Im gonna film a shortfilm fairly soon. Im a noob at filmmaking, so are there any good tips Sup Forums has?

Im gonna film a shortfilm fairly soon. Im a noob at filmmaking, so are there any good tips Sup Forums has?

Thanks lads.

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youtube.com/watch?v=zo0nrVNvB80
youtube.com/watch?v=Ozp5lNLAaPo
youtube.com/watch?v=TjpSLsuUT9k
youtube.com/watch?v=IP8psM4LWXk
youtube.com/watch?v=Ko3sTimJp2k
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film a killing, or perhaps a great war. film your parents making love. film nature when the leaves are falling on top of your parents making love. film god.

trips have spoken

Good audio and video quality Will Make sure the First frame despite story and camera work isnt an immediate turn off for everybody also check out film riot on YouTube they Have lots of good videos on film making

Gee whiz! Filming a war! Can't wait
>dies

But on a serious note, I was gonna film a battle with my buddies. I plan on having at least 2 killing scenes. Any good way to really make the audience feel sympathy or feel a connection?

Also, congrats on trips.

Alright, cool. I plan on having an action packed beginning to hopefully catch the audience and have them hooked.

For action packed begining, watch some Michel Bay movies, and download lots of greensreen explosions.

>Slower is better. When doing panning shots try to go as slow as possible, as you can speed up shots better than slowing them down.
>You don't need fancy equipment, get a tripod and a rubber band and a camera mount, use the rubber band to make panning shots smoother
>Retract a leg on your tripod for zooming shots instead of physically using the zoom
>Always use external mics, they help a ton and don't break the bank, what's worse than everyone speaking loudly so they can be heard on your camera's internal mic?
>if you're using a phone don't do wide panning shots unless it's time lapse. The small size, aperture, and sensor don't make far away shots look good, keep it close, keep it personal
>Make sure your actors know exactly what you want and keep reshooting until they do it until they are comfortable in front of the camera. Make sure they don't look over-rehearsed and stiff, they need to act natural
>night car shots are always cool as they provide a very intimate location, but they are tricky. Place the camera on the hood where the actor or actors are visible in the center of the frame. Use lots of diffused light, and if you can't hide out the background by using a shallow depth of field use "rain". Just get a hose and spray the car down on the sprinkle setting while filming. Just cover the camera up and spray the back part of the car.

youtube.com/watch?v=zo0nrVNvB80

youtube.com/watch?v=Ozp5lNLAaPo

Thanks for the great advice, I will use it.

you should film it in a way so that the scene is entirely gray, and make sure all the penises are exposed and nude.

I hope your friends know how to act. Even if they don't, have them study successful movies and the scenes that are similar to your movies.

If you want your audience to connect with the actors, than they need to be make it easy so you can relate to them. Give a backstory, show that they are human.

Here's a good example of why action scenes are a bad idea.

youtube.com/watch?v=TjpSLsuUT9k

Cinematography can cover for good acting. You don't even need to have your actors speak.
Watch this, study it. Less is more. People feel emotion through what they see more than what they hear.

youtube.com/watch?v=IP8psM4LWXk

no problem

Forgot to add, wardrobe is very important for what you are going for. Dress them according to their body type and role.

>I'm a freelance photographer and videographer that specializes in vintage equipment without a huge budget

Awesome, thanks for the links. I don't plan on having the entire film action, that'd be quite boring with my experience. Lol

But I do plan on however having a character helping their enemy instead of killing. Some cute shit like that. I hope to get good WW2 reproduction uniforms and or lookalikes for the characters.

Forgot to mention, there won;t be a whole lot of speaking parts. Mostly just mumble jumble in the background.

Are your actors fit enough to look the part?

When it comes to time piece films, makeup, wardrobe, and setting in imperative. Without a large budget you cannot really do any city shots, vehicle shots, or any shots with modern technology in them. Because you can't afford to build a large scale set, you'd need to probably film it out in the sticks without much in terms of artificial set.

youtube.com/watch?v=Ko3sTimJp2k

See this. The film takes place in an isolated location with few props, and still manages to get the message across.

youtube.com/watch?v=Ko3sTimJp2k

Just use makeup and dirt to your advantage. If they look too clean, it won't feel like they are dirty, tired, and worn out from war.

Aye, they are. We are actually filming in the woods unironically, and plan on doing it in the early spring.

