I've been thinking few things that might help making the filming process bit more easier and pleasing to do for all the participants. Cannot say if these actually do work, but I thought to share my two cents on the subject:
Try to scout out suitable settings for the film before hand, and after finding idealistic place, bring in your volunteers and have bit of mindstorming about the possible scenes that the new movie will contain. Go through the possible poses, make needed adjustments and overall make sure everything seems to be fine 'n dandy on attachments, poses and settings. Once everything looks good, actors should save their adjusted attachments as new outfit, and the set & poses would be left alone until it's time to shoot. In short, prepare & practice before shooting the film.
It would be also kinda nice if the actors could get heads up who they're gonna be filming with, or even a possibility to pick from suitable candidates. I know that it's mostly director's choice to decide the partners and all that, but sometimes the actor's and director's opinions might clash together, or the selected individual ends up to be unreliable or difficult to work with. My experiences have been good so far, but I think it would help a lot if the candidates would have bit of time to get known to eachother and practice with the director, not to mention how ability to pick from multiple choices makes it more fun & interesting for the participants as well.
Nothing else I can come up with, and the videos so far have been pretty nice, so this isn't really a criticism or anything, just something I though that might help making the whole filming experience slightly better :3c
So, I'm supposed to write something edgy in here?
yes please scout out places! so far me and cresil have been doing all the scouting and its tiring >.<
Stuff Lumi and Sangie mentioned:
Scouting:
I do scout, it's time consuming tho so I only do it a few times a week when needed once I have an upcoming video I want to film. I have yet to end up with scouting delaying the recording of a project. I try to get that done during the editing phase of the current one.
Mindstorming:
I don't really open the floor to this with the volunteers, because for me they are.. like my canvas, when I see two avatars click in my eyes the video clicks in my head and It's pretty much set in my mind unless a special case or issue comes up. Since they are volunteers and my videos are pro bono, I simply carry out my idea with the furs that offer their avatars up to it!
Going through poses and adjustments:
* I do this when I have or can get mod perms and things go as planned, definitely, most definitely.
I do light testing with an alt or anyone convenient as part of scouting.
If i were to do heavy testing and adjusting for later filming, I might as well shoot the video then as that would be way too time consuming to schedule them twice and also spend time on the bed.. It's very, very hard to get two likely international furs together in a scheduled manner for a dedicated 4 hours.
The other reason for the above is half the videos are on public beds I couldn't have adjusted.
Volunteers getting to choose the partner:
My bit a couple paragraphs up sort of explains why I do the choosing. If they are volunteering they typically don't expect to weigh in much with any opinions at all, and if they are unreliable then I get my backup. I always have a backup 🙂
Practice:
A busy life leaves the idea of practicing way too time consuming. I judge the compatibility of 2 avatars by the pictures. If I feel I can't judge it, I meet them in person usually just one of them and or the other at a time due to scheduling a practice meet dragging the filming way too far down the month usually.
Selected volunteers getting to talk to each other:
For all my videos except a couple special case and one where they already knew eachother, I have them meet the same day as filming like a blind date. I spend enough time and consideration on planning using two avatars for me to not want to risk them having an issue with each other. The blind date system has worked every time, they either get along well, have a hot sexy RP, or maybe they don't talk to each other but they follow my directing which is all I need to get you boys a sexy video and for me to carry out my idea in mind.
I thank you both for your suggestions.
My system is not premeditated, it's simply what is as stress-free as possible. It's still stressful, but this is my contribution to the fandom - I just try to keep it as comfortable as I can to keep doing it.
All this really mainly applies to my free vids with volunteers.
If and when I start doing commissions well, you get most of the control. 🙂
So far I have two people seriously interested in commissioning. Anything possible goes!
This is a good idea lumi! -pets da lion- I mean before Cresil took us to like four places looking around for things when we got there. One of the clubs was missing at first! lol! So yes the volunteers should help with scouting areas and meet up with each other to help adjust poses. :yay:
