Action, cut & everything in-between

In this episode I chat with Matthew Williams aka Mr MPW to discuss all things drone related. Matthew has flown drones for big Hollywood movies including James Bond & Star Wars. He tells us how he broke into the industry and explains the laws and regulations regarding flying your drone safely and legally. Check out www.UAVhub.com and www.mrmpw.com for more information

In this solo episode, I talk about the power of attraction and how there are 2 types of filmmakers. The thinkers and the doers. Which one are you?

In this episode, I chat with Director Ryan Garry about his use of motion capture technology to bring his monster to life in his latest indie film! Check out more info at mocapmonster.com

In this episode, I chat with Producer Lucinda Bruce about all aspects of producing and the future of indy films!

Action, Cut & everything in between - Episode 10 - The Indie Film Network with Devon CareyIn this weeks episode, I chat with Devon Carey. He is building the Indie Film Network. An awesome hub for independent filmmakers. He discusses all the cool features that will be available very soon.https://www.facebook.com/ifilmnetwork/https://www.facebook.com/devon.carey.52

In this episode, I interview Director Mike Garrick to hear about what went into directing his film 'Yesterday's Girl' which is now available to rent or buy on Amazon Prime in the US and UK!

In this episode I chat with sound guru Joseph Narai about the power of sound in your films. Sound is 50% of your film and if you cut costs and don't have a dedicated sound person on set then it will cost you in the long run and you'll end up with an inferior product.

In this episode, I chat with Director Ché Baker about his film Blue World Order and what goes into getting funding for your film and pulling in big names like Billy Zane.Check out www.BWOmovie.com for more info on Blue World Order

Action, Cut & everything in between - Episode 6 - Problems In this episode, Director Gareth Carr talks us through some of the problems he encountered when shooting his films and how you can avoid them.

Episode 5! We delve into the power of story with Author Angharad Thompson Rees Check out Angharads Website https://www.angharadthompsonrees.com  Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/angharadthompsonrees/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/angharadthompsonrees/ Twitterhttps://twitter.com/1angharad_rees Amazon Author Pagehttps://www.amazon.com/Angharad-Thompson-Rees/e/B01MZ3QYDW A free 'chilling' short story, grab it here:https://dl.bookfunnel.com/bwsk6e6gnv        

Episode 4 - Cinematography with Karl Jenner Check out Karl's work here http://www.digitalrealm.com.au/Give Karl a follow https://www.instagram.com/karljenner66/ Transcript for our hard of hearing/deaf listeners Gareth Carr:Hey everyone, welcome to Action Cut and Everything in Between, episode number four. Today on the show, I've got Karl Jenner he was the director of photography on my film, my 50 man. And he's also just completed his own feature film called guilt. So we're going to jump right in and we're going to listen to the power of cinematography and the impact that it has on your movie. Gareth Carr:All right, so Karl Jenner, welcome to the show.Karl Jenner:Yeah, thanks for having me.Gareth Carr:That's all right. So you've just shot my film, Life After Man and your own feature film, Guilt. But how did you get to the point where you are now? Tell us about your journey over the years.Karl Jenner:For me, I actually started photography, underwater photography back in the day and always had a fascination with photography and cinema and anything creative, graphics and things like that. But my passion for diving led me into photography and I taught underwater photography. And through my diving, I worked on films and TV commercials, mainly doing a lot of underwater safety work, but some shooting as well. And I met up with an old character who shot documentaries on 16 mil. He used to build his own underwater housings and being working in the dive shop, we just chatted and I used to go out with him and we'd test all these housings and shoot all this underwater footage and things like that. And we ended up doing quite a bit. And then I just got hooked into filming and that kind of led me into where I am now.Karl Jenner:So just you know, an interest of anything creative in the photography field. And I worked on TV shows and did some big camera operating and shooting and eventually people asked me to shoot stuff for them, mainly corporate videos and corporate training and lots of this stuff. And I decided one day I'll just branch out on my own. And I had a very primitive set up back in the day with an older Amiga computer and an old video camera and an old VHS deck and a very primitive gen lock, which enable me to overlay graphics onto tape and just glue all this stuff together. So I had a very kind of early technical background in filmmaking. So this kind of led me from there. And just as the technology grew, I just grew with the tech. But I have to say, I got a bit disappointed with cameras, especially video cameras of how terrible quality they were.Karl Jenner:So I actually stopped shooting for quite a number of years and just got myself heavily into post production. And always had a fascination with visual effects, so I taught myself visual effects. I've done 3D animation ever since the very early days where you could do it on a home computer and actually wrote software out of a book, a Ray tracer that's how nerdy I was, and learned computer graphics that way. And then starting with my post production editing and graphics and visual effects work, I just spent years helping other people make their films and eventually the 5D Mark III came out. And so my interest then was piqued to get back into shooting. And so I bought a 5D Mark II and shot that with that.Karl Jenner:And then my passion just ignited from there and I've just been full steam ahead ever since, the shooting, shooting, shooting. Because now I can actually, what I have in my head or had in my head, I could actually get on screen. And so that's, I'm a bit of a perfectionist in a way. So I always hated those cameras and the look was horrible and everything was horrible about them. But the modern tech enabled me to get my creative vision that I had in my head across and we launched from there. So I just hung around with cameras and lenses and things like that and just became creative. So that's my journey in a nutshell.Gareth Carr:Yeah, that's awesome. So it was pretty much the DSLR revolution and the 5D Mark II that got you to where you are today?Karl Jenner:Yeah, pretty much. Probably, maybe a little bit earlier with the mini DV. I had a, I can't remember what it was, it was Panasonic FS 90 or something like that. And then I shot some, I actually shot a series for Fox Sports on old sports stars and where you actually use that little camera. And that kind of got me there, but I never used it to shoot really any kind of anything of significance. You know, I did my corporate work and stuff on that. But even when the price of cameras, like Digi beaters were astronomical and then they're crappy. So it wasn't until the 5D Mark III came out that I thought, "Nah, I can now get some focus separation and do all that fancy stuff that what kind of gives it that cinematic look." And it was at an affordable price, so there you go.Gareth Carr:Yeah. So since since the 5D, what cameras have you used or owned from that point to get to where you are now and tell everyone what camera that you're using now?Karl Jenner:Okay, well I bought a second hand 5D Mark II and then I had a 70 as well, and I was shooting quite a lot with that. And then the thing that made me kind of migrate up was the audio. The audio was always a challenge and post syncing though it was achievable, it was always fraught with danger. And so I built out a rig and it was like a big Franken monster just to get audio out, proper professional kind of audio with XLRs. And I had pre-amps and all these sort of things stuck in there. And it was just so many points of failure and always that fear in the back of your mind when you're on a big job that something was going to go really wrong. And then you'll get back to the studio and someone hadn't hit record or some, there was a hiss or a hum or something would just destroy it.Karl Jenner:So it was just this fear. So that's when Canon C100 came out so I was very interested in that camera. And then working with other DPs, I know a good DP friend of mine, Tom [Gleason 00:06:58] Had a RED Epic at the time and he also had a RED One and we did a lot of early testing on just some VFX and we shot some stuff on his RED One. So I was very familiar with the RED format and the difficulties in the early days of the R3D Kodak. But you know, being a bit of a tech head, I could get around all that. And I helped a lot of other companies deal with their workflows with the RED camera. But the C100 was in my price range, but it was only 1080p had Canon log on the camera, which is again it was interesting but I could see that the world was moving to 4K pretty quickly and then you could get 4K out the C100 I think, but you had to buy an extra module. And that price-wise, that pushed it up into the RED Scarlet range.Karl Jenner:So I started to look at the Scarlet as my next camera. And I, being familiar with the Red Epic of Tom's camera, I just thought the Scarlet is probably the way to go. It had 4K native, it had R3D, which is really the major selling point of the RED camera. So I jumped into that and I bought a Scarlet and I had, all my lenses went with it. Because I had a lot of Canon lenses. So I just bought a camera mount for it and for about the same price as the fully kitted out C100, I bought a RED Scarlet at the time. But it was based on the MX sensor, it was a great sensor, at the time it was probably the best one around, but it aged pretty quickly.Karl Jenner:And so I shot with that camera for about two years and it's enabled me to get on bigger projects, bigger, more high end stuff, shooting more high end projects. So that enabled me to basically, that camera paid for itself. And once you're in the RED ecosystem, you can actually, RED will buy your camera back and offer an upgrade path. And I think their mantra is obsolete, obsoletion, obsolete or something like that. And so I jumped and bought the Epic, which still was an MX sensor, but enabled me to shoot 6K and had all the goodies on that. And it wasn't compromised in any way. So I jumped to that. And then about probably 18 months, I had that camera and then they had the Dragon sensor come out and that was a beautiful sensor and still probably one of my favorite kind of looks in the RED line as sensors go.Karl Jenner:And so I used a lot of my money from that camera to buy that sensor. So I've got a sensor upgrade on that, which wasn't cheap, it was about $20,000 I think Australian. So it was serious money. But the camera was paying for itself. So I was kind of at a break even point by then. And I had the dragon for a good two and a half years I think. And that was a work horse, that was a real workhorse. Loved the look of it, that was just a tank. It was a bomb proof camera. Went through everything with me. And then, I then jumped to Epic W, which is then based on the HELIUM sensor. Again, I would've probably stuck with the Dragon for a lot longer.Karl Jenner:But the new form factor