/fmg/- Filmmaking General

>What are you working on?
>What have you worked on/what can you show us?
>What stories can you share with us?

Personally, I'm trying to shoot a short over the summer, split into parts to reduce the pressure of finishing an entire piece in one weekend. This way I can take my time on it and shoot over a few weeks.

However, I'm without a camera. I was thinking the GH4, because I've used it before and absolutely loved the features and how everything looked, both stills and video. I'd also love to get a Atomos Assassin for 4K monitoring and uncompressed recording, but goddamn if this shit isn't expensive.

Any of you guys have dream camera/rigs you'd pick up if you had the cash?

Other urls found in this thread:

youtube.com/watch?v=ZdrwseAC9Jw
youtu.be/sGXn3GsE8eU
drive.google.com/open?id=0BwnLo4eiFUKDYWlXNnhGVE9EVk0
youtu.be/9Y6Fhs87iX4
youtube.com/user/filmriot
vimeo.com/147742438
youtube.com/watch?v=9giTWrJTrok
twitter.com/SFWRedditImages

Children's fantasy short with a lot of vfx on a short deadline. Shot on the canon c300 mark 2

I wish canon would step up their game and release some more affordable cameras with 4k etc. It's really lagging behind.

My dream rig would probably be a Red Epic with loads of lenses and rigs for stabilizing. There's a lot of different stuff for other purposes so throw in a professional drone with another RED attached to it. And tgen loads of SSD's and harddrives to store that material on. There's too much stuff out there that is so useful yet so expensive...

In pre-production stage of two massive budget features, AMA except things that can lead to identifying me

>What are you working on?
Trying to finish a short film I'm making in my spare time before we break up for summer, without affecting my exams

>What have you worked on/what can you show us?
I have a couple of shorts but I won't post them because I'm still paranoid of being linked to Sup Forums in 5 years and being blacklisted

>What stories can you share with us?
Just that actors are fucking annoying, it's part of their identity

What's your role?
Did you go to flick school?

>Shot on the canon c300 mark 2
Nice. I shot on a c100 mk2 once, the footage was gorgeous. I've got to admit too, a RED camera would be so amazing. Can't even picture that though, going to keep my eye on more attainable prizes for now.

Very cool, sorry if this would identify you, and if it does you don't have to answer it, but what's your role in the features? How did you get involved?

>without affecting my exams
Good luck with that, I've felt that burn before.

Just kidding, and sorry you have to deal with annoying actors. Most of my friends who act are sketchy about being on camera, which is odd, but they are used to the stage I guess.

>Role
I am a lowly assistant to the assistant to the screenwriter (who will be directing the film) and the producer.

>Did you go to flick school/How did you get involved
I did not go to film school, but I did get a Communication Arts degree, which, while mostly useless, is at least more marketable than a film degree. At least I didn't pay to go.

As for how I got involved, I just fell into an internship and instead of them looking for a new intern for the summer they decided to keep me on the whole time.

By identify I meant more the people I work for, I'm a nobody.

>What are you working on?

Writing a feature film that will have minimal or no dialogue in it. Because it will be financed by me, it will have one or two locations and three to four actors max. It will probably be boring and unfunny as fuck.

Also, jerking off to this samurai short film that Gareth Evans made in 3 days: youtube.com/watch?v=ZdrwseAC9Jw Evans was the only man behind the camera. Didn't need a fancy camera by RED/Arri/Sony/Blackmagic, just a Sony NEX-7.

Just wrote a script for a stop-motion horror short, trying to get hold of a storyboard artist right now

>those swords

But nah, shit that's really cool. Fucking Gareth, everytime
If it makes you feel any better, those actors were either trained swordsman or else he had a god-tier choreographer
Either way, it's not like he just randomly grabbed a camera and some actors and put that together on the spot

As someone who's never made a film before, what are some recommendations for finding people like actors and crew members? Virtually everyone says not to work with your friends (unless you don't care if it's shit). Should I put an ad out?

>flim begins
>black screen
>sound of alarm clock
>cuts to protag waking up in bed
ishygddt

Working on a music video for my friends band, telling a story on 3.5 minutes with no dialogue and writing it around it's soundtrack is turning out to be a difficult thing, but at the same time it's a great learning experience

youtu.be/sGXn3GsE8eU

What do you all think? I usually use plotagon or do stop motion stuff, but I have filmed with real actors but the script wasn't mine so I didn't think if was worth posting anywhere. However, I am currently working as a one man crew on a documentary about teachers. All while I have been writting screenplays and completed 2, with 1 receiving praise from a family member who works in the industry. I also write a short film a week, but they're more like sketches than anything.

Currently experimenting making a short film in a 9:16 aspect ratio.

What ya'll experimenting on lately?

