Student Filmmaking Tropes

Looking for what to avoid doing in my work, so let's rip on student films.

>it's about suicide
>starts with a morning routine montage
>new-wave cutting
>focus is fucked

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youtu.be/XqMxH0atn18
youtu.be/rEn0x1DCk4A
vimeo.com/216934729
youtube.com/watch?v=SuHM2bVXcQE&list=UUwBdp-sM_1gbhosQWk5Plnw
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epic thread

>it's about suicide

yup

>18-20 year olds as hard-boiled cops
>epic storylines about drugs
>Tarantino dialogue
>first shot is an alarm clock

>"insightful" narration

Hell, narration at all. It's always awful and it's a harmful crutch in storytelling that student filmmakers don't know how to properly use.

>new-wave cutting
>focus is fucked

I am currently making a short film that has both of these things. But in my defense, it is ONLY ME. No one else. So it's pretty hard to get decent focus. And i would say i am more influenced by Japanese new wave than french. Am i gonna be ok? I am always scared of me turning out to just be another worthless, talentless, hack without any imagination.

...

Don't overthink it, just understand all of your student films are going to be cringey in one way or another.

>Student films don't understand camera department should have a dedicated focus puller
This is why we need ACs

Yes, that i have already accepted.

We're all worried that we're talentless fucking hacks.

All you can do is keep exposing yourself to new media, and learn lessons about storytelling from anywhere you can.

I've been watching anime video essays pretty much for this exact reason.

Fuck I need to go rewrite some things

Film Student does not have Gaffer and electricians

Film Student only shoots with practical lights

Have to open the lens up all the way because lack of light

Harder to pull focus

Focus is shit

In the same vein, is there any way to pull off a good student action film?

>anime video essays
Aren't those basically fat dweebs rambling about K-ON! and other children's cartoons? If you take that shit seriously then you're destined to fail, kid.

no

Avoid long panning shots over silent footage

Make it about a school shooting or something.

Nope. Just abandon that idea, sorry.

Black and white shot with a shitty digital camera
Songs have already been used countless times in other films
It ends with a character looking at the camera
The editor cuts every shot a second too late

>Biblical undertones or homages to better works

Absolutely do not do this.

I just want to tell everyone in this thread that is endeavoring towards being a filmmaker good luck, and I hope you can save cinema.

The ones I watch are usually them trying to explain what makes an anime good, and in the process I'm able to take away lessons about framing, storytelling, character development, etc.

>New wave silence

They're all about eva aren't they

Wouldn't it be better to not go to film school since you'd just end up rehashing the same old ideas? I get that you wouldn't be as technically talented but you wouldn't be restricted by ideas of proper and improper film making.

Go to films.

Bad sound.
Bad sound is the first thing you notice at basically any student tier film. Please don't use the onboard camera microphone. Record foley in post for basically every action you have. Record the atmosphere of every location you film in.
Yes, most people don't actively thinks about sound while watching a movie, but it greatly affects their experience even if they are not aware of it.

It's better to make mistakes than make nothing at all.
I'm a better artist than my friend but she posts her work all the time and gets commissions while I keep my work to myself.
You gotta just keep making stuff and putting it out there to get a real demo reel/portfolio going.
You can have the best ideas ever but if you never put it together and make it consumable media for an audience, it's still only in your head.

>Biblical undertones
I don't see what's wrong with this. It's has influenced every aspect of our culture and society.

>whole film is a buildup to a twist at the end

reddit filmmaking

Actually, not really.

Super Eyepatch Wolf is my go-to since he's got a soothing British voice, but he's able to break stuff down really well.

youtu.be/XqMxH0atn18
youtu.be/rEn0x1DCk4A
These videos in particular are good because they dig into things that aren't exclusive to anime, they're applicable to pretty much any piece of mainstream media. Character building and fight motivation.

It's helpful to me both as a writer and a filthy fucking weeb.

It's just really fucking trite and overdone. Yeah, it's influential, but literally every other filmmaker ever has realized and exploited this.

If you want to abuse literature for the sake of your story, do something that you don't see very often.

Maybe but in film school you also have access to expensive equipment that would be otherwise difficult to attain.

Literally my motivation.

>excessive hand held shakycam for absolutely no purpose

Usually this is the case of the director and/or cinematographer being too dumb/afraid/inexperienced to make any visual decisions and sticking with them. Instead they'll leech on to their own nervousness and think that the handheld shaky shit will give their movie "lots of energy and unpredictability".

It's insane how many times I've heard the same reasoning for this shit. And when you hear it you know the shoot is gonna be a mess.

>alarm clock

Are there too many moving parts for a newbie director to handle effectively?

I really want to do action, since I have a hard-on for John Woo shit, but at the same time I'm aware of my limitations and want to work effectively around them.

If all else fails, I just write a shitty horror.

At the same time, having your shots locked down for too long isn't gonna catch anyone's attention. You gotta find a medium in there, like with wheelchair dolly shots or pans.