and all the new goodies that we're going in. And that's where they were going. And they offered a very good upgrade path. So I jumped on that. And so currently I shoot with the HELIUM 8K, which is basically the 8K Weapon. And that's my current camera. I don't know if I'm a RED fan boy or anything, but I'd be pretty camera agnostic if someone shoved a good camera under my face, I would use it, and that. But you use what you can afford. And fortunately I worked my way up into that camera over about five years. And that's the tool I've got. And it's, for somebody starting out, it's way out of most people's price range. But if you did what I did, you just start small and just build up and build up. But my God, the iPhone now shoots amazing pictures. So you know you can have a good camera. It's in your pocket.Gareth Carr:Yeah. Now we, well you shot both our films in 8K. Do you think that that's the way the industry is going and where will this resolution battle or war, where will it end and you know, what's the advantages that you found with shooting 8K?Karl Jenner:Okay. 8K yeah. I think 8K is where it's all going to go because TV manufacturers need to sell TVs. From a broadcast point of view, 8K is probably a long, long way away from a lot of broadcasts, especially in the country like Australia where some of the cable channels are still on standard def. Because it's cost prohibitive just to get in to HD. But as an acquisition format and a future proof your work, 8K is probably a good place to be. The reason I chose to shoot 8K for our projects was two fold, one is, it maximizes the full width of the sensor on the camera without having to go to [inaudible 00:12:30]. Because the way that the RED camera works is that you can have multiple resolutions but it's a sensor crop when you start to lower the resolution.Karl Jenner:So if you got down to 6K or 4K, it crops in on the sensor so you lose a little bit of the width of the sensor. Potentially compromising ... You got all those pixels that you paid for so you might as well use them. So I shoot 8K 2:1 which on the RED camera it's Super 35 but it's actually a little bit larger than a super 35 sensor. So on any of my lenses, I just want to maximize the width of that sensor. And 8K 2:1 gives me the full sensor across, because we shot the films with looking at doing a 235 output because you know, more cinematic. I just put up the frame guys for 235 and we just shot and framed everything within those guides.Karl Jenner:And it gives us the ability then to in post, just to do reframes and move, give people more head room if you feel like it, or lower the head room and that. But I'm not frightened of the 8K workflow and that. In fact my system here that I use, is not particularly powerful. I've got a five year old iMac Pro, 5K iMac. And I've just got a normal spinning backup drives but with a fast rate because I use Final Cut Pro just use their proxy workflow. And I barely touched the actual full res files which just sit on my drive and I've just got the proxy files sitting on my hard drive and I don't really have any slow kind of paid playback or anything like that. I've never had a glitch.Karl Jenner:I get perfect editing speed and I've got effects and layers and all that sorta stuff that all plays back in real time. So the workflow is not an issue with these computers, even a five year old iMac. But the ability to reframe, maximize the width of the sensor just gives you more possibilities and stuff. And I love the RED R3D which is really its signature selling point to have that, to have the ability to go in and when you're on set just to ... Because we're moving so quickly, we don't have a lot of lights or equipment, so difficult lighting situations or shooting in very low light, I can just, I know how to use the tools on the camera. So I just look at my histogram on the camera. I can look at the, I've got a little, a short cut to look at the raw sensor data so I can see what the sensor's seeing and if I can see detail in there and I can double check that across with my histogram and my tools, I'm pretty confident that I've got exposure I can work with in post.Karl Jenner:So when it comes back to post I can with the R3D I'm not locked into ISO or any of that stuff, so I can change that to do shot matching from shot to shot. Because I'm flying around the ISOs all the time just to try and get exposure as I need. I don't kind of lock myself into an ISO like some DPS will just say, we'll shoot 800 and that's it, the whole. But once you're so quickly and I need to get a stop or two stops and I don't have time to change an ND or anything like that, all right. And I do want to shoot fairly wide open most of the time one, five to two, eight is usually where I'm living.Karl Jenner:Sometimes I have to use an ISO change just to get those extra stops of light that I need. And I know that I can go in back into the R3D and change all that data if I need to. And you know, it's worked so far, so I'm pretty happy with that. That's why I think I liked the RED camera, just that flexibility and that bit of a safety net.Gareth Carr:Yeah, that's awesome. And Guilt and Life After Man both looking incredible. And I'd say, do you have a favorite shot now that you've edited Guilt and it's almost at it's kind of screener stage, do you look back through and you've got like a favorite shot from the film?Karl Jenner:For me I like all when the camera's moving. I don't think I've got a particularly favorite shot because the nature of the films that we've made, we're just moving so quickly. So I kind of have an idea of how I want the shot to go. But usually it's almost like shooting cinema verite in like you're making a documentary, you've got your actors all kind of lined up And as a DP you're looking for, trying to create some three dimensionality in your shot with a bit of separation and not having a large crew or a truck with any real light control and stuff. So it's really just kind of placing your actors very quickly, looking through my viewfinder and trying to find the best kind of composition and how to move and how to move the lighting that we've got into position and then snap that shot and then moving onto the next.Karl Jenner:So every shot was in a way a little bit challenging because a lot of the locations we would just walk in and we've got to figure it out on the fly. And so I think overall I'm pleased with pretty much all the shots because thinking back on how we got them, there's always kind of a pleasure. And at the time when you're shooting it, you're thinking, oh, I hope this works. And then you get back in the edit suite and you look at and think, "Okay, that's pretty good, I'm really happy with the results." But anytime I can get the camera moving, especially on the gimbals or little cheats or whatever, like we did sitting on the back of your truck, driving at 60 kilometers an hour hanging out the window, and those shots kind of worked.Karl Jenner:They are kind of like, wow, that's actually, yeah, that actually is really good. We got away with something and a lot of people will never know how it was done and think, wow you must have had a techno crane or some weird piece of gear. But it was really just gaffer tape and muscle power that gets the shot. So, yeah. So, yeah, no particular shot, but I'm pleased with how all the shots kind of come out. In Life After Man, I think probably my favorite shot is the horse shot with the sunset. You know, bomb it along with a gimbal that's at that breaking point, hanging out the window with the sun dropping and looking in the viewfinder, I could barely see thinking, I hope this is in frame and everything just lined up at the right time and it works.Gareth Carr:That's good. That's an awesome shot. I love it. So what advice would you give to people who want to shoot their first feature film? I know you said about starting small with your cameras and working their way up, but what about conditions to avoid? Like what's the most difficult conditions you'd say to shoot in and to avoid writing them into your script?Karl Jenner:Probably would be like shooting in the rain because rain has it's own kind of problems. Not for the fact that you don't want to get your camera wet, but you can be shooting in the rain in one direction and you can't even see it. Because you have to backlight rain to really see it. And then you turn it around to get your other coverage and suddenly it's bombing down with rain and you can see it. And then so when you go back to the edit suite and you're cutting, it's raining in one shot and not in another, even though it was raining. So I think above all, I think the biggest advice for anybody starting out in making a feature is control. You know, keeping control, having control of your set. Especially if you're using outdoor locations.Karl Jenner:And making sure you get the permissions and all that sort of stuff to shoot because there's nothing worse and we've experienced it, you know, when your guerrilla-ing and stuff that someone's going to kick you out and you've spent half a day getting all these shots and suddenly you can't even finish it, the work that you set out because you can't get access again and stuff. So having control and knowing that you can go in and you can block, you can work with your actors and get the shots and walk away at the end of the day. So above all it's control. And that control might have to spend money to get that by hiring a location and stuff. But the other things is just preparation.Karl Jenner:I think the thing with Guilt, even though we've managed to make a film, we were so time poor and we were always racing and that, because we had constraints before going in. We had a script and the script could have done with a few more revisions and stuff because we couldn't get the actors together to give them the words and then you want to hear those words by actors and then you can make those little changes. And if you get that script down and then you get on set, everybody knows what they got and you're not sitting there debating a bunch of dialogue. Because all that stuff's been done and then so you can get on set and everybody's on the same page. But if you try to make it up, that's always fraught with danger because then you end up with big continuity problems. So proper preparation prevents piss poor performance. So we weren't particularly prepared and we really paid for it at the end.Karl Jenner:And we were as prepared as we could with the time that we would given. But I would have love a bit more prep. And the thing with guilt is that was only myself and the main lead, Janet finding locations before we shot. So literally we spent two weeks finding all the locations for the film. So by the time we even got to the film where we're already knackered just by that sheer workload. So having people that can find your locations and do all of that paperwork and get all those permissions. And it was really myself, Janet and Lindsey doing a lion's share of the work even before we got to the shoot. And Lindsey, you know, she was based in Melbourne so she couldn't help out in that department. So she was doing as much of the prep work, getting on the phone, giving us permissions, doing all that sort of stuff.Karl Jenner:And then I was doing, up here, doing all the leg work, finding locations, negotiating with people, things like that. So by the time you get to that first day of shooting, you're completely knackered and you need to be fresh as a daisy