>TL;DR I want to know what poetry/philosophy/literature/book to look at for filmmaking inspiration
So a while ago, there was an user who was ranting about how filmmakers he has seen are a bunch of retards who only have highschool knowledge about majority of things. Later, user agree with him, saying how some of their classmates have only watched films, which is the reason why they want to make films. I agreed with some of their points, but it gave me self-doubt about joining the industry. I know it's all a business and artsy-fartsy films hardly cut it, but it still made me feel like I should get the knowledge to "better" my filmmaking knowledge. If you have any recommendations, I'll gladly take them (poetry, literature, philosophy, etc)
OP here, pic related is the guy He said start with the Greeks, but where? I've read the Odyssey and illad (I really liked both) and some other Greek tales I forgot the names to. Also, after Romeo and juilet, is hamlet a must?
Thomas Watson
I forgot the pic, my bad
Dylan Moore
> bunch of retards who only have high-school knowledge about majority of things. Not sure what this means. I mean people can be very worldly without formal education, and it is that worldliness, that knowledge of the souls of men as Plato called it, or "life experience" perhaps even the school of hard knocks which really makes a great writer or filmmaker.
Otherwise you just copy and paste the stylistic formula and ideas of the filmmakers who preceded you, yes it is a language, and you have to know the vocabulary, but you should be trying to express something new and interesting, or better yet improve and push the grammar to new heights.
Carter Walker
I recently got on a professional film set for the first time and all I can say is that it was eye-opening. Being there makes it easy to understand why the industry is heading the direction that it is.
OP, the only advice one can give you is to make the films you want to make Some might find them pretentious, others will find them boring or maybe some will find them stupid and some will think they lack depth But you can't try making films for other people
Zachary Morris
Who here festivals or at least has some kind of after-production plan for their film. I'd like to pick some brains. I'm about to go into post on a feature and figure now is a good time to plot out my P.R. plan, Social Media Strategy, Festival Plan, how much money I need to save/raise to pay for entry fees, and my "dream list" of influencers and media personalities I want to review or mention my film.
Adam Stewart
>but you should be trying to express something new and interesting, or better yet improve and push the grammar to new heights I always try to make my ideas original as possible, excluding the core concept. But is there a way to make a old idea refreshing? Also, he was saying was that people who are fresh out of highschool and going into the film industry never took the initiative to explore other arts or genres. That's what I'm guessing That makes me feel a little bit better, user. Thanks
Connor Kelly
Are we separating filmmaking and screenwriting again?
Benjamin Ramirez
DO NOT VISIT ANY OF THESE LINKS
Read Pudovkin and Aristotle, you can find both on archive.org, do not use celtx or writerduet or any of that other cancer, just go to archive.org, everything you need is there
Logan Baker
>Also, he was saying was that people who are fresh out of highschool and going into the film industry never took the initiative to explore other arts or genres. Oh, THAT. Yes. Totally true. You can really tell , in the idea, in the way they describe their films there is a huge difference between the fresh out of high school film students, and the masters degree, "I just spent four years working in X industry and now I want to tell the story of when my brother got cancer" students.
>But is there a way to make a old idea refreshing? Yeah of course there is. But it's not worth trying, especially if you're starting, you should be making the films that speak to who you are as a person.
You will steal consciously and unconsciously from other filmmakers, and that's fine, that's all part of the journey, the process towards finding your own, I hate to use this word but your own "voice".
Jonathan Parker
** WARNING ** This post is intentionally misleading
Luis Morales
How?
Leo Hill
I really dont want you to steal my idea, but if youre into eastern culture at all, look at the Ramayana. Its a very good story
Joshua Bennett
it's just that some random OP dudes refuse to at least go to the archive and copy the header and opening pasta and link to the previous thread so everyone else can continue posting. Apparently it's too much to ask.
Nathan Reyes
The idea that everyone must steal to create is a cancerous meme.
Also my brother really does have cancer, it's not a fucking joke.
Leo Lopez
They were never really separated in the first place If someone comes in here asking for script-writing advice, no one's gonna tell them to fuck off (or at least I hope no one will)
Owen Taylor
>The idea that everyone must steal to create is a cancerous meme.
Every (every) piece of art is emulation combined with personal experience. Don't kid yourself.
