Research: How to make a short film

 When analyzing the video "How to Make a Short Film", I managed to take a few valuable notes on what could be implemented into my own short film in the future. Immediately, casting was brought up. Ryan explained that casting is important because your actors need to take their roles seriously in order to "sell the moment" to the audience. I found this to be a very interesting point because when writing the script, each character needs to have their own respective strengths and weaknesses. This should correlate to each actor's strengths and weaknesses in order for the acting to look more natural. Through my own short film, I believe getting to know each of my actors better will help me find out these specialties. My crew likely will not all be able to be on set so the main focus will be on the actors.

  Considering logistics in production, there must be a certain degree of comfort for the actors when on set. Ryan makes the point that you should feed your crew "the best that you possibly can" by providing snacks and drinks. This might be something that doesn't seem very important considering the small running time of the short film (five minutes). However, you do want your crew to be happy and in the best possible shape or else the end product will look miserable. The location of my short film will be in a pretty isolated area. This means I will need to purchase snacks beforehand. There will also be the chance that some the actors will have their own snacks as well. It is generally better to be more safe than sorry so I will bring enough for everyone to be able to eat.

  When Ryan mentions the issue of "pacing", this came as a particular interest to me. This is because when scenes are dragged out or rushed, the entertainment factor begins to decline. Looking for the perfect time to switch between scenes will be difficult considering the nature of a war short film. Oh, and since this is a war film, editing will be a key component to production. If super crazy special effects are not possible, then it is probably best not to make an attempt. Ryan points out that doing work to the best of our ability is the primary objective when making a short film. Not to do things we wouldn't know how and potentially mess up. This video did open my eyes on several things that are crucial to the short film. They will be taken into account during the production process.





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