HOW TO MAKE THE SLIDE-FILM

Idea

It usually comes to your mind accidentally, from the depth of unconscious. It can be caused by the favourite movie or story, or you just want to put your wedding dress on again, or to act as your favourite character of any gender. Next thing to do is to find a group of people for this specific project, or to interest the creative group you already have in this new idea.

People

The main criterion is the personal interest of the group's members, the desire to become some other person, to put on the costume, to meet new friends during the preparation and shooting itself. The actors don’t even have to be very talented in terms of acting, because the main idea of the slide-film is to be able to freeze in front of the camera with a certain look on your face. “Shooting! One more time… Cut! Next shot…”

Photographer

We have to say a few words about this extremely important person as well. He/she should be skillful enough to see the whole picture in details in order to help the director (especially if the director is an actor as well) to control the process. The photographer should check out carefully each shot. He also chooses the better angle and the technical means of taking a picture both in the studio and in the street. Of course, the better the quality of the camera is, the better the result will be, but it is possible to make a good slide-film even with a simple amateur digital camera, if the desire is strong enough.

Discussion

It is known that the preparation for the event brings even more delight to the people participating in it than the event itself. After the distribution of the roles the first discussion of the sсript and costumes begins. What we have and what we need, what we can do by ourselves and what should be bought or searched for. It is useful to gather the whole group on a meeting, where the people can get to know each other (if it is a new group) and discuss all the details in real life. The shooting can be made in a week after the meeting or take months of preparation.

Script

You can come up with the general idea and let the actors improvise. But it is better to prepare the full scene selection with the text. Thus actors can express themselves on the given topic and stick to the director’s idea. The best and hardest way is to draw a schematic plan of each and every shoot, which comes very useful in terms of a long slide-film.

Costumes

We usually try to use things we already possess or can borrow from friends or relatives. Actors don’t have to move around the stage in costumes so it is possible to use any improvised materials and means to keep pieces of the costume together. In some rare cases we still have to make the costumes from point zero, but we never rent them, because it would kill the main idea of the creative process. It is just amazing to see how many useful for the performance things can be found in wardrobes or attics of ordinary people, sometimes forgotten for years. The costumes should be taken care of beforehand so that everyone could see, what essential details are still needed, but usually it happens only the day before the shooting. After all, safe pins and Photoshop save the day.

Shooting place

In theory you can shoot everywhere you want, but the studio appears to be the most comfortable place with its specific light and the background you can easily change for what you need using Photoshop. And the studios always have space in contrast with the ordinary apartment where you have to move the furniture or use a single corner of the room. The most amazing scenes come when you don’t need to create backgrounds artificially, especially outdoors.

Properties

The arms, hats, helmets, pieces of furniture are mostly made or bought in some theatrical shops, but can be also created by the means of Photoshop. In that case we still use some ersatzes to orientate ourselves upon and make the editing process simpler.

Make-up

The make-up necessary for all actors, and it doesn’t matter what gender the character is. The light of the studio makes all colours fade a lot, so the make-up should be very bright (toner, mascara, eyeliner, crayon, rouge, eye shadows etc.). It would be good to have one trained person responsible for the make-up not only to perform it in the very beginning but to make sure it stays in order till the very end. And he/she should prepare the means of taking make-up off, or the journey to home for the actors may become quite an adventure. ;-)

Shooting day

The process of dressing, making up and preparing the “stage” can take few hours, but the shooting itself may be a quick process. And the “speed” even increases as the actors get used to playing and understand what they should do. The average film of 30 shots can take from 2 to 3 hours.

What you should think of beforehand:

ironing of the costumes and cloths. It is better if you bring an iron with you to the studio;
the hair may ask for some previous styling (rollers and other curlpapers);
you’ll have the cheerful and exited crowd in the studio. Therefore you should prepare some tea and snacks for the whole group. If the shooting takes place during some celebration it would be better to eat first and then have some tea after the shooting.

Results

As a result we’ll have an interesting, creative and cheerful day, certain amount of improvisation and a lot of jokes and laughter behind the scene. The next thing is to look through the material (if you made the comedy, then you must try to suppress the giggling), and then the long laborious task of editing begins (the editing may take one, two or three months, so be prepared!). But in the very end we get the film in static shots with the old and new friends as the cast. And the strong desire to make one more as soon as possible. :-)