Aye, the uniforms will definitely be dirty for sure. This isn't gonna be a fashion show.

Also, would you mind going over my scene layout idea for now? I came up with it a week ago, so editing will still be a huge thing to do with this.

Yeah, post it up.

Don't rely too heavily on editing. Try to get most of it worked out in filming.

Remember the 180 rule, use DOF as much as possible, keep in mind the editor's thoughts as you shoot, use more close-ups than you think you need, film much more shots than you'll use in the final edit, always think about lighting before shoots (it's what usually separates amateur and professional looks), boom mics will usually be better than lav mics in action, cuts look more seemless while the footage is in motion, don't slack on story-boarding, don't be afraid to do many takes of the same shot if you aren't satisfied, and make backstories for characters even if its not going to be in the film, and make the actors read it to get them to feel more like the character. And don't forget character progression! People need to stay interested in your main character(s).

i additionally recommend that you film jesus reincarnating, and make sure to grab his penis in one of the scenes. touch his penis with profound skill.

It's really long for some, lemme know if it was TLDR. I could shorten it up

Two characters - Friedhelm Dieter and Aleksander Petekrov
(Will add more if more people are involved)
Spring time, muddy, snow still melting(?)

Movie starts out black, flashing a clip of Friedhelm sprinting his ass off, panting
another black screen, silent.
Shows clip again, friedhelm still runing, panting, this time with bullets zipping past his head and dirt and trees exploding (from bullet impact)
German shouting in back, hopefully gonna have two other germans run after
Friedhelm stumbling to cover, (got shot in calf) still being chased. has a good advantage of distance
(not offically sure, but this is an idea) He'd be looking back, falling into a hole, KO'ing himself out
scene cuts to black

Fried in an awkward position, wakes from his KO
Indistinct Russian chatter in back, he doesnt move
Camera set on his eyes, face all muddy (planning to bring out the eyes to show fear)
(not sure to do from here, but i'll jsut improv)
Russian chatter grows louder, as russian is right by hole
doesnt notice fried because hes so fucking dirty
(might ditch this idea below this)
Planning to pan camera up, showing where fried is in the hole and showing russians how close they are
(gonna try to make hole not so obvious)
The chatter grows quieter, patrol formation.
(not sure what fried should do to get noticed, lmk)

Part 1

russian notices him, walks towards area.
mosin raised, scanning the area. notices something else, says a command at it in a normal voice
fried freezes, thinking its him
some partisan comes out, begging for mercy
russian tells him to fuck off, he runs
walks away
sigh of relif from fried
russian walks back, finnaly finding him
rifle raised, camera set looking at barrel

(VER 1)
Camera turns to black as gunshot is sounded.
Fades into the russians face, mouth in blood as he dropped mosin and stumbles over
Gud friend of fried, maybe Hans
Russian squad heard it, gunfire towards their war
Hans helps Fried out, dragging him to cover
Fried maybe has rifle, fight off

They both attempt to escape, fried supporting himself on hans
just as before they get to cover, fried stumbles
hans pulls him back up, just as you see a big splash of blood from hans' chest
frieds face shows absolute terror

Hans crumbles over fried, russians charge at him.
Fried is dragged across, being beaten with buttstock by ruski fag
camera will be fried in 1st person, he'd glare over seeing Hans' corpse being beaten up
face turns to ruski, buttstock slams on his face, black screen.

Part 2

(fried will be going in and out of consiousness; ik i spelt that wrong)
being dragged by ruski, being spat on and taunted
-insert multiple fade in and outs-
new location, makeshift village or HQ
Russian HR
fried thrown on ground, near HR's boots
fried turns on his back, moaning with dried blood on his teeth and general face/neck area
pan up to show HR's disgusted face, holding gloves in his hand.
Tells him to get up in russian, he tries and crumbles to floor
HR frustrated, yells for soldiers to get in
pulls him up, escorting him outside
woods
fried alone, hr in middle by two soldiers
HR unbuckles holster as fried is on his knees and hands in mud
Fried begins sobbing beging mercy
Russian tells him to be silent, (twice) second time firing in front of him
Russian tells fried to run, frieds face confused
Fried runs, shots being fired. Has quite the noticable limp.
escapes into the woods, alive but barley
only has the clothes on his back and a belt

long story short, hes in survival, found by a russian
russian raises rifle, doesnt fire until confirmed fried has surrendered
russian kneels down with him, aids him
gives him some water and bread, overall helping him.