Noah Turner
There's a mentally ill autist who makes "filmmaking" threads
/swg/ still exists and will never be integrated to this fucking clown's retardthread
Xavier Cruz
Be careful when applying to festivals. A few have "world first" or "state first" restrictions. If your film hasnt won in a festival prior, its likely no one has heard of it, so you'll be okay to apply to those. But if you win at a festival and then get into an "[x] first" premiere type festival, you'll have some explaining to do or may just be flat out denied.
I know theres a site out there for applying to festivals en masse. Basically its like "these are the festivals around you" and you just click and choose which to apply to. Have about 500 willing to spend on festivals if you think you have a chance at winning. If youre submitting a mediocre work, apply to 3-4 small festivals first and see how you do. If you win one or two, apply to 2-3 bigger ones. If not, dont expect to win at a larger festival.
Grayson Martin
As someone who lurked /swg/, i prefer this setup. Sure, /fmg/ is a bit sloppier, but at least we're going through a thread a day
Nathan Cox
How could you miss my context so hard?
>The idea that everyone must steal to create is a cancerous meme. I NEVER said that. I said you will, it's unavoidable. Nothing is totally original, and certainly not as you start to get better at a medium. You have to discover what is original and unique to you.
>Also my brother really does have cancer, it's not a fucking joke. I said there is a huge difference, do you need me to spell it out for you High School Kids NOT AS GOOD AS people with life experience and personal trauma to draw on rather than just films.
Fuck, you sound dumb.
Austin Davis
>implying aristotle wasn't wrong about just about everything, and largely responsible for how shit education in the middle ages was
Hudson Wilson
Thanks. Knew the first part. That's why I have no intention of releasing independently-theatrically until I've tried to have a bat at the festival circuit.
What was that website called?
Any experience with 'Without a Box' i think it's called?
I wouldn't say it's mediocre work. But the budget is tiny, I'm hoping the locations, costumes, set-design... basically the visual stylization and the idiosyncrasies of the subject matter will make it stand out.
Jacob Phillips
Actually if you're going to point anyone in the direction of Aristotle just in the interest of giving them both sides, I highly suggest reading Walter Benjamin's book on Brecht.
It's a good counterpoint, and you can see who's ideas you like better
>for me, Aristotle
Dylan Bennett
I think it's without a box, yea, sounds familiar. Not at my comp so i cant check for sure, but I'm pretty sure
Jeremiah Ramirez
Fuck, meant to put this in the other reply. Idk if it actually is mediocre or not, but theres no one who can be more honest about your work than you. Find flaws and figure out if the flaws are okay and work with the film, or if he flaws detract from the experience. Fix whats needed. Good luck man!
Jacob Anderson
so somebody alleged that you guys have taste in film. who are some of your fave directors
Nathaniel Nguyen
OP here, sorry I didn't mean to do that, I just thigh screenwriting was a part of filmmaking, which is why I didn't include it in the title Don't worry, I don't steal other's ideas Once again, I'm sorry. My thinking was that if screenwriting was already a part of filmmaking, then it wouldnt hurt to not have screenwriting in the title. The linking, I forgot about that
Daniel Anderson
Ah cool. Thanks man. Yeah, no doubt, I'll bee polishing, and cutting, and mixing, and re-cutting scenes, doing second unit shots to hide sins for a long time yet.
Christian Walker
Thanks you, that really made me reevaluate some of my ideas. From what I notice, my ideas/stories aren't trying to be pretentious, compared to others, just simple stories being told.
Do you have any recommendations from any other arts?
Tyler Garcia
lukas moodysson, massimo venier, khavn dela cruz, jean luc godard, terry gilliam, paul thomas anderson
latest short I was the entire crew as well as having to act in it made for under $100
Asher Johnson
>made for under 100. again lying about the cost of the camera
Kevin Harris
Any resources for
a.) acting methods/styles/techniques for actors
and
b.) directing actors
I recently worked with some actual actors and it was such an eye-opening experience. I've always been concerned with the script, visuals, sound, and editing.
But now I really want to start focusing on the actors' performance. I thought it'd be great to check out resources geared towards actors specifically (to see how they're taught) and what is out there for directors.