Depends, strangers are unlikely to work for free
How much are yo willing to spend?
Seriously, work with friends and family until you have competence in film-making

>quick cut to brushing teeth
>quick cut to getting dressed
>quick cut to eating breakfast/drinking coffee

I'm having the hardest time starting my new screenplay. I've decided on a funeral for now, but the following scenes feel to exposition heavy. I'm trying to convey the main conflict in the first ten pages, which is proving to be an awkward time for me.

However, to avoid what you're saying, I always imagine the protagonist a few hours after they wake up. What would they be doing that day, that's significantly more important and different than just showing the same images of brushing teeth, showering, and pouring a bowl of generic cereal?

EVERY FUCKING TIME

I actually had a friend who did this recently, it bugged me all to shit but I didn't say anything.

>yfw i'm writing a short where the entire film is just this opening montage repeated ad nauseum until the main character decides to change

>quick cuts
Only if you're lucky

Already talked about what I'm doing (80's Grindhouse-esque short) and I'm sick of posting my recent shorts.

I really want to start up on the screenplay but I can't figure out if my motivations are good enough yet.

It's hard when you want a character to be an ex-cop but all you have are 19-year-olds.

Seen that too.

Stop writing shit you want to make and start writing shit you can make

Anyone ever enter any film festivals? I only ever entered the one that comes to my campus every year, but without fail, the whole pool of nominees that get shown at the finale are always comedies, and always "white college guy does stupid shit on camera".

I don't mind, I understand comedies are popular and crowd-pleasing, but I'm happy I'll never enter these particular festivals ever again.

This, I'd highly recommend this.

If I plan on shooting something, I always keep my budgets and personal limitations in mind. Few locations, one or two actors, zero budget apart from lunch. With that being said, I always have a screenplay I'm working on that I go crazy with, just for fun.

I was at one earlier, a friend helped put it on.

The comedies and dramedies are fun, but it's when it starts going into horror/dark comedy that it starts getting really interesting.

Actually saw a guy from here that put his short up, it was really good.

That's true. I'm just having issues coming up with a good revenge story/excuse for bloody stylish gunfights that sounds relatively plausible.

>he fell for the "only serious films" meme

>19-year-old
>excuse for revenge
>excuse for shooting a bunch of people
>I assume you're all white

Are you kidding me? That shit's as easy as bullying or being rejected by a girl

I've entered two festivals last year. Making those two films were tough and wrecked all of my sparetime and money.

My first short film got a nomination for best script, best director, best actress and won best editing. There were around 50 entrees.

My second film wasn't so good and only got nominated for best editing and sound. There were around 60 film entrees. Both films had a very low budget, around 250 euros.

(don't want to post a link to my films on Sup Forums, sorry) If you have any questions maybe I could answer them,

Working on a feature, going to be about a a broadcasting hijack in 80's Ireland and how a small community was driven mad by it.

which festivals did you enter?
what genre were your films?

Hey guys, I'm writing a feature based on The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters.

Thoughts on a bit of my outline that I quickly put together during science class yesterday?

My short film got into Tromadance festival last year, sent it online but Im a poor yurofag so I couldn't attend. Also got a local screening which was fun.

Pic related

Explain?

I know it's unoriginal but I want to make it look decent and semi-professional.

I'm just bad at inserting comedy into dramas like better writers/directors are capable of smuggling in.

I'm also assblasted because I entered a shitty comedy freshman year, and it was nominated for best picture, only because of a cameo from a well-known figure on campus.

I'm struggling to find a coherent story here
It just seems like almost unconnected events

Name 5.

>That's true. I'm just having issues coming up with a good revenge story/excuse for bloody stylish gunfights that sounds relatively plausible.

Kid's the son of an ex-cop who was gunned down years after retirement. The kid's in the army, fast track for special forces even, but abandons his duties to hunt down the killers.

It might be kinda generic, but now you've got the two conflicts: An external one against the killers where you can utilize bloody gunfights, and an internal one where he eventually feels like he let his father down by leaving the army to pursue vengeance.

Yeah I was just kind of plotting out the scenes, not what happens in them. Whole idea is that Steve Wiebe is a loser with a loving family who gets caught up in this race for the Donkey Kong world record to prove he can win something. Meanwhile Billy Mitchell is a super fucking asshole that cares only about his image. In the end Wiebe will realize that family is more important than victory and Mitchell will be left with an empty victory

Small festivals in France and the Netherlands.
First one was a drama / mystery with only three actors and the second one was a 3D animation

OP here, cool to see the thread took off.

Here's the first episode of the short I'm planning on shooting this summer. I plan on each episode being 3-5 minutes, so that when complete with five episodes, it shouldn't be more than 20 minutes, probably even 15.