because once those cameras roll, it's if you're shooting a big block, it's ... For us we shot for 15 days pretty much straight and after 15 days you are completely floored. And so yeah, script. Get the script right and be properly prepared. Cameras are irrelevant at that point. Get a good camera obviously to shoot your piece. But that's, you get a good DP, actually, he should come with his camera and not worry about all of that stuff. So look at your script to break it down, work out your scenes, get your actors together, do a script read, then get to set and everybody is on the same page and prepared to work. Because I think a lot of people in with short films start out on that adventure of making a film and it just gets bogged down in detail and everybody loses sight of what the end goal is and everybody loses direction and it only becomes too hard.Karl Jenner:And you end up, people walk away and I think a lot of films are never finished because it does get hard. And that can all be eliminated in the beginning if you're prepared. And for anybody out there who's going to be a director or the writer, producer, director, you just got to have tenacity and you got to fight every day to get your script done and stuff. But at the end of the day, it's worth it because I forget about all the pain now. I remember from your film, how many days we spend freezing cold on that farm. And it's worth it at the end of the day. It's like, you look at the fruits of your labor and you look it up on screen and you forget how you did it. In fact, I think I look at 80 and 90% of it thinking, I don't remember shooting that stuff. And that's what makes it worthwhile because then you just become an audience member and you can watch it.Gareth Carr:That's it. Sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labor. Yeah.Karl Jenner:That's it. And knowing that you've done it, it's just that sense of accomplishment because I think a lot of people want to go make a movie, but a lot of people don't even try because one, because a lot of people tell them it's too hard and you'll never succeed. And the other is that they do try, but they don't realize the burden or the amount of work that they're going to have to do. And that puts them off and stuff. But if you really want to do it, you'll do it and you'll do anything to do it. but it is worthwhile at the end of the day, even though you'd probably be poor at the end of it.Gareth Carr:That's it. You'll have no money but it's worth it. No, it's great. Such good advice. So where do you see now the future of cinema heading? I know we had 3D a couple of years back that seems to have died its death now, and then you've got kind of your 360 and AR now. Do you think that's going to take over or do you think the way cinema is, is it's here to stay?Karl Jenner:I think, personally I don't think you can beat the current cinema experience. I think 360 has its place, but I don't think it's an entertainment platform. I was involved not so long ago in doing some 360 tests for narrative with some good friends of mine. I was actually a little bit cranky and stuff because we've been talking about making films for so long and then 360 comes up and it's, oh we'll do 360 and I'm like kind of saying we just spent five years solving all the other problems. So now we've got all the cameras, I've got all the gear, we've got everything, we should be making a film and now you want to go solve a whole another set of problems, you know?Karl Jenner:And I said, let someone else figure that out. And I can't, personally don't want to sit in a room with a big headset on to have watch this movie. I think it'd be great as an experience. Just to go in, especially if it's like a good ghost story, a short film or whatever. But I don't think as a filmmaker I want to have people sit in a cinema and then look all around the room. As a filmmaker you want to ... But I've put something over there, there's the clue and then you've got somebody's looking at the back of the room because, that looks interesting. But I did read some statistics with 360 and it was like the first, and these were videos that were on YouTube and you can look at the analytics and this is why I'm always having these big discussions about doing 360. And it kind of transpired that it was usually the first 30 seconds people would look around, and then their vision would be usually where we watch movies because the experience was over and stuff.Karl Jenner:So they started to watch the movie where it was supposed to be. So it's like, but you went to all this effort to make this 360 movie. But the other issue with 360 movies are, where do you put the lights? Where do you put the crew? Everybody has to hide behind trees or duck behind cars. And you know, it's just like, no, no. 3D's again interesting, again an experience kind of movie. I think it's great for animation and things like that. 3D movies don't make me sick at all so I can put the goggles on and watch it and it doesn't bother me. So I can enjoy a good 3D movie and that. But going for, that's for high end productions. You got to have the dollars to do it.Karl Jenner:And most movies now aren't shot in 3D, they shoot with just one camera and they just dimensionalize them after the fact and stuff. I have been involved in doing some early 3D testing and things like that. And I've got some very good friends, Alpha geeks that worked on that stuff. And Yeah. But again, died a death, because I think people just want to go to the movies, pay their 10 bucks or 15 bucks, have that popcorn and just enjoy something and just be transported somewhere else and stuff. So yeah, putting on the headset and it kind of isolates you from the person next to you as well if you're wearing a big headset. So.Gareth Carr:Yeah, you might as well just sit at home-Karl Jenner:Sit at home.Gareth Carr:... and do that.Karl Jenner:Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I think the way we're shooting movies now, even high frame rates, I don't like high frame rates. I think 24 looks really nice. There's a big push to have all those TVs, the DPS from Hollywood all want those TV's to come with the default off of that super smooth motion they stick on the TVs because it makes your work look like a soap opera. So, yeah. So anyway, maybe I'm a traditionalist, but-Gareth Carr:No, no, I'm with you on this one. I like it, yeah. I like what you're saying. [crosstalk 00:30:52].Karl Jenner:... But also from a post side of view, I don't want to rendering out 24 frames at high res it takes a long time, I don't want to do 48.Gareth Carr:I know. Right? Listen, this has been awesome Karl. Like I hope this has inspired people to just get out there and make their feature and you don't have to have a RED, do you, to shoot a movie.Karl Jenner:No, right. There's some amazing, very cheap cameras out there that just cut your teeth on something that's achievable and eventually all that stuff will become available as you progress as a filmmaker. People want to work with you and all that high end gear will naturally kind of come with it. But at the end of the day, you can give someone a RED camera or an Arial or something like that and they can still make it look bad. So the camera doesn't mean a thing. I know it's cliche and when you own a camera, big camera and saying, Oh, you've just got to use the camera because everybody craving for that new, big toy. But yeah, essentially at the end of the day most of these lower end cameras, sub $5,000 cameras and make amazing images like your little black magic pocket cinema cameras, just that's an amazing camera .for less than $2,000 you can shoot a feature on that no problem. RED cameras and Alexis and things, they come with a whole life support team because you're just going to have so much stuff on them. You can make them lightweight, but you know when we're shooting, you so often, I don't have a big set up, but that was still heavy and to lug that around all day. So yeah, shoot with what you have, make good films. That's the way to do it.Gareth Carr:So listen, where can people see more of your work and see your back catalog of stuff that's brought you to this point?Karl Jenner:I don't really have a big social media presence, but just go to karljenner.net and that's my DP site. You can see some of the stuff and some of the shorts on there. A lot of my stuff is client work never really ever sees the light of day. And I'm on a Instagram as @karljenner66, @karljenner66. That's how much I use it.Gareth Carr:Well there you go. Check all those out and hopefully-Karl Jenner:I'm getting better.Gareth Carr:Yeah, you're getting followers. Well, after this you never know, you might get a couple more followers. We'll see.Karl Jenner:I might get 10.Gareth Carr:But no, this has been awesome. Like I've loved hearing about your story and the process that you go through to shoot and like I'm just blown away with how Life After Man looks and I think it's probably going to be like one of the best looking zombie movies of all time and I can't wait to see how Guilt goes and the journey.Karl Jenner:Yeah. I've basically just got the screener ready and the Looking really good. I spent the afternoon painting out logos. The tedious work that you end up doing. That's why I always say to people, you always start out with like two people, three people with an idea and then you ramp up to your shooting and you might have 20 or 30 people and then eventually one day it's you in a room by yourself. And it becomes a labor of love. And I'm a perfectionist and bit of a pixel peeper. So I'll go in there and fix stuff that I probably don't even need to fix, but it annoys me. So I want to fix it. But yeah. But the film's looking really, really good and the story-wise and everything came together and I haven't even done the grade yet or we haven't got a sound mix or anything like that.Karl Jenner:And I'm really, really happy and super proud of everybody that worked on it. And it was a bit of a journey to get there, but we got there in the end and I think when people see it, they'll actually be quite surprised because when you're shooting a film, it doesn't look like a film, you know? And I've always said that's one of the reasons I love to operate as a DP because when I look through the lens, I actually get to see the movie. It's extraneous of all the other things that are around, you don't see any lights stands, you don't see any other people standing around. And that I just look at the lens and look at the actors and once you get a good performance and you know it in your eye that you can see it happening and you know, you've got some good stuff and you'd just piece together the film in your head.Karl Jenner:And that's the same with Guilt. And same with Life After Man. I could see everything as I'm shooting it and stuff. So I knew when the edit came together exactly how it would look and how it would feel. And it's once you get into the grade and you start to really craft it and that's a bit I like as well is just crafting your movie and eventually you can sit back and it looks amazing and sounds amazing and you're chuffed to bits that you've actually gone ahead and done it and stuff. So. But yeah, I'm super happy. With your crew, I think life After Man, it felt like a little family, when we were tucked away on the farms and all the right remote areas and things like that we were filming in. And we had all these animals and horses and all those things and you really bond as filmmakers and