6 Important Factors That Could Affect Your Next Student Film
Dear Students,
Filmmaking is ever growing in terms of popularity with various colleges and universities providing courses in the subject. There's a lot to learn in the craft and we here at Giggster believe that the best way of doing so is by following a hands-on, camera-on approach. What this means is stepping out with your camera, filming the story you and your mates have written, editing it, and finally putting yourself out there. Today, with student-friendly film location rentals and cheaper film permits for students, there's definitely an environment conducive for learning and practicing the craft. There's also a lot of things to keep in mind especially if you are a student. So without further ado, here are the 6 most important factors to be mindful of while you head on out to make your own student film.
1) Not Obtaining Film Permits
Getting the appropriate permits for your film is a very important aspect of the pre-production process for your student project. While you can shoot without a permit (and hope you don't get caught), we highly recommend you obtaining one.
The risks of not having a permit are just too many and too high:
a. Your shoot can get completely shut down and/or your equipment confiscated, especially if you're caught filming un-permitted in a public area.
b. You can be fined.
c. You can cause your location host to get temporarily or permanently banned from hosting any further shoots on their property.
d. Even if you don't get caught, if your film turns out to be very successful and your budget is audited, and it is revealed that your $5,000 budget had $0 allocated for permits, it can cause you problems in the future.
That said, some permits can be obtained quickly, other may take a lot of time, depending on the area or region you plan to shoot in. For this reason, it's important to do careful research on permitting timelines and plan in advance. As a student, you can obtain a film permit fairly cheaply – student film permits in LA start at $26, and here are some resources on the film permit process you should go through before you get into location scouting:
a. Film Permits, the rules, pricing and when you need one in LA
b. FilmLA's guidelines and steps to follow to obtain film permits for student filmmakers
Rent a location for your next film or photo shoot project on Giggster – A better way to book locations.
2) Improper/Lack Of Production Insurance
On a shoot, especially a beginner shoot, things can happen. Things that you didn't anticipate. Broken bulbs, scratched furniture, stained driveways (these are the worst!) – that can rack up really high bills that you definitely don't want to pay out of pocket for.
As a film student, it's quite likely that production insurance will be provided by your school. If you're not a film student, or you've just graduated, or for any reason insurance is not provided by your school, you definitely want to make sure that you're covered by some sort of insurance coverage.
Most property owners will demand proof of insurance before letting you on their property, and for good reason. At Giggster, we've seen all kinds of damage claims for shoots – student or otherwise – and you don't want to be in a position where you're expected to pay $1000 for damages that you didn't anticipate would happen.
Get insurance, folks!
You can consider the following for your insurance needs:
a. Event Helper
3) Not Making a Good Impression During Scouting
As a student production, it is likely that you will face some amount of resistance when scouting for your filming locations. Property owners are generally wary of handing over access to their million-dollar homes to first-time filmmakers.
For this reason, you should always try and make a great first impression when you go and visit someone's home for the first time to scout. Make sure that you're expressing your responsibility and sensitivity to possible issues. Ask as many questions as you can, and clear all of your doubts.
You can also follow this link to view our ultimate guide to location scouting which will give you all the tips and steps you need to follow while performing a location scout.
4) Bad Budgeting
Budgeting is one of the most important aspects of your pre-production. You should make sure to not only budget for all the things you know you'll be paying for (such as your cast, crew and locations), but also for incidentals such as damages and last-minute expenses.
You never know what can come up – unexpected delays that cause you to require overtime, unexpected damages at your location rental, your crew requiring a little bit more food than expected – you never know!
It's best to not blow through your budget during your pre-production, or even through your production. Always leave some of your budget remaining for emergencies and incidentals.
5) Not Getting Proper Signed Releases
You need to make sure that whoever appears in your film, has signed a release agreeing to appear in your film. In essence, you can't waltz into Santa Monica and start shooting – you need to make sure that every single pedestrian that appears on camera has signed a release.
A more unconventional situation regarding releases arises when you have copyrighted artwork in your film location. You need to make sure that all the art in the background of your film location is OK to appear on film, and it's your responsibility to ensure this and obtain the release from the property owner/manager.
While you might get away with it initially, if your film becomes more successful in the future, the lack of releases can really affect you by inviting the possibility of lawsuits.
6) Not Properly Planning for Traffic and Parking
Don't assume that there will be parking spots for your entire cast and crew on-site, especially if you haven't enquired about this from your location manager/host beforehand. Either make sure that there is enough parking for everyone on-site, or coordinate access to a large parking lot ahead of time.
At the same time, make sure that you understand the traffic situation, and account for it in your shoot schedule. You can use a tool like Google Maps to estimate travel times with high accuracy. If you start rolling an hour late because your DP got stuck in traffic and had to park a mile away due to lack of a parking spot, it can mess up your entire production schedule, invite extra over-time fees, and cause unnecessary stress to everyone involved.
At Giggster, we want to ensure that you have the smoothest and most hassle-free filming experience. We truly hope that this list educates you about the possible issues that can come up during production – and helps you plan accordingly! We've also compiled a list of the most student friendly film locations you can rent on Giggster. Also, we've gone a step further than this blog and our location list, and compiled the ultimate guide to student filming for student filmmakers. We highly recommend giving it a read so you may be fully versed with the various legalese and factors that go into making a student film.
Best of luck on your film!