After forty odd years of putting moving pictures and sounds together, here are some of the things I've learned, heavily compressed for the attention-challenged.

I'm not sure if I'll make any more films (I know I've said that before) but in case that changes, this will help me remember what's important. Maybe I can help others avoid making the same mistakes?

From a creative multi-hyphenate perspective then, here's the A–Z...

A is for ACTORS: These extraordinary people will rebuild themselves from the inside out to serve the film. They each have a different process – find out what makes them tick. Do the necessary work with them to bridge the distance from actor to character. This might mean developing backstories together, rehearsing, developing costume and makeup ideas, and most importantly – listening. Some will get there on take one and others need to warm up. Be prepared if you have one of each kind in the same scene! Actors are often deeply insecure, and vulnerable. Ego problems can disguise this. Treat them with respect and they will reward you ten-fold.

A is also for ADVICE: Take notes from everyone, but follow only what resonates with the little voice inside you. Remember every film is a unique, hand-made creation, with its own idea of what it wants to be. Your job is to guide it to that point.

A is also for AERIALS: why are we up in the air for this shot? Drones are cheaper than helicopters, yes, but that's not a good reason. Neither is empty spectacle. Lighting is harder to control from the air, especially for wide shots. Allow time for nature to cooperate. Follow the CASA rules for your particular type of aircraft, location and operator.

A is also for ANIMALS: these aren't warm props, which you have some special right to hurt or kill as a film maker, even if your name is Francis Ford Coppola. They also deserve their own dignity as they are depicted on screen. Cinema in general owes animals a great debt. Check out Robert Bresson's film Au hazard Balthazar to see a donkey who deserved an Oscar.

A is also for the AUDIENCE: if possible, try to let them do some of the work when they watch your film. This isn't an excuse to be confusing, or to not build your story properly. Think about who the audience is, but be prepared to have your expectations confounded. Very few films are for everyone.

B is for BUDGETING: Films cost money. Very cheap films usually rely on exploiting other people. Very expensive films often do the same. The kind of film you're making depends on a combination of how much money you have and how much others are being exploited. If you don't understand budgeting, make sure someone on your team does, and make very sure this is someone you trust. There's a reason why film makers with very long filmographies tend to work with their relatives in money-related roles. If you have a bigger budget, you may find yourself with a bigger train set, but less options about where to steer the train. If possible, make sure the budget matches the project.

C is for CAMERA: These days, you can make a film for pretty much any screening destination with pretty much any type of camera, analogue or digital. The most expensive camera is not necessarily the best camera for your film. Don't get hung up on technical specs, but do camera and lighting tests for each project if you possibly can. Great directors of photography will approach every film, every scene, and every shot in some cases by asking: what is the perfect combination of camera and lens for this moment? If your budget is very limited, the best camera will be whatever you can lay your hands on.

C is also for CATERING: Incredibly important, especially for any important work you're hoping to complete after lunch. If your budget is miniscule, make sure the catering is fantastic.

C is also for CHAOS. A little bit of chaos is not necessarily a bad thing when you're making a film, and is usually unavoidable anyway, even in a studio environment. Remember the world is an amazing place. Don't be over-controlling. Be open to happy accidents. Let the universe have some input into the film. It might have a better idea than you.

C is also for COLLABORATORS: Unless you're an animator who can also act and do sound design, you can't make a film by yourself. Film making is a team sport. All those 'film by' credits are a lie. Technical and creative collaborators need to be cast for each project with as much care as actors. Fresh people can bring fresh ideas, as well as fresh problems. Regular collaborators bring trust and creative shorthand, but sometimes also recycled solutions. Try to bring a mix of familiar and fresh faces to each project, and if someone is destroying the project, replace them as soon as this becomes obvious.

C is also for COSTUME: A crucial part of character (sometimes a character is 99% costume, for example the Mandalorian). The costume designer and production designer need to understand each other intimately, and be making the same film. On small projects, they might even be the same person.