I always think in my mind, it's just a bunch of crazy, crazy filmmakers in the middle of nowhere trying to make this film, and everybody else would be laughing at you for doing it, but you get a kick out of doing it because it's fun. And it's fun and it's tough, but it's well worth it. And that sense of camaraderie and everybody on the same trajectory and it's inspiring to see.Gareth Carr:Yeah. I feel like it's not just the movie, it's the journey that the people that you go on the journey with that makes it, makes the experience what it is.Karl Jenner:I always find, yeah, that first day that everybody meets, no one really knows each other and by the end of the journey you're all like best buddies. Or people that, they'd ring you up and say, "Hey, can you come and help me on my thing?" And you go, "Yeah, absolutely. I'll be there in a heartbeat," because they've shed blood for you kind of thing and then so you're willing to go to bat for them and they need you. And that this kind of level, where you do rely on a lot of favors and people giving up time and going out of their way and stuff. And you could use that going back to preparation for other people's films, just be mindful of people's time and try and schedule around that and stuff.Karl Jenner:Because the last thing you want is to piss your people off and just be mindful of all of that. Yeah, and you'll find the end of that journey you'll end up with some good relationships and then those people might get a really good gig and then bring you along with them. And that's how it all works. So, you never know. So the industry's too small to really piss people off.Gareth Carr:Yeah, definitely.Karl Jenner:Yeah.Gareth Carr:Well Karl, listen, this has been so good. And I hope everybody's taken a lot of information out of it and yeah, hopefully you all go on and just have the confidence to shoot your own films. So Karl, thank you very much.Karl Jenner:No worries. Pleasure.Gareth Carr:All right. Cheers mate.Karl Jenner:All right. See you.

Episode 3 - The story so far. A brief one just to bring you up to speed on where I am at the moment. Its been a tough 2 years of filmmaking but there is finally light! Transcript for our hard of hearing/deaf listenersGareth:Hey everyone. Welcome to Action, cut & everything in-between, episode three. This episode is about the story so far, because it's important for me with this podcast to take you on the journey that I'm going on, so that we can all learn together, so let's jump right in.Speaker 2:Welcome to Action, cut & everything in-between, a comprehensive guide to shooting a feature film all on your own.Gareth:Okay, so here we are. It is now mid-June 2019, and I've just had a massive move over to the UK. I lived in Australia for nine years, and now I've just made this huge jump over to the UK to be back closer to my family, and to hopefully shoot a new feature film in the UK. I have my two feature films now in post production, Saving Grace and Life After Man.Gareth:Now, let me just tell you a little bit about Saving Grace and where all that has come from. I started Saving Grace back in about March 2017, so this hasn't been a quick process for me. This has been a very lengthy journey to get to where I am today, and that's because of just life getting in the way. I run a video production company in Australia, so that would take priority over any kind of film stuff, because obviously you've got to make money, and you've got to make money to make these films as well, so it was my business that pretty much paid for my feature films for all the budget.Gareth:Yeah, all the budget came from me, self-funded. I didn't have any investors or anything like that, because well basically I didn't even have the experience to know where to go, to go out and get these investors on board. So I was like, "Right, I've got the equipment. I've got the crew. I can just go out and just give this a go myself and see how it turns out." That was hard going, you know? Started writing the script in March 2017, and then from there, getting the planning going was pretty quick, and then actually doing the first bulk of the shooting only happened over kind of a couple of weekends at this property that we had. Then, Christmas came and stuff, and we had a break over Christmas, and then actually had a bit of a falling out with my co-writer at the time, and that just kind of put the brakes on everything.Gareth:So why that messy situation was happening, I started to write Life After Man. Then Life After Man really came around pretty quick, people were jumping on board, and I kind of learned from my mistakes from Saving Grace and the process that I went through with that, like the script. I spent a lot more time on the script. I sent it off to a script doctor, who is actually in the UK, got feedback from them, and then went back, edited the script, and then within a month or two I started shooting Life After Man.Gareth:So I started shooting Life After Man in May 2018, and from there, again, it was just what I could fit in between work, doing it at weekends or midweek, if I was quiet with work, and whenever I could get the crew and actors together basically. So yeah, went through all that process, shot right up to Christmas basically, and then had a break over Christmas. Now, one of the major things that I've learned is to not have a break between filming, like a large break. I know you can break for a week, or two, or three while you're kind of getting work stuff and getting your budget back together, or trying to sort things out for the shoot. But, having a large break, especially kind of over Christmastime and all that, is really difficult, and in Australia, the summers get super hot, and a lot of the shooting requires kind of exterior shots, and it would just be horrendous for the crew and the actors.Gareth:So yeah, we had this big break and then kind of was really struggling to get up to speed after Christmas came, just due to the fact of getting everybody together. My DOP and a couple of the crew started to work on their own film, which we've spoken about in the last episode, so Guilt came in in the middle. That slowed things down to get back into it, so I went off and I decided to finish what was left of Saving Grace. I went back in. There was a lot of planning involved, and kind of stunts and things, so I think I was just procrastinating with it as well, and I was putting it off, ut I just thought, "No, this has to be finished, has to be done," so went back to Saving Grace, finished off everything that needed to be done there, and then that was an amazing feeling, like, "Okay, right, Saving Grace is done." So, that's gone off into post production now.Gareth:Then, went to help out on Guilt with Carl and Lindsey. You'll hear from Carl in episode four, about the cinematography. Went to help them, and then my English move was coming up as well, so suddenly there was this deadline looming, of, "If I don't get this film finished before I leave, then it's not going to be finished." So, crazy preparation, super stressful, trying to get everything together. I had multiple locations. We had stunts. We needed more horse shots. The logistics were just pretty horrendous, especially for one person.Gareth:When you're a producer as well, you've got so much pressure on you. You have constant emails, phone calls. Everything needs to come together. It just needs one person to be, you know, "Can't make it." Caitlin, my lead actress, she was pretty ill leading up to me leaving, so we were just worried that we may not even be able to shoot at all with her, because we didn't know when she was going to be better. But she was an absolute trooper, and she just pushed on through, and she did an incredible job, and what we've got is just so good. I'm so happy with it, and I can't wait for everybody to see it.Gareth:So, yeah, that's kind of a quick process of kind of my filmmaking journey. It hasn't been easy. It's been a real mixture of stress lonely nights, trying to work things out, no one really to kind of bounce ideas to. I had my assistant director, Chase, but he's been busy with his own film that he shooting now, and then he works and things like that.Gareth:So you know, just endless nights of to plan things, and I'm not the best at planning, either. I like to think I'm more kind of creative-brained, and I don't like systems and things like that, so for me, to plan ahead is quite a big deal for me. I tend to leave things to the last minute as well, so that's not great. But it all turned out in the end, and I'm super happy with everything we've got, and some of the things that were difficult that I put into the script, actually having to go back and think, "Okay, that's a major stunt. I'm going to have to pull that out or come up with a new idea." I think it's actually stronger with what I ended up with on the final shoot.Gareth:So that's just kind of a brief overview of how I put my films together. You know, this pretty much started in March 2017, and it's now June 2019, so you know, two years to get these done, and that's with full-time work, trying to run a business as well, and now a big international move back to the UK. Plus, my businesses still actually running in Australia, so I'm having to deal with that, get the films finished here, post production, and then build up my business here as well, because I don't have any contacts here either, so I'm pretty much starting from scratch. That's with my business and with the filmmaking.Gareth:All my filmmaking experience came in Australia, so I literally don't know anyone in the business here. You know, now it's about getting out, networking, and just meeting new people. I've been here four weeks now, and already I've got interest to speak at a uni and things like that, so slowly but surely, we'll get there, and I'm just excited to get Saving Grace and Life After Man all done in post, get the screeners ready, and then head out to AFM for November. That's kind of my deadline at the moment, is November, so full screeners kind of ready. I'll be hoping for October, sometime like that.Gareth:Yeah, that's it. I just wanted to bring everybody up to speed, because I would like to kind of hear from people who are going through the same thing. When I've listened to podcasts and all that, it always seems to be kind of Americans who've already made it, and they've got all these kinds of celebrity friends, and they're in Hollywood, or they're in LA. So I just wanted to put a different spin on it, and say like, you know, you don't have to be in Hollywood. It's not about who you know, and everybody says, "Oh, it's about who you know." I think that's bullshit, because you make your own path in this world, and if you just keep pushing on, and you've got the passion, then there's no reason why you shouldn't make it.Gareth:That's about it for now. Thanks for listening. Please subscribe, and write in the comments if you've got any questions and things like that, because I'd love to know that you're out there, and you're enjoying it, or if there's anything I can do differently with the podcast. I am just going to started and building up, and we've got some great interviews lined up, so can't wait for you to hear those. And yeah, keep making your films, keep planning, and just get it out there. It's not about who you know. Thanks for listening, and I'll see you on the next one.Speaker 2:Action, cut & everything in-between, a comprehensive guide to shooting a feature film all on your own.

