/fmg/ - Filmmaking General

What're you working on? Why?
What movie would you consider mandatory viewing for an aspiring director?

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Breaking Bad
They have sick "looking up" shots in things like water dispensers and methe machimes.

>They have sick "looking up" shots in things like water dispensers and methe machimes.
Huh?

How do you get ready to write a movie? Do you watch movies similar to what you intend to write? Or do you deliberately steer clear?
I'm trying to a movie about someone who finds their supposed dream world/job, but things aren't really as they seem. Do any of you know any movies like that?

Film student at the University of Georgia here. Just started a year-long internship at a production company. Get paid $550 a month to learn the ropes of production (both for live and non-live video/audio/etc) and I'm also writing a screenplay.

As for mandatory viewing for an aspiring director, it really depends on genre, interests, and personal style. A word of advice: find a director you like a lot, copy what they do well, fix what they do wrong, and invent something they don't do at all.

>What movie would you consider mandatory viewing for an aspiring director?
Look for something you like. find more like it.
its as easy as that.

>What're you working on?
Mostly interning. Have one internship at a local film studio and another that does event based stuff. I do have a script I am working on.

I watch movies and listen to music that helps me get into the right mindset of the movie. Anything to create the mood I need. Not necessarily movies in the same genre or with similar stories, but with general feelings I want to evoke.

I think he means POV shots from inanimate objects like drains, faucets, water dispensers methe machimes, etc.

>invent something they don't do at all.
Like what? Everything's been done before.
As an example, I really like David Lynch, Hideaki Anno, and Wes Anderson.
John Carpenter and Michael Manhunter too, but I feel like I haven't seen enough of their movies.

I hate that kind of shit.

I'm saving to buy equipment to make the film look and sound decent. Any recomendations about microphones brands?

Yeah, he was joking I think.

That's interesting. How do you evoke a similar feeling, in a movie that isn't at all similar?
The movie I was referring to that I want to make, I want it to be similar to older Disney films and Les Miserables.

Hopefully.

Audio is my biggest fear in regards to filmmaking.
I have no experience whatsoever, but recording seems like the easiest thing to fuck up.
What am I supposed to even do? Just hang the mic over the actors? Then what?
Audio can make or break a movie. Good audio is everything.

What camera do you plan on getting though?

You really like David Lynch then you ought to watch: Laura (1944), Kiss Me Deadly, Shock Corridor, The Fugitive Kind. You really like Wes Anderson watch Metropolitan.

No one you mentioned is a complete 'original' they added maybe one thing to a progression of things. Don't see why you can't do that too.

Thanks for the recommendations, but I don't really have anything else to add.
I like big asses. I want to cast women with big asses in my movies, but other than that I've got nothing.

Ok then my advice is forget about movies because it's just a vehicle of sin for you.

>tfw no aspiring director friend to cast me in his indie movie that makes it to Cannes and jumpstarts both our careers

I reccomend watching directors "break out" films, they are often limited in scale and budget so they had to be extraordinary to make an impact.

Duel is a fantastic example of what you can do with a limited time and budget. Blood Simple and Memento both play with narrative structure. A Fistful of Dollars employed minimalist dialogue to overcome language barriers. The first Saw film used one location for the majority of the film.

>tfw when no friends
>tfw when no one to even talk to about movies, let alone try to produce them

send me a head shot

You should learn how to frame shots properly and how to stabilize them so that they don't look like they were shot by someone's drunk epileptic retarded cousin.

Watch a few silent film classics like Thief of Bagdad to see how directors set things up back when they couldn't just use dialogue to paper over things. Watch the 5-hour cut of Napoleon with the triptych scenes at the end. That sort of thing.

Good films for thinking about how to frame shots and create strong moods - Woman in the Dunes (1964), Persona (1966), Barry Lyndon (1975), L'Avventura (1960), Raise the Red Lantern (1991), Andrei Rublev (1966), the battle sequences in War and Peace (1968), Stagecoach (1939), The Leopard (1963), The Double Life of Veronique (1991), and Diary of a Country Priest (1951).

There are plenty of others, but that's a good kinosnob starter pack.

>it's just a vehicle of sin for you.
Trust me, it's not. I probably shouldn't have said that.
Most of the movie ideas I have there isn't even room for women with big asses.
They're all almost about depressed kids with anti-authority themes.

