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Pimp My Film:
Simple Tips to Add Gloss to Your Baby

by Michael Wannenmacher

[Editor's Note: Michael Wannenmacher is the director of Hotel Motel and Tea & Physics, which have each earned a Best of Show award here at MFM. - JH]

What makes the difference between a film that lives briefly in front of an audience of friends, family and the student fraternity and one that goes on to festivals all around the world? Many things: plot, screenplay, concept, structure, budget, performance to name a few, all of which (and many more) are covered in a plethora of books, articles and film courses.

Now lets get this straight out of the blocks: I am still a pretty new filmmaker. I did not attend film school and I have made a grand total of two completed, publicly available short films. I am by no means a mighty guru of celluloid genius here to dispense wisdom and learning. What I do have is a few easily attainable ideas that will make your film more acceptable to a viewing public.

Often when I watch low budget Indie films, what frustrates me is when technical issues take me away from the narrative; the sound is difficult to hear, the colors change and alter from shot to shot, the image seems flat and lifeless, light stands appear on the edge of frame, the credits are uninspired or even non-existent. These easily fixable issues are what make me spit and swear at the screen.

There is little to no excuse in this digital age where every home computer is a post production facility, for films of any budget not to achieve a basic standard of technical quality. A debate concerning form and content is essentially a subjective one, but what causes my eyeballs to bleed is when I see a good concept ruined by a lack of technique. In simple terms, technique may be described as the ability to achieve what you set out to do. Most of us when making a film set out to tell a story. How well you achieve that depends on how good your technique is. I’m not about to argue style over substance; everything you do as a filmmaker should serve the narrative. Ideally, technique should be invisible as its purpose is to keep the audience involved in the story.

These tips concern the post production process. They are techniques I have learned from others more experienced than I, by watching films and by critical assessment of my own projects.

The Start
People need a moment to adjust to a film. This is why the lights dim slowly at a cinema, and there is a moment of color (usually black) and silence before the picture starts creating a brief air of anticipation. Conversely jumping straight into your film with the vision and sound at level creates an abrupt and amateurish beginning. Again, the audience forms an opinion of your project before it even gets going. This kind of start can be used as a stylistic choice, but in that case needs to be made obvious by the filmmaker.

A simple fade up from black immediately informs the viewer that you know what you’re doing. Many films introduce the sound briefly over black then fade up to the vision, giving the audience a quick, slightly ambiguous mental picture. Simple to do - quality effect.

Color Grading
Many factors influence the color in a film: white balance, camera filters, light temperature to name a few. Cameras also often have their own ‘personality’, recording the footage with a green or red hue, or too much or not enough saturation. A good DOP will reduce the variables for you, but sometimes it is unavoidable. A lot of micro-budget films can look a bit ‘hot’. This generally occurs because the lights we usually have access to are often small such as blondies or red heads and so must be placed relatively near to the set. The close proximity of the lighting to the action amps up the color temperature and affects the color of the rushes. If you ever get the chance to work on a large budget shoot, you’ll see they have bigger lights set further back.

A big part of avoiding having your film look like an expensive home video is color grading.

With the advancement in Non Linear Editing systems (NLE’s to the uninitiated), there is no reason not to have shots that match. Even stripped down NLE software such as Premiere Elements, iMovie or Final Cut Express have the capacity to adjust the color and look of a frame, through simple brightness and contrast controls to a limited range of filters. At a more advanced level the capacity for color control is almost limitless; the latest Final Cut Pro studio contains a completely integrated color grading program and the even earlier 5.1 has a solid 3 wheel color grading filter.

Color grading is becoming more and more a specialist art, separate from the editing or effects department. It is a complex and often confusing area, filled with graphs, gauges and devices that can seem like a dodgy kebab fuelled nightmare.

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