I always look at writing as orchestrated daydreaming, which is why I like to write - I like to daydream.
When I’m writing something someone else will shoot, like a feature, I never write any camera moves, both because I think it’s bad form and it kills a lot of white space. And people love white space on a script page!
But when it comes to writing a web series, in my case, I am the one shooting it and yet I still rarely write any camera moves.
There was no director of photography on “Vampire Mob,” there was me, assistant director, John Vargas & two cameras - that was it. I knew I wanted it to have the handheld look, so there was no tripod on set anywhere, just a glidecam and one of those shoulder-mount camera supports.
I didn’t storyboard Vampire Mob, I daydreamed about it, which is much cheaper.
I’d take the script and a legal pad and a pen and hang out with the script. Read a page, lean back and daydream. What does that line look like on screen? Is there an insert shot I could grab there?
I would daydream about the scene until I could almost imagine it, or at least my idea of how it would look.
As ideas would hit me, I’d write them down and that’s how I put together a shot list. My shot list probably looks more like my stand up comedy set list to some, but it gave me something to go back to during the shoot to keep me in-check with what I needed.
Those little insert shots of John Colella and Reamy Hall drinking, food cooking and blood pouring in the first episode - all those were things I daydreamed, they were not in the script. I had them on a shot list and I shot each one, but was not completely sure how I was going to cut with them.
My goal when I’m shooting is to get as many colors on the paint palette as I can so when I’m sitting in front of a monitor cutting it together, there’s choices.
Making as many of those choices as I can before I’m shooting, including figuring out what shots should look like, helps me get the coverage I need and keeps me on schedule.
Next time… The four-hour rule in casting.
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