Where do you live? I plan to submit to Tribeca.

me too.

Dredd see how high quality the movie is
Then realise it doesnt have the sex appeal romance factor of a marvel movie.

after assisting for 5 months, my production company is letting me cut casting reels this week. they're fairly simple since they don't need sound design and you don't have to hide jump cuts. still it seems like decent enough storytelling practice, or at least for character work.

John carpenter is awesome
David lynch is over rated

>What movie would you consider mandatory viewing for an aspiring director?

Black Sunday by Mario Bava or really any Bava horror film, you can learn so much about visual storytelling and economy in his films. the man does more with a zoom lens than any MTV editing will get you.

youtube.com/watch?v=sJGwzAGX0OM

I like this channel a lot, pretty cool to see a pro editor at work

I didn't like Eraserhead.
But Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet were great.
I haven't seen much Carpenter because I dislike horror.

As a "young" director, in high school, what route should I go? Film school? No film school? Advice would be perfect, trying to soak in as much film knowledge as possible.

i just worked a show with the shittiest audio management i've ever seen. we ran 3 mixers for 7 people across 9 cameras with no audio reports, and no track consistency whatsoever. there was also 7 LAVs running but they basically stopped recording at random.

>anti-authority themes
...sin

editing rhythm, fuck it's hard to learn

You're just scaring me more, user.
I don't have a crew and I have no idea what I'm doing.

C'mon

You cannot really do audio on your own if you're interested in making a professional looking film.

You need to hire a prod. sound mixer for a good 400-700 a day and you will probably need to rent additional equipment depending on what you need (they can help you to figure that out).

If you cannot do that, then I recommend you write shorts with little to no dialogue.

There isnt really one I would say. That would be retarded. You need to see what is bad before you know what is good. You need to see whats old to see whats new. You need to see what is standard before you can see what revolutionized.

Theres to much for you to see already so try to watch something from every era. From every genre, Every country, every doctrine, every wave.

So ye. Just watch. Also go out and experience life and read alot.


Anyways latest thing I did directing wise.

youtube.com/watch?v=vgc1WXS21Vc

Im going vacay mode. Just gotta finish this fashion film for vogue (edit)

Don't listen to this nigga, professional sounding ADR is easy as shit to do with a little know how. As long as you have good ref audio and a good mic, you're all set

Same for foley, but thats admittedly harder

Blue Ruin.

Are you really recommending ADR for an extremely low budget film? You're insane. Show me an example of professional ADR with little know how.

I can't even find a job.

Do you have a guide and some recommendations?

Putting together a few audio comedies for myself before I work on my first feature film. Sound has been a major issue in the past so I want to tackle it head on and really understand what I'm doing before I commit to the feature.

Mandatory viewing is whatever you want it to be. Make what you want to see and chances are other people want to see it too.

What the hell do you think ADR is? It's not magic.
It's just having your actors come in and dub over lines. That's literally it. Better sound designers/mixers will be able to play with the shots and new recorded tracks (often increasing pitch for example) to match better but that doesn't necessarily mean that a low budget film cannot use ADR successfully.

Here's an example of what can be achieved with a low budget. youtube.com/watch?v=SMbQzU80E7g

Again, it's not fucking magic.

>Accurate dubbing isn't difficult

okay kid

Around 13 minutes (where I skipped to) is it supposed to be intentionally bad ADR? Like are they going for a subversive effect?
Or are you HIGHLY unintelligent and think that's an acceptable level of quality for their ADR? I could never get immersed in this trash. Unless they are going for Tim and Eric surrealness. 13:21 is particularly hilarious.

...dude this is why you don't do ADR in a low budget film, or you avoid it at all costs at least. Like another user pointed out, that conversation 13 minutes in is insane. Audio doesn't really seem balanced between the two characters. You can tell that the guys who made this SORT OF knew what to try and do. It didn't exactly work out but you cannot recommend ADR use for someone who is very inexperienced.

I find watching movies, even those totally unrelated to my script, tend to help me get ideas/solve plot problems in unexpected ways. I never stop watching movies when I'm writing...I've found if I go a stretch without seeing anything my writing gets a bit fatigued.

If your parents are paying for college and you won't go into a lot of student loan debt, film school is good. You'll get some experience with legit equipment and expand your knowledge of film. But if you're not as well off, you're better off making your own movies and writing and watching films religiously and not going into a ridiculous amount of debt in the process.

