Young Irish Filmmaker Adam Rael here!

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AdamRael

Hey everyone,

I'm Adam Rael, I'm 17 years old and next year should be going to college to study film and tv production in the best course available in Ireland if I can hopefully do well and get in!

I've been into films my entire life. I made my first stop motion videos when I was 9 on crappy cell phone, it was simple but it started me off. I began editing on the computer after making text videos. When I was 12 I started making my first short films, they were awful, but they were a start. I acted in them with one friend, edited them, camerawork(though majority of the time it was on a tripod) and directed them.

I kept up a few small projects during that time but when I turned 16 I met a few people in my school who were also interested in making movies. I formed the group JacComedy with them. Since the I've produced over 50 short films, 2 music videos(another one is planned for this Saturday along with one after christmas), skateboard video, school talent show, 2 fashion shows, several live performances of bands and musicians and interviews. I've entered into a film festival I entered when I was 13 and got to the finals this time(semi finals previously) and am hoping to do well in it when it is on again in two weeks time!

In the last two or three months I've begun to try to increase the quality of films I'm outputting, less "testing" videos and more trying to tell stories. If you wish to seem some of what I consider my better videos then here is a list of oldest to newest
DAWN -(Praised by reviewer of the Kerry Film Festival)
EXcel 21 - Stories We'll Regret -(First ever music video, and the band didn't want a story)
Is Anyone There? -(This was when I was learning how to use shutter speed/iso etc.)
Zerrissenheit -(Try at a parkour, had to go completely handheld as had no stabiliser with me)
A Game Of Kings -(Artsy style film, read the description after you see it!

EXPERIMENTAL -(If you're only going to watch one watch this one, people regard it as best work so far)

Chinese Lantern -(Wanted to try get a cinematic look on a simple event that happened at Halloween!)
Toy Story Fan Film - "Off To College" -(Quickly made video, used to test out two lenses of mine)

I have also taken up photography in the last few months, mostly to help out with my filmmaking skills. I set up a Facebook page to host these and also get more viewers and feedback on my films that I produce.

FB.com/DirectorAdamRael is my page, if anyone has a Facebook page I'd appreciate a like so much! You can see all my photography and any update on films I do there.

I have a Canon 600d, kit lens(which I haven't used in months now), 50mm 1.8 and 28mm 2.8 Canon lenses, Zoom H1N, camera shoulder rig and a monopod(used as a boom pole for the Zoom). And incase anyone thinks I'm some spoilt kid who's treated to a ton of gear, I'm not. I worked my ass off all summer as a linen porter to get this gear. Before last summer I made films with a Flip Mino HD, and I borrowed a friends camera all the time. I'm a dedicated guy that loves making movies.

If anyone could PLEASE give ANY FEEDBACK I'd be so grateful! I'll also answer any questions if someone wants to ask anything!
 
Hello and welcome.

Interesting work. I think you are getting better and it shows in your videos. I really liked DAWN because I did not know what to expect and it had an crazy ending. To me EXPERIMENTAL had a really dark ending but I don't know if that was what you were going for. I am starting to learn more and more that a good story really helps when making a short film.
 
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eomer41 said:
Hello and welcome.

Interesting work. I think you are getting better and it shows in your videos. I really liked DAWN because I did not know what to expect and it had an crazy ending. To me EXPERIMENTAL had a really dark ending but I don't know if that was what you were going for. I am starting to learn more and more that a good story really helps when making a short film.
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The older videos were testing things, learning and just getting experience, but telling the story was never very important actually. Do you think I should enter DAWN into a film festival that's coming up? And EXPERIMENTAL? I won't be entering EXPERIMENTAL however if I get the film I'm in preproduction of now done(same actor, also contains a narration. In a way EXPERIMENTAL was a build up of practice to this, as that was very unplanned!)

A good story can make great shots, but gun fights can be just as entertaining to other viewers. It's doing what you want to do. Did you not like the ending to EXPERIMENTAL? It made sense to me and my co writer for him to do that so we went with it
 
AdamRael said:
The older videos were testing things, learning and just getting experience, but telling the story was never very important actually. Do you think I should enter DAWN into a film festival that's coming up? And EXPERIMENTAL? I won't be entering EXPERIMENTAL however if I get the film I'm in preproduction of now done(same actor, also contains a narration. In a way EXPERIMENTAL was a build up of practice to this, as that was very unplanned!)

