a head cold or a flu or something, they've just got to isolate and get well. It's not really any other advice I can give you for that. You know, maybe have a local filmer on standby if needs be to hire in for the day to help you out on the shoot. But um, sickness is something to take seriously, and troubleshooting for that is really just do your best and um deal with it as it comes up. Now, here's the old have you tried turning it off and on again? Which we all know sometimes with technology does actually fix the problem. But you know, when it's not technology, another temperamental part of the production can actually be your talent. So to avoid this, there's a few things you can do with talent. One of the biggest issues we've often had is people freezing on camera. Like they could be a really charismatic speaker, really confident, but as soon as you turn the cameras on, they just are not able to speak. They just freeze up. Stage fright. It happens. But the best way we've found to deal with that is always try and have your shoot set up well before the participant arrives so that they're not coming into a chaotic environment. You can bring them in, you can make them feel relaxed and at home, get them water, explain what the shoot is, how you're going to conduct the interview, talk them through, make them feel comfortable. Avoid the crew chatting and talking about in jokes and things that might make the talent feel awkward and left out. Try and just keep it really professional while while the talent's there. And don't underestimate the power of small talk to relax people. You know, if they're a parent, have a chat about their kids. Something to take their mind off the fact that they're about to do an interview. And just have to reassure them. And hopefully, once you hit record, they will do great and they won't freeze up. Something else that can go wrong is if um you've got a scripted piece and you're doing a scripted piece to camera and there's a word that someone just cannot say. Honestly, in those experiences, change the script. Don't get someone just to repeatedly try and say a word over and over again because unless it's a critical element to the script that you're telling, just find a different word and move on. Can hold up the whole shoot otherwise, and you just end up doing 13 takes. People get stressed and you won't get a good performance. So that's troubleshooting for that one. There's just so many things. And you know what? I'm gonna have to do a few different episodes on troubleshooting for documentary. And I do hope that some of these tips and tricks and things that I've explained to you are helpful because over the years, when you're making your films, things will go wrong. The best thing to know is they happen, they happen to everybody, and at the end of the day, you will make your film and you'll be really proud of it. And then think of all the fun stories you'll have to tell. Maybe one day you'll be doing your own podcast on troubleshooting for documentary, and you know, I look forward to hearing that. Um, for the time being, next week I will be back to tell you about different parts of filmmaking and troubleshooting techniques for that. Uh, in the meantime, hit subscribe on whatever platform you're listening on, and I look forward to talking to you again next week.