>tfw dropped out of high school drama club after one day and regret it now so much
Nathaniel Williams
if you want to take the monthly payment for the camera into account, then it was shot for under $150
that's not how it works son you could get that camera today if you wanted to
John King
nope shutter speed, sun positioning/ time of day
Aiden Barnes
where do you discuss films
Jeremiah Cox
Isn't he just over-complicating it?
All you really need to do is tell a coherent story.
Nicholas Lewis
you got a nice sky there, but a polarizing filter is a must for those kind of shots (they are not expensive anyway). How do you handle color grading?
Landon Roberts
1 they have massive delicate egos 2 they want to be told what to do 3 use adjectives. don't tell them to be 'sad' 4 use 'as if' eg play this scene as if your father has just been admitted to hospital for yadda yadda 5 let them try things, but don't let them run the show
long and short of it - actors are emotional narcissists who want guidance and approval they stink
Logan Cruz
had one but it wasn't giving me the results I wanted so I scrapped it. the sun changed so frequently due to cloud movement that I had to choose between burnt out areas or dark areas. chose burnt no grading. a few minor fixes, but it looked pretty enough as it was. if vlog hadn't had had a waiting list I would have shot that and graded. Panasonic with their backwards mail order serial numbers.
Gabriel Young
Judith Weston's book on Directing Actors Michael Rabinger's book on Film Directing.
I can't think of any actors' resources off the top of my head other than maybe this: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dgje3PtoQXg
Happy to help
From other art? Depends man. It's all about what resonates with you.
I will say that there are some wonderful things being done in Video Art, off the top of my head there's a dude called Daniel Brook I think, can't remember, he does a lot of stuff with time-slicing. This is Tarkovsky's wet-dream, it's five dimensional filmmaking
But it doesn't matter what I think, what do you like?
Robert King
I read a lot, but it looks like people are already saying start with the Greeks.
So at the risk of being called a pleb, I'm going to suggest video games can teach you a lot.
You learn about character and costume design as the way a character on screen looks needs to convey very quickly what they are and what they do, vidya characters are very rarely a guy in a tracksuit/jeans and a t-shirt unless that's actually saying something about the character.
You learn about set composition as level design is very much about creating an atmosphere and conveying information without detracting from the main action. e.g a knocked over cup and papers still on a desk indicates people left in a hurry, burn marks on a wall or floor indicate a potential fire hazard in the area.
You also get a feel for controlling a camera, getting everything you need to see in a shot and having it positioned such that you'll be quickly made aware of anything coming from offscreen.
everything you've listed can be better learned from cinema
Hunter Parker
What the fuck
Levi Kelly
>Can't travel the set to every direction nope, it is like a 3d exploration.
Gabriel Lewis
its called a set because it isn't a real complete location
Charles Long
>So at the risk of being called a pleb, I'm going to suggest video games can teach you a lot. Allright. I'm going to stop you right there. Not for mentioning video games, but because you're putting the cart before the horse.
Some people can learn about film-making from video games with no formal training... very few. but most people can't even learn about film-making from watching films! They need a vocabulary, a system of thought to help them understand how a film is made, why the creative team made the decisions they did.
The other thing, the basics of a good story, hell even the notion of a consistent physics within the game universe are principals laid out in Aristotle's Poetics when he discusses the essentials of plot.
You know what really is a good way to learn, pick up a camera. Once you realize how difficult it is to get a "perfect shot" and understand all the components that go together to make that, because you have the agonizing memory of readjusting that fucking like 40 times, of struggling to get the actor back into that emotional zone they were in rehearsal, waiting for that plane to fly away so you get clean audio... THAT'S when you'll understand how a film is made.
Cooper Hernandez
*that fucking light 40 times
Nathaniel Scott
haven't watched any moodysson or venier, jlg is great, gilliam, khavn, and pta are gross
all good, resnais and denis are the best there imo, why do you like soderbergh and what did you think of knight of cups
Brody Thompson
I loved Knight of Cups.
I like Soderbergh's cinematography and how he uses colors and lighting. His late career films share atmosphere I like Dislodged, something is off, a pressure that's not quite defined. He can also direct in a clear fashion, like how he tracks Gina Carano through the city at Haywire or how the eleven plan the heist in Ocean's. A sort of attention to clarity of details that rubs my autism in a comfy way. I guess that's the best I can put it.
Knick I consider his best work, then you could put Side Effects-Contagion-Magic Mike-Haywire in any order there, throw Ocean's Eleven maybe between one of them.