Episode 2. I caught up with Australian Writer, Producer and Director Lyndsay Sarah to hear her journey of shooting her first indie feature film and the challenges she faced. Check out Lyndsay's work herehttps://www.lyndsaysarahdoyle.com/projects Transcript for our hard of hearing/deaf listenersGareth:Hey everyone, welcome to Action Cut and Everything In-Between, Episode number 2. Today I'm speaking with, Lyndsay Sarah. She is an Irish-Australian writer, director and filmmaker. After spending 10 years in television, she's decided to make her first feature film.Gareth:Now, her background is similar to mine. She didn't go to film school, she didn't go to university. She's just self-taught. She's shot a number of successful short films. Room of Doors was one and that's on Amazon Prime. And then another short horror called Dirt, which is awesome. You've got to check both those out online. Without further ado, we'll jump right in.Gareth:Okay, Lyndsay, thanks for coming on the show. I really appreciate...Lyndsay Sarah:Oh, thank you.Gareth:... you giving your time today.Lyndsay Sarah:It's very precious, my time. But you're worth it Gareth.Gareth:Oh, thank you. You're just at the end of your feature film, Guilt. Where is it now? Post production?Lyndsay Sarah:We've currently finished the first draft, I'm going to say it's pretty much final edit because everybody seems to be happy with it. I haven't actually looked at all of it yet. But two of our producers have, and they're really happy. We're at the stage now where I'm going to have a little watch of it. If I have any notes or feedback or any kind of adjustments, then we'll all have a chat about that.Lyndsay Sarah:But it's pretty much the end of the edit, the picture lock, and then it will move off into scene mix and then grade. Then we'll score it and all the rest.Gareth:Awesome.Lyndsay Sarah:But it's good. It happened in such, sorry I interrupted. But, it happened in such a short period of time. Like blink and you'll miss it is how it kind of feels. And because this isn't obviously my day job, is not a filmmaker. I wish it was. You work, you go and do your job, you go and do other projects and then you kind of go, "Oh wow, we just made a full feature length movie." I don't feel like I really had the time or the space to soak it all up.Gareth:That's good.Lyndsay Sarah:But that means-Gareth:We'll get into that, I want to hear the story of it and how it all came about, as we go on. But give us a brief overview of Guilt. What's it all about?Lyndsay Sarah:I will. Okay. I'll give you a very brief, brief, brief. Basically the plot it's about a female serial killer who targets child sex offenders. Then she finds out that one of her past victims had actually been falsely accused, and therefore becomes conflicted about what to do with her latest victim.Gareth:Interesting.Lyndsay Sarah:That's it very shortly summed up.Gareth:Okay, nice.Lyndsay Sarah:How the story came to be?Gareth:Yes. I mean, take us back to how do you go from shooting short films like you did? You did some great shoots that I've seen. How do you go from that to deciding I'm going to make a feature?Lyndsay Sarah:Well, I was fortunate enough to meet my Guilt co-director and cinematographer and one of the producers, Karl and Janet who plays the lead role in Guilt. I met them through a mutual friend. I've known them longer than I've known my husband. We met at a pub one night and I didn't really know about them, but our mutual friend had told Karl about me and how I was a filmmaker. I'd made short films.Lyndsay Sarah:We just got to talking and we got to hanging out and then we said we'd work on a short project together. Karl had a couple of projects going, and so I went and helped on his set. Just helping around, just production assistant kind of thing. Then he came and shot one of my short films, that's on Amazon Prime and-Gareth:What's that's called?Lyndsay Sarah:That's called Room of Doors.Gareth:Cool. Check that out.Lyndsay Sarah:Room of Doors. Yes, it's a short reel. It's about four minutes long. It's quite fun. It went through the film festival circuit as well, and had a few screenings around the world. We shot that together and Janet actually played the supporting role in that short film.Lyndsay Sarah:We just kind of, we've been friends for a few years and helped each other out on different projects. Then I think all three of us were at the stage where we're just ready to step up and tackle a feature film. We're all pretty determined and serious about breaking into the industry and continuing to make content.Lyndsay Sarah:It was kind of just that it happened. We talked about it. Actually prior to making Guilt, Karl was going to produce another feature length, and he invited me on board to write the script. I wrote the script, and I think we were into the second draft of it. Then he turned around one day at my place and said, "Oh, but this won't be my first film. This will be after the first film."Lyndsay Sarah:I was like, "Oh, why are we writing this?" Like, "Let's go and come up with the first idea and then go and make that." We threw around some ideas. I already had some scripts kind of half written and going and I thought this might be good. Then we came with some other ideas and then Janet, actually came up with the idea of the character, the lead character in Guilt. That's sort of where it all came from.Gareth:Cool.Lyndsay Sarah:She wanted to play a female... well she's female, so yes, she's going to play a female. She wanted to play a serial killer that targeted paedophiles. And it kind of came out of there.Gareth:How long did the script actually take to write?Lyndsay Sarah:What's unique about the production of Guilt is that, we had this looming deadline because Janet had actually gotten her Green Card to move to America. When they issue the Green Card, they give you a date you have to be in the US. And that's non-negotiable.Lyndsay Sarah:We basically had, I think it was June, July, August, September, four months before she moved to America. It wasn't so much like I had that luxury of really writing the script and developing it. Then we all had the luxury of time to go into pre-production, all that kind of thing. We gave ourselves, actually I think it was five months. We had five months to basically write, go into pre production, shoot, and then Janet could leave anyway. But...Gareth:Rolling from script to shoot day one, how long do you think?Lyndsay Sarah:I wrote the script I think in two months. There was a bit of a gap there at time trying to work out our schedules before we actually went into pre-production. But, I think we had about two months from having a script we are happy with, to then organizing a feature film shoot. Then going into shoot. I think it was about two months. Organizing cast, crew casting, crewing locations, permits, blah, blah, blah, blah.Gareth:Yes, it's massive. I can't believe that you guys pulled it off in such a short amount of time.Lyndsay Sarah:Well, that's when I say blink and you'll miss it. That's how it feels.Gareth:Now that it's all shot on in the can, how does it feel? How's does it feel now watching it back, seeing kind of the final edit?Lyndsay Sarah:Well, I'm yet to see the final edit, but I've gotten to see a bunch of the scenes, the more prominent scenes. Yes, I don't know, I just feel time went so quickly and it's almost like everybody was in panic mode, and I didn't really get to lap it up and savor it. I don't quite have any kind of, I guess, emotional attachment.Lyndsay Sarah:When I do see the scenes I go, "Cool, that's awesome." But it feels like I'm watching another film that I wasn't a part of, if that makes any sense. Just because we didn't have that time to breathe and really savor it. But I mean, it looks cool and it's a really interesting story, and I think people will like it.Gareth:It's funny when I see the behind the scenes pictures of my film, kind of, I don't even remember shooting that, what happened that day. I think you just so into it on the day and so stressed and you're thinking about a million things, you don't have time to just sit back and enjoy it. Do you?Lyndsay Sarah:Well, you go into overdrive, I think. People like to know that you were on my set?Gareth:Yes. We can say that I actually helped out. Couple of days and I'm actually one of the SWAT team, as well for your filming action.Lyndsay Sarah:You took a few days?Gareth:Yes. I took a few days.Lyndsay Sarah:You deserve more credit than a couple of days. You're a big help. But what was I going to say about that is I've lost my train of thought... well, you're in overdrive and I kind of, you put your little hat on and you get to work and you don't really get to... I don't know. I don't remember half of it either.Gareth:Yes, in the moment it feels, but you're not actually...Lyndsay Sarah:In the moment?Gareth:In that moment, yes.Lyndsay Sarah:It's like the whole fight or flight thing. It's like you're just reacting. You're not quite, it's not like this whole. Be present, be in the moment. You're not like, What can I feel? What can I smell? What can I hear? You're not kind of savoring the moment. You just like we've got this whole shit load of stuff that needs to be done, and we need to go and do it. No time to waste.Gareth:That's it. What do you think you've learned then, from shooting your first feature? From what you've said so far, it sounds like time is a big thing. Give yourself probably a bit more time?Lyndsay Sarah:Time is a big thing. Yep. Prep work is a big thing. I'm super organized and so it's quite natural for me to organize something short periods of time and with little time. I think kind of probably in a sick way, I don't want to say get off on it, but I kind of enjoy that buzz. It's a bit of a thrill. The whole like, "Oh my God, we've only got a day to do this." It's like boom, boom, boom, boom. I really enjoy that.Lyndsay Sarah:But I would say that next time, I would want just want more time before having to get onto set. The thing is, when you're on set and you're filming, there's so many things that are out of your control. That's why you got to be super organized.Lyndsay Sarah:The most you can do prior to getting onto set is prepare and organize yourself, so that if anything does go wrong and set you're ready for it. I think what I would want