How To Write A Script? Avoid These 5 Money Murdering Subjects!
When you want to write a script for your next film project, there are a few money-murdering subjects you should try to avoid because implementing these subjects into your project is a synonym for asking for trouble during the shoot.
In Dutch, they are often called the five B's. Translated, this comes down to babies, boats, beasts, older people, and shooting abroad.
I've encountered problems a few times because I didn't know what I was getting into when I included some of these B's in my projects. In this blog, I will discuss all five of them to help you avoid making the same mistake.
Directing a child actor on set of a kickboxing commercial.
1. Filming with babies
Everybody loves babies, but working with babies for a film shoot is not something most directors enjoy doing. Babies will start crying when you want them to laugh and start screaming when you want them to be quiet.
I’ve never worked with babies on set so far, but I have worked with young children in the past. I don’t enjoy working with children because they can be hard to give direction to, unpredictable, and challenging to control.
In general, the attention spans of kids are short. If you work too long in one go, they’ll get bored, lose focus, and want to go home eventually.
Plus, if you are going to cast a child actor for your film, you need to be aware that there are a lot of laws and regulations to prevent child labor.
You need to know how long you can work with a child on set legally to avoid hefty fines. So within a short time, a child is legally allowed to work on your project, and you need to make the most of it.
2. Filming on boats
I must acknowledge that I have never filmed a project on a boat before.
But I own a 7-meter boat and have all the licenses to drive a ship up to 25 meters on the open sea. So I know many of the ins and outs of being on a boat.
If you decide to shoot on a boat, you will encounter many difficulties. You must consider that you are in a tiny space, so you can't bring tons of gear.
Your camera angle options will be limited, and you'll have to become very creative with the amount of room you have.
Then you must understand that you are at the mercy of mother nature. Weather conditions can change rapidly on the water, and a calm sea can turn into rough waters in less than an hour.
All the expensive equipment can become soaking wet if you don't protect it correctly, and when the wind picks up, mother nature becomes relentless, making you feel very vulnerable.
I guess the boat's motion will cause most problems while filming. Not only can your cast or crew become seasick, but wind, waves, current, and wildlife will cause the background never to be the same.
The sun will most likely be your primary light source, and keeping the sun's angle consistent can be a real struggle with the elements influencing the boat's position. If you have to turn around to do a second take, zero chance that it will look similar to the previous shot.
In other words, please avoid implementing working on a boat into your script as much as possible.
Yep, that’s me driving a 150HP powered Italian monster in one of the ports on the island of Mallorca, Spain.
3. Filming with animals
You want to avoid working with animals because animals can be challenging to control and often unpredictable, just like babies. But it is even more difficult than working with children because animals don’t speak our language.
This makes it even harder to communicate and get them to perform what you would like to see from them. A well-trained dog can be ‘pretty easy’ to work with but imagine working with a snake, a goose, or a mouse.
Working with animals takes a lot of time longer than working with humans. Every second on a film set costs a shit load of money, so that’s why working with animals can make it very expensive.
In most cases, it requires a specialized animal trainer and a lot of patience, and you need to give up the idea of control of what’s happening in front of the lens.
When I directed Hardwell’s echo music video, we filmed the project in the mountains of Bulgaria, and we included a dog in the story. Many Hollywood productions are filmed in Bulgaria, so the producer was able to arrange a special dog trained for movies.
Because we wanted minimal actions from the animal, the trainer had to train the dog by doing everything at a very slow pace in the week leading up to the shoot.
That meant walking slowly in and around the house, feeding the dog at a very slow pace, and doing every interaction with the animal as slowly as possible.
Once on set, the owner and a dog trainer collaborated to get the proper performance. We had to get used to this initially, but once we had found a good workflow, things got along relatively quickly.
4. Filming with old people
Something you also might want to try to avoid is filming with older people. I’m not talking about 50 to 60-year-olds, but more in the range of 80-100 years old people.
Because of their age, their body’s energy levels will be lower than younger people's, so you have to compress whatever you want to do in a shorter amount of time on set to ensure they don’t lose focus.
Older people might forget lines or action cues earlier. They can’t do physically heavy duties, it might take a little longer to transport them, they might need extra care, more time to relax between takes, require doctor assistance, or, worst-case scenario, pass away during production.
Of course, if you create the right circumstances and working environment, go into production with the right mindset, and be aware of the restrictions that come with working with older people, I’m sure you can get a lot of pure film gold from working with them.
On set In Bulgaria with actor Marius Donkin.
5. Filming abroad
The final point on the list of things you want to avoid when writing a project is shooting a project abroad.
Funny enough, I’m a big fan of shooting in a foreign country. It’s guaranteed adventure, and it usually makes up for the most memorable experiences.
But that doesn’t mean that shooting something abroad is easy. I’d say the biggest reason why you want to try to avoid filming abroad is money.
No matter where you decide to go, as a foreigner, you are a walking ATM machine for the outside world, especially when you bring a camera.
Cameras seem to equal the word money. In particular, when you want to shoot in Africa or Asia, you will be ripped off by almost everybody you contact.
Besides getting ripped off, traveling is very expensive in general. Moving around with many people and a lot of film gear isn’t cheap. Plus, in terms of logistics, it can be an absolute nightmare that can skyrocket your stress to unparalleled levels.
Conclusion
I hope these thoughts and insights will help you carefully consider adding these five subjects to your next project.
Many filmmakers have gone before you in working with these five subjects and succeeded in creating great movies.
My advice is to learn from their lessons and mistakes by watching and reading lots of making-off material to avoid the same problems that otherwise could have been avoided.
As long as you know the productional restrictions and (financial) consequences of implementing the five B’s into your project. You should be good to go!
