Balancing Plans and Flexibility

Balance is key in everything. Acting without any planning can yield extraordinary results when things go well, but failures can lead to not only no gains but also significant setbacks.

Conversely, overly detailed planning to avoid unnecessary mistakes can become so burdensome that the energy spent on planning outweighs the potential outcomes.

I generally believe that detailed planning is essential for filmmaking—mainly because I lack the confidence to act decisively without it.

Once you start making a film, it’s crucial to finish it. While dramas and manga often depict protagonists completing their independent films despite hurdles, in reality, completing any film, regardless of its quality, is a significant achievement.

Bringing a film to completion is harder than it seems, and that’s where a good “plan” becomes your lifeline.

Can You Shoot a Film Entirely Improvised?

It’s possible to make a film entirely through improvisation, without writing a script. Some might think, “This gives us the freedom to create without constraints!”

However, no script means the director constantly has to envision scene transitions and decide what materials are needed—all within their own head.

This isolates the creative process, placing the entire burden on the director. While exceptional talent and motivation might lead to a remarkable solo project, maintaining energy and direction is the real challenge.

Maintaining Motivation in Improvisation

What happens when your energy starts to wane?

For instance, when you no longer instinctively know:

• “What should I shoot next?”
• “How should these scenes connect?”

Even with a script, the amount you can shoot in a single day is surprisingly small. Without one, progress slows further as you try to figure things out mid-production.

What about editing? Without a structured plan, it’s easy to realize later:

• “None of these clips connect!”

This is precisely the scenario I’d find myself in. Improvised shooting often leads to an incomplete collection of necessary footage.

The Advantage of Plans

On the other hand, having a script—a blueprint—ensures your story can at least take a coherent shape.

In my experience, there’s always a stage during production when I lose confidence in my work’s potential. However, I can push forward by reminding myself, “The script seemed interesting at the time. If I follow it, I’ll at least produce something watchable.”

This level of planning serves as a safety net—albeit not a perfect one.

Connecting Scenes and the Role of Improvisation

Filmmaking’s magic lies in creating the illusion that disconnected clips belong to the same continuous event. This requires “connections” in the footage itself:

• “Does it feel seamless?”
• “Or does the fragmented nature of the shoot become obvious?”

To ensure connections work, I create storyboards in advance based on “what should link together.” Even with preparation, issues often arise during editing.

Without any plan, maintaining seamless connections becomes extraordinarily difficult.

While some argue that “connections” aren’t everything, disjointed scenes can frustrate viewers and increase the “stress of watching.”

Thus, improvisation must justify itself with benefits that outweigh such drawbacks—a bar I personally don’t think I can clear.

Balancing Plans with Flexibility

During my early filmmaking days, I drew detailed storyboards inspired by animation processes. But adhering too closely to these storyboards created inefficiencies:

• Drawing them was time-consuming.
• Filming setups took longer due to rigid expectations.

In reality, shooting conditions rarely allow perfect replication of storyboards. When deviations occur, adapting through improvisation becomes essential.

Thus, I’ve adopted a hybrid approach:

1. Create basic plans, like rough storyboards.
2. Follow the plan when conditions allow.
3. Adjust improvisationally when issues arise.

Using Special Effects as Backup

Even with balanced planning, editing sometimes reveals footage that doesn’t connect seamlessly. Reshoots can be expensive, so I often turn to special effects as a “band-aid” to reduce awkwardness. Special effects can act as tools for “fixing” visuals during post-production.