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[MUSIC PLAYING]
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The art of low-budget
filmmaking is the art of being
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thoroughly prepared and
maximizing what you have.
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And your preparation is at every
level of design storyboarding,
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technical scouting,
selecting your locations,
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trying to get the most bang
for the buck out of a location,
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versus having to build a set.
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You'll sacrifice some control.
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You'll sacrifice
some design elements
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that you might have if you'd
had the budget to build
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a million dollar set.
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But it's okay.
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The essence of the story
will come through regardless.
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And you're going to select
a crew for their ability
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to move fast and
take no prisoners,
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but still generate
images of high quality
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that are punching
above their weight,
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so that the film that you
end up with looks great,
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and you don't see and
feel the compromises
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that you know you've made.
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You're not going to
have a movie star, which
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can be a blessing in the
sense that it forces you
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as a filmmaker to
earn the audience's
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interest in that character.
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So I think it builds craft.
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And maybe you have to make two
or three films at a more modest
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budget to prove--
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to prove yourself, and
to learn the craft,
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and to prove that the craft
that you have learned to,
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you know, the powers
that be, that sign--
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that sign the checks.
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Pick a subject that can be done
within the budget constraints
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that you have.
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And let me give you an example
from my own experience.
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When I was breaking in,
I made "The Terminator."
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That was my first
directing credit.
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And I knew when I
was writing it that I
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had to write it for a budget.
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So I knew I was going to
be on location, so I wasn't
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going to be able to build sets.
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Now, the difference between
building a set of a castle
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and going to a castle or a
large building or large mansion
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and using the location is
a difference in control.
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You can knock out a wall.
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You can go back
on a longer lens.
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You can stylistically do things
in a set that you cannot do
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on a location.
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Does the audience care?
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Probably not that much.
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You might not win
an Academy Award
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for cinematography or design
because of the limitations,
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but you'll still make
a damn good film.
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So it's a question
of, when are you
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getting diminishing returns for
where you're spending money?
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And so with "The
Terminator," the idea
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there was to be very everyday,
very commonplace, not exotic,
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for a specific reason, then
drop the exotic element into it.
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And that was really a motif
throughout "The Terminator"
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films, for the most part.
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Certainly, the first
film was about,
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this is everyday Los Angeles.
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This is a restaurant.
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This is a nightclub.
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This is a city street.
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And the extraordinary
elements came into it
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from the future, Kyle
Reese, and the terminator.
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And even then, they
were forced to deal
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with contemporary elements in
terms of weaponry, and so on.
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And that was done by design
for a very simple reason.
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We couldn't afford
anything else.
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That script was
carefully written
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to be something
that was affordable.
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Because I knew I was coming in
as an entry level filmmaker.
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I knew that I was
going to have to pick
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my battles with the
visual effects in a very
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controlled way, so that it was
manageable within the budget.
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So we'd do a few
prosthetic effects.
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We saved up all our big guns for
the end, where the endoskeleton
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is revealed by the fire.
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We had a few prosthetic
gags along the way,
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and we had a couple of future
sequences that could be bigger
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or could be smaller, that
the film didn't hinge on,
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where I could do some
of the effects work
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that I had learned how to do.
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Because I asked myself, what do
I bring to this specific story
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other than that I created it?
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Well, I know
tactical filmmaking.
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I know visual effects.
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I've done a bit of action
second-unit direction.
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With an early project, you want
to come in with something that
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speaks to the strengths that
you've already developed,
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or it better be the best
damn screenplay in history.
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It's really more
important, I would say,
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than the technical understanding
of the art of photography
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and lighting, is to have that
communication with the director
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of photography.
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If you're working with
someone you've never
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worked with before,
spend a lot of time
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with that person looking at
films and saying what you like
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and what you see and
what's important.
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And ask the director of
photography, how do I do that?
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How will we do that?
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How will we get that--
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that sort of highly
directional soft cross light
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coming in through the window?
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How can we get that?
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How can we get that richness of
tone based on your experience?
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How have you done
that in the past?
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And what will that
involve for me technically
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during the shooting day?
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And if I want to
change my angle--
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let's say I'm going to
go outside the window,
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and the person
comes to the window,
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how does that not
suddenly look very flat?
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Because I'm literally-- I've
got the lights right behind me
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at that point.
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Well, how will we cheat that?
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How will we manage
window reflections?
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How will we shoot in cars?