D is for DESIGN: Everything you see in a film, unless it's a documentary (and often there too), has been put there, created or chosen by somebody. That person is the production designer. Design should spring from the script. A good director understands that the world of the film is expressed in its design. With very low budget situations this might mean taking things out, rather than adding them. The colour palette intimately affects the emotions of the audience, and the feel of the film. Design is not to be ignored, or skimped. Even if you're shooting a talking head, what does the background say?

D is for DISTRIBUTION: There's not much point making a film if no one is going to be able to see it. Who do you want to see your masterpiece, and how? Video on demand? TV? Cinema? It's a good idea to think about your distribution strategy sooner rather than later. There are experts to help if you're lost.

D is also for DOGME: Dogme 95 was a bunch of wacky ideas developed in Denmark to reinvigorate their national film industry, leading to films such as Breaking the Waves, Italian for Beginners and Dogville. The rules included shooting everything handheld, only using music that emanated from within the frame and excluding special effects of all kinds. The lesson of dogme is that rules can be liberating, and complete freedom can be stultifying. This is something that film makers working under dictatorships have also learned. If anything is possible, nothing is interesting. Limitations demand creative solutions. This applies to budget limitations too.

E is for EDITING (script and picture): Except in rare cases, unavoidable, unfortunately. Try to embrace the opportunity to make the film better with each pass. Digital, non-linear script and picture editing has changed the game forever, but the fundamentals remain. Sometimes the script or picture editor wants to make a different film to you. This can be a big problem! Great editors can find ways to move the story forward in a more interesting way in less time. Often, things that seemed completely vital at script or shooting stage turn out to be utterly unnecessary during the edit. Sometimes, vital things only get discovered at this stage. Go back and get them if humanly possible. When you've been editing too long, and have lost all perspective, get some fresh eyes to look at the cut.

E is also for EFFICIENCY: Can your story be told more efficiently? Do you need so many characters? Do you need so much time? Shorter is almost always better. Aim for efficiency. Give the editor a break!

E is also for EMOTIONS: This is what it's all about, fundamentally. Films are closer to music than any other medium. The conundrum is that if you aim directly for emotion A you will often get emotion B. This applies to everything from working with actors to composers. Try not to be too emotionally 'on the nose', but look at generating the conditions in which the emotions you're seeking can flourish. Emotions are also culturally and individually specific. Tricky!

F is for FAKE: Everything about film and video technology is concerned with the creation of illusions, but these illusions have the potential to tell the truth. If you want, you can use lies to tell more lies. What's it going to be?

F is for FEEDBACK (see ADVICE).

F is also for FOCUS: What's in focus and what's out? On a professional shoot, the focus puller manipulates this to the millimetre in conjunction with the rest of the camera team. Depth of field is generally kept short to keep the focus exactly where the director wants it and nowhere else. This is harder to achieve with cameras that don't have big sensors, but the right lighting and lens selection can help. Where do you want the audience's focus? Or do you want to explore depth instead?

F is also for FOLEY: All those little sound effects which aren't recorded in sync with the images are called foley. They are vitally important – don't neglect them. Sometimes foley can reach the level of art. Have a look at the French insect film Microcosmos, and consider that humans generated almost all those otherwise unrecordable noises.

F is also for FOREIGN FILMS: If your knowledge of film culture doesn't go beyond Fight Club, you're in the wrong job. Cinema is a relatively new art form, but it already has a rich history, which goes far beyond Hollywood and way before the 21st century. Many of the best films ever made are not in English. If you haven't seen them already, start with these ten: Seven Samurai, La Strada, Tokyo Story, Andrei Rublev, Nosferatu, The Conformist, Bicycle Thieves, Come and See, Pather Panchali and The Seventh Seal.