next time around is definitely more time to spend with the script. I mean, we did a good job.Lyndsay Sarah:Myself and Janet developed that script together. We did a good job. I'd go away and I'd write and then I'd pop in a couple of weeks later to her and she'd have a read, then we'd have a chat. I'd go off again and write some more. I just would like more time to breathe in between each process. I think. Not kind of go write up the script, straight into pre-production, straight into shooting, straight into post. I've wanted to be like, "Ooh." You just, there's breathing room in between. Because I think you probably get to enjoy it more, maybe.Gareth:Yes, definitely. All right. What's your plan for distribution once it's all... done, you're happy with it. It's all ready to go? What's your distribution plans?Lyndsay Sarah:A couple of our team, Karl and Janet... did I mention who Karl was?Gareth:Yes, you mentioned in the beginning Karl and Janet.Lyndsay Sarah:Co-director cinematographer. Karl and Janet went off to the American film market, which you went to as well, end of last year. They kind of did their thing, organizing meetings and chatting with people and finding distributors who were interested in what we had. Now we didn't have a finished, polished film, then. This was just sort of like we had put some scenes together and we had some production stills, and the script was provided and all that kind of stuff. They had a ton of meetings and just found a bunch of people who are interested in seeing it when it was finished.Lyndsay Sarah:Now that it's going to be finished probably in a month or so. We then will get back in contact with those interested parties and send them a screener to have a look at. Then basically go from there. If you know people are still interested, then we'll set up some meetings and perhaps we'll fly over to the US, and meet with people in person.Lyndsay Sarah:If nobody's interested, that's fine. Fuck you. No, I'm kidding. We'll probably head back to the American film market this year in November with our finished product and kind of re-introduce it to the market now that it's finished and all polished and looking shiny.Gareth:Very nice. What advice do you think you'd give someone who was thinking about shooting their own feature film?Lyndsay Sarah:Well, first of all I would say shoot some short films. That's your playground. That's basically where you learn what not to do. It's also a great place to make some friends. To network, to meet some people that you could possibly potentially then go and make a feature film with.Lyndsay Sarah:You can stuff up on short films. It's not a huge risk and you're not losing a lot. I know it's still time, it's still energy it's still money. You still want to do it right, but it's not the end of the world if you stuff up.Lyndsay Sarah:Now, my short film, Room of Doors, that's on Amazon. I had actually shot that film six, eight months prior. I had made a terrible mistake with casting and didn't realize at the time until we're on set and all of a sudden this particular human being decided she didn't want to act anymore. She wasn't basically performing the way she did during the audition.Lyndsay Sarah:She basically stuffed me around for about three or four days. We basically went away after shooting as much as we could with her. And I sat in with the edit for about a month before I went, "Yes, this is terrible. I cannot cut around bad acting. I need to do this again." Yes, that set me back a few months of organizing and shooting and using everybody's time. It also set me back a couple of grand, a few grand.Lyndsay Sarah:But, I learnt heaps from doing that. How important it was to actually have the right people. You're not always going to get it right, and sometimes you think you have it right until you get to set. Then you kind of, it's out of your control and it's not like you can go. Okay, everybody go home after an hour.Lyndsay Sarah:It's like you've organized this whole shoot and you've got people and you've got locations, booking permits and you got catering and all the rest of it. And people have given up their time. Sometimes you just got to go with the flow.Lyndsay Sarah:Six, or eight months later, we shot that again and it actually came out much better, and obviously has done very well for itself, which I didn't think would happen had I gone ahead with editing the original. That's a little fun fact there. But once again, it was a short film. There's not much to lose.Lyndsay Sarah:You hear about these big huge budget productions that they make mistakes like that. Like Game of Thrones. The girl who plays the dragon girl Daenerys, they actually had cast somebody else prior to her and shot I think about three or four of her scenes for the first episode of the first season.Lyndsay Sarah:Until somebody from the network or somebody up there went, "This is the wrong choice. We need to recast this role." That's something like Game of Thrones and you see how explosive and expensive that production is. Imagine being that person who chose to cast her and then they had to go recast it. And that's when they get Emilia Clarke and re-shoot all those scenes all over again.Lyndsay Sarah:Now that's a big risk, not a short film. Not stuffing up on a short film. Go make a short film before you make a feature film, unless you've got money to blow.Gareth:That's it. Time management.Lyndsay Sarah:Yes.Gareth:Shoot a lot of short films, get the right people on board. I suppose that goes for crew as well. Doesn't it?Lyndsay Sarah:Prove us wrong.Gareth:Short films is a great way to see who you're going to bond with on set, because you spend so much time with these people, and a lot of the time with yours, I'm with mine. Where we've had to stay overnight as well in the location. You need to be able to have breakfast, lunch, dinner with all these people. You're spending a hell of a lot of time with them. You've got to make sure that you're jelling with everyone who's on your set.Lyndsay Sarah:Absolutely. Especially, when it's a short film, you're not very well known. There may not be money involved. It may be unpaid. Kind of, you can test people to see how much they're willing to give of their time and their energy to you when there's no money involved and there's no status involved.Lyndsay Sarah:If somebody goes, "Oh, sorry, if it was paid, I'd do it." You go, "Well, fuck you. When I do have money I wouldn't be hiring you." All those little things that you can learn along the way as well.Lyndsay Sarah:I was going to say something else about the short film. Well, if somebody has made short films and then they want to make feature, I'm hoping by the time they decide to go and make that feature, they've actually created strong bonds and connections through doing the short films.Lyndsay Sarah:Making a feature film is pretty much the same as making a short film times 20. If you've gotten it down part doing a short and you're confident and you're ready to go, it's the same thing. You've got to have a good script. Good actors, good crew. Be organized. Not hard a hustle, and take on multiple jobs yourself. Don't kind of go, "Well, I'm the director. That is it."Lyndsay Sarah:Learn to cook if you have to. Go do the location scouting, if you have to. Be your own first aid, whatever. Take on multiple jobs because you can't, especially if it's an indie project and you'd never done it before, and you don't have much money, you can't be hiring or even depending on other people all the time.Lyndsay Sarah:Especially, for a short film, if somebody says, "Yes, I'll come help for two days and I'll work for free, and I'll be a production assistant, that's different from a feature film and asking someone to give up three or four weeks of their life for free. People go to work. People got to live.Gareth:Yes. That's awesome.Lyndsay Sarah:I think that, that would be it. Just be super organized. Show a bit of humility, I think as well. You're never too good for a job. Just do all the jobs. Do them well. Lead by example. Create a comfortable, and safe and creative environment. I guess create what you would want to walk into. If you had been asked to come help on a feature film, just create that kind of environment.Gareth:Yes, absolutely.Lyndsay Sarah:I think that's it.Gareth:What about in terms of the actual script itself? What would you say to people to try and avoid. That's made life difficult with the actual shoot because a lot of indie features are going to be low budget. What's been some of the biggest problems to face, kind of with that side of things?Lyndsay Sarah:Well, I'm very much into performance and story based stories. Don't create some kind of CGI monster or alien or a spaceship or multiple car crash into a helicopter. Restrain yourself when it comes to what you go out and shoot. Because, if you can't make it look $1 million, I think it will affect how your film looks overall. And the production quality of your film.Lyndsay Sarah:We've all seen those bad low budget films with some kind of reptile that's not a real reptile, and they haven't had the budget to get the best in the industry. But in saying that, I mean if it's your dream to do like your first indie feature being about the Reptile Man, then just go make it happen for yourself.Lyndsay Sarah:I don't know, that's kind of stuff I'd avoid. I'm very much into performance based. You want to get yourself some good actors who aren't afraid to let loose and look a bit ugly. I know that all actors are self-conscious but not self-conscious where that's going to affect their performance.Lyndsay Sarah:Get a good story first. As long as it's a good story, I think that a lot of that low budget elements are forgivable. If you don't really have something interesting and unique that people haven't seen or heard before, I think it'd be very hard to stand out in the crowd of millions of other low budget indie films that are out there.Gareth:Yes, sure. When you're writing, do you come up against these things where you think, "Okay, now she's going to jump in a helicopter and fly away." And then you're like, "Oh no, hang on."Lyndsay Sarah:Well, the thing with me is I'm a writer first before I'm a filmmaker. The reason I got into actually making films was because I was told once, the best way to have your writing considered