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How will we do all these things?
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So get that dialogue going
as early as possible.
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When I made "Terminator,"
I hired Adam Greenberg.
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And I sat down with him, and
we watched two films together.
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One was "Blade Runner," and
one was "The Road Warrior,"
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so "Mad Max 2."
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And we watched both those films.
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And I said, I want both of
those films put into a blender.
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And he said, but they're
completely different.
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I said, exactly, exactly.
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How do we create a common
ground between those two films,
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the kinetic, moving camera,
wide lenses, hauling ass before
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and following cars, very
dynamic, but at the same time,
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that moody, sort of almost
noir, film noir quality,
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German expressionist
quality-- strong shadows,
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deep blacks, hard
edge lights, where
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you need very precise lighting
control to get that effect?
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I said, we need to figure
out how to do that.
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And we talked about it a lot.
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And we even went out and
drove around the town
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with a light meter to find out
what streets were bright enough
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that we could shoot essentially
natural light at night
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or available light at night.
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Because we wouldn't
have to bring
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in condors and lights and
things that we couldn't afford.
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So we just found
mercury vapor lights
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on streets that were brighter.
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And a good tip there is
car lots, used car lots
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or new car lots.
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They always have bright lights.
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In every city, there's a row
of, like, car dealerships.
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Just shoot on that street,
because everything's all
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lit up.
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And you won't need
any additional lights.
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Of course, these
days, the cameras
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are much more sensitive.
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But we were shooting on
negative at the time.
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So you know, we had to--
we had to find a way
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to shoot without
a lot of lights.
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And Adam said, we're going
to be shooting wide open.
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We'll be shooting at
F1.4 on prime lenses.
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So you know, I had
schooled myself
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on the nature of lenses
and photography enough
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by that point to understand
I won't have a zoom lens.
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So if I need to change lenses,
that's going to take us time.
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I have to factor that
into my shooting day.
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And you know, I
wanted a Steadicam.
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We couldn't afford a Steadicam.
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So the DP made a rig
with some speed rail
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tubing to drop the
camera down into it,
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like a Steadicam
low-mode type position.
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And he just kind of wore it with
some straps over his shoulder.
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And he happened to
be an extremely good
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handheld operator.
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So he created, essentially,
low-mode Steadicam shots,
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and we just did it that way.
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And so you know,
you have to use--
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you have to use every trick in
the book and invent new ones.
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The whole film was
shot in about 42 days.
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And when I got it done, when I
got that body of shooting done,
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there were still
some shots I needed.
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So I snuck back out
with five people
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and shot for a
week, five people.
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And I operated
the camera myself.
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I lit it myself.
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I did all that.
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So you have to be prepared
to accomplish your goal
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in ingenious ways and know
where it's okay to compromise
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and where it isn't.
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And rehearse the crap
out of it ahead of time.
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Because rehearsals are cheap
or free, and they pay off.
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And have very, very
good communication
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with your director
of photography,
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00:09:02,650 --> 00:09:04,507
so that you know
exactly how you're
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going to shoot everything.
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00:09:05,590 --> 00:09:09,640
And be prepared with a plan
B and a plan C, in case
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it's raining, or there's
something else that
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stands in your way on the day.
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Because at that kind
of budget, you're
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not going to be able
to get to go back.
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And you know, I go on for
hours about all the cheap house
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00:09:20,470 --> 00:09:23,500
tricks that we used on
"Terminator" to tell that--
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00:09:23,500 --> 00:09:25,060
to tell that story.
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00:09:25,060 --> 00:09:28,630
But the important
thing is to serve--
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is to serve the story.
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00:09:30,220 --> 00:09:32,650
Find a way to serve the
story and give it some style.
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00:09:39,560 --> 00:09:43,610
If I were shooting a very
low-budget film right now,
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and I need to get a
lot of setups a day,
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I would have a game
plan for every day
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00:09:48,860 --> 00:09:55,010
of shooting that involved
the nature of the lighting.
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00:09:55,010 --> 00:09:57,470
Because you lose a lot
of time to lighting.
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00:09:57,470 --> 00:09:58,910
And it's technical.
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00:09:58,910 --> 00:10:02,345
It's understanding it's
going to take time to move.
213
00:10:02,345 --> 00:10:04,520
If you've designed the
scene in such a way
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00:10:04,520 --> 00:10:07,302
that you have a big lighting
change, that lighting change is
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00:10:07,302 --> 00:10:08,510
going to take time, you know.
