How To Make a Feature Film

When I first started fumbling around with a video camera in the mid-1990s the furthest mountain on the horizon was a feature film.

What with all the negativity you hear about how hard it is to get a film made in this country, the time involved, the knockbacks, it’s certainly a much smoother ride to just keep your head down. Then in 2012, we had some success with a short film called House Cocktail and on January 1st 2013 we decided to make that leap. To bring the mountain to Mohammed, if you will allow me to be Mohammed for this curious analogy. We resolved to stop talking about making a feature film and actually do it. But, unlike sane people, we decided to make the film that summer, come what may. No permission, no safety ropes, just learning by doing.

The move in to features was a learning curve, made possible by my experience from commercials, but an entirely new ballgame at the same time. In attempting to cobble together some nuggets of advice to anyone about to make such a transition from commercials to an indie feature, I came up with the following: 

Stamina

The truth is that the majority of the skills required to make a film are the same as those used to make commercials: telling a story, working with actors, keeping a crew fed and watered etc. The difference is in the stamina required. Most short form projects are done and dusted within a few months (or one very busy month in the case of #ShowYourStripes for Southampton FC [below]). 

But with a feature, you are sharing your life with it for years. Giving birth to it, watching it grow, and trying to take it seriously when it first attempts to grow a beard. Sustaining the momentum and commitment needed over a period of years through pre-production, shooting, post-production and distribution is the only thing that you are truly doing for the first time on a feature. All the other skillsets (Liam Neeson parlance) exist in short form work but that energy needed to cling on to the rollercoaster for that length of time is something you can’t prepare for. 

Setting the shoot date in stone

Our approach was an unconventional one, and in many ways not to be recommended, but what we were able to generate by setting a shoot date from the outset was momentum - something that many feature projects lack in their infancy. Giving people definite dates for production laid down the gauntlet - this is what we’re doing, this is when we’re doing it, are you in? The flipside was that everything in pre-production had to be squeezed into those parameters - a short month for a first draft of the script, minimal locations that we could get for free, casting actors we knew. But positivity carried us a long way and we were able to generate a spirit that bigger “machines” maybe don’t have.  

Location with free lodging

The majority of our film takes place around one country house - not only the film’s main location but also lodging for the entire cast and crew. This meant that you could wrap the final scene of the day and all be enjoying a beer within 5 minutes - a plus in anyone’s language.  

Post production without structure and finance requires patience…. and lots of it.

Post-production, however, was tougher. Without the formal structure and finance, the process slows - the manic pace of pre-production and shooting gives way to patchy sessions huddled around an iMac in your producer’s spare room. The commercial contacts can get you a good sound mix and a grade but often after-hours and at short notice. You are no longer quite the same masters of your own destiny. A tough contrast to what you would normally face on a deadline-driven commercial number like Adidas' Ace [below] where we knew the post had to be completed in time for the Champions League final, come what may.

But, whilst the eventual crossing of the finish line was more of a crawl than a sprint, we did at least cross it. Over the past two and a half years we’ve learned a hell of a lot, made plenty of mistakes, but we’ve completed a feature film and more importantly we leave it with the desire to climb that mountain again.