Going to rewatch Out of Sight soon.
Adrian Hernandez
cool. i've only seen ocean's eleven (was young, don't remember liking it, is probably more fun than i recall), and behind the candleabra and magic mike which were both good. i'm only really interested in seeing erin brokovich but i'll check out his other stuff FOR YOU
knight of cups is malick's best film imo
David Martinez
He has this way of playing with few colors, usually 2 colors and their hues for a scene that creates stark contrast that I like, also love how he usually lets a full color take over character's face (there's lot of it in Ocean's films). This all I find playful and fun, and really excellent in creating an atmosphere. Plus the compositions are pleasing to look at, the actors are all good usually.
I've seen Brokovich like ten times in high school, don't think I can watch it in the next 10 years. Magic Mike's good, I liked the sequel even more but that's not Soderbergh, his assistant director directed the film.
Matthew Reyes
what do you think of ridley scott?
Xavier Clark
yeah, i mainly want to see erin because it was talked about so much when i was a kid
i have magic mike xxl ready to watch, heard it's a masterpiece, that's why i watched the first one. exciting
Bentley Harris
>Soderbergh's cinematography
You literally do not know what cinematography is or who a cinematographer is.
Juan Perry
To quote Bret Easton Ellis, you just have to be your own curator. Find a director or style or era you like, investigate what other work comes from that director/style/era, and make your own selection of movies to watch and educate yourself with.
This, rather than consult 'best of' lists or 'film school' syllabi is what I did in my early 20s and I am able to hold my own in many cine-literate conversations
Owen Jackson
>To quote Bret Easton Ellis
stopped reading there
Isaiah Phillips
dps get told to do what the director wants, they have their own style sure but the director has a say in who the dp will be so the cinematography is part of his vision, obviously
are you a dp with ideas above your station?
Kayden Russell
I prefer Tony Scott. I don't even like Blade Runner and I've tried so many times. Alien is very cool tho, not that contrarian.
For Magic Mike XXL Soderbergh was the cinematographer and you can tell it from every dance scene if you've seen say, Ocean's Eleven, Haywire and Magic Mike, but again he went more extreme with his use of colors, lighting and shadows for every dance scene.
Despite his assistant director directing it, it does feel like a Soderbergh film (maybe it's way too upbeat to be Soderbergh film if you consider the writing, but visually).
Hope you have fun with XXL, I loved it myself. One of my favorites.
Jaxon Cox
Sophocles, mang, especially the Oedipus trilogy, that shit is golden.
Levi Perez
>I have an anecdote but I'm gonna be vague as fuck kys
Wyatt Taylor
started making shorts from half a year now and I'm trying to shoot all that comes to my mind. I'm making everything with zero budget for now (camera-lights and microphones are all borrowed from friends and collaborators). Actually I'm working on a lesbian love story youtube.com/watch?v=YXhWdMkt8FU this is a brief editing of some of my works
Michael Davis
Fuck off I talked about it a bit yesterday anyway, but the last thing I want to do is write a massive blog post unrequested
Ryder Cooper
didn't realise soderbergh was that involved with the sequel, good to hear. i was under the impression it was sort of a spin-off. will watch soon
ridley is a crazy genius, pic related, top 10 are essential auteurism
ciao friendo
Jace Gonzalez
Heh, completely different wavelength to me (Scott and that top10), but more power to you when you can enjoy him.
scorcese is alright. don't know tornatore but need to watch paradiso badly. lin, i guess you're one of those. coen brothers are terrible.
IMO
Jack Parker
Sorry I was late responding
I don't know, that's why I was just asking in general. I wanted a lick of everything that any other media can provide, which is why I ask here first.
Maybe literature, I do like to read
Ryder Jones
the duellists id actually my favorite
Liam Diaz
it's a really amazing debut. i need to rewatch it but it's strange how at least in my memory of it how little it resembles anything he did after
do you like his other movies? you don't think blade runner is better for example?
Brandon Myers
i really cant understand how he managed to do Blade runner after the duellists. Both of them are excellent movies, i'm just not a big fan of sci-fi
Brayden Baker
but blade runner is so much more than just sci-fi senpai~~~~
Gabriel Flores
Unlike you, I'm a big fan of science-fiction, especially cyberpunk but I can't seem to like Blade Runner.