There's almost zero dialogue, but I'm looking for opinions on how it works as an introduction to the main character and the general premise of the short. Thanks for anyone who gives it a read!

drive.google.com/open?id=0BwnLo4eiFUKDYWlXNnhGVE9EVk0

fmg bump

Thanks, that could work

guys a quick question.
If I ever wrote a script for a movie, where do I hand it in, or, where do I go to make an offer to sell it. And what should I except (price range wise) if they seem interested.

Still writing that pilot. I also wanna write and direct an indie film along the lines of Larry Clark's Bully.

I'm not sure if it would really relevant though.

What were the names of these festivals? I live between the countries you just mentioned.

I've been meaning to check out Bully for a long time, how would yours be along the lines of that movie?

It's about a group of social outcasts who plan to shoot up a school

Their plan fails of course because this is a low budget indie film.

It's a touchy subject but I want to explore it without being edgy, which might be difficult.

huh? it's about a group of kids who kill a dude, not try to shoot up a school.

I can only make my first film once. It needs to be amazing and groundbreaking. Fug.

make short films until you're ready
no one watches short films except producers, festival-goers and vimeo users

Thanks for making this thread OP, this is one of the best place on Sup Forums

I've spent most of this week scanning through hours of reality footage pulling close ups

I wish I was dead

Started learning After Effects this week and I'm kind of sort of figuring out editing rhythm.

Now I just need halfway decent footage to edit.

>want to make short films
>not interested in directing or writing, just editing and post
>steady job as an assist but don't really know how to break into shorts

I wish I was back at my job, editing the same Trump soundbites over and over again.

At least that paid.

AE is my shit, so great. Finding footage is hard, but it doesn't have to be if you're willing to shoot on a camera phone or something.

I applied online to edit this guy's short. I'm really interested by the premise, but there's at least 50 people ahead of me who are applying for the same position.

Film Already Exists

Sort of related:

What are the greatest debut feature films of all time? I'm talking about feature films that were properly released, so 12 year old backyard shot stuff nobody has seen and practically unreleased student films don't count, unless they're particularly renowned now (same goes for short films: only count if they're very renowned now).

Not worried (atm) about gigs because I've got decent contacts but no one wants to be an assistant forever ya know?

As what?

Don't say Pixels

Scorsese - Mean Streets
Spielberg - The Duel
Cameron - Aliens
Those are the obvious ones in my head. Someone correct me if I'm wrong on any of those

Of course, the greatest debut film
Welles - Citizen Kane

>Cameron - Aliens

You meant Terminator II

No, I meant Aliens since he made that before Terminator 2
But I just looked it up and he made Terminator before that and Piranha 2 before that as his rarely-admitted directorial debut

Sugata Sanshiro - Kurosawa

>The 400 Blows
>Hiroshima, Mon Amour
>Breathless
>Badlands
>Shadows
>Paris Belongs to Us
>Ivan's Childhood
>Knife in the Water

Piranha 2 doesn't really count; he was fired after 2 days and the producer directed the rest of it.

The Terminator is his real debut, and what a debut it is. He never made anything better.

No, what I'm describing is my idea. I'm just saying that it's in the same vein as Bully

What went wrong?

heres a short film i made, it was my first time working with a crew, i was able to get a DP, gaffer, and sound guy for $100 day each, and i really liked the results.

youtu.be/9Y6Fhs87iX4

I'm probably going to use the same crew and do something much more ambitious this summer.

bump

any advice for someone who wants to become a filmmaker? what i should do to get started and stuff?

don't

Search youtube, there are a lot of resources for becoming a filmmaker. Once you've watched a lot of the material on there proceed to disregard it and just google david lynch and copy everything he does.

That should get you started.

>proceed to disregard it and just google david lynch
Kek'd hard

But seriously though try this: youtube.com/user/filmriot

I'm less than two minutes in and I'm pretty interested.

>hella
I'm going to keep watching regardless but fuck all.

the best way to start is to make lil movies on your own, dont worry about what camera to use, or shit like that, just try making a few small projects to learn the basics, have fun...

then once you have a few projects finished, you can start worrying about more technical aspects, and like other people have mentioned theres a lot of info on youtube and the internet.

>The man is in his early 20s, tall, lanky, and his name is MARK.

Traditionally you put the name first, and then the description.

Just read it all.

I'm not entirely sure what it's about, desu. Seems like a random series of events, I don't know where you're going with it.

Your descriptions are okay, but a little too flowery. Take out any unnecessary words, leave just the barebones description. Avoid adverbs whenever possible.

It could be good, but I don't have enough to really judge properly.

Check this out.

vimeo.com/147742438

I'm finishing up my short and I'm gonna try and send that one out. As of lately I'm starting another short for class. I'll post that one on this thread once I have it done.