Thats all I have. Any good ending ideas?

Oh, I almost forgot. Definitely color grade the footage.

Okay, good good. I was gonna do the color grade thing, just found out about it recently.

I don't have any mics, besides the shitty internal mic on my cam corder. Are boom mics or those clip on ones better in most cases?

I have been bashed so much in 2 film classes to NEVER use internal mics. If you're going to use an internal mic, it would even be better to use a phone as a mic.

Okay thanks

Phones do have quite a decent mic. Also with those earbuds that have the mic. I would try to hide it somehow, haha.

storyboard everything, maybe make a lo-res animated version using the storyboards, go take pictures of every shot in advance, have a plan for lighting for every shot, DO NOT get to the set without planning everything in advance

After part one when he notices the other soldier, make them seem more human.
>Russians think fight is over
>Russians joking in russian
>Russian asks other russian for a cigarette. The other russian digs for his cigarette box, and drops his compass in the process
>Russian gives other Russian cigarette.
>goes for piss break
>notices foot print in the snow/mud
>raises rifle and tracks the blood trail
>mosin raised, scanning the area. notices something else, says a command at it in a normal voice
>fried freezes, thinking its him
some partisan comes out, begging for mercy
russian tells him to fuck off, he runs
>Russian walks away
>sigh of relif from fried.
>Fried pulls out picture of girlfriend back home, and holds it in front of him, tears roll from face reminiscing of home
>Russian walks back after noticing he doesn't have his compass
>Goes back, hears Fried sobbing
>rifle raised, camera pans from Fried's sobbing face to the barrel of the gun

That sounds amazing, oh my gosh.

Definitely gonna add that in. Thanks a shitton

By the way, I forgot to add in the layout but when he was getting shot at, I initially was gonna use the people as Germans, and have russians come in later (since Fried was KO'd) due to the gunshots or just patrolling.

You have to humanize them
>People make mistakes all of the time
>Russian made the mistake of dropping the compass
>People love to joke to raise morale, Russians joking shows they aren't purely evil killing machines
>Everybody pees, the pissing scene would be the semi comedic relief in the intense scene
>Partizans not covering their tracks show they made a mistake
>Partizans let go show Russian know mercy
>Fried crying holding a picture of his girlfriend shows his fear, and that he has a life back home
>Show the sobbing face then the gun to show the start contrast. A soldier lying down, crying and in his face is the barrel of a rifle.

I can't believe I didn't say this earlier. Storyboards are important!

lol, the nationalities were hard to follow. All I got was

>Russians shooting at German(Fried)
>Germans running with Fried away from the gunfire
>Fried gets hit and takes cover
>other Germans take cover
>Russian soldiers stop shooting thinking it's over
>Russian accidentally finds other Germans
>Germans let go
>Russians Find Fried
>Russian shot by Hans(who was hiding nearby?)
>Russians not close enough to immediately engage Hans, Hans rescues Fried while taking fire from a distance from the Russians
>Hans's chest explodes
>Fried beaten
>Fried let go
>

Oh yeah, another addition would be to give the last Russian who was supposed to execute him a reason to let him go.

>Russian ordered to execute him is a low rank
>Fried tries to talk to Russian, but Fried's hands are tied in front of him and they don't speak the same language
>Russian firmly shoves Fried to the ground
>Picture of girlfriend falls out of Fried's pocket
>Fried looks up at the russian
>Russian grabs the picture, Fried looks at >Russian with anger and hatred in his eyes
>Russian pulls bayonet from mosin and cuts Fried's hands free
>Places the picture in Fried's jacket and motions for him to run
>Russian turns around and gets cigarette
>Close up of Russian smoking, shaking his head
>shallow depth of field
>you see Fried running away in the distance

Ahh, I understand. I did write it quite sloppily, so let me go in depth.