G is GAMES: Video games are mostly about locks and keys, plus conflict. Drama is about conflict, but potentially also a lot more. Games made into films tend to be pretty annoying, with the exception of Lego films. Films made into games tend to be even worse. As game tech merges with film making tech, and game story-telling style influences dramatic scriptwriting, there have been some terrible stresses and strains, although a lot of people don't seem to care. For the money men, getting the most bang for their IP buck is all that matters, but as a creator, at some point you need to decide what kind of interaction you want to offer your audience – are they in a roller coaster or a dodgem car? Is there a steering wheel? What kind of control do you want them to have? Emotional interaction or choose your own adventure? So far (although many very clever people have tried) it doesn't seem to be possible to have it all.

G is for GOING FOR IT: A lot of people talk about making films, and come up with endless excuses about why they're not doing it. At some point, if you're serious, no matter how impossible it seems, you need to have a go. It's easier to make a film now than at any point in history. Getting people to watch it, well that's another story.

G is also for G RATED: It's easy (though not as easy as it used to be) to shock an audience with sex and violence. Can you command the attention of a child though, without any of that? Making a film which people of any age can enjoy might be the greatest achievement of all, even if it does fly in the face of today's trend to micro-markets.

H is for HARD: Film making is always difficult, whether you're making a masterpiece or a disaster. Be prepared.

H is also for HISTORY: Endlessly mined for screen stories, history is often re-shaped so drastically to suit drama's needs that it's no longer recognisable. Unfortunately, people tend to believe what they see on the screen rather than what they read on the page, if they read at all. Bit of a problem, isn't it? Try to tell the truth, or if that's too hard, change the names and dates!

H is also for HORROR: Not my favourite genre, but with deep links back to ancient stories told around campfires and in fairy tales, before they were sanitised. Often the most accessible way to reach a large audience without stars, or a big budget. People love being afraid in safe spaces.

I is for INSPIRATION: This can come from anywhere, so keep your eyes and mind open. Maintain the curiosity of your inner child. Welcome inspiration. If your film is any good, it will inspire your audience too.

I is also for ILLUSION: (see FAKE).

J is for JOY: Find team members with this quality if you can't feel it in yourself, and share it with your crew. If you can't find some joy in bringing a new film into the world, perhaps you should be an undertaker instead?

K is for KARMA: What goes around comes around. Be nice to everyone on the way up – sooner or later you'll meet them coming down.

K is also for KUBRICK: Stanley is a bit of a god for film makers, in spite of his many flaws. He started as a photographer, and never really learned how to treat actors like human beings. He look longer and longer to make his films as he got older (see PERFECTIONISM), worked across multiple genres, at all budget levels, and hated flying. He was responsible for the invention of new film making technology, adapted some wonderful books with his collaborators, and made some of the greatest films in the English language. If you haven't seen them already, check out Dr Strangelove, A Clockwork Orange, Lolita, Full Metal Jacket, Barry Lyndon and 2001 for starters.

L is for LEGS: (see WERNER).

L is also for LES ENFANTS DU PARADIS: One of the greatest films ever made, under extraordinarily difficult conditions, during the German occupation of France. Watch it and be amazed. Also an education in the overlap between stage and film drama.

L is also for LOCATIONS: In many Australian films, these are a substitute for a decent story. No matter how spectacular the location, this doesn't have to be the case. Ideally, locations should serve the story (see DESIGN). If you're working in the real world, location scouting is as important as casting. For a great example of how story and location and character can all lift each other somewhere incredible, see the Icelandic/Ukrainian film Woman At War.

M is for MICROPHONE: There are a lot of different microphones, each with their own pros and cons. Learn what to use in what situation. If you don't have the budget for a boom operator, there are many alternatives and ways to hide mics on actors. In most cases the camera mic should be a last resort, or something to aid in syncing, not your first choice.

M is also for MONEY: (see BUDGETING).

M is for MULTICAM: This technique, once restricted to low quality TV production, is increasingly being used elsewhere. Multicam gives you speed and continuity, in exchange for lighting compromises. It can also keep comedy fresh. What's most important? It depends what you're shooting. The answer might be different for a difficult-to-repeat explosion than a dinner party scene. Traditional single camera techniques will give a better visual result, while multicam is often easier for actors, particularly when working with theatre or television-trained performers.

