Community Report #7 - How to Make a Film Without Any Money, Talent, or Effort - Part 2

Master filmmaker O-Micron reveals his secrets to film production.

Transcript

Jeremy  0:00
For our community report I am out and about in the community interviewing different individuals and today I have with me level 5 master filmmaker O-Micron. And we are continuing our three part filmmaking series with part 2: production. As a reminder, all of the advice you will hear on our show today can be found in his newly released book How to Make a Film Without Any Talent, Effort, or Money. O-Micron, welcome back.

O-Micron  0:30
Thank you. Just a slight correction on the book, it’s called How to Make a Film Without Any Money, Talent, or Effort. 

Jeremy  0:37
Oh. I’m sorry. I thought that’s what I said that.

O-Micron  0:39
No. I think you said Without Any Talent, Effort, or Money.

Jeremy  0:44
Right. Sorry. I think I’m missing something.

O-Micron  0:47
I think you switched around the Money, Talent, or Effort part, saying something like Effort, Talent, or Money.

Jeremy  0:53
Oh, I’m so sorry.

O-Micron  0:56
That’s okay. I just don’t want people going out there and getting the wrong book.

Jeremy  1:00
Right. Good point. Um. So, production. What is it and what advice to do you have on it?

O-Micron  1:08
Excellent. Thank you for the thoughtful question. Well, production is where the magic happens. It is the archetypal movie set - the director in their chair, the actors in their places, and someone yelling, “Action!”

Jeremy  1:22
Seems like the best part of filmmaking.

O-Micron  1:24
In many ways it is, but it can also be the worst, if not done correctly. For instance —

Jeremy  1:28
Oh.

O-Micron  1:29
Yes. Oh. For instance, um. Many filmmakers make the mistake of hiring a first AD, or first Assistant Director.

Jeremy  1:38
Hmmm. What’s that?

O-Micron  1:39
That is the pain in the a bleep on your set who is always telling people what to do, where to go, when to show up, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Jeremy  1:50
Sounds important, but I kind of thought the director and producer did that.

O-Micron  1:55
Exactly. Which is why you do not need one. I learned this the hard way when shooting the final scene of our movie, The Boy Who Could Have Been Named A bleep hole, at Griffith Observatory.

Jeremy  2:05
Oh yeah? Very famous place. Wow. You actually shot your movie there?

O-Micron  2:10
That I did, our final scene at least, which was 15 minutes long.

Jeremy  2:13
Impressive. For those who don’t know —

O-Micron  2:15
— Huh ?

Jeremy  2:16
Oh, sorry. I just want to set the stage for those who might not be familiar with Los Angeles.

O-Micron  2:20
Oh yes. No problem. 

Jeremy  2:22
Griffith Observatory is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Los Angeles. It basically overlooks the the entire city with views of the ocean and the mountains, and is particularly popular around sundown.

O-Micron  2:37
Exactly. And that is just when we were shooting. In the twilight on the fourth of July.

Jeremy  2:42
Fourth of July!? Oh my gosh. How did you even get up there on July 4? I have trouble getting up there on a normal weekend, much less a national holiday.

O-Micron  2:51
Without a first AD. That was the day I had my epiphany - who needs a first AD? Our first AD, and I imagine the first AD for many filmmakers out there, was a complete nightmare. From day one on our production she was hassling everyone with forms, schedules, concerns, telling them what to do, when to do it. And when I told her the night before that there was a rewrite and we were shooting the next day at Griffith Observatory, this bozo went completely mental. So I fired her. And the rest of our shoot went swimmingly.

Jeremy  3:28
Wow. That’s a big thing to announce at the last minute there. I almost want to say I can see why she might have gotten’ a little bit upset.

O-Micron  3:35
Well don’t. Because firing her was a key step in my evolution as a filmmaker, and I want all filmmakers out there to share in that evolution from the start. Filmmakers out there, no need to waste time evolving. I now pronounce you evolved. There is no need for a first AD.

Jeremy  3:54
Ok. Great. You’re saving people out there a lot of heartache. Terrific. I mean I would really like to dig into this day of shooting. I mean that must have been an incredible challenge.

O-Micron  4:07
Yes. It was. But two of my other tips made it entirely possible.

Jeremy  4:11
Oh. Neat.

O-Micron  4:12
And one of those tips evolved directly from having no first AD. That is why eliminating the first AD will open up so many possibilities for your filmmaking. So — Tip number two. Do not use permits.

Jeremy  4:25
— oh wow. That is awesome.

O-Micron  4:28
Yes, it is. Literally every time I wanted to shoot somewhere, the first AD would respond with, “Do you have a permit to shoot there? Oh, you don’t? Sorry, but I won’t run your set that day.” No matter which first AD I talked to, which first AD I hired (and I went through a lot), it was always the same answer. 

Jeremy  4:47
Ok. Sorry, sorry, sorry. Can we stop for a second? What is a permit?

O-Micron  4:53
A permit is a piece of paper that gives you the right to shoot your film in a certain location on a certain date at a certain time.

Jeremy  5:00
Oh. And how can you get away with not having that? It seems like it would be essential.

O-Micron  5:07
It boils down to cost-benefit-analysis. The headache of having a permit, the costs, the scheduling issues, etc. vastly outweigh the benefit. Because guess what? 

Jeremy  5:19
What? 

O-Micron  5:19
If you don’t have a permit - you can still shoot.

Jeremy  5:23
Really?

