https://www.youtube.com/user/harmonica44
Numerous times, he has posted "tests" (shaky four second videos) asking about things like color temperature.
What are some techno thrillers shot for under $50K
- Thread starter harmonica44
- Start date
https://www.youtube.com/user/harmonica44
Numerous times, he has posted "tests" (shaky four second videos) asking about things like color temperature.
Striving for perfection is a laudable goal but if you had any experience you would realise that it is an unobtainable goal. ALL fimmakers make mistakes, even the very best ones shoot weaker scenes than intended and end up with way less than perfect shots/edits. What separates the best filmmakers from the rest is their ability to minimise the mistakes they make in the first place and their ability to disguise/hide those which reamin. Minimising the mistakes in the first place is down to experienced, skilled planning and disguising the remaining mistakes is down to the director's filmmaking experience and skill. As a beginner, research and asking questions can provide many shortcuts but does little or nothing to develop/enhance the experience part of the equation which is so vital to both planning to avoid mistakes and disguising those which remain. By not attempting to make films and thereby not developing any experience you will never get even half way to your goal of perfection!
As the old saying goes, you cannot run before you can walk. Your problem seems to be that you would rather just sit behind a computer screen, asking questions and making assertions about running because you are too scared to learn to walk!
By making a short, even a bad one, the only reputation you will hurt is your reputation for never having made anything!!! You do not have a filmmaking reputation because you have never made a film (!) and the longer you wait the more difficult it will be as your and other people's expectation of you being able to run increases. Stop prevaricating and making excuses and go and start making some damn films!!!
G
harmonica44, you're spending too much time on IT.
Relax.
You have a script, some gear, some actors/friends.
Make some shorts out of the easier scenes in your script - use your home, wherever.
Make it the best quality you can.
That very process will teach you a lot.
...Keep doing the above and your film making will progressively get better.
Relax.
You have a script, some gear, some actors/friends.
Make some shorts out of the easier scenes in your script - use your home, wherever.
Make it the best quality you can.
That very process will teach you a lot.
...Keep doing the above and your film making will progressively get better.
H!
I just figured out an inexpensive, one location, minimal cast & crew for you to shoot as a action thriller practice short.
Watch this: http://www.shortoftheweek.com/2013/04/19/dont-move/
Then replace the demon monster with one of your terrorist leaders who've stumbled upon a poor and unfortunate dinner party.
Your terrorist antag and his thug-buds force them at gun point to play a little game of "Don't Move!"
Gopherit!
I just figured out an inexpensive, one location, minimal cast & crew for you to shoot as a action thriller practice short.
Watch this: http://www.shortoftheweek.com/2013/04/19/dont-move/
Then replace the demon monster with one of your terrorist leaders who've stumbled upon a poor and unfortunate dinner party.
Your terrorist antag and his thug-buds force them at gun point to play a little game of "Don't Move!"
Gopherit!
All of Bloody Cuts (well, most) are worth watching. Can't wait to have anywhere near the connections they have.
CraigL
I was thinking of making shorts out of a couple of scenes, especially the opening one. However since they are just scenes, they have no story that concludes. Will it be worth making short films, if the plots do not hold together on their own, since they are just small sections of a feature? Or should I do something to wrap things up?
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Do shorts for practice.
You don't gotta bust the bank on any of them.
The practical problem solving experience will go a long way.
You got actors.
You got guns and knives.
You got a house.
No need to spend money on much of anything other than drinks and munchies.
Write it.
Plan it.
Shoot it.
Edit it.
Upload it.
Post it.
H3ll. You could probably get away with two actors and just yourself as DP/director. Maybe go a little crazy and get a monkey to hold a boom mic!
I think this short crew skipped collecting audio entirely: http://www.shortoftheweek.com/2013/04/08/run/
You could shoot something that, right?
You don't gotta bust the bank on any of them.
The practical problem solving experience will go a long way.
You got actors.
You got guns and knives.
You got a house.
No need to spend money on much of anything other than drinks and munchies.
Write it.
Plan it.
Shoot it.
Edit it.
Upload it.
Post it.
H3ll. You could probably get away with two actors and just yourself as DP/director. Maybe go a little crazy and get a monkey to hold a boom mic!
I think this short crew skipped collecting audio entirely: http://www.shortoftheweek.com/2013/04/08/run/
You could shoot something that, right?
Of course, it's fine. It's practice but do it as well as you possibly can - without spending $.
