week 8-Tips for pre production pt.2

3. Mixing it Up

You also need to know how you plan to present your subject before shooting. What I mean by this is you need to decide if your production is based on action, dialogue or a combination of the two. While an acting coach in a class I once attended stressed that "dialogue is action" you have to know how you want to present that. Determine if a talent behind a desk or sitting in a chair - your basic talking head approach - is sufficient or if you want to include reenactments, graphics or other titling in your production to enforce its audio and visual impact.


Are you going to go a documentary approach, using interviews, archival images with Ken Burns-style movement, on- and or off-camera narrative (voice over). Will it be casual or highly scripted with a need for complex dialogue? You might be going for strictly entertainment with lots of action, comedy, "dramedy" (comedy-drama) or bodacious special effects. On the other hand much of your production could be created in the computer with a host of CG elements.

There's a myriad of approaches beyond the above-mentioned: ENG (electronic news-gathering), newscast, the herkey-jerkey amateur style of the 2008 movie Cloverfield, perhaps a creative musical you've scripted and want to self-produce. The sky is the limit, so to speak but there are always practical limitations.


Knowing the primary style you want to use doesn't mean you can't mix it up. You just have to be aware of what you want before the shooting starts and plan for that. While you're rolling tape you can bounce from one improvisational act to another at your heart's desire. Mixing it up might not endear you with any purists out there but you could become the next Matt Reeves, Rodriguez or Tarantino with your avant garde approach.