216
00:10:08,510 --> 00:10:10,760
Typically, people call
it turning around.
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00:10:10,760 --> 00:10:12,890
You've shot the scene
in this direction,
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00:10:12,890 --> 00:10:14,570
and the same lighting
can't be used.
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00:10:14,570 --> 00:10:17,150
If you bring the camera
around to do your 180
220
00:10:17,150 --> 00:10:19,960
reverses or your reverse
over the shoulders,
221
00:10:19,960 --> 00:10:20,960
it's going to look flat.
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00:10:20,960 --> 00:10:22,430
It's going to look horrible.
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00:10:22,430 --> 00:10:25,310
And the lighting has
to be all cheated
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00:10:25,310 --> 00:10:28,820
so that that reverse actually
looks pleasing to the eye.
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00:10:28,820 --> 00:10:31,130
I remember once, just to
prove the point to myself,
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00:10:31,130 --> 00:10:36,260
after I had made "Titanic" and
done these big films, "Titanic"
227
00:10:36,260 --> 00:10:38,480
and "True Lies" and
films like that,
228
00:10:38,480 --> 00:10:40,280
I did the last
episode of a series
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00:10:40,280 --> 00:10:43,380
that I was producing
called "Dark Angel."
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00:10:43,380 --> 00:10:45,930
And just to prove
that I could do it,
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00:10:45,930 --> 00:10:49,340
I did 117 setups in one day.
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00:10:49,340 --> 00:10:51,270
And I did it in
the following way.
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00:10:51,270 --> 00:10:54,440
I said, you will not
bring a C stand or a flag
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00:10:54,440 --> 00:10:58,460
or a sandbag or any lighting
instrument into the set.
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00:10:58,460 --> 00:11:00,920
We will light the set
from across the street
236
00:11:00,920 --> 00:11:06,350
with four 10k Xenons, and I will
move every shot to the light.
237
00:11:06,350 --> 00:11:07,970
We won't move the
lights to the shot.
238
00:11:07,970 --> 00:11:11,600
And it was a big kind of
suspense action fight scene.
239
00:11:11,600 --> 00:11:13,790
It was 117 setups in one day.
240
00:11:13,790 --> 00:11:15,140
I shot it all handheld.
241
00:11:15,140 --> 00:11:17,330
It was myself and
another operator.
242
00:11:17,330 --> 00:11:20,210
We kept the crew out
of the workspace.
243
00:11:20,210 --> 00:11:21,950
We had the stunt
people standing by
244
00:11:21,950 --> 00:11:24,650
to pop in for the actors
at a moment's notice
245
00:11:24,650 --> 00:11:26,510
within the fight choreography.
246
00:11:26,510 --> 00:11:30,202
We had all our multiple takes
of our effects breaking glass
247
00:11:30,202 --> 00:11:31,910
and breakaway wood
doors, and things like
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00:11:31,910 --> 00:11:33,680
that, all set up in advance.
249
00:11:33,680 --> 00:11:38,030
I never did a second
take of the same gag.
250
00:11:38,030 --> 00:11:41,840
But I did have five takes of the
gag ready of somebody getting
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00:11:41,840 --> 00:11:43,100
thrown through a window.
252
00:11:43,100 --> 00:11:44,060
We threw them
through one window,
253
00:11:44,060 --> 00:11:45,440
and then we threw them
through the next window,
254
00:11:45,440 --> 00:11:46,982
and we threw them
through the window.
255
00:11:46,982 --> 00:11:49,200
And I made sure that it
would all cut together.
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00:11:49,200 --> 00:11:51,583
So there are tricks like
that that you can do.
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00:11:51,583 --> 00:11:53,750
And it was a little bit of
a competition with Robert
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00:11:53,750 --> 00:11:55,625
Rodriguez, because I
think he had done, like,
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00:11:55,625 --> 00:11:59,840
105 setups or something in
one day on one of his films.
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00:11:59,840 --> 00:12:06,200
And Robert, of course, has
written much and done much
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00:12:06,200 --> 00:12:09,500
to disseminate his ideas
for how you do low budget.
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00:12:09,500 --> 00:12:12,530
So the point is it
can be done, and it
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00:12:12,530 --> 00:12:17,380
can be done with relatively
low level of compromise.
21370
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