Filming completed + New poster

As of today (September 12th, 2014) we step into a long and painful process of post-production. Filming was wrapped today and we are very thankful to all the people that helped us these days. We would also like to thank our awesome cast and crew who were ready to do anything on set. Boris and Samir did an amazing job portraying opposite characters and are already negotiating on roles for future project.
"Discussions" will screen in front a test audience later next month after it is completed and release date will be announced. Until then we will present some interesting materials to worm you up for the big thing in Seven Productions!
Here is our new poster that shows Alexei (Boris Ručniv) half visible-half in shadow.
"The world is not black and white but gray."
-Alexei

Actors revealed on new "Discussions" poster

At last we reveal our actors' faces in brand new poster for "Discussions"! The film is still in production and will be released later this year. We hope you enjoy our posts. Soon we will make another post on jobs on your film set! Also, after seeing how many clicks we had on our post about writing we decidet to help you writing with giving you new ideas for stories every other week. Subscribe to our blog to see all new posts! Don't miss our production updates and tips on how to make a short film.
It is good time as any to announce that we are negotiating on making a short animated film. How do you feel about stop-motion animation? In some of our next posts we will go deeper in process of stop-motion animation. Leave us a comment if you have any idea what we should do next!

Production updates and new teaser

Although the title is "production update and new teaser" first thing we must do is to thank you guys for your interest. We reached over a thousand hits on our blog and we are very grateful for that.
As for production update, we can only say it is going very well! We are moving on the main scenes of the movie in couple days. We hope it'll be done in eight working days. After that we have so much work on post-production, but you will be informed about that later.
The thing we are so excited to present is the first out of three teaser we will publish! This one represents Time as one of the most important elements in story. We really hope you like this one. It is a poetic and artistic idea of life summed up in time. "Things occur and die."
Watch our teaser and let us know what you think in comments. Thank you, again for support.
SevenProductionsTeam

Director vs. Producer

Now "vs." in the title isn't fair because director and producer aren't working against each other, they represent a team that brings you entertainment, but it seems appropriate because this post is made to show you difference between director's and producer's jobs. Also we will explain the differences between producers and executive producers as we saw it confuses a lot of people.

Note: we will explain how these positions work in film production. Some things are done differently in TV series production, and we will say couple of things about that as well, bud that is secondary topic.

Before we start with jobs in production we should first explain basic stages of production. After a production company buys rights for a certain scenario, or hires the writer to write it, starts the first phase of production called simply pre-production. It pre-production producer(s) and executive producers hire the director (if he isn't involved with the preparation of the script) and together they hire other important people (we will make another post about jobs on the set and post-production) that are called cast and crew. Cast being all the actors and crew all the people behind the scenes. Also, in pre-production schedules of shooting must be made. After the first phase is completed cast and crew enter the second stage that is production (or shooting scenes). Crew separates in the first and second unit (there were some cases with big blockbusters where the third unit was formed to keep up to the schedule). The first unit shoots all the dialogs and scenes important to the plot of the story, while the second unit shoots "less important" (they are also important for the film, but not as much for storyline) scenes: landscapes, time-lapses, characters walking to the certain destination, battles (and sometimes second unit gets to shoot even a duel, if the first unit is busy shooting other scenes. But mostly director wants to shoot a duel so the two characters fighting would behave the way director imagined). After all the scenes are shot comes the final production stage that is post-production. Making the final look of the film from the material made in the second stage takes weeks. Editors cut scenes, visual effects department add all the effects to scenes and tint the picture, composer makes music and music producer produces it (obviously), sound editing department edits all the dialogs and has to sync them to the scenes (if sound was recorded separately as it is usual case), also they have to design sound effects for every action in a scene (steps, ambiances, object moves, et cetera).

Director is probably the most important person from early stage of pre-production. Film is directors vision, directirs point of view. He makes all the creative decissions in production proces. He can ask for script changes and can add or remove a character. His job is to tell the director of photography (DoP) how to shoot a scene, as well. He tells actors how to behave in situations. Hi decides how fast editing should be (slower edits are used in more dramatic scenes like negotiations or monologues, while faster edits are used for scenes with more action). Also, he decides if music is good enough for a scene.

There you have it. Director is the person who actually makes a film the way it looks. But not alone. Producer is equaly important in production. Producer is the person who owns the film. His job from the beginning is to hire director with the same vision of the film and finance production. The term "producer" isn't always used the same and meaning of his position can be different from film to film. There is some sort of triangle that we developed for easier understanding of there terms: "producer", "executive producer", "producers". The producer is the one who controls production (but doesn't have to be involved in making the creative decissions), executive producers aren't involved with artistinc part at all, their jobs are to ensure the budget (also try to agree with director where to cut the budget), plan the production schedule, etc; and there are other producers who work in different demartments (music producer (the person who produces the music composed by composer), visual effects producer, et cetera). The main producer is usualy the one who owns the company that produces certain film (and in cases like on "Pirates of the Caribbean" series and "The Lone Ranger", if two production companies colaborate (Jerry Bruckheimer Productions and Disney) producer from one company is always involved in the project as the owner of the big part of movie, with executives from his own company and executives from company he colaborates with). Also, every person who helps the production in any way can and should be credited as a producer. Steven Spielberg is commonly credited as one of producers even though he isn't really involved with production - that is how lower budget films with good storylines get better commercial value.
Now, in TV series business creator of a certain show is almost always in position of executive producer as well. In TV show the creator and executive producer is in charge of everything because the show is his vision. He allowes directors to make their signature in episodes and sometimes they even direct some episodes. Producers in TV shows don't have much saying in important story decissions while executive producers (and other writers who can also be in executive producer positions if they are involved enough in the storyline) decide about important things that should happen in story to keep a show fresh.
We hope this helped you understand the jobs of director and producer(s). In our next post we will tell you more about other jobs. We will also leave you a link in next post for some sheet papers so your shooting can be easier.

