Technical Aspects that an Indie Director should Keep in Mind!

Very often, independent directors kick starts their film projects, and after giving 100% effort and hard work, a movie may need to meet the expectation or standards to be called a masterpiece! What could be the reason for that?

Many critics or Jury Members working with worldwide film festivals have noted that a good number of indie films are perfect in terms of thinking and storyline. Still, in some cases, the movies don’t match a standard due to failing in their technical aspects, and those areas really matter at the end of the day while screening it to an audience.

For instance, a film shot in low light or without quality sound recording cannot help us have an excellent final cut! It is a matter of fact that independent filmmakers many times have challenges to face in terms of getting an adequate amount of funds or expertise, and ignoring these facts causes awful outcomes in cases.

So, what technical aspects should an Independent Director follow while making the film? Well, it would have an ocean of answers, which will not be of selective exposure for us. But in general, the filmmaker or the team should have a planned vision and execution in the areas like pre-production, shooting, and post-production, so all the areas of making a film! Isn’t it?

In post-production, the filmmaker should keep a sharp eye on casting! No matter how good the script or screenplay is, without proper acting skills and expressions, the film cannot be a good piece at the end of the day.

After selecting the perfect cast members, the next thing would be choosing the spots to shoot! Based on the demands of the storyline, the locations should sync with the story, and the characterization of the films and the selected sites should have the proper presence of light and other elements to help in the shooting.

Then in terms of technicalities, the indie filmmaker should focus on the shooting part of the movie! The essential element of crafting the film, no doubt about it! So, the preparation for shooting should be up to that level every time. The cinematographer should have a proper idea of the director’s visualization and how the director would like to record the scenes. Without appropriate synchronization between the director’s vision and the technical excellence of the cinematographer, the film will not be the expected piece that the team is working for.

The other technical issues during the filming section of movie making are lighting, sound recording, etc. The team’s initial focus should be on these aspects so that raw footage contains supreme quality. Due to the unavailability of a sufficient budget, indie directors fail to focus on these areas of filmmaking, and thus it may cause them in the long run.

After completing the shoot and collecting the footage as planned, the remaining part is the editing, the most critical part of the filmmaking. The editing requires time, patience, and team chemistry to have a successful film project. For independent filmmakers, it is often seen that the film director is the film’s editor to save the monetary expense! But without professional knowledge of edits, the final product may fail to impress, and it can cause failure as a whole.

It is why the independent film should be made through the collective efforts of the team members, not only by depending on the filmmaker only! Yes, an independent film team does not have the opportunity to get all the required funds and expertise, but when it all matters, the movie’s final cut should be flawless.