What is guerrilla filmmaking? It’s the ability to get your vision on the screen with the least amount of work, expense and hassle. By reducing all the extra time and baggage involved, you will have more energy to concentrate on the material you are shooting. As an added bonus your financial costs will be very low.
If you are a beginner, try this approach. It’s fast, safe and easy. If you have a bit more experience then you can try these guerrilla techniques as well. It may offer you a different path to getting your vision on to the screen. Here are a few guidelines that the guerrilla filmmaker should follow. By following this list you will eliminate unnecessary complications.
1) Keep shooting and shooting. The more you shoot the more you will learn. Whether it is 16mm or Super 8. Be willing to have results that don’t meet your expectations. Films should be like songs. Do not make one or two a year, make as many as you can and if you happen to be unhappy with the results then no problems move to the next project. Learn and grow as an artist.
2) Do not bring any extra gear besides the camera. Shoot exteriors, brightly lit interiors or near windows. This way you do not drag around heavy lights or spend hours setting them up. Film does need a lot of light but setting up lights can drain you of the creative energy you started with. A tripod is optional as well, but certainly not necessary.
3) Use only one or two actors and do not have a crew. The hardest, most complex part of a film is getting everyone available on a given day. People lead busy lives and the less people you have to schedule the better. Also if you aren’t carrying gear you will not need a crew. This is one less person to deal with on the set.
4) Plan to shoot things in a one day. This makes things much easier to film and coordinate. And you will have the satisfaction of getting everything done quickly. Nothing ruins enthusiasm faster for yourself than to have to shoot day after day after day.
5) Use unsynched - non copy written sound effects. Trying to have synched audio will add many grey hairs to your head. It is fairly complex to do and requires a lot of extra gear and usually an extra person on your crew. You can easily get free music and effects on the internet. Consider moviemaking as a visual medium and just throw a song in the background.
6) Do not get hung up or intimidated by technical details. Today music videos have prepared the audience to accept any kind of visual stimulation. The audience is willing to expect flaws. It’s your film, your art and you are creating your own dream world. If it makes you comfortable to set your focus once then put your light meter on automatic ( as with Super 8 cameras ) then do so. I bet you can shoot faster and get more interesting images if you leave certain elements to chance. There is beauty in randomness. Just because someone has always said your shots should be in focus and your lighting perfect doesn’t mean you have to follow their advice. Think outside of the box and remember all that matters is what works for you. Dare to be different.
7) Use in- camera effects. There is a lot you can do with a 16mm Bolex such as fades, double exposures, single frame, slo mo etc. Some Super 8 cameras have the same features. There is a certain raw, quality when doing this inside your camera that you cannot recreate when editing it in the computer.
8) My last guidelines is to not edit your film. Make the length of your film be one roll. Then project the footage straight from what you have shot. This may not sound appealing because a lot of people enjoy editing. By leaving editing out you will be forced to focus your creativity differently. Yes it is limiting but at the same time it is freeing because you will have to tell your story in a more interestingly original manner. Everyone edits their films and that alone should be enough reason for you to try something different. By shooting only one roll of film per finished movie, your total costs are now peanuts (about 50.00 for Super 8 – maybe 75-80 for 16mm – film stock and processing).
You may think, how can I create film with all these restrictions? You still have two most powerful tools a guerrilla filmmaker needs. These tools will put you at an equal level of any Hollywood director. Your first tool is your imagination and creativity. Because you are truly independent you have the potential to create a film where everything you know about plots, character, development and all aspects of reality are tossed aside. When you decide to break conventions, other levels of experience – where reality is more like dreams - are made possible. You can create a world where cliched plots are tossed aside and character motivation is illogical. The psychological effect of your film will go beyond what is projected on the screen and remain with the audience long afterwards. Take your own personal experiences, ironies and uncertainties and try to express those. The guerrilla restrictions will force you to create something unlike any other film.
Your second powerful tool is the montage or the order that you present your images to tell your story. The unique power of cinema is that you can put two shots, one after the other and the viewer will make an emotional connection between them. Charlie Chaplin took a shot of office workers walking to work through the subway and intercut with a shot of cattle being led through steel gates. The point was obvious. A famous experiment took a shot of an actor and cut it with a bowl of soup, a child and an old lady in a coffin. Everyone thought the actor was so talented because of his ability act hungry at the food, happiness at the child and sadness at the dead woman, even though it was all the same actors shot. Use the visual connection between shots to fuel your vision. Do not show someone being killed – it’s been done a million times. Show him being chased by a killer then follow with a shot of a gravestone. Same story except a more appealing presentation. Imagination and the sequence of shots are the only two tools that the guerrilla filmmaker needs to make visionary and innovative films. And thats more fascinating than any film with an enormous budget and huge crew.
So go out there, grab a camera, grab a roll of film and start shooting. Leave your wallet and your filmmaking textbooks at home. As well sign up for IFCO’s Dogme and Super 8 One Take Challenges. These are perfect screening opportunities for your guerrilla films.
And finally, if you don’t believe what I am saying then check out sample one take – non-edited films from the Straight 8 website. You will be in awe and inspired at what some guerrilla filmmakers are producing today.
Watch Super 8 Films here
By: Deniz Berkin
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