I'm in an engineering school and looking for ways to improve my filmmaking skills.
I will propose to the school to help me make a short about Alcohol prevention. Alcohol is an everyday issue on campuses like ours and I think the school will like the idea. I will also try to push it and get some financing (1k would be enough for a lens, a stabilizer, sound and SD cards).
The main problem will be the acting. I was hoping to follow like 3 people during the night (which makes me think that I need to put some thought on the lighting aspect), and show how one really is after drinking too much. I'll be going for funny (drunk people are funny in the way they walk, the way they talk, the way they act) and sad (because when have trouble finding your own home, when you fall on the ground because you can't stand on your feet like an adult, etc, you look kindda pathetic).
But I don't have real actors, so i don't think they can make it look real. So I would need to make them drink before, but when drunk, I don't think I can really direct them anymore and also, i'm not sure a regular person would appreciate the idea of having people watching him drunk).
I'd move onto another project I knew I could do as my first project.
Get any old camera you have available, your cell phone even, get permission to shoot some real intoxicated party goers/friends/what have you, edit it, throw it up on youtube, see how your documentary turns out in the sobriety of day.
Seriously, don't bust your balls on your first shoot.
No sensible person expects Virg to be Don Juan. That's just crazy.
Crawl, pull up, walk along the couch, stumble on peg legs, walk, then run. Skip if you want to.
But don't start out skipping.
That is a terrible terrible terrible idea. I don't know where you live, but here, in Washington state, you could be charged with drunken in public. You really don't want that sort of spotlight...
You'll either have to find somebody who call pull that off, or use who you've got. Or use disorientated camera techniques (jump cuts, breaking a-line, moving dutch angles)
Im not so sure about your budget either.
Do you want to make video look more or less presentable for other than your friends? Than my suggestion is to get cheap SD camera, and spend money on sound instead of lens (i assume you already have camera body then)
I'm in an engineering school and looking for ways to improve my filmmaking skills.
I will propose to the school to help me make a short about Alcohol prevention. Alcohol is an everyday issue on campuses like ours and I think the school will like the idea. I will also try to push it and get some financing (1k would be enough for a lens, a stabilizer, sound and SD cards).
The main problem will be the acting. I was hoping to follow like 3 people during the night (which makes me think that I need to put some thought on the lighting aspect), and show how one really is after drinking too much. I'll be going for funny (drunk people are funny in the way they walk, the way they talk, the way they act) and sad (because when have trouble finding your own home, when you fall on the ground because you can't stand on your feet like an adult, etc, you look kindda pathetic).
But I don't have real actors, so i don't think they can make it look real. So I would need to make them drink before, but when drunk, I don't think I can really direct them anymore and also, i'm not sure a regular person would appreciate the idea of having people watching him drunk).
So how would you got about it ?
1K for a camera + lens + stabilizer + sound and SD cards?
Yeah, I wouldn't get them actually drunk, though a few drinks might help to limber them up. But a drunk actor would be a nightmare unless you're just going to film it as a documentary.
I would find actors with actual drinking experience. I think any actor worth their salt can act drunk. The key is just giving them direction. They should know the different types of drunkness. Like the super happy stage, the just want to dance stage, to the less desirable parts like the loud annoying stage, the "my friends left without me" stage, the "who is this guy and why am I lighting the wrong end of a cigarette" stage.
I think if you break down the acting parts into stages like that, they will know what kind of drunk to be. I think most of it can be ad-libbed, but some fundamental rules and keypoints need to be established in each scene.
Actually thank you everyone, you all helped since I'm just building this up.
To answer theclash , so I already have a T2i, and I'm planning on using it. I just got a 50mm with it so I need some wider angle setup (I think the Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 will do just fine for less than 200$). An H1 for the sound for less than 100$. It leaves plenty on a 1k budget for stabilization (I need to pick one yet) and SD cards and more (like lights, because shooting at night..).
Quote:
get permission to shoot some real intoxicated party goers/friends/what have you
Permission from the said drunk people ? It's not easy, especially when you come to the interesting un-dignifying part.
Anyway, I'm sure there is some people who used to drink a lot and gave that up I just need to find them. Also, I know some heavy drinkers, maybe they will agree to let me follow them and shoot it.
Yesterday, I was with a group of friends and a really drunk girl came in, and she kept saying to another girl she never seen before 'I'm not like this usually. I swear.' That's when I had the idea because obviously, she won't remember much the day after and what I want to do is refresh their minds with more than one or two pictures but actual footage. I need my "actors" to be natural, totally oblivious about the camera, especially when they talk.
These feels like quantum physics : the simple fact of watching it happen and recording it changes everything.
if you have some drinkers who either dont want to, or dont have the ability to act, you could have them as subject matter experts to help your actors. You know, like when they do a martial arts movie and the triple quadruple black belt fighting champion comes to tell the actors how to stand when they punch someone. kind of like that. Plus it might help to get extra perspective.
These feels like quantum physics : the simple fact of watching it happen and recording it changes everything.
Ah yes, Schrödinger's cat.
But seriously, how is this different from everyone else who takes video of their friends being stupid and drunk at parties and throwing it up on the internet so as to embarrass them?
1. They don't know it will end up in the Internet. It's more of a prank.
2. They usually end up talking to the camera where I don't want them to acknowledge it's presence. I don't want the sick guy about to vomit to be telling me : "turn that off, no filming."
3. This time there is gonna be a rigged cam, a mic, probably lights. The cameraman is not talking and is not trying to sneak shots at what's going on.
All of that put aside, if I can find a group of people who volunteers for this, hell yeah, it's gonna be simple !
dready: i think its the type of camera that makes a difference.
if all of the friends hanging out, drinking, and start pucking, if one of the takes his phone camera and records it - that would be funny or whatever.
but if in the middle of the drunken party a group of unknown guy walks in with a tripod, geared up t2i with matte screen, ligh setup and a boom mic to record the party - i d think crowd wont be happy
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