Article On First Feature Film

[Dan Hasson]

Hello all,

Firstly I hope I am posting in the right sub and not too soon after my last 'critique my work' post.

I have recently had an article published on No Film School about my first feature film's production process. It was made very 'El Mariachi' style. This is not to take away the importance of good crew but for this project I worked in the style I write about in the article.

I am keen to share on this forum as I have enjoyed coming here and reading over the years. I hope you enjoy the article and get a chance to watch the film's trailer or watch the film itself online. 

Thanks,

Dan

[Vital Butinar]

Hey Dan. 

I read the article and checked out the trailer and first of congratulations on creating a feature film.

Any kind of film is no small task, let alone a feature. 

How long did it take you to prep and actually shoot everything and how long did your post production take?

What influenced your visual style?

Regards

Vital

[Dan Hasson]

Hi Vital,

Thank you, that's very kind!

• Writing took just under two months then storyboarding, rehearsals and camera tests for a month. 

 

• It was a seventeen day shoot. This could have been less however the lead and co-producer, Tom O'Brien, had another job. So some days we could not shoot or we had to wrap early. I was fortunate (or maybe unfortunate) enough to not be working at the time so had no other obligations.

 

• Post-production took a very long time. As soon as we wrapped I had a really busy year working as a 2nd AD on other films. So it was about thirteen months of post-production. This started with manually syncing every shot, a rough cut and eight cuts before picture lock.

Visual influences were mostly films favouring deep focus. Obvious ones like, Citizen Kane, 12 Angry Men, Paper Moon and The Last Picture Show. I was also watching The Sopranos around that time which was a huge visual influence. A lot of The Walking Dead and other films / shows shot on 16mm with wide lenses.

I used a 28mm lens stopped down usually to f16 and f22 for exteriors and f8 and f11 for interiors to achieve this. 

Thank you so much for taking an interest and asking about the film! 

Dan

[Vital Butinar]

48 minutes ago, Dan Hasson said:

Hi Vital,

Thank you, that's very kind!

• Writing took just under two months then storyboarding, rehearsals and camera tests for a month. 

 

• It was a seventeen day shoot. This could have been less however the lead and co-producer, Tom O'Brien, had another job. So some days we could not shoot or we had to wrap early. I was fortunate (or maybe unfortunate) enough to not be working at the time so had no other obligations.

 

• Post-production took a very long time. As soon as we wrapped I had a really busy year working as a 2nd AD on other films. So it was about thirteen months of post-production. This started with manually syncing every shot, a rough cut and eight cuts before picture lock.

Visual influences were mostly films favouring deep focus. Obvious ones like, Citizen Kane, 12 Angry Men, Paper Moon and The Last Picture Show. I was also watching The Sopranos around that time which was a huge visual influence. A lot of The Walking Dead and other films / shows shot on 16mm with wide lenses.

I used a 28mm lens stopped down usually to f16 and f22 for exteriors and f8 and f11 for interiors to achieve this. 

Thank you so much for taking an interest and asking about the film! 

Dan

It was an interesting read of the article.

I myself haven't done a feature film yet but have done enough shorter projects like short films, music videos and commercial videos to know how things go and you pulled it off really fast. Of curse being your own producer you could craft the story to what you had and that's always great.

Last year we shot a 16 min proof of concept short for a TV show (which I can share over PM with you) and having no budget to speak of, we had to put together what we had. Instead of four production days we only had three and in the end only two because a location fell trough. But after four months of preproduction and location scouting, shafeling a couple of scenes around wasn't that much of a problem. Postproduction took another eight months. 

We're actually thinking of doing a feature in the next year but I'd need some funding to be able to pull it off. 

I'm really happy when a feature film gets made and especially one that finds success, especially if it's a self funded indie film.

Regards

Vital 

[Dan Hasson]

1 hour ago, Vital Butinar said:

It was an interesting read of the article.

I myself haven't done a feature film yet but have done enough shorter projects like short films, music videos and commercial videos to know how things go and you pulled it off really fast. Of curse being your own producer you could craft the story to what you had and that's always great.

Last year we shot a 16 min proof of concept short for a TV show (which I can share over PM with you) and having no budget to speak of, we had to put together what we had. Instead of four production days we only had three and in the end only two because a location fell trough. But after four months of preproduction and location scouting, shafeling a couple of scenes around wasn't that much of a problem. Postproduction took another eight months. 

We're actually thinking of doing a feature in the next year but I'd need some funding to be able to pull it off. 

I'm really happy when a feature film gets made and especially one that finds success, especially if it's a self funded indie film.

Regards

Vital 

Definitely share the concept short, I'd love to watch it. 

I had the confidence for the feature for two reasons. One, it cost next to nothing and was written that way. Two, like you, I have worked on other projects over the years, mainly commercials here in the UK.

Thank you for your kind words about mine getting made! 

Best,

Dan

[Vital Butinar]

22 hours ago, Dan Hasson said:

Definitely share the concept short, I'd love to watch it. 

I had the confidence for the feature for two reasons. One, it cost next to nothing and was written that way. Two, like you, I have worked on other projects over the years, mainly commercials here in the UK.

Thank you for your kind words about mine getting made! 

Best,

Dan

Dan, I sent you a PM yesterday. 

Regards

Vital