M is also for MUSIC: Start working with your composer as early as possible. Music is not something to be slathered on like wallpaper when the picture edit is finished. Music can be subtle or in your face, but is usually a necessity. Magical stuff. Handle with care.

N is for NATURE: The movement of clouds, rippling water weeds, a fox's glance, dancing leaves, the breath of a horse, transitory rainbows, worlds revealed in human eyes; these are the things that make cinema sing. Don't sterilise your imaginary world too much. See CHAOS.

N is also for NON-LINEAR: Stories that don't go from A-B are more popular than they used to be, but bring their own challenges, mostly to do with how much information is revealed to the audience when. The central dramatic questions remain: who are these people? What's going on? Why should I care? Don't get so clever that the fundamentals are lost. A great example of how to tread the tightrope is Christopher Nolan's first film Memento.

O is for OZU: Less well-known beyond Japan than his compatriot Akira Kurosawa, Yasujirô Ozu also learned about movies from Hollywood, but then made his own deeply personal films without any of the trickery Kurosawa loved. Mr Less is More. He worked with the same actors for decades, put the camera at the height of a person sitting on the floor (never moving it), and stretched time like no one else. Check out Floating Weeds, An Autumn Afternoon and Tokyo Story for starters. Ozu's grave has no name or date on it, just the Japanese character 'mu' (nothingness).

O is also for OZYMANDIAS: Percy Bysshe Shelley's sonnet is a good leveller for all would-be film-makers, and not just Breaking Bad fans. No matter how important you think you are, and how immortal you think your works will be, in the end we are all dust, and will be forgotten. It's good to remember that power is ephemeral and great hubris tends to leads to a great fall, especially in the imaginary, flickering world of film making. Embrace the moment instead.

P is for PERFECTIONISM: Perfection is a nice idea, but generally impossible to achieve in practice, especially amidst the chaos of film making. Embrace your inner Leonard Cohen and don't be afraid to let the light in through a crack or two.

P is also for PETER WEIR: Probably Australia's greatest film director, despite some early stumbles. Brilliant with music and actors. If you haven't seen them already, start with Picnic at Hanging Rock, Gallipoli, Witness, The Truman Show, and Master and Commander: the Far Side of the World.

P is also for PLANNING and PREPARATION: Some people think planning interferes with CHAOS, but this isn't true. Chaos always finds a way. Being as organised as possible gives the people around you faith that you know what you're doing, and have a plan to get to the finish line. It's mostly about time and light management. Being prepared doesn't mean being rigid. You need to have the flexibility within your planning to roll with inevitable disasters.

P is also for PRODUCERS: A great producer is the greatest collaborator any writer or director can have. A bad producer is an utter nightmare. There was originally no such thing as a producer in the world of cinema, and in France producers are still regarded as lowly business people. Pretty much everywhere else, including in Australia, producers tend to run the show, which is not a good thing, IMHO. See TRIANGLE.

Q is for QUESTIONS: Why are you making this film? What are you hoping to achieve? What's the best way to get these words on to that screen? Is this line/performance/scene etc the best it can be? Will there be cake at the next break? These are some of the big questions.

R is for REHEARSAL: Rehearsal is a dirty word for many film makers, which is ridiculous. Rehearsal is not just for theatre. If you don't rehearse before you get to the set or location, then you will be rehearsing in front of the camera, while burning money. Some producers think rehearsing is a waste of time. They are wrong. Performance options can be explored, dead ends can be ruled out, blocking can be discovered, and all this learning can be transferred to the working script as shorthand to be unpacked on the set. If at all possible, make sure there is budget and room in the schedule for rehearsal.

R is also for the ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW: Another film made without enough money or time that still ended up being brilliant, thanks largely to Richard O'Brien and Jim Sharman. A masterclass in how to integrate music and drama, comedy and eroticism. Unsure how to 'open up' a project which began on stage? Wondering how to make a movie which doesn't feel weird when people start singing? Want to make something that will live in the culture for decades? Watch The Rocky Horror Picture Show and do the time warp again.