A good story can make great shots, but gun fights can be just as entertaining to other viewers. It's doing what you want to do. Did you not like the ending to EXPERIMENTAL? It made sense to me and my co writer for him to do that so we went with it
Click to expand...

I think DAWN could possibly do well in a few local film festival. EXPERIMENTAL is good but the ending gives me a bad taste (then again it could just be me). It could be looked at as an anti-drug message which I think is a good thing. Was it the first drugs that lead him down to the path where he killed himself? Or was it just the street drugs that really killed him? The idea that he had to take drugs to become a good writer seems dark. I would think there could be another way. Let me know if I am analyzing too much... Also, the narration could be spoken a little slower.

A good mix of entertainment & story is great. I like gunfights. I guess it is all up to what the movie is going to be.

:)
 
eomer41 said:
I think DAWN could possibly do well in a few local film festival. EXPERIMENTAL is good but the ending gives me a bad taste (then again it could just be me). It could be looked at as an anti-drug message which I think is a good thing. Was it the first drugs that lead him down to the path where he killed himself? Or was it just the street drugs that really killed him? The idea that he had to take drugs to become a good writer seems dark. I would think there could be another way. Let me know if I am analyzing too much... Also, the narration could be spoken a little slower.

A good mix of entertainment & story is great. I like gunfights. I guess it is all up to what the movie is going to be.

:)
Click to expand...

You think? I'm considering entering it, but do you find it boring? As in too drawn out?
It was the fact he became dependant on something that caused it. It may have started on a "soft drug"(real life comparison to being weed or such) but then leading to a stronger drug. It does have quite an anti-drug message. It was however quite unplanned, and in a way a build up to the short film doing over christmas(same actor, narration, but completely different story). I'll have my actor more relaxed next time, he had never really done any spoken roles before so I thank him for doing it.

Thanks for that, helped out :)
 
AdamRael said:
You think? I'm considering entering it, but do you find it boring? As in too drawn out?
It was the fact he became dependant on something that caused it. It may have started on a "soft drug"(real life comparison to being weed or such) but then leading to a stronger drug. It does have quite an anti-drug message. It was however quite unplanned, and in a way a build up to the short film doing over christmas(same actor, narration, but completely different story). I'll have my actor more relaxed next time, he had never really done any spoken roles before so I thank him for doing it.

Thanks for that, helped out :)
Click to expand...

DAWN is a little bit long... but the interesting camera angles make it not so boring. The shots where the kid walks by the street looks great but it's a little weird because he ends up finding the dead body in an area that looks like the first part of the movie. To me there could be some minor fixes that would help the overall short film (after watching it again). That is the cool thing with movies, you can watch the work you do and find something not noticed before.
EXPERIMENTAL is a good idea for a movie, it's not too bad for being a bit unplanned. Yet more planning defiantly helps.
 
eomer41 said:
DAWN is a little bit long... but the interesting camera angles make it not so boring. The shots where the kid walks by the street looks great but it's a little weird because he ends up finding the dead body in an area that looks like the first part of the movie. To me there could be some minor fixes that would help the overall short film (after watching it again). That is the cool thing with movies, you can watch the work you do and find something not noticed before.
EXPERIMENTAL is a good idea for a movie, it's not too bad for being a bit unplanned. Yet more planning defiantly helps.
Click to expand...

If I had the original footage I'd love to re-edit it now, considering even re shooting the entire short sometime, improving it all around. I knew others would think that, I tried explaining it by showing him leave out on the road, suggesting he's been walking around the entire empty place for ages, didn't really show though. I did actually rewatch some of my older stuff just last week, from memory they were all awful but spotted some actually good shots in a lot of them, some may even use in my showreel for college.
The next film I'm shooting will be planned, but similar to EXPERIMENTAL in ways, hope to out do EXPERIMENTAL by far with it. I've really only recently got into the "planning" my films, which I regret doing so late
 
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