The diagram below demonstrates how, by fully exploiting the moving camera, you can cut a camera setup by half, while increasing your shot options in the edit room. The red and blue circles are the characters. The yellow triangles are the cameras.

This tip and many others come from my Directing The Camera Workshop

THIS WEEK'S ASSIGNMENT:

Follow the diagram below using two objects and a camcorder (the video camera on your phone will do.)

Place two dolls (or two actors, or two friends, or two water bottles, or any two items that will represent two characters facing each other for a conversation), then get a camcorder and cover their dialogue with tracking shots. (If you don't have a camcorder, you can walk in a straight line with a stills camera to get the sense of it.)

First cover each character with the type of tracking shot diagrammed below.

Did that? Great!! Now try continuing the track all the way through, so that the camera pans over to the blue character, ending in the reverse over-the-shoulder! In other words, the track will go from: over-the-shoulder facing Red, push in to Red's close-up, pan over to Blue's close-up, ending on the over-the-shoulder that faces Blue. How's that for four shots covered with one, single set-up! (Dazed and confused...? Take my workshop. No prior experience is assumed. Working and aspiring directors at all levels are welcome.)

When I taught my producing workshop last weekend I assured the group that they'll be making many mistakes in their productions. Time and again, they'll do the wrong thing.

I've made more mistakes than I can count: miscast, overpaid, underpaid, worked with the wrong people, not worked with the right people, chose the wrong shots, misdirected my actors, the list goes on.

Some mistakes can be corrected, some can't be, some will end up on the screen forever, some will be forgotten, some mistakes will lose you a relationship, some mistakes will lose you money, some mistakes will lose you a lot of money.

This week I want to reassure you: every time you make a mistake, you deserve a medal.

Mistakes are an indication that you're out there doing stuff. The only way to avoid making mistakes is to stay home and do nothing.

Not doing stuff -- avoiding mistakes -- that's the most common mistake and the only mistake you should really make a point of avoiding.

Not doing stuff is the most common mistake and the one we make daily: How many times a day do we not call someone, not talk to someone, not take a step towards some idea we have? How many times a day do we not do the thing that would move us forward in some way? We find reasons: it's not the right time, it doesn't feel just right, it's too small a step, it's too big a step. This mistake: the mistake of not doing things because we're afraid to make mistakes, is the most commonly made mistake.

THIS WEEK'S ASSIGNMENT:

Do something rather than nothing, even if it's the wrong thing to do:

Txt the word "HAITI" to 90999

$10 will be added to your phone bill and sent to the red cross relief fund in Haiti.

I know you can do something more significant and effective than that. But if you haven't done that yet, start with this one, and enjoy knowing that you did something rather than nothing, even if it was entirely unsatisfactory.

Every time you do something, you've done the right thing.

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PS: Don't forget to leave the wrong comment below and write something embarrassingly bad.

This weekend I'm teaching a producing workshop where one of the things we'll talk about is raising money and resources.

A point I'll be making on the topic is that you don't need money to make films. You need money to acquire goods and services to make a film, but if you have people who'll donate food (or feed themselves on your shoot), if someone donates vehicle/s and a parking spot, if someone lends you equipment, if someone donates a location to shoot in, if a group of people volunteer to work on your film, then what do you need money for? Not that people shouldn't be paid for their work, but being a fully funded production that can afford to pay people their rates is not likely to be your first step as a filmmaker.

Your greatest assets as a producer are the relationships that you build. If you swindle someone out of a hundred bucks, you get a hundred bucks but you lose the relationship. A hundred bucks gets spent and they're gone. A relationship is forever.

Relationships are your most valuable asset and the only asset that brings real and lasting security. The interest that builds with each relationship as it grows in depth is an upward trend that you can count on, no matter what the economy looks like. In fact, our economy is so volatile because its foundation is built on fear and greed rather than on community and human caring.

My last two films were produced entirely on favors: from sandwiches, to walkies, locations, legal services, equipment, costumes, you name it. I had no money but I was rich with people. I did manage to raise a tinsy amount of cash, but the fund-raising went well because of relationships. The money didn't come from a rich dude who "discovered me" and pulled out his check book. In fact, no one that donated money for the film even read the script.

This month I'm shooting Judo Girl. A DP that I love wasn't available on the weekend we're shooting and asked if we can shoot on the weekdays prior. When I told him it would be too expensive for us to shoot on weekdays he offered to forgo his (small) salary if that would make it possible for us to shoot when he's available. This is not a guy who needs another short on his reel; it's a guy who has a good relationship with me.

We decided that moving the dates was still not feasible, but another DP who has worked with one of my producers jumped on board. You see: each person that you build a relationship with brings to you all the relationships that they have. So every time you nurture a relationship, you're sitting on a goldmine of an endless flow of additional relationships that this person will bring to you.

This week's assignment:

Make a deposit into your savings account by giving someone a call. Skip the txt'ing and the emails. Those can be useful but are often misused to avoid real contact. Call someone up and ask to get together to discuss your next film project (or your next project, whatever it may be). If you have no project in mind, if you had no intention whatsoever to make a film, if you don't even have an idea for a film much less a script, if the idea of making a film makes you shake in your booties and you seriously doubt that it's something you can do: all the better. Make the call. Meet this person.

It doesn't have to be a person who has anything to do with filmmaking. This can be your cousin Rita or your facebook friend who was your college roommate. (But no facebook messages! This has to be a phone call with the purpose of meeting face to face. The in-person meeting gives your phone call a goal.)

Meet this person to tell them that you want to make a film (could be a short film made with no money). You can tell this person that you have no idea when or how, that you may be making this film in 2015, but that they are the person you want to talk to about it. Read my article titled "Making a $4 Movie" for some guidance.

If your in-person "production meeting" lasts for five minutes before you walk into the mall together to shop for a handbag or you end up going to the movies instead, consider your meeting a great success.

If you put in the call and end up having this meeting, a meeting where all you do is bring up the idea of making a film – then you have just opened a door that will lead to more than you realize. All you have to accomplish in this meeting is the scheduling of your next meeting. That doesn't take more than five minutes.

Good luck! Feel free to post comments below. I'd love to read your musings about who you'll call. Follow-up comments on how the phone call went, or how the meeting went, or what kind of a handbag you ended up buying: would love to read those as well!

Happy filmmaking,
Ela