New To The Film Making World-Effects Guy

[RomanianRacer]

Hey, I'm currently 15 and I guess I would say I have a passion for Film Making, to be specific I like editing together videos and throwing in a bunch of effects in to videos for my friends. I love seeing good produced movies, that have a good plot line, great camera angles and awesome effects all in one. I have a great imagination, I can make up a film in my head and make up all these great camera angles and effects happening in my head. I don't know, it's weird describing it, but I think it's pretty cool.

Now one thing I'm wondering what kind of career would fit in with doing all the editing and effects? How much is the average salary for the position(s)?

So far, I'm just tinkering around with Sony Vegas Pro 8.0 and I just got Adobe CS4 Master Collection(SWEET!), but haven't got the chance to get fully working with it. I'm trying to throw a video together of an action sport, such as Motocross, Skateboarding, BMX, Moto GP, etc. I'm just having a hard time finding good footage. Youtube has a few high quality footage, but most of it is people that record with their low quality cell phones. So is there a place that is known for uploading High Definition Videos?

Thanks for listening and I'm hoping to learn a few things from this place.

-Dave

[CDCosta]

Welcome!

and don't worry about salary; You'll work for free for a while, then make shitty low pay, then once your career takes off you'll make a lot

That's how all of the film industry works.


PS. Vimeo is widely reconized by the indie film community, and is mostly HD video now.

[M1chae1]

Are you more interested in motion graphics, or CG effects?

You can search Vimeo and YT for effects shots until the cows come home. You can also do searches for FX tutorials...there's a good one I just found a link to recently, and I think it was actually posted on these boards...maybe someone else can shoot you that link. But I know if you search YT for Sony Vegas FX Tutorial, you'll find a gaggle of those.

Good luck. Have fun.

[Arasian]

and don't worry about salary; You'll work for free for a while, then make shitty low pay, then once your career takes off you'll make a lot

That's how all of the film industry works.

Worth re-iterating. But when working for free and low pay, you're not throwing away time. You're going to learn a TON working under people who are (hopefully) better than you, and make career and friend connections who are going to get you that high paying gig.


If you're looking to cut together some footage but don't have the footage, then hook up with someone who does. Even if all you're looking for is practice, you're going to
- Build networking with other people who are interested in filmmaking around you.
- Get to work with entirely original footage.
- See what works and what doesn't from somebody who's learning the same as you, and then you can go back and tell them "this shot was awesome, but this other one didn't work" They'll go back and shoot things differently next time, and you can see how your comments affected things. Both you can the shooter can grow together, and you can learn way more than using footage that's been pre-cut.
- Even if you ARE just practicing, you have the opportunity to make something original that you yourself can take to market and put on Vimeo.

Being a post/effects guy myself, I think it's a great field to be in. There are tons of different jobs you can do, everything from being a freelance FX artist to working for a company cutting trailers.

A random and by no means exhaustive list of (visual) post industry fields:
- Editing
- Visual Effects (compositing)
- Visual Effects (CGI & computer animation)
- Systems administration
- On-set supervision (either script supervisor or VFX supervisor)

[Blade_Jones]

Just look on Craig's List under Film / TV and you'll see all of the slave labor jobs (ex- $450 a week). You need to get your foot in the door working at a BIG production company before you actually make a living at it. The whole movie making business has become so fragmented (too many movies being made) that it just drives down production budgets.