watch The Pathway

I made a short film over the course of a couple of weekends. It's my first one and was made with a camcorder. I am well aware of it's faults, but feel free to point them all out. A little bit of criticism never hurt anybody.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EFDRg0XG_0

A young woman escapes to Wyoming to discover more about herself and take control of her destiny... The twenty-three verse poem the wayfarer narrates during this film, was written by myself and Fran. The Pathway is loosely based on my own personal experience of leaving England and coming to Wyoming in 2011.

The Pathway was shot entirely in Wyoming. The equipment used in making this film was very basic, with only a Panasonic HC-X900M, a tripod, a Rode NTG2 microphone and a Tascam DR-100MKII sound recorder being used. Original score composed by my friend Evan using Finale 2011, EWQL Virtual Instruments, and mastered with Logic Pro X and Adobe Audition.

The budget came to thirty gallons of gas and an apple.

Metrostar said:

I made a short film over the course of a couple of weekends. It's my first one and was made with a camcorder. I am well aware of it's faults, but feel free to point them all out. A little bit of criticism never hurt anybody.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EFDRg0XG_0

A young woman escapes to Wyoming to discover more about herself and take control of her destiny... The twenty-three verse poem the wayfarer narrates during this film, was written by myself and Fran. The Pathway is loosely based on my own personal experience of leaving England and coming to Wyoming in 2011.

The Pathway was shot entirely in Wyoming. The equipment used in making this film was very basic, with only a Panasonic HC-X900M, a tripod, a Rode NTG2 microphone and a Tascam DR-100MKII sound recorder being used. Original score composed by my friend Evan using Finale 2011, EWQL Virtual Instruments, and mastered with Logic Pro X and Adobe Audition.

The budget came to thirty gallons of gas and an apple.

Click to expand...

Congratulations on having made a short. Some people make excuses, others get out and do. And I like the concept - I feel inspired to shoot a poem, myself.

On a positive note, there is something a little bit engaging although at five minutes I skipped to the end. Reason I did this is because it was the same over and over again in terms of visual composition. If I were to make just two suggestions, these would be:

- Get the camera off the tripod and move it around
- Kick it up a gear, not keeping the same old stuff.

And more apples...

Thanks for commenting. I agree with you about everything and if I could do it over, I would have at least added a couple of tracking shots and some more close-ups. Truth is, I did do one tracking shot, but I hated it. As soon as I got home and watched it, I knew what I should have done and then I just hated what I had. I also effed up a scene with the girl throwing stones into a lake and didn't have the camera on at a key point and the footage I had just wouldn't stitch together the way I wanted. In my defense, it was effing crazy ass wind by the lake that day and my fingers were frozen.

Another problem I had was I started making it a long time ago and filmed some stuff for the beginning down in Denver that looked pretty awesome, but the girl in those scenes totally baled on me without a word. So I wasted about two months on her. The other thing was it is for a local contest and the submission date was fast approaching. The composer also only had a few days that he could commit to it too, so I needed it done to give to him. Also, a friend of mine convinced me that he could film the opening scenes and I gave him a camera and off he went with the girl. I couldn't use any of the footage he shot. It just didn't work. totally my fault. So yeah, I should have got more tracking shots and closeups and I should have made sure the camera was on at all times and I shouldn't have had the tripod shadow in a scene!!!

Next time, my phrase for getting more close-ups, will be "more apples!"

Congratulations on your short, as gorilla said, getting out there and doing it is the best thing you can do!

Similar to his critique, I also ended up skipping through it after about two minutes, for two reasons. First, as previously mentioned, the shots all looked pretty similar. Second, I got a bit bored with the poem - I can fully appreciate a long poem, (My last album had a 40 verse, ten minute long song) but with the visuals getting a bit stale, my interest in the poem did as well.

Obviously there's some little film making nit picky things - as you move forward you'll learn more about camera angles, color correction, etc. For a first short and a first effort, nice job!

Definitely got out there with this one. Drove a total of 300 miles to get those shots and that doesn't include the 300 miles from Laramie to Denver and back for the unuseable footage I shot, or the 300 miles from Laramie to Denver and back that my friend shot that was also unuseable. Lol.

I cut three verses out of the poem. Lol.

I knew people would find it boring from the get go and that was perfectly ok with me. I am a poet and I have written seven books of poetry and I like different things to a lot of people. Apart from a few small things, and the limitations of my camera equipment, the film turned out just like I wanted it to. I like that kinda thing.

As I stated at the beginning, I am well aware of it's faults and I honestly don't feel hurt by any criticism leveled at it. I wanted to make something. I hadn't really shot anything in almost a year and so this was good to do, just to get out there and do it. I also wanted to enter the contest and I think the film ticks all the right boxes with regard to the contest requirements. I also had problems, that in the end I don't regret, because they forced me to think and think fast. So, even if the film didn't turn out perfect, I still learned a lot of things during the making of it.

Yes, it's boring to 99% of the people, but I can't be the only person in the world like me, right!? Lol.

Metrostar said:

Yes, it's boring to 99% of the people, but I can't be the only person in the world like me, right!? Lol.

Click to expand...

I respect this, because it shows your dedication to making what you want to make. So, props for that.

However, I feel this attitude will doom any future projects you may embark on, if you're aware from the get go that 99 out of 100 people are going to bored by it. If that's the mentality you have making it, you'll be forever doomed to the five comments and a couple hundred views region of Youtube.

Again, I respect that you're happy with the product, and that's good! But in the future, you may want to consider projects that you know will inspire and be enjoyed by more people, especially if you want to become a better filmmaker and enter contests. If not, I think it's going to be a very short lived endeavor, at least in terms of progress.

Hi again, well, I suppose I should have been more specific and also, I was being lighthearted at the same time. "Lol".

I have ONLY been commenting on this one particular film. All I have said is not my general attitude toward all of my filmmaking endeavors.

I am just finishing up a feature-length drama that I made to appeal to a wider audience, even though, drama isn't something many no-budget filmmakers go for these days. At least in my experience.

I am currently developing a Caveman movie, A serial killer movie and a sit-com pilot along the lines of an updated 'Cheer's. I hope that these projects appeal to the 99%, as apposed to the 1% of the audience that The Pathway is reaching out to.

I hope that clears things up!

I think you're approach is more than valid. Nothing wrong with a vanity project to please yourself more than everyone else now and then. Though, rayw has posted some interesting analysis before than drama (and maybe indie drama specifically) tends to be a pretty hard sell - so if you're aiming for mass appeal, I suppose stay away from that. Personally I still write some drama, but I've not really written anything with the aim of appealing to the masses quite yet.

Thanks. This was a combination of vanity and appealing to a specific contest and apart from the previously mentioned things, I did what I wanted and ticked the right boxes. I am okay with it.

I am aiming for mass appeal with what I have in development. I totally want to exploit myself, the industry and the audience. I am wise to the game..!