and taken seriously in the industry is to have had it produced. Which sounds a bit like a catch 22, how can I get it produced if it hasn't been produced? Does that make sense? You know what I'm saying?Gareth:Yes.Lyndsay Sarah:I decided to go write stuff and produce it myself. My writing always comes before my filmmaking. I'm never short on ideas, but what I then think is doable, I can pick out of all these different script ideas that I've come up with. I might be writing something that's like an action adventure, and it's happens around different parts of the world and there are big action explosion scenes.Lyndsay Sarah:I wouldn't stop myself just because I couldn't at this point in time make that film. I just keep writing it because I could then option it to Hollywood, and say will you buy this script? Then I would go and focus my filmmaking efforts on something that's a lot more achievable with the means that I have right now.Lyndsay Sarah:That's one of the pluses to being a writer-director-producer. Is that I can kind of decide what... I can still write, but it doesn't necessarily have to be for myself. See, because I've always been told, if you're writing something, never to think about the final destination of the script. Just write. Whatever comes out just right and let that sort of the story be told.Lyndsay Sarah:Develop the script and never mind what will happen to it at the end. Never mind about the business. Don't even think about the industry when you're writing the script. If somebody is a writer and filmmaker, or they've got something that they want to make, always put the script in the story first. Then the rest comes later.Lyndsay Sarah:If you finish it and you go right, "Well, that's not achievable with my means at all." Because of the explosions into five helicopters, then think of something else and write that instead. But, you should never avoid writing just because you don't want to hear that.Lyndsay Sarah:You don't want to say, "Oh, well, it's not going to be made. I can't make that. I just won't bother." That's why a lot of people don't get off their ass and go and make films, because they think it's too hard or it's not achievable. But it is, it just takes time. You just got to be patient. I don't think I gave any advice in that. Did I?Gareth:No. That was great. That was awesome. Yes.Lyndsay Sarah:All right.Gareth:Very good.Lyndsay Sarah:I was like, I don't think I've helped anybody.Gareth:No, that was very good. Listen, what's next for you now?Lyndsay Sarah:Me personally?Gareth:Yes. On your film making journey-Lyndsay Sarah:On my journey.Gareth:Guilt's going to be going into it's distribution and post production stage and all that. Kind of aside from that, are you working on anything else?Lyndsay Sarah:I am.Gareth:What's your future plans?Lyndsay Sarah:I'm always working on something. Like I mentioned before, I'm a writer, so I'm always writing. I'm also a aspiring author. I'm not just film related, I also want to write books. I'm always kind of dabbling in some novel ideas aimed at young adults. I was a big fan of The Hunger Games.Lyndsay Sarah:I'm sort of in that kind of sphere where I'd be trying to get young adults to get off Instagram, and read more books and use their imagination, and sort of, I love that kind of adventure. Sci-Fi fantasy genre in books. That's one of my things. I do a lot of writing and sometimes I'll be writing a script one day and then later on that night I'll start writing a chapter in a novel.Lyndsay Sarah:There's pros and cons to that as well. I might mention with having too many ideas, you need a lot of discipline to focus on one. Lots of writing. I hooked up with a... what would I call them? They're a theater type group in Sydney, and they asked me to write a theater production for them.Lyndsay Sarah:I've done a couple of, sorry, I'm about to burp. Cut. I've done a couple of... we're on to the third draft. Now with that it's going to be a musical. It's really cool. They've got aerial artists, and fire twirling and back-flipping and all this crazy kind of stuff. It's kind of like a Romeo and Juliet story.Lyndsay Sarah:It's based on this very ancient Persian poem about these two lovers who aren't allowed to be together, and it's got a sad ending. They also want to make it sort of comedic, as well. A bit of comic relief in there. I've been working on that, the past couple of months. We've just put it on hold for now, but I'll get back into that, soon-ish.Lyndsay Sarah:I probably will go into production with something next year, but I haven't decided which story yet. We've got a few scripts going at the moment that potentially could be my next one. I'm not kind of rushing into it, I've learned. I don't want to rush. I just really want to get the scripts into a really good place where, other people would be interested in coming on board and putting in some money.Lyndsay Sarah:I think, I'm going to spend this year... I mean, we're halfway through the year already. I think the rest of the year, which is a good enough time just to spend on really honing these story ideas and getting them to a good place. And then, I'll probably choose one that I think speaks the loudest to me and then start looking at going into production with that next year. If not, I'll sell it to someone else.Gareth:Nice. That's awesome. Now, I suppose you're going to be enjoying kind of the journey that Guilt takes now and watching how that-Lyndsay Sarah:I think so.Gareth:Travels and turns out.Lyndsay Sarah:Well, like I said, with the whole savoring the moment thing, because it feels like it all just happens so quickly and there was no savoring. I feel like, now with it going off into the world, and who knows what will become of it. But hopefully there will be that period where I get to then, sink into the moment and really enjoy it. Hopefully it gets some good reception, and I can enjoy that as well.Lyndsay Sarah:Take your time people. I feel I'm meditating talking about this, but it's so important to enjoy it. I think that's one of the main things I learned from doing it as well. I mean, you are on set with us. We had some pretty funny days where we're all just cracking up laughing and I remember, I just have double over with tears coming down my eyes.Lyndsay Sarah:I was just laughing so much. But apart from those hilarious moments, there was a lot of stress and I'm a very high stress person. But I think coming out of that I learned that... did I really enjoy the process? I enjoyed days on set and hanging out with the cast and crew. But the whole process, did I enjoy it fully to what I could have. I'd have to say, no.Lyndsay Sarah:I kind of forgot most of it, or was such in overthinking mode, that I didn't get to be present with it. That's definitely a big lesson I've learned. I want to enjoy my career. I don't want it to be, because it's such a hard industry. I'm going to walk from that now for a while. But anyway, sorry, you're stuck with me, so listen to me.Lyndsay Sarah:I think it's such a hard industry to break into, and there's so much competition and people can feel very alienated and they're all alone. And it's so big and it's so overwhelming and they'll never make it and they'll never be anybody.Lyndsay Sarah:It's a shame because it's so much fun making films and being on set and having a finished product and being like, yes, and feeling really proud of yourself. I want to enjoy my career because, if I'm not enjoying pursuing my career, then I'm not enjoying my life, am I? Because I want that to be my life.Lyndsay Sarah:I don't want to have this miserable high stressed life and existence and then look back in 50 years and be like, "Uh." I just remember being really stressed because I was so desperate to make it. There was no enjoyment. That's one of my big things, take home messages. Enjoy, it's supposed to be fun because it's creative. What other industry do you get to just make up stories and then play with each other on set, and have a lot of fun. No other industry exists like ours. There we go. I am the Dalai Lama.Gareth:Well, that's awesome. Look, if people want to find out more about you and get more wise wisdom, how can they find you and check out your work?Lyndsay Sarah:Sure. Well, I do have a website, but there's not that much about me. I think you're better off looking on Instagram for me. You can find me... I changed my Instagram handle. You can find me @ Ms, M-S. Lindsay, L-Y-N-D-S-A-Y. S. Sarah. S-A-R-A-H. That's me on Instagram.Lyndsay Sarah:I post lots of film stuff, but also just stupid stuff that I'm doing. And for Guilt, if people want to follow the progress of the film, they can find Guilt at guilt.feature.film.Gareth:They you go.Lyndsay Sarah:I'm running that little page. I mean, the more people who pop on and follow, obviously the better. But, I'll just keep posting pics from certain behind the scenes and it's progress.Gareth:Awesome.Lyndsay Sarah:Yep.Gareth:Well, listen. Thank you so much for today. I really appreciate you giving so much time.Lyndsay Sarah:Thank you.Gareth:It's been awesome to hear your story and best of luck with Guilt in a calm way to see how it goes being on set and stuff. I've seen a lot of the rushes and some of the scenes that are being put together. And it just looks awesome so far, I can't wait to-Lyndsay Sarah:Yay.Gareth:To see how its journey turns out and hopefully we'll get to catch you up in AFM this year because I'm thinking to go in as well.Lyndsay Sarah:Oh, look I saw when I go, and I'm so sad that I missed that last year. Actually it was such a shame that I missed out last year. I wanted to cry. I might have cried actually, that I did, but anyway, don't tell anyone. Oops.Lyndsay Sarah:Yes, it'll be great to go back and with a finished film and actually be like, "Right, this is everything now." You don't have to guess about what happens. You don't have to sort of, you're not too sure how we're going to cut it or finalize it. Or, what music choices we're going to make. This is it, this is how it looks. Please love us and buy it.Gareth:Perfect.Lyndsay Sarah:Thanks.Gareth:All right, Lyndsay. Well, thank you.Lyndsay Sarah:You're very welcome.Gareth:And everyone, thanks for listening and make sure you check out the links that Lyndsay mentioned earlier. And yes, let's all support indie film.Lyndsay Sarah:Yo hoo.

