Want to start making movies: are you interested?

Action_Man

Action_Man

Hello everyone!

I'm in London at the moment. I think it's a great city to find people who are interested in making movies.

A bit about myself: I'm 25, love movies and acting. I don't have serious experience but I consider myself creative and a person who can act. Also, I love photography and producing music.

I know if you want to make your way into movie industry you need lots of luck, so my goal here is to find people who would like to make movies. Personally, I am a perfectionist (not obsessed) but if I do something - I do it good and I like quality.

I believe this is the right forum section to ask... I really to meet or join someone if you already gathered a group of people and making movies.
Well, I have serious plans about it, maybe even going to set up a Youtube channel in the future. We can discuss all details, just send me a PM please.

If you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them!

Cheers,
Mindis
 
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Hi Mindis-

There are a handful of London filmmakers on here, some of whom will be looking for collaborators.

For my part, I tend to avoid bringing extra bodies on to my sets, mainly because it means that I have to pay extra expenses or fees, and rarely have my productions required more than a skeleton crew. So when I'm thinking about my crew I usually think: me, camera department, sound department, make-up, actors.

Have you thought about doing on-set photography? If that's something you already have an interest in, and presumably some skill at, then it's something that's really in demand. Once you get yourself onto a film set with a role, then that will open a lot of doors for you. If you want to be an actor then that's great, you've just got to get out and start auditioning. But if you want to try your hand at the 'filmmaking' side of things, I'd recommend looking at doing BTS photography.
 
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Hi Nick,

Good point! Never thought about on-set photography! I'll google that!
If I would need to choose, I would choose acting instead of photography. But I love all production life cycle - writing, producing music, voice acting, etc.

You are a pro, so I understand you have quite a lot of expenses. I would work for free (well, 'work' is not appropriate word even - I would enjoy doing that).
Could I get some advice about auditioning please? I know all those main UK auditioning sites but you also need to have subscription, is it worth it and legitimate?

For example, I was going to do some modeling and went to several agencies - and I would say all of them seemed like scam (pay money for your own portfolio and wait for 'a call'), so I said 'No'. How it is with acting auditions? Where is the best place to find it?
 
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I'm not based in london, but when I was first starting out in the industry I went over to the film department at my local community college (wasn't even enrolled) and talked to some people there, they recommended I go to the film club meeting, which led to me participating in a group filmmaking contest literally 3 days later. Met some cool people and learned a lot.

Then I moved to Los Angeles and started working as an extra on film sets which was great because you can learn a lot about how professional film crews work, and all the other extras are people who are interested in acting/filmmaking so it's a great place to network. London has a high demand for "background actors" so you should look into it.
 
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Action_Man said:
Hi Nick,

Good point! Never thought about on-set photography! I'll google that!
If I would need to choose, I would choose acting instead of photography. But I love all production life cycle - writing, producing music, voice acting, etc.

You are a pro, so I understand you have quite a lot of expenses. I would work for free (well, 'work' is not appropriate word even - I would enjoy doing that).
Could I get some advice about auditioning please? I know all those main UK auditioning sites but you also need to have subscription, is it worth it and legitimate?

For example, I was going to do some modeling and went to several agencies - and I would say all of them seemed like scam (pay money for your own portfolio and wait for 'a call'), so I said 'No'. How it is with acting auditions? Where is the best place to find it?
Click to expand...

I'm by no means a pro, but the minimum that people in London expect is a £10 per diem for travel, as well as food and drink. On a ten day shoot that's at least an additional £150 per person, so, unless it's vital crew, I'm unlikely to stretch to it.

Acting in London is both GREAT and TERRIBLE, because there are thousands of opportunities for actors (many, many times more than any other city in the UK and probably Europe) but, at the same time, there are a ridiculous number of actors.

Some actors are signed to agencies, some aren't. Everyone needs to start somewhere and I don't judge people during a casting call on whether they have an agent or not. You need to get on Casting Call Pro and just send out headshots, resumé and covering letter to every applicable casting call every day. If you send 50 a week, you'll probably get 3-5 auditions and, at that point, it's up to your acting skill! Working as an actor in the London film industry is tough and extremely competitive, but some people crack it and the only way to find out if you can do that is to put yourself out there.
 
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I tried to search for auditions but found nothing serious. Probably I need to find more networking meetings. It seems there are lots of people interested in movies but I have a really bad luck. Found some people interested in photography but they were interested not as much as I am.

I wish I could be in Los Angeles! Amazing city I believe...applied for a green card, I have 1 chance out of 10000. Yes! There is a chance! :)
 
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NickClapper said:
I'm by no means a pro, but the minimum that people in London expect is a £10 per diem for travel, as well as food and drink. On a ten day shoot that's at least an additional £150 per person, so, unless it's vital crew, I'm unlikely to stretch to it.

Acting in London is both GREAT and TERRIBLE, because there are thousands of opportunities for actors (many, many times more than any other city in the UK and probably Europe) but, at the same time, there are a ridiculous number of actors.

Some actors are signed to agencies, some aren't. Everyone needs to start somewhere and I don't judge people during a casting call on whether they have an agent or not. You need to get on Casting Call Pro and just send out headshots, resumé and covering letter to every applicable casting call every day. If you send 50 a week, you'll probably get 3-5 auditions and, at that point, it's up to your acting skill! Working as an actor in the London film industry is tough and extremely competitive, but some people crack it and the only way to find out if you can do that is to put yourself out there.
Click to expand...