R is for RULES: Can be surprisingly freeing, creatively, whether the rules are unavoidable (living in a dictatorship/having no money/being stuck in one location, etc) or artificially imposed (can you do this in one shot/standing on your head/via animation?) See DOGME.

S is for SCRIPTWRITING: This is the most important stage of film making, and the most chronically neglected. Everyone thinks they can write, but few actually can, least of all dramatically. Reading is also a challenge for many people who orbit around the world of film making. This is unfortunate, because words on paper are still the cheapest way to explore imaginary possibilities, even if it's a bit like dancing about architecture sometimes. Good scripts can be thought of as equations; ruthlessly efficient documents which ascribe values to things (let X = Y, for example) then explore how that plays out. Every culture has its own ideas about what makes a good story, but the fundamentals apply everywhere, across all genres: here's a likeable person in an awkward situation – what are they going to do? Is it what we expect? Unfortunately, the screenwriter tends to be the least powerful person of the key creative film making group, which explains why so many films are bad. Have a look at the credits of the ones that work better, and you will often find the writer is also the director, and/or sharing a producing role (has enough power to defend the script).

S is also for SOUND: There's a reason movies didn't stay silent for long – sound is crucial. We can shut our eyes but not our ears – sound goes straight to our deep animal brains, affecting us emotionally, whether we like it or not. If you want to make a great film, prioritise quality sound at every stage, from location recording to mixing to mastering. Although they might not consciously understand why, your audience will forgive imperfect camerawork and picture editing, but never dodgy sound. Ideally, sound design and music should blend until you can't tell where one ends and the other begins.

S is also for STANISLAVSKY: Simplified by Hollywood as The Method, Konstantin Stanislavski's approach to avoiding theatrical fakery is well worth investigating for film makers wishing to recreate truthful emotions on the screen. It can seem somewhat mechanical, and some actors don't like it, but it gets results. For each character and scene, break the script up into short beats, where the character wants something (an OBJECTIVE) and is facing an OBSTACLE. Identify what these objectives and obstacles are. In rehearsal, try different ACTIONS (ways of approaching the objective) and see what leads to the most dramatic/truthful results. You can work with actors separately on these elements, and then put them together, or try different combinations of objectives, obstacles and actions collectively. When you've got something that works for everyone, mark up the script so you can remind everyone of the solutions you found in rehearsal when you're out on set, and the clock is ticking. Working in this way, emotions naturally spill from the combination of actions and objectives facing obstacles, and you will never again have to tell an actor to be sad, happy, or anything else. This is how you get beyond pantomime.

S is also for STRUCTURE: Like carpentry, films are all about structure, but using time instead of space. This has led to a profusion of experts selling books and courses telling new screenwriters that if they get the structure right, then everything will follow. A lot of the ideas about acts and so on have come from the theatre. The key thing to remember is that emotional highs are usually followed by lows, which are usually followed by highs again. You can start high or low, but if nothing bad happens in the first 15 minutes your audience might fall asleep. If nothing good happens within half an hour, they might lose hope. Remember Leaving Las Vegas? If you end your story with a low, then your film is probably a tragedy. Or maybe you prefer happy endings? There are a lot of potential shapes for stories to follow. Structure is important, but it isn't everything.

T is for TARKOVSKY: Andrei Tarkovsky packed a lot into a relatively short career, For Mr T, cinema was mostly for exploring ideas about spirituality, and religion. Being Russian, there's a lot of death and suffering involved. Pretty much all his films are masterpieces, from Ivan's Childhood through to Stalker and Solaris, and ending with The Sacrifice, made in exile in Sweden as he was dying of lung cancer. They are still widely available on DVD and Bluray.

