How many people?

[ned c]

A well known and very successful n-c film maker here in the US has suggested that entries should be divided by the size of the crew.

He wrote "Creativity and story telling are important to success but I maintain that the limitations of working without a large crew often restricts the scope and scale of a production by an individual or small crew (2 to 4 persons) compared to a large group which allows crowd scenes, large light set ups, multiple mics as well as crane and dolly shots. Occassionally limitations produce superior results while big ideas and production values do not always ensure good story telling. I contend that contests should recognize the number of people on a production when separating entries into categories."

I disagree with this view and feel that the size of the crew is irrelevant to the quality of the end product. There is also the point that often the long lists of people in the end credits do not reflect actiual involvement in the project. Clubs should have large crews as surely the objective is to involve as many people as possible in the production; one reason to belong to a club.

What does this illustrious group think?

ned c

[billyfromConsett]

I don't think that it's either practical or an advantageous idea to impose limitations of movies by 'numbers involved' counting. We see every week of the year the results of a one man film idea that has been pulled off exceptionally well, as well as seeing club productions that have lots of time spent on them, but little in the way of production values. The opposite is also true of course.

The only area that sort of gets my agreement are the full scale media-school jobs that have a cast of hundreds on the credit list, and have had a lot of education money, professional lecturer supervision and production suppport, or just sponsorship money ploughed into them. That is the only area I'd wonder about adding extra rules to before accepting their movie.

Many clubs couldn't/wouldn't put together a large crew mind. Many people either work on their own or with a selected-friend group in film-making. That is something we should try to change though!

[Willy]

A well known and very successful n-c film maker here in the US has suggested that entries should be divided by the size of the crew.
He wrote "Creativity and story telling are important to success but I maintain that the limitations of working without a large crew often restricts the scope and scale of a production by an individual or small crew (2 to 4 persons) compared to a large group which allows crowd scenes, large light set ups, multiple mics as well as crane and dolly shots.

What does this illustrious group think?

ned c

Yes, me too, I disagree with this.
The number of names in the credits is not important. I am sure that one of my next films will have a short list of names. I hope it will be one of my best films. I'm very motivated. Of course, we should realize that we need friends to help us to make quality films. You can't do everything yourself. You need someone to hold the boom, who's responsible for the lighting, who plays the role of script girl, etc... But all this does not guarantee that you make a film of high quality. Last week I saw Robert Lorrimor's film "The Drill" again. We laughed a lot. It was one of the best films at BIAFF 2009. Bob's credits were very short. Maybe he did everything himself : camera work, editing, sound, scenario, script and even acting !

Yesterday I showed two films in my club : a film made by a Belgian and one made by a Dutchman. In the Belgian film, a historical documentary, you can see about 30-40 actors. They're all wearing historical costumes. The film is very impressive. It's spectacular. It looks "professional". In the Dutch film you can see only 7 or 8 actors. It's about an old man who finds a bottle of wine in his cellar. The film is not so spectacular. Most clubmates told me that both films are excellent, but they preferred the Dutch one. That film is stronger. The size of the crew and cast is irrelevant to the quality of the end product. You're right, Ned.

[Michael Slowe]

What a ridiculous idea! In my (experienced) view the number of names on the credits makes no difference whatsoever to a film's quality. Possibly with a drama more people would be needed but even that's not necessarily so. I would even go so far as to say (especially with non commercial films) that the fewer the better. I have managed with one these last 40 years and haven't done too badly. Mind you I only try to make films that can be done by one person. Certainly sponsorship makes very little difference, it's not money that's needed, it's skill, imagination and very very hard work.

[Brian Saberton]

I totally agree with Michael's comments