Hosted by Director Gareth Carr, he shares tips and insights into getting off the ground and making your feature film happen. With 2 feature films due for release this year he will share his journey and the actions that have brought him to this point.No film school, no connections in the industry, no problem.This episode is a brief intro into what the podcast is all about. Transcript for hard of hearing/deaf listeners.Gareth Carr:Hello and welcome to Action, Cut, and Everything in Between. This is an introduction episode about what the podcast is all about. I've learnt so much over the years about indi film making, and I want to share that knowledge with you. My name's Gareth Carr, I am a writer, producer and director, originally from the UK but currently living in Sydney, Australia. I came over here about nine years ago now. I originally I came over as a land surveyor, so I don't really have a film background, which is why I wanted to start this podcast, because I want to be able to tell people about my experiences and what I've gone through in order to get to the stage where I am now. Last year I shot two feature films back to back, which probably wasn't the best idea, but I learnt a hell of a lot along the way, and I wanted to share those learnings with you.Now, being a surveyor got me into Australia, and I got sponsored by them, and that's how I got to stay in this beautiful country. But my passion was never there, and over the years I always just chipped away at filmmaking, from having an old family camera, I would make little videos with my toys, with my pets, and stuff like that. Making small holiday videos. Just over the years chipping away at small little things, while having the safety of a full-time job just kind of delayed that. And it wasn't until I was 35 when I really just started to change my entire life and my attitude and think okay, this is my life, I've only got one life, so I'm going to make the most of it and I'm going to follow my passion and do what I want to do.So, a lot of research into filmmaking, I did a small film course, short film school in Sydney. That was only a six night thing at night school, so only a small little introduction. And then from there I just went out and I started to network and really put myself out there. I took acting lessons so I could talk to actors better and understand what they were going through in the process. I also went out and networked a lot, so I went to short film meet up groups, went on Facebook groups, and just tried to meet as many people as I could in Sydney, because obviously coming from a surveying background I didn't know anybody in the industry, this was all completely new for me.So, it was just the passion that kept driving me to just keep moving forward, meet new people, and then you meet one person and that leads to another meeting, leads to another meeting. And then the next minute you've got a little small crew, and everybody just wants to get involved, and they just do it for the love of it. So, after about four years in Australia I decided to pack in the surveying and start my own video production company. It all started from I did a time lapse video and I posted it on Twitter. Somebody saw it on Twitter and messaged me and said, "Hey, loved your time lapse video, would you like to come and do something similar for our company?" And I was like hey, this is pretty cool, you can make a living from this. didn't realize.So, that was the kind of start of it, and then it just grew from there. And then I also took on photography, so video and photography and that was called GC Imagery. And I've successfully been running that now for about five years, and that has been all the funding for my feature films. So, I've managed to fund and shoot two feature films all on my own, that's write them, produce them, direct them. I know how to edit myself through the video production. I know how to color grade. The sound design, I've managed to meet a great sound designer through the networking. And they're going to be working on the sound design. I also met a great composer, just on Facebook. So, he's now working on the music for my films.And yeah, it's all coming together, and I wanted to just go through the steps in this podcast and just let everybody know what I've learnt. I'm no expert, but what I will give is honest advice and opinions of what I've been through, and then hopefully people can learn from that and not make the same mistakes that I did.So, how do you go from shooting short films with your friends to shooting a full on feature film? Well, it isn't actually as scary as you might think. I probably only made three to four serious little short films, one of them won a couple of awards which was great, gave me a real confidence boost. But it didn't take me long to just kind of think well okay, what am I doing with these short films? They're not really making me any money, I'm not driving forward or anything with them. So, I'm learning a lot along the way, but time is also passing me by.So, I just decided to take the jump and just shoot my first feature film. The opportunity came up with a location, somebody was going on holiday for a couple of weeks and left this amazing house. So, I just got together with a very small group of friends that I knew in the filmmaking circle and just decided to shoot this feature film.So, my first feature film was called Saving Grace, it's a supernatural thriller based in one location, but I did make a few mistakes along the way of having some flashbacks, having a lot of night external shots. I also thought it'd be a great idea to have a night external shot in a boat. Turns out that was not a great idea. So, there I was stood waist deep in shark infested waters in the pitch black with stingrays swimming past my feet, so I had to wear trainers so I didn't stand on one. And yeah, that was very eventful to say the least. Having quite a few characters in different areas, which meant more locations, more ravel time, logistics and as a result of that, kind of slowed the production right down and also put it over budget. Now, I'll go into the production side of each feature film that I've done in another podcast. All I wanted to do today was just give you a brief over look of what to expect, what I'm all about, and the advice that you'll get along the way.So, my second film was called Life After Man, and you can check that out at lifeafterman.com, there's a little website there that I've set up. You can check out the trailer, bits about me, and bits about the rest of the cast and crew. So, you can see just how small we were, but the kind of images that we have created are pretty stunning. That was all down to a great director of photography that I've met here called Carl Jenner, and he's going to be on one of the alter podcasts, and we'll talk to him about shooting the film and how he captured those beautiful images that he did.I also attended the American film market in LA for the first time. I had read a lot about it, and I was bit anxious about going, didn't know much about it, what the deal was. But I just went there anyway with my two film trailers. Had lots of meetings with lots of distributors. And yeah, it was very successful and really opened my eyes to the whole industry. And it's actually not as daunting as you might think. So, all I'm doing now is working on my screeners for the films, and I'm going to head back to AFM this year with finished screeners, and I'll present those to the distributors that I've met and the contacts that I've made. And we'll have an AFM special on here where I'll talk to a couple of other filmmakers that I know and I've met who have been to AFM. And yeah, we'll give you the kind of inside tips on what to do.Also on the podcast I'll be interviewing a number of different filmmakers, different styles, and different stages of their careers. So, we'll talk to a female director, we'll talk to another director who sold his film at AFM a couple of years back. We'll talk to directors of photography. We'll talk to sound department. Everything you need really to get going and shoot your own indi feature film.But the main part for me of this podcast is to just really let you know everything that I've learnt, because I've learnt so much shooting two feature films back to back. One little tip there, do not shoot two feature films back to back, there's a good start. So, I just want to tell you the do's and the don'ts about what to do when writing, producing, shooting, distribution, all that. Every aspect I want to give you as much information that I can, and hopefully it'll help you to shoot your own indi feature film, because I know I procrastinated for so many years and now that the ball is rolling, the snowball is building, I'm just loving the ride so much and I want to share that journey. I don't have signed off distribution yet on my films, but I will share the process with you, and you can learn as I go along, as I learn. And I'll fill you in on all the details. So, look, thanks for listening, please do subscribe, and write down any comments that you may want to ask me, any questions, things that you think might be useful for me to talk about. And I'd be happy to share with you. So, thanks a lot, and I'll see you on the next episode.