T is also for TEST SCREENINGS: Don't knock them. It can be very useful to put your film in front of an audience of strangers, who haven't paid to see it. If the film isn't finished, be aware that the audience might not be able to fill in the gaps. If the film is finished, be prepared to change things if you're taking the test process seriously. Of course, test audiences are not all the same (do more than one test if possible), and the process can be misused by malicious producers or studios.

T is also for TIME: What films are made of, and what you never have enough of when making them. See STRUCTURE.

T is also for TRIANGLE: A good rule of thumb is to make sure no one is ever at the top of an imaginary triangle when you're making a film – actor, producer, director, etc. These people all belong on the bottom of the triangle, serving the apex of the triangle (the work). If anyone accumulates too much power, and the collaborators and the work starts existing to serve them, then you're in trouble. See the Kirk Douglas/Stanley Kubrick version of Spartacus as an example.

U is for UNDERSCORE: See MUSIC.

U is for UNDERSTANDING: It's easy to be confusing. It's easy to be obvious. It's harder to engage an audience on a journey of understanding. Some mysteries are better left intact. Sometimes making a film is the best way to try to understand something in the world, or within yourself.

V is VIOLENCE (also see G RATED): Many film makers these days are very interested in violence of various kinds. There's a lot of skill involved with putting realistic violence on screen, plenty of deep-pocketed interests who encourage this (including the gun and military lobbies) and big audiences for violent films. Violence is undoubtedly within us as a species. The most radical question today is probably this: can you tell a compelling story without violence? Can you show another way?

V is also for VERISIMILITUDE: Director Richard Donner had this word printed in large letters in the Superman production office in 1977. It means aiming for the truth, even if you're adapting a very silly comic book for the big screen. The results were clear, at least until Mr Donner was sacked. Verisimilitude is the quality most lacking in many subsequent superhero films. Is your film anchored to the truth in any meaningful way?

W is for WERNER HERZOG and WIM WENDERS: Two German film makers who have spent their lives making interesting films, and continue to do so, crossing barriers of language, genre and culture, fuelled by their endless curiosity. Werner has worked extensively in both documentary and drama at all budget levels. He says the most important thing a film maker needs is strong LEGS. If you haven't seen them already, start with Werner's films Fitzcarraldo, Grizzly Man, La Soufrière, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, and Cave of Forgotten Dreams. Wim Wenders is equally prolific and interesting (while not doubling as a cultural phenomenon like Werner). If you haven't seen them already, start with his films Wings of Desire, Paris Texas and Perfect Days.

W is also for WHY: Why are you spending years of your life making this thing? Why will an audience want to watch it? If you don't know, who does?

W is also for WINGING IT: As with musicians, improvisation is a key skill for film makers. How can you turn a setback to your advantage? What can you do with what you have, rather than what you want? Are you missing an opportunity for a beautiful accident? See GOING FOR IT.

X is for X RATED FILMS: Remember them? Jackie Chan, Sylvester Stallone, Barry Sonnenfeld (Men in Black) – all dabbled in this genre early in their working lives, while many others hid behind pseudonyms. Canberra and the Northern Territory were once major centres of production in Australia. Now you just need a mobile phone and a lot of stamina.

Y is for MICHELLE YEOH: Born in Malaysia, the former Miss Moomba is extraordinary in everything she does. Seek out her films, from Tomorrow Never Dies to The Lady, and from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon to Everything Everywhere All at Once. Originally trained as a dancer, she's the living embodiment of the idea of film as rhythm.

Z is for ZOMBIES (not zebras or Zardoz): Scoff if you like, but the best zombie films have it all; suspense, empathy, comedy, brains. The rules of zombie films change from film to film, but they're all about the antagonists, which symbolise different things according to which era they were made. Great antagonists lead to great protagonists. If you're a zombie newbie, and not too squeamish, start with World War Z, 28 Days Later, Shaun of the Dead and Train to Busan.

Any questions?

***

I wrote this essay in January 2025.

0 comments

test

Built On Sand

Confusing Them With Our Joy – cinema cut

Masters of War

Renovator's Dream

See all posts from David Lowe