I meant on the subsequent /fmg/ that occurs once its done.

I think I'm coming up with something finally. Or more specifically, my lack of coming up with something has made me think about revealing shit slowly as time goes on, and starting in media res.

>inb4 "I guess you're wondering how I got here" meme

I want to do it so that it STAYS in the moment. Flashbacks are cheap and don't leave an impact on the audience. I want it to partially have an air of mystery about it, but mostly I want to just toss them into the deep end and see what floats to the top.

I am probably gonna use a freeze frame gag though, primarily because I've wanted to use this Borderlands/Guy Ritchie effect for a while.

Tested it a while ago here.

youtube.com/watch?v=9giTWrJTrok

Glad to hear you're doing some good work, Satan.

And yeah if there's no thread feel free to start one.

I got a short film ready to go for filmming.

Using the props and setting in the first short film I'm working on to redo into something else different.

Aside the short, writing and getting props for a feature. Going to use the props for the feature for another short film I'm thinking about until the feature one is ready go.

Using a T3 rebel, H1 Zoom, most up to date rode mic, and using pinnacle to edit. Basic three point lighting kit and a couple of home depot constructon lights big and small, DIY Crane, DIY Slider, DIY handycam; very cheap. Poor stuff, but it gets the job done. That's about it.

Is there a place where you can offer editing services for free, like just to randos on the internet

That's an odd affair.

not to my knowledge unless you just post a craigslist ad

The problem with this is transferring huge amounts of data frequently.

mandy
stage32
craigslist

filmandtv pro (mandy), sends me emails of unpaid jobs all the time. I'm sure you could find an editing gig, depending on your experience, and what programs you know

Low experience editing, pretty high experience with Avid which I have at home

Well if you're here in town you should be able to find something if you know your way around avid more than the average person.
I'd let you have a crack at this music video I produced if you wanted

Any advice on writing screenplay? How detailed is it suppose to be? Whats the main focus of a screenplay? Do i have to explain every shot or just focus on the story? Is there a template everyone follows or does it not matter as long as the story is good? What do i do once im finished writing it?

>Do i have to explain every shot or just focus on the story?
Write action and some descriptions of character and setting, don't write shots

>Is there a template everyone follows or does it not matter as long as the story is good?
Look up the stand font/margins for a screenplay or get a program like final draft, celtx. For the story itself, it doesn't matter, as long as it's coherent. There are plenty of films that mess with chronological order, fantasy/reality

>What do i do once im finished writing it?
Shoot it?

I suggest reading some books on screenplay writing, save the cat, story,etc

Also read some screenplays of movies you like

Alright, here's a couple tips I've learned that have helped me (beyond "get a screenwriting software like Celtx")

Avoid adverbs like the Plague. They're almost always unnecessary. Keep your script barebones and to the point. Describe what we can see on-screen and absolutely nothing else.

>Describe what we can see on-screen and absolutely nothing else.

This.

Don't read Tarantino or Kubrick scripts as good examples of what to copy. They knew they were going to direct their own work. You almost certainly wont be (unless you fund it yourself).

Any tips on advancing in the writing industry? Im not too keen on making movies so much as id love to work on the stories themselves for movies or a tv show.

Stick to the the hollywood formula, three act structure, stakes, first 15 pages, character arcs, the generic stuff that save that cat teaches you and studio readers will throw in the trash if you deviate an inch from.

Truthfully there isn't a final script writing format, it changes, it changed a few times since 2007, and still is because one studio will do one thing and it spreads like a wildfire to the others.

You can go against these rules if your say, George Miller, George Lucas or James Cameron.

George romero's dawn of the dead was over 750 pages long and written like a novel with characters talking in their head and such.

Spike lee ignores the generic hollywood formula for all his films.

Easy Riders was written on the fly and written on the spot for whatever locations the production crew stopped at.

If you're going to shoot the script yourself, you can write the script any hell way you want. The rules for script and making movies were retarded through the 40s and 60s, some were literally scriptments.

A handful of films that broke the rules then changed hollywood, and prob will happen again.

Anyway, final draft, any version above 7 is fine, everything's preset. Look up what a spec script is. And write a novel first, it'll help your writing skills in the long run, also less is more.

And read; "You're cut is showing" it'll explain to you what shit makes studio readers pissed off in amateur scripts.

Same advice as always. Keep writing. Write a lot, share your work with people who aren't going to suck your dick and say its good. Most importantly of all, enjoy writing. If you don't enjoy it you aren't going to find people to pay you for it.

write three to four screenplays, make'em polished and the best shit you ever written, register them with the WGA and query them to agents, if that doesn't work, try a few contests, and if that doesn't work well, do it all over again because yeah, the industry is unfair but eventually someone will read what you wrote and if you're lucky they might like it and they could be 15 years from now.