No Film School | How Do You Tell Your Story Visually? The First Feature: AMATEUR [Episode 6]

This was originally posted by No Film School

In this episode of our step-by-step podcast on how to get your first feature made, using my Netflix Film Amateur (out now on Netflix) as a case study, we dive into the visual and technical side of production.

Click the play button on the Soundcloud player above to listen, or listen to our other deep-dive episodes of The First Feature.

In Episode 6 we cover:

• • The creative and visual side of prep — storyboarding, shotlisting, previz, and overheads

• • Why it’s challenging to rewrite the script during prep

• • Why locking locations is important before starting principal photography

• • The limitations on number of hours per day when shooting with a minor in every scene

• • How integral the iPad Pro was to my process for scripts, documents, and as a director’s viewfinder (I used Mark II Artist’s Viewfinder)

• • How I used PDF Expert and why I wish I’d discovered the script annotation app Scriptation before we shot Amateur

• • What we shot Amateur on: Sony F55 cameras with AXS-R7 external recorders, Panavision Ultra Speeds (off-the-court dramatic scenes) and Panavision Primo Primes (on-the-court basketball action)

• • Using a Phantom Flex 4K for the final scene of the film

• • What camera support we used to move the camera: handheld, Steadicam, “butt dolly,” dolly, rickshaw

….and more.

Thank you to the Panavision New Filmmaker Program, Sony, G-Technology, and Vision Research for their help in providing equipment on the film (which we’ll cover more of in our forthcoming production episodes).

If you have questions about the making of the Netflix Original Film Amateur — or about your own feature project — you can ask me at firstfeature@nofilmschool.com or find me on twitter @ryanbkoo.