"Discussions" - Day One + Writing Tips

Today we decided to start posting something that could be more interesting to you than our productions. Of course, as usual you can read about making "Discussions" but from now on you can also find here some tips on making your own film. In every post we will update you on producing "Discussions", plans for new projects and mainly help you making short films. Today we talk about first day of shooting and give you some hopefully helpful tips on writing your own screenplay!

Dmitar Velimir left the cast at the day of shooting his scene and we are sorry he wasn't able to shoot that day, but we agreed it was for the best. First day of shooting was easy for one reason: although we didn't separate units we did separate scenes on 1st degree and 2nd degree, and first scene we shot was 2nd degree scene. In our made-up film dictionary 2nd degree scene is an equivalent with 2nd unit. We filmed only video and no sound. Branko Praštalo appeared as "boy going to school". Scene is approximately 40 seconds long and is monotone. We wanted first few scenes to describe the way we look at life in this case. As we already said, the film is about life and death, love and hatred, religion and philosophy. On picture from shooting you can see our DP Darko Sladojević with vlog runner Višnja Reljanović, executive producer and script supervisor Dragana Rokić, actor Branko Praštalo and assistant director and VTR Logger Dejan Šurlan on location.
Now we are about to tell you some more interesting things on how to make a short film. Today we discuss writing a script! On both of our projects we were well aware of the fact that we are making a non to micro low budget film and it affected our writing. You should also know, if you are making independent short film, what can you use and on what you have to spend money. Try to save money on everything that won't affect quality too much. On "The Strange Mind" first thing was to think of main theme for story. After having that it was easy to add ideas to it. You should know that we like to get weird with our stories and it helps us to get creative with the story. It helped us to read some real scripts to get the basic idea of scripting.
It can get really fun in writing room. You don't have to rent a room, use one of yours! It's helpful having calm environment, helps you concentrate on your story. If you're lucky like we were some of writers will be funny and make great atmosphere for working.
Once you set the main idea try to make a storyline. Make few fixed points (beginning, twist and end). It can get very difficult if you don't know where you are going with your story. First thing we decided for "The Strange Mind" was that our main character won't survive, then we added DID and other characters. Also, sometimes it is interesting to go straight forward with writing. For example, Vince Gilligan (the creator of "Breaking Bad") was able to make one of the greatest dramas on TV because he had no idea where he was going with a season. Writers would make a problem and only after think of possible solutions. On the other hand it's easier to find solution and then make a problem. We recommend our way for beginners.
There are several questions you should have in mind. We suggest you answer them before writing the script itself.

• Whose story are you telling?
• What does your character want?
• What's stopping him getting it?
• What's at stake?

While modelling your character it can get really helpful to answer these questions we found on this site. To make a character profile think about these questions:

• Who is your character secretly attracted to?
• What's a topic of conversation that your character's particularly touchy or overly sensitive about?
• Who is your character's role model?
• What's something your character tries not to reveal about himself or herself?
• What's something your character spent too much money on?
• Who is someone your character pretends to like but dislikes?
• Think of something bad that happened to your character in the past that your character's excessively afraid will happen again!
• Where does your character hide private things, and what is it that he or she hides there?
• What's an unrealistic daydream your character has?
• What's positive quality that your character is unaware that he or she has?

You don't have to show all these in your story, you should know the answers for the story. Just answering these questions will help making the plot. We don't recommend making plot around one or more of these questions. Of course, you could make a film just from these but it wouldn't be a very good one. By knowing your character you will easily create a story around your character.
Decide what genre it is! That is the first thing to do. Later in process give your film a tagline, it helps you define the direction you take and overall picture of your film. For "Discussions" we took a line from "Steppenwolf": "For Madmen Only".
It is also a good idea to find inspiration in quotes from your favorite novels. It's very important not to use quotes in your script except if your character quotes someone on purpose.
Try not to use cliche phrases in dialogs.
Great source of inspiration can be music or pictures!

We hope we helped you with some tips. If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment or contact us by e-mail or on facebook. We wish you all the best in writing your scripts. It is our goal to spread creativity all around the world!

"Discussions" open this fall.
For Madmen Only!

New Poster and Updates on Production of "Discussions"

Hello everyone. We are very proud to announce that the shooting will start on Saturday, July 19th. It'll be our first day of shooting and we decided to film chronologically so it's the opening scene of "Discussions". Danijela Gačić will be playing a girl and Stefan Gligić will play a boy in that scene. We hope to have nice weather and to shoot some pretty nice frames in the woods. Darko Sladojević signed on as a director of photography and Dejan Šurlan will come along as director assistant. Višnja Reljanović will accompany cast and crew to make some additional photographs and film our video blog just for you! It's confirmed that no sound crew will be there on the day of shooting, mainly because it's a second unit task.
Tagline of "Discussions" is "For Madmen Only", we hope you like it!
"Discussions" will come out in September.
Here is our third poster for "Discussions".

"We live in a mute, grey film and we wait."

-Alexei

New Poster for "Discussions"

The production is going well. "Discussions" start filming this month and we are very proud to present our second poster! Two men battling each others views on life, religion, fate, afterlife and art. It's a philosophical drama with a twist, starring Boris Ručnov and Miloš Aničić. Two days ago we added a new cast member: Dmitar Velimir as a boy in oppening scenes. "Discussions" will be out for public this fall!