O-Micron  5:24
Absolutely. You may be fined, you may be shut down, but guess what? You simply put it into your budget and add extra days for being shut down. Add $50,000 to $100,000 for fines. Then when it happens, so what? You’re prepared for it. No need to stress.

Jeremy  5:42
But when you fired your first AD for the Observatory shoot you hadn’t budgeted for these kinds of things yet, the being shut down, the being fined, had you?

O-Micron  5:52
No. But fortunately when your financing is structured around old people, dentists, and credit cards, they tend to be very understanding about cost overruns. As long as you remind them about the numbers behind their investment, the potentially limitless rewards, they almost always say yes to budget increases. 

Jeremy  6:11
Hmmm. Okay. Okay.

O-Micron  6:14
We covered some of this in the last interview.

Jeremy  6:17
Ok, yeah. Maybe that’s why I’m having a bit of disconnect. So, did you get shut down at Griffith Observatory?

O-Micron  6:26
No. And that relates to my third tip. ‘Fix it in post’.

Jeremy  6:30
Fix it in post?

O-Micron  6:31
Yes. Fix it in post. Because we were able to shoot everything very rapidly without too much regard for sound, lighting, getting background artists to sign release forms, things like that, we were never stuck in one spot long enough for the park rangers to key in on our location. And whenever they did arrive to shut us down, we simply moved on to another spot knowing that things like continuity could be fixed in post. So we were never technically shut down.

Jeremy  7:01
Yeah, I don’t know. It’s almost like you’re encouraging breaking the law in some fashion.

O-Micron  7:06
Oh no. Absolutely not. It’s a public park, it’s July 4th. Everyone is allowed to be there. So what if I have a camera and some actors. It’s a free country. We are simply gathering for July 4th. They have no right to trample on my constitutional right to congregate. To exercise free speech. 

Jeremy  7:24
Ok, yeah. I guess you have a point.

O-Micron  7:27
Absolutely I have a point. Sorry for getting worked up. I hope I’m not upsetting the decorum of the show. But as I’m sure you can tell, I have some strong opinions on the matter.

Jeremy  7:37
Oh no. That’s okay. I mean that’s what makes a show like this interesting. Someone with passion for what they do. So what exactly does, ‘Fix it in post’ mean? 

O-Micron  7:48
Well I have some footage here to demonstrate. And what I have here is a before and after of some footage we were able to fix in post from the Griffith Observatory shoot.

Jeremy  8:00
Oh okay. Great. Let’s hear that.

Film Shoot Audio  8:03
[Lasers and mayhem sound effects.]

O-Micron [falsetto robot voice]  8:03
But it’s you that I love. No one else. I don’t care if your name was Stalin, s beep head, a beep hole, mother beep or whatever. There is nothing that could change my love for such a great and holy man as yourself. Not these robots, not their lasers mixed in with the July 4th fireworks. Nothing. So let’s dance under the brilliance of your light and these fireworks and prove our love for one another!

Jeremy  8:42
Woohh. That sounds like a lot to fix.

O-Micron  8:46
Actually, that was the ‘after’ footage. Ummm. Played it in the wrong order. But I think you’ll see the difference from the ‘before’. Let’s listen.

Film Shoot Audio  8:58
[Rioters, mayhem, and July 4 fireworks sound effects.]

Sarah  8:58
But it’s you that I love. No one else. I don’t care if your name was Stalin or whatever. There is nothing that could change my love for such a great and holy man as yourself. Let’s dance under the fireworks of July 8th and prove our love for one another!

O-Micron  9:21
So several things going on there. This is the climax of the movie when the main character watches a woman profess her love for him and he decides to dance under the exploding July 4 sky. But did you notice the date the actress gave?

Jeremy  9:36
July 8th, right?

O-Micron  9:38
Correct. So that was one thing we simply fixed in post. Another issue here was that there was a lot of background noise layered over the actress’ performance. So in post, we rewrote the script such that Los Angeles, the Observatory, had been taken over by robots, and we changed all of the voices to robots. This slice of genius, if I must say, allowed me to rerecord the actress’ lines with my own voice disguised as a robot.

Jeremy  10:08
Really.

O-Micron  10:09
So now the first clip makes some more sense, hence the robotized voices and the references to the robot takeover.

Jeremy  10:20
Ok. Yeah. I think I’m tracking with you there.

O-Micron  10:24
And on any other film, the movie would have been ruined. You have the background actors interfering with the take. The sound of the explosions interfering with the dialogue. Plus the actress messed up a key portion of the line. And most filmmakers would have done take after take after take trying to fix these things on set, having some first AD trying to control everything, not to mention probably not even being able to shoot in the park on July 4th because of permit constraints. But no permit, no first AD, and ‘fix it in post’ make a movie like this possible. Just think what the world would be like without this movie in it? People’s lives would be adversely affected. I truly believe that.

Jeremy  11:05
Yeah. I can’t wait to see it in it’s full glory.

O-Micron  11:09
Oh. I thought that you watched it before the interview.

Jeremy  11:12
Oh no, I wanted to save that for the next interview where the process comes together and closes out.

O-Micron  11:16
I see. Okay. I guess that makes sense.

Jeremy  11:21
Speaking of which. That brings us to the end of the interview. O-Micron, I want to thank you for your time today and we will see you for our final episode where we discuss the secrets to distribution. Again, that was O-Micron, author of How to Make a Film Without Any…

O-Micron  11:46
Money, Talent, or Effort.

Jeremy  11:47
Yes. Exactly, without any Talent, Money, or Effort. Just one of the many faces of Silver Lake.