• Wondering which camera, gear, computer, or software to buy? Ask in our Gear Guide.

Help on a two character film

Deri

Deri

I am working on a screenplay that am sure I will produce and direct myself.
Its about a guy who has been having a blind date on the internet and the movie starts when he is going out to meet his date. However, his car breaks down and has to hitch hike. He finds himself being helped by a cute high class girl who ends up falling in love with him at the end of the road.

Thats the rough idea. Entirely two characters and 90% of the movie is on the road.

Only problem is, I am not quite sure whether this is going to be quite expensive and challenging to shoot.

I just need anything that will help coz for now, the only thing that I am sure about is the Script. The rest of the process appears vague in my mind because I have never done such a Movie before.

It sounds dumb but please just help. Thanks.
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
A little help to the basics.

Basic tasks independent from any questions
- Which camera?
- Which sound equipment?
- Which editing software?

Tasks based on questions
- Camera with interchangeable lenses?
--- Yes: which lens(es)?
--- No: okay.

- There are low light scenes?
--- Yes: think about a fast lens and light equipment.
--- No: okay.

- It is a film with a lot of camera motion?
--- Yes: depending on the camera, think about stabilization equipments.
--- No: Okay, a good tripod will be fine.

- There are locations that can complicate the audio recording, like windy places, echo/reverb, noisy?
--- Yes: think very much if your audio equipment is prepared for it.
--- No: still think about.

Well, I think with this basic questions you can start to have an idea about your short film. Once you get this answers, probably the complicated issues will come naturally.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I think you're going to have to do a lot to engage the viewers if 90% of the film is inside of car.

I havent seen it but Buried had something like 90% of the film inside a coffin. I'm not sure how they did it, but that being said buried in a confirm presents a few more possibilities than a romantic car trip. If I'm understanding your story correctly?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
One of my mantras is K.I.S.S. - Keep It Simple Stupid.

As raw beginner everything will be brand new to you, so KISS becomes mandatory. Avoid shooting in a moving car as much as possible; it complicates things enormously both sonically and visually, plus having to attend to the safety of your actors.

Since it's a road film you do not have to shoot everything in the car. You can make stops for food, fuel, etc. and meet interesting characters along the way. More germane to your question, however, is it allows for more locations and the opportunity for the characters to converse outside of the car or in the stopped car.

Writing is not my thing, but those are my suggestions.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I like the idea, but as mile creations said, you are really going to struggle keeping an audience engaged for that long, there have been a couple of films lately that have had the majority of the film set in one place, e.g. 127 hours and buried, I havent seen buried, however 127 hours was amazing and really engaging. If you made it so the character has to get a long way and it turns out the girl is going the same place then you have more to work with, i also i think if your not careful you will end up writing something along the lines of planes trains and automobiles, or road trip or any other slapstick/teen comedy that involves travelling. this of course depends on what vision you had in your head, from what you have written i imagined a classic love story with some sort of depressing/harrowing end/twist?(that might just be my depressing nature haha) but you may be aiming more towards comedy!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
If you're shooting mostly in the car I'd probably go for a camera with a wide angle lens. Alcove also seems right when talking about how difficult it is to shoot in a moving car. A friend of mine just made a film that had a moving car scene. He wound up filming their conversation from the backseat. Not really all that exciting if you cant see their faces if you ask me. Having a wide angle would help with getting dashboard shots for dialog scenes while driving.
It's hard though to get a good understanding of the film without having more detail on the story. Two hours is a pretty long time when I think about a girl giving a dude a ride to his blind date. Can you give us more of an idea as to what happens to them on the road?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top