You may recognize this format from my book review pages. That is because I am too lazy to make a new one right now.
I don't know why it took me so long to understand plot isn't everything. That sounds really ephemeral so let me tell a story:
I was sitting in on a film lecture the other day, and the topic was dramas. What stuck with me is that dramas are about a character evolving, and whatever the plot happens to be is just set-dressing for that evolution. When I tell you it was like a light got flipped on, a lot got flipped on.
I, like all great creatives, have a place where I just throw all my random story ideas. A story based on a famous chess game where the characters and the setting represent pieces and the board! A story told without characters, but instead through descriptions of their rooms and how they change! Globalization collapsing, and the apocolyptic results told like a horror story! - they're not all winners, but there's something of an idea, whether it be cool setting or plot... what you might notice is that there's nothing to do with a cool character.
My preconception had been "you use characters to populate an enviornment. And because people identify with the story through the characters, they can have an arc and be like people I guess." In other words, you can't tell a story about a character. You tell one with a character.
Obviously, this has created problems while writing. There was this one post-apocolypse novel I was writing, Boston Syndrome, and got pretty far in (45,000 words!), but gave up because I could tell it was going nowhere. And I didn't know why. I had a plot with several turns, settings that I found somewhat appealing, a unique twist on zombies, and arcs for all the important characters What was the issue?
Characters need more than arcs (and, to be clear, calling my arcs "arcs" is a stretch). Characters need time. Time with the reader, time to develop. They can't be fingerpuppets, not vantriloguist puppets - they need to be people that speak their mind, their own stories and ideas for where their story will go. They need to bounce off each other and be creative - another problem with Boston Syndrome, I never let the characters stay in one place because I didn't know what to do with them if they did. I could have them explore a city, or get chased out of the city, but like... what else is there to do in the city? If they are only ever reacting to circumstances, there have to be new circumstances all the time, and the story becomes a fetch quest of "go here, do this."
So, what's the takeaway? I'm not exactly sure. I haven't solved my charcter problem yet, but this made me realize I have one - and maybe you do too. In which case I'll share my idea for getting past it:
Don't just "develop your character." Get to know them. Make them your friend, coworker, enemy, lover. Think about what they would do in your shoes as you go about your life. Have a conversation with them about something mundane while you're going to sleep - mundane is important, because most everything is mundane; they need to stay in the city. Force them to talk to each other. And, once you do, you'll have maybe have half a character.
And if having half a character doesn't convince you, this will make writing a lot faster. You can only write so much description about the scene. The real word-killer in writing is dialogue. And you can only have dialogue if you have characters.
Just recently finished editing a student film, and it made me realize how much editors need room to work. Anyone can put shots one-after-another, but that lacks depth. With a complex process like filming, where there are a lot of moving parts to manage, its easy to overlook this stuff, so I thought I'd record everything here.
1. Clapboards
We've all seen the shot before the shot. "Speed, marker, action!" It's easy to forget the actual significance of clapboards. So what is that significance? The "clap" part of clapboard is about syncing sound to video; when watching the clapboard clap, it's very easy to tell where the sound should go, meaning its easy to sync the audio and video channels. The clapboard also has information like scene and shot number, which makes for a far easier time organizing and finding footage. A low-tech, still practical solution is clapping, then saying the scene and shot number, along with any other useful information.
2. Margins
Having plenty of space between the "Action!" and the action, as well as the end of action and the end of the footage, makes everything so much easier. Shot-to-shot pacing should be figured out while editing, but - without margins - there isn't anything the editor can use to break up a scene and manage the pace. It also generally helps with audio mixing to have dead air surrounding the action.
3. B-Roll and Establishing Shots
As much as you can shoot. Not only does any B-roll clip have to be thematically relavant, but it also broadly shouldn't be reused earlier or later unless that serves a purpose. That, alongside the sheer amount of B-roll that will end up in a final cut - especially considering how short some individual b-roll segments are gonna be - means keep getting B-roll. Similar for establishing shots..
4. High Frame Rates
Often, clips or shots will be slown down. Weather its supposed to be noticeably slown down or not, choppy frames won't look good (unless, of course, there's a thematic reason they're choppy.) Slowing down footage will decrease the frame rate, so very quickly footage can become choppy. If shot at higher frame rates, though, there will be a lot of extra frames per shot that will only be visible when the shot is slown down. This has tradeoffs, though, and shooting at a high frame rate isn't always the play: mechanically, you may not be able to shoot very high frames, or the extra storage or processing power used slows down post production too much.
5. Continuity
You don't have to treat every scene as a crime scene between shots, but make sure there aren't any abrupt, unintentional changes. If you go to a close up of someone grabbing something with two hands, but they were reaching for it with only one a second ago, the audience will notice..
6. Takes
If time allows, get more takes. Even if you think you just got a flawless one, there will be unseen problems with it that can be fixed by stitching in that part from another take. It also helps ensure no continuity errors are overlooked, as there are more opportunities to notice the error or get it right on accident.