Or you can re-write some of the scenes and give them a beginning and end.
rayw etc has lots of great advice too.
Lots of good options. Just do it.
Shouldn't a scene already be a mini-story? It should have a beginning, a middle and an end.
Take the original Saw short (which you mentioned watching earlier in the thread). Introduced a situation, escalated it, and concluded it. It did not tell every detail of what was happening and why (that's what the feature was for). Take any scene in any given movie...something should happen in that scene, otherwise it's a pretty pointless scene!
Philip K. Dick said something once to the effect that short stories are about events, and novels are about the people the events happen to. I think that can definitely apply to films as well. This is obviously an over-generalization, because I've seen plenty of character study shorts in film and literature, but there's something to be said for not looking at the big picture, just seeing what happens at that moment.
Take the original Saw short (which you mentioned watching earlier in the thread). Introduced a situation, escalated it, and concluded it. It did not tell every detail of what was happening and why (that's what the feature was for). Take any scene in any given movie...something should happen in that scene, otherwise it's a pretty pointless scene!
Philip K. Dick said something once to the effect that short stories are about events, and novels are about the people the events happen to. I think that can definitely apply to films as well. This is obviously an over-generalization, because I've seen plenty of character study shorts in film and literature, but there's something to be said for not looking at the big picture, just seeing what happens at that moment.
Yes!
I often agree with rayw but here I'd argue typically no.
A lot of pro screenwriters leave scenes hanging, to be concluded later.
You want to leave a scene on a high, with a question/query or escalation - not on a conclusion.
The conclusion is made during the end scene.
Many non-pro indie film makers don't use this technique - their scenes tend to drag on, have a lot of expositional dialogue etc.
If every scene was a mini-story (with conclusion), Hollywood movies would be more akin to a bunch of shorts joined together. That's not the case.
A short for entering into festivals should have a conclusion. But obviously a short is often composed of a number of scenes, not just one.
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It depends on how you're looking at it, and I agree that tension must be maintained (and escalated!) in a feature. Say you've got a terrorist plot to blow up the local Taco Bell. You might have something like this:
Scene 1
(beginning) Jack Bauer-alike has cornered one of the terrorists
(middle) JB-a threatens the terrorist to tell him the plot
(end) the terrorist is not impressed and (escalation) the JB-a must resort to torture +/- moral struggle
<cut to some other stuff>
Scene 2
(beginning) JB-a has made the decision to torture the terrorist
(middle) the torture happens!
(end) the terrorist resists! (escalation) oh no! can JB-a continue? Should he continue?
<cut to some other stuff>
Scene 3
(beginning) JB-a decides to soldier on
(middle) more torture!
(end) the terrorist breaks and (escalation) reveals that the bomb is in an ice cream truck
None of those scenes would resolve the plot of the film, but they all resolve the action in the scene itself in some way. You are right in that there's no need to get bogged down in exposition, because you don't need to know the entire story to see the resolution of the action at hand, as it were. Big picture/little picture stuff, and I think if you watch any given movie you could probably break down the scenes in a little picture way.
But that's just one way to look at it!
Scene 1
(beginning) Jack Bauer-alike has cornered one of the terrorists
(middle) JB-a threatens the terrorist to tell him the plot
(end) the terrorist is not impressed and (escalation) the JB-a must resort to torture +/- moral struggle
<cut to some other stuff>
Scene 2
(beginning) JB-a has made the decision to torture the terrorist
(middle) the torture happens!
(end) the terrorist resists! (escalation) oh no! can JB-a continue? Should he continue?
<cut to some other stuff>
Scene 3
(beginning) JB-a decides to soldier on
(middle) more torture!
(end) the terrorist breaks and (escalation) reveals that the bomb is in an ice cream truck
None of those scenes would resolve the plot of the film, but they all resolve the action in the scene itself in some way. You are right in that there's no need to get bogged down in exposition, because you don't need to know the entire story to see the resolution of the action at hand, as it were. Big picture/little picture stuff, and I think if you watch any given movie you could probably break down the scenes in a little picture way.
But that's just one way to look at it!
Okay thanks. As long as I don't have to resolve the plot of the film, and can just resolve the scene, that makes it a lot easier to do something short.
I'm helping out with a feature right now where the producer was able to get cops to block off the street, to shoot a scene completely for free!!! He says he knows the right people. He's lucky.
I'm helping out with a feature right now where the producer was able to get cops to block off the street, to shoot a scene completely for free!!! He says he knows the right people. He's lucky.