THE SHOOT - Part 3 Organize, organize, organize. Rehearse every scene before you shoot it. Direct the entire movie on paper. Know what every shot is going to look like a month before you shoot. If you are infinitely prepared you will be ready to take advantage of the wonderful improvisations your artists will come up with. We had two or three fabulous contributions come up each day – I can’t tell you what they are without spoiling the movie – but I can tell you they emerged because we were ahead of schedule and had time to shoot a few extra lines here and there when they raised their glorious heads. Good ideas can come from anywhere. Our sound guy provided the funniest improv’ed line of the film. Two of our extras came up with a shot idea that was as good as any we had storyboarded.

I subscribe to Robert Rodriguez’s populist approach to filmmaking. The days of the film auteur in the black turtleneck and beret are behind us. The Panasonic DVX100A is everyone’s friend. Final Cut Pro is easy to learn. For less than a few thousand dollars, anyone can do it now.

Can you do it well? is the question.  ¶ 1:09 PM