Of course your camera movement should be motivated by the story, but you should feel free just to dick around with oneshots and shit.

will be the same guy on Sup Forums who shits on a director for trying anything new

Be the change you want to see in the world.
I liked these. Thanks for the recommendation.

the post that saved cinema

Action tends to demand money, more than most genres. It is also one of the most popular genres, which means that people are very familiar with the tropes of it. Perhaps even more importantly they also have very high expectations. They want impressive action set pieces, something they've never seen before, and that is something that even most Hollywood films can't deliver anymore.

What kind of action film are you trying to make? John Woo type shit is pretty hard to do on a no budget/small budget level, even with all the advancements in the gun shots etc. being relatively easy and cheap to make with After Effects and other similar programs.

My film friends had all that, but my school was expensive as fuck and had a massive cage with all the current hollywood toys

Pretty much. It's not like you have access to high quality props, stuntmen and fight choreographers. It would most likely just come across as amateurish.

Only if you know some jackass types who could do stunts, and have a really good prop maker

not really. better to work small

Camera behind the character, following him while he/she walks.

I've seen that shit so many fucking time in student shoots it pisses me off. Very often it's even cameraman going "Hey I have this idea for an improv" and then they do that.

"Hurr durr it puts the audience in the protag's shoes" no it fucking doesn't it looks cheap as heck and got old twenty years ago.

Is there a cinematography 101 book somewhere out there that teaches kids that this is the most genius shot of all time?

They all watched Oldboy which does this shot very well and very cool and lasts 3 seconds which is just enough to make you want more.

I know it's the second most cliche thing I could possibly say after Tarantino, but El Mariachi is a big influence for me.

What I'm looking to do isn't necessarily big fuck-off action setpieces, but action that's motivated by characters being really fucking pissed at each other. Close quarters, two or three people with limited visibility who are gonna rip the skin off the other/s the second they find them. Have it be more tension than actual fight, but not really skimping on gun violence and shit. I don't know if that gets across what I'm trying to say but yeah.

I figure it might be easier to get the same thing from doing a horror, but I'm a lot less familiar with the tropes and how they work there.

>shot from inside the fridge

I fucking hate British youtube video "essayists"

>DUDE NUDITY IS ART LAMO

fuck someone in my class literally did all those at same time, fuck.

any tips on sound design? I want a kind of rhythmic droning. pic related (very bad) short film i am doing.

So close yet so far

This makes me so fucking angry
>shot from the inside of a trunk

>dutch angle

Just delete it already

i said very bad for a reason.

they're meant to be bad, don't let these assholes discourage you

>autist protag with pet plant

Bonus points when it's an attractive stage actor in a grandma sweater and thick glasses.

>ends with a twist

>actor cannot act

Yeah man, gotta fail to succeed. Also, it's good to try out everything. Even dutch angles. You have to experiment to develop your own aesthetic.

I did all of those when I made a short for a class, except the first one. Half true for the last one.

No one is expecting amazing acting in a student film. That's not overly important.

>starring Eric Roberts

It is though, everything else can be done fine, and its the acting which betrays the film.

Just had war flashbacks to this old short film that I regularly hawk on here despite it being fucking terrible.

>token minorities, women, and love stories

oh it shows

That's Hollywood filmmaking not student filmmmaking

Literally most of the greats tell you this

>tfw all my favorite films are in black and white and it's genuinely my favorite look for cinema
>tfw can't do it because every pretentious retard uses it because of the "artiness"

JUST FUCK ME UP

>camera angles are awful
>dorm room is supposed to represent "apartment"
>it takes place in college

mmmm... that's not why you "can't do it" dumb (and lazy) frogposter

idea that's probably really bad and will get people killed that I'm not liable for if you do it: film real gun nuts shooting real guns innawoods or onna outdoor range or wherever's safe, edit it to look like a gunfight or chase scene or whatever, congrats, you now have more realistic gun handling and effects than modern huge budget action movies

>It's about a character based on the director/writer struggling to find his purpose in life.

>the director, writer, and main actor are the same person and the cameraman is his roommate

" They got the rundown, bog it down"

>quirky character with disability
>terrible audio
>abrupt and obvious soundtrack
>no acting to be found

Except for the age part. Training Day?

>black and white student film about suicide that begins with a daily routine with is shown through silent static shots and then there is constant narration and the camera follows the lead actor who is the director who has based some elements in the film from his own life and then when he kills himself he shoots himself with a gun in a dutch angle with new wave cutting, a quote from the bible comes up and it fades to black while classical music plays.

>it's about writers block

vimeo.com/216934729

Gotchu senpai

youtube.com/watch?v=SuHM2bVXcQE&list=UUwBdp-sM_1gbhosQWk5Plnw

>current film student
>expected it to be full of really pretentious people
>it's actually full of megaplebs who unironically care about capeshit and other nonsense

Also every trope ITT is too real

An action sequence is literally the hardest thing to direct.

>current film student
>expected it to be full