The thing about film school is, it's not gonna make or break your career. Enough people go to film school and never do anything.

So you just watch anything?

So then how do you do audio for a low budget film?

Pretty much. Of course, if I'm really feeling a project I'll gravitate toward stuff that's similar. If I'm writing a film noir I won't necessarily be in the mood for Bloody Moon.

It's surprising how many ideas you can get from the most unexpected places, though. Maybe it's something about seeing somebody else tell a story for a while that helps, I dunno.

I'd try to get it all recorded correctly while on location.

>Get paid $550 a month to learn the ropes
wow where can I get a gig like that?

such thing would bring a light to my current life.
The only thing that keeps me going is my screenplay.

interesting

That's not an answer.

I'm thinking about shooting a project with old consumer camcorders, I dont know why but i really like that grainy, dreamy look. Any films that have a similar look?

At very 1st place, you hafta learn to be able to sense cinematic language on many levels. That is why they say to admirers of industry that watching film as much as one can is the best education there is.

And how would you suggest learning cinematic language?
It can't just can't all be watching movies.

Reading good film criticism and digging deeper into films helps. From personal experience, I think the "language" just comes naturally after enough time spent watching a variety of films and digging deeper into them.

Making your own films, even shorts, helps your understanding in different ways, too.

so what you're saying is
I'll never get it huh

how did you get that from his post?

I shot my first short using shitty camcoder.
I know I was a terrible at directing it and made a lot of mistskes but I refuse to shoot another thing unless I have enough money to rent/buy equipment necessary.
So unless you're David Lynch or making a found footage movie I wouldn't reccommend it.
Short in question: youtu.be/Cpc_981B4Mg

Oh btw I mentioned Lynch because Inland Empire was shot on camcoders

I'll also add that the definition of "cinematic language" is a vague one. There isn't really anything concrete to "get"...after a while of immersing yourself into film and studying it seriously, you'll naturally get better at taking movies apart and understanding them on a deeper level than just plot.

I'm suicidal.

>taking movies apart and understanding them on a deeper level than just plot.
I've been able to do that for ages at this point.
Well actually, what do you mean by "deeper level"? Like, symbolism and imagery or just being able to understand a movie's faults and strengths?

This is really shitty, user.
So why do I like it so much?
Is it the music? The music's kind of grating.
What song is this?

For example, for me, a film by Godard or someone takes at least a couple viewings to really "get". Over the years I've gotten better at catching what exactly a filmmaker is trying to do. And faults and strengths come into it as well, since you can also tell whether or not the filmmaker is actually succeeding at portraying whatever they're trying to portray.

If you've been watching movies for a few years and are able to get more out of a film than just the story, I'd say you're at least fluent in the "language" of film, and all you can really do from here is become better, more well-versed.

I don't think there's some big "breakthrough" where you suddenly become a master. For me, at least, it's just learning. If you're always watching new, challenging stuff and expanding your palette, you'll be fine.

The guy who plays the homeless man is my super hippie-artsy friend and he composed it on a flute and a synthrsizer.
And yeah, we lost like 80% of footage during conversion snd what we were left with could probably be made into something better but you know. I've learned stuff from this anyway.

Thank you, user.

Are you still friends with him? He's a really good composer and you shouldn't let him go.

He's now hiking around Balkans with his dog and playing flute on the streets for a living. We're in touch though.

Cool. He isn't actually homeless now, right?

A collection of video essays.

linuz90.com/essays/

I don't think so. He said he's making a bank on his music.

Good. He deserves it.
But anyway, have any other movie ideas in mind?

d

Yeah, like six of them.
Writing screenplays, drawing storyboards, figuring shit out.
Of course the worst part is finding people to work with. And maybe I should do something different with my life.

>And maybe I should do something different with my life.
Why do you think that?
And do you want to share some of your ideas?

Camera positioning and scene transitioning. Still figuring out a good formula to evoke a seamless rollercoaster of emotions.

I'm editing my film school graduation project, about half an hour short film.
I was also the Cinematographer
Just realized how shit I am during this editing process
The editing also doesn't go smoothly, and I'm doing this alone because I'm the best editor in my class. Not saying I'm that good, but my classmates are just worse.