Movie Making

What it is

Can making a short film be more than an afternoon’s fun? It asks for organisation, clear communication, teamwork and a firm hand on the clock, which is why we run it as training. Teams shoot a short film or an advertising spot, from the idea to the edit, in a handful of hours. Script and dialogue, locations, music, effects, costumes, make-up, filming, final cut: all of it theirs, with whatever is to hand. At the end everyone watches the films together.

When it makes sense to choose it

It works well when a group is made of very different people and you want each of them to find their place without having to put themselves on show. A set needs actors, but it also needs somebody to write, somebody to choose the music, somebody to keep time, somebody watching from outside who says it isn’t working. Nobody gets pushed in front of the camera who doesn’t want to be there.

It works less well if you’re after something physical or outdoors: here you sit and argue, then stand up and film, but the energy is mental.

It holds very different numbers. We’ve run it for a group of four and for six hundred people working at the same time.

How it actually works

Each team goes through the whole path of a real film, only compressed into a few hours. You start from the idea, write the script, choose where to shoot, decide who does what. Then you shoot. Then you edit.

There’s almost no time, and that’s where the format shows its uncomfortable side: the brilliant idea that needs two days has to be abandoned, and a realistic one has to be found that works anyway. Anyone who has worked on a project with a tight deadline recognises the feeling. For whoever is watching from the outside, this is also the clearest hour of the year: the people who find a way through, hold the group together and keep the mood up are visible to everybody.

At the end everyone watches the films together. With a real awards ceremony if you want one, statuettes included.

What’s left goes beyond the memory of the day: you can play the finished films at next year’s convention, send them to the people who weren’t there, use them inside the company and outside it. The outtakes are usually the part that travels furthest. The day after, a team has managed a project from A to Z, exactly as at the office, except that this one finished.

Three questions

Do you need to be able to act?

No, and you don’t need to want to act either. Anyone who would rather be behind the camera has a role as full as the people in front of it.

How long does it take?

From two hours to a whole day. Two hours still gets you a finished short film; with more time you work better on the writing and the edit.

Do you need a particular venue?

No, you film where you are. A hotel, a resort on the beach, a meeting room, a garden: the location goes into the story instead of getting in its way. When the set is the city itself, the format has its own name, Urban Movie.