Gabrielle Demeestere’s 10 Tips For Beginner Filmmakers
1. Make a lookbook with all of the visual references and photographs that inspire you. It will allow everyone on the crew to be on the same page about how the movie should look and feel. This is an awesome one that Xavier Dolan made for one of my favorite films of the past few years, Mommy.
2. Choose great collaborators whom you trust: People who will not only have your back, but also honestly tell you if they don’t like something.
3. Spend as much time as possible looking for your ideal cast. Cast actors who are not only right for the part, but have a mysterious quality that intrigues you and inspires you to film them.
4. Fall in love with your locations and think about how they will reflect your characters’ emotional journey.
5. Give yourself enough prep time with your cinematographer. It doesn’t matter if you make simple diagrams, storyboards with matchstick people, or 3D floor plans, as long as you both know the scene inside and out.
6. Put as much care into hiring a great sound mixer, as you would a cinematographer or an actor, because sound will really elevate the movie in post.
7. Be completely open to the surprising and unexpected things that will inevitably happen on set. Be ready to throw away your plan if a new idea comes to you in the moment.
8. Love your actors to death. They will trust you entirely if they feel that you’re giving them your full attention.
9. Be prepared to be in it for the long haul. Making a movie is like an elephant’s pregnancy but twice as long! I had multiple waves of post-partum depression (after the shoot, after the sound mix, after the festival premiere, etc.) and wish someone had prepared me for this.