Digital Filmmaking For Kids For Dummies

PROJECT 20

Time to Film

Now it’s time to shoot your short film. In this project, all the hard work you put into planning and preparing your film pays off. I love this part of the filmmaking process because it’s where the story and the characters come alive.

By this point, you will have rehearsed with your actors to develop their characters and to make sure they know their lines. You will have also met with your team to talk through the scenes and explain the shots using your storyboard so they will know what to expect on filming days. All of this saves time and makes your cast and crew feel more comfortable on the day of filming.

In this project, I show you how to start shooting your short film so that it’s ready to edit together later.

Directing Your Film

As a director, you’re responsible for getting the best from your crew and actors in the time available to you. It’s important, then, to keep track of time. During filming, time goes very quickly, and you could easily end up rushing things at the end of the shoot in order to fit everything in. In fact, this is a pretty common problem. I’ve been on many film shoots that started out calm and relaxed and ended up tense and frantic as the filmmakers struggled to complete the shot list for that day. I’ve also made the mistake of thinking that someone else was watching the time and only later found out that no one was. Accordingly, ...