Fried is suppose to be a deserter, hating this war so he runs away from his company. An officer follows him companioned by two soldiers

>Fried deserting, punishable by death (Making it around when Germany was losing, so more of this was common)
>german soldiers and officer begin shooting at him, attempting to stop him
>fried gets hit by a bullet, getting to cover
>fried falls into hole, germans look around not finding him

>Russians come later after gunfire was sounded
>Germans gone (Unsure how I should introduce Hans)
>russians in area, taking a break
>russian finds him
>Hans shoot russian, grabbing hans
>Russians not close enough to immediately engage Hans, Hans rescues Fried while taking fire from a distance from the Russians\
>Hans shot, chest explodes
>fried beaten

I like the idea. I was thinking about adding something like

>Fried gone
>Russian fires mosin to make HR think he did the task

Use plenty of lube and go slowly.

oooohhhhh
It's going to be hard having the Russians and Germans in such close proximity in such a short amount of time

So maybe have it so that
>Fried falls into hole to hide from Germans
>Waits long enough that Germans leave
>Fried props self up against a tree, or a rock
>Looks at girlfriend picture starts crying
>Fried looks at his leg and realizes he won't make it far without patching it up
>Fried passes out with picture in hand
>black screen
>hear footsteps, Russians laughing in background
>Fried wakes up to the sound
>Fried sits as still as possible hoping he won't get noticed
>Russians are walking near him, but on other side of tree
>Russians don't see Fried until one goes for a piss break
>Russian decides to piss on tree
>Russian sees foot poking out from the other side of tree
>Fried doesn't know he's seen
>He clenches the picture of his girlfriend tightly and starts sobbing as he hears how close the Russian is
>Russian grabs Rifle and creeps around tree
>Cut to Fried crying and the Russian with his rifle in his face
>Russian looks over about to yell to his comrades
>Hans shoots Russian
>Russians in the distance take cover and start firing in that direction
>Hans has enough time to rescue Fried

I would also avoid chest explosions. Just make it so that when Hans is shot, Hans stops, Fried limps foward a few footsteps looks at Fried in the eyes, and he smiles with blood pouring from his mouth, zoom out to show blood coming from his chest. Hans drops to the ground with his hand outreached to Fried.

oops
>Fried limps forward a few footsteps. Hans looks at Fried in the eyes

This is way better than my original. These are great ideas and will definitely add them in.

>tfw I only have 1 friend on board for acting, and I need at least 4 others

Hans' death is way more interesting with they way you put it. I was thinking Fried might freeze for a second, limping back towards Hans as afterall, they were good friends. I have an idea for that.

>Hans collapses
>Fried frozen for a few, stumbles towards Hans
>Maybe have Fried start tugging on Hans corpse, attempting to get him to safety
>Hans mumbles something, maybe "go"
>Hans eyes stop moving, body goes limp
>Fried begins screaming in anger, grabbing rifle
>Trying to get revenge
>Russians get him after he's fired the 3 bullets left
>beating

Forgot to add.

>fried turns hans so hes laying on back
>sees dark spot on chest
>maybe Fried would fidget, atmepting to get his field dressings out, it flying out of his hand as he fidgets with it
>hans says go

Sounds great

After Hans rescues Fried, should he quickly explain why he was out in the woods even though the Germans had left?

>He clenches the picture of his girlfriend tightly and starts sobbing as he hears how close the Russian is
>Russian grabs Rifle and creeps around tree
>Cut to Fried crying and the Russian with his rifle in his face
>Russian looks over about to yell to his comrades
>Hans shoots Russian
>Russians in the distance take cover and start firing in that direction
>Hans explains that he left his unit when he'd heard that Fried ran
>Fried looks at Hans with tears in his eyes
>Hans tells Fried not to be so sentimental
>Hans has enough time to rescue Fried
>They run off under heavy fire

It's hard when you don't have anyone to brainstorm with. Especially on an indie film.

If you have to, hire people from the internet or use facebook groups for aspiring actors to get some people. Also try to befriend some people in media production class and drama if you're in college.

Im gonna be honest, Im a faggy middle schooler.
>inb4 underage ban

I wont do the film for maybe another year or so, I want everything to be perfectly (or as best as it can be) planned and ready. Also, to give me more time to find actors, props, etc.

I really like the idea, maybe when they are both running off Hans would explain that?

Now, to be serious about this. If yer not comfortable, I get it. I wouldn't trust myself either, kek.

This board might 404 soon-ish, so I was wondering if there was any way I could contact you further more than Sup Forums. Possibly email, FB, etc. If you're down, I'll give you my email. Im gonna give you 5 minutes, then I'll delete it.

It's just you have such great ideas I'd love it if you could help you, that is, if you're wanting. Thanks lad.

Don't post identity. Just post back on Sup Forums when you need something. I'm lurking every day around noon.

Cool, thanks for lettin me know. Noon what time? CST? EST?

My signature will be "N"