All London is like this. Winning is much more rewarding but to win is much more difficult. But hey - if you are good at something, there is no need to worry.

Probably to get an agency is really useful but for now I guess it is impossible because I have no experience to show.
I would like to ask about headshots and CV. Do I need a 'super' professional headshot? I have a Canon 6D, so I can do it myself but it it will look really good but not amazing probably.
And what about CV? I have almost nothing relevant to add in there...I am working in IT sphere, so it is useless in entertainment wold. Any suggestions about my CV?
 
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Action_Man said:
All London is like this. Winning is much more rewarding but to win is much more difficult. But hey - if you are good at something, there is no need to worry.

Probably to get an agency is really useful but for now I guess it is impossible because I have no experience to show.
I would like to ask about headshots and CV. Do I need a 'super' professional headshot? I have a Canon 6D, so I can do it myself but it it will look really good but not amazing probably.
And what about CV? I have almost nothing relevant to add in there...I am working in IT sphere, so it is useless in entertainment wold. Any suggestions about my CV?
Click to expand...

Get on a few shoots as an actor and get a showreel together. Or get on a few shoots as a runner to start with and learn which way is up.

If you want to come onto a music vid I'm shooting on the 22nd March in Central London, just PM me and we can chat about it. I'm in that middle ground between pro and amateur (more amateur than pro) where I'm offered little bits of money to shoot stuff but turn it down unless I really like a project.

Frankly, I have the amateur's touch in that I'd prefer to do a quality freebie shoot than a shoot for money which I wouldn't want.

If you want to see the stuff I direct, take a look at this: https://vimeo.com/paulrwalker/review/84971935/ccf932163f - pro quality in an amateur package (although as you can see, there is money in that vid).

So if you want to get your reel going, PM me, come along on the 22nd and we can start somewhere.
 
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My opinion is that if you want to start making movies, start making movies. Just pull up your friends and get the filming. Alot of movie directors started at home..remember that
 
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Gorillaonabike - Thanks , I'll send you a PM in a few minutes! Is a show reel or a short movie better to present yourself? I am not interested in money too, doing that because I'm interested. I don't have much experience in front of video camera but trying to change it.

DaRuler0000 - No offence but this made me smile :) You know perfectly that it is not that simple. Besides, I have 0 friends who are interested in videography or photography as much as I am (maybe except one but he is not in the UK). With photography it is quite a bit different story - you can do a lot even though you are alone but when it comes to making movies...impossible. There must be at least 2 people interested (very interested) in filming. Perfect examples are like Smosh or FreddieW on Youtube. Maybe it sounds like an excuse but oh well, I am not going to do videoblogs you know :) Honestly, I would even abandon my IT career if I would get lucky with my photography/videography path.
 
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gorillaonabike said:
Get on a few shoots as an actor and get a showreel together. Or get on a few shoots as a runner to start with and learn which way is up.

If you want to come onto a music vid I'm shooting on the 22nd March in Central London, just PM me and we can chat about it. I'm in that middle ground between pro and amateur (more amateur than pro) where I'm offered little bits of money to shoot stuff but turn it down unless I really like a project.

Frankly, I have the amateur's touch in that I'd prefer to do a quality freebie shoot than a shoot for money which I wouldn't want.

If you want to see the stuff I direct, take a look at this: https://vimeo.com/paulrwalker/review/84971935/ccf932163f - pro quality in an amateur package (although as you can see, there is money in that vid).

So if you want to get your reel going, PM me, come along on the 22nd and we can start somewhere.
Click to expand...

Did you get my PM? It seems I can't send it. Don't understand.
 
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Action_Man said:
I have 0 friends (in the UK) who are interested in videography or photography
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Time to make some new friends. :)

Not that you need to ditch the old ones, but it sounds like you need to make some friends who share your interest.

Have you looked into joining a meetup? Just did a quick search, there are MANY filmmaking meetup groups in and around London.
 
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Yes, agree, hope to find them soon :)

Yes, I tried that and still try from time to time. By the way, where did you search actually? MeetUp site? Or somewhere else?

I was looking earlier but couldn't find any serious ones, of course - I need just to go and check out but groups I found where with members only and had no events planned.

I know I have a chance, here we have 8 million people at least, haha! :)

Well, the worst thing I can do is stop looking, so I know that I will find somebody at least in 2014.
 
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Action_Man said:
Yes, agree, hope to find them soon :)

Yes, I tried that and still try from time to time. By the way, where did you search actually? MeetUp site? Or somewhere else?

I was looking earlier but couldn't find any serious ones, of course - I need just to go and check out but groups I found where with members only and had no events planned.

I know I have a chance, here we have 8 million people at least, haha! :)

Well, the worst thing I can do is stop looking, so I know that I will find somebody at least in 2014.
Click to expand...

You could always start your own group if you can't find one that's a good fit.. chances are there are other people looking for something similar too.

There used to be a group here that I would attend regularly. The entire purpose of it was to discuss eachothers projects, and help on eachothers projects. Payoff being, I helped you on your film, you'll come help me on mine when the time comes.
 
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Good point too but probably I'll start visiting other groups for now and see how it goes.

Very good thing to do, well, I am getting my camera fixed and I am on my way! Hoping to find something similar.
 
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