I guess it boils down to my distaste for every actor except Adama and the goofy parts with Rutger Hauer running around in panties that belong to grannies.
Alexander Parker
do you have any feelings about the tears in rain scene
Jayden Taylor
It's a beautiful scene on its own. Like I said though, I'm indifferent about almost every Ridley Scott film.
I have to give it to production quality/art direction/costumes etc. for making the world so believable.
Ian Russell
if you like the scene, there's lots of obvious foreshadowing and imagery in the movie related to it. the movie has a really well depicted sentiment, the screenplay is amazing.
i guess if you are really really into sci-fi it wouldn't be that interesting, i guess it isn't about ai and the future, it just uses that as a jumping off point. but it's an extremely profound film about wanting to understand one's own existence and the futility of it.
i know you already know all this, it's just been a while since i've tried to talk about it and i rewatched it recently.
yes, the art direction is unbelievable.
Liam Brooks
>eastern Indian. Also most who know Ramayana think of it as having a happy ending. Rama and Sita come back from war and settle in their kingdom. But the ending is very sad. Rama, due to doubts of his subjects, banishes his wife sita who later is swallowed by earth.
Oliver Kelly
Indeed, both Alien and Blade Runner have amazing world creation. Even Kingdom of Heaven and Gladiator from his later career share that. He always had an eye for that.
>extremely profound film about wanting to understand one's own existence and the futility of it. Harrison Ford was a wrong actor for this, then again I'm biased against him. I just don't like any of his performances, not even the original Star Wars trilogy ones or Indiana Jones. Outlier would be Polański's Frantic where I found him good.
Joshua Lee
i can't imagine blade runner without ford. the stories about the troubled production with him only emphasise to me the fact that the film is deeper than it is on the surface, and he couldn't see it when he was working on it.
i also find him aesthetically perfect for it, his expressions of indifference, virtual non-acting, are robotic and give the impression that he is just doing what he has been told to do. i absolutely love his performance while thinking it was largely not a performance
Cameron Nguyen
A successful director can blend artistic elements into a successful film.
Anyways, read the Bible.
Adrian Smith
>Anyways, read the Bible.
This is very good advice. Read the Bible (the book Western narrative stems from) and History books (what narratives are shaped by). A good writer and director should do at least the very basics about history, it teaches more about people than any psychology book ever will.
Grayson Wilson
Many have already done bible, Greeks an so on. If you were to successfully adapt some of the eastern stuff by Asians or Indians, no one would know from where you ripped off.
Aiden Morgan
not ripped off... but where you got your inspiration.
Hudson Hernandez
I'm not saying to copy paste Bible stories. It's a huge collection of western philosophy; you're bound to find some inspiration in there.
If nothing else, you'll be better off because of it.
Christian Collins
>india is in the east Lol I wasnt interested in the "we're all friends ending". I want sita to burn in those flames
Sebastian Cook
I agree but sometimes east implies chinese/asians. Also, why do you want sita to burn in those flames?
Aaron Clark
Damn, I was hoping to make the new thread. Here's a strawpoll.
It'll probably get deleted. A new thread shouldn't be made until page 10 or this one dies.
Aaron Jenkins
The last thread made me realize just how generic my story is and that there's no way it could be good. I should just give up on my dream, shouldn't I? But I don't have a backup career planned.
David Thompson
Write a new story Find every cliche in your script, starting from the beginning, and change it to something that's not cliched Accept that your script's cliched and realise 90% of hollywood films are cliched as fuck and still make bank
Pick any of the above
Wyatt Turner
user before you write a story you actually need to have something to tell. And I'm not talking about a plot (unless you want to be Shane Carruth), I'm talking about what's behind the story, ie. the reason for that story to be made in the first place.
Jaxon Brooks
had the day off early yesterday and randomly decided to edit Shaw Bros kung fu clips to the big rap song from the end of the Get Down, not particularly going for anything storywise just fun to cut a bunch of fast paced stuff to music you know?
Luis Sullivan
>Write a new story But I love my story, cliches and all. >Accept that your script's cliched and realise 90% of hollywood films are cliched as fuck and still make bank I'm worried about horrible reviews more than anything else. Like what happened to Thief and the Cobbler when Aladdin came out.
You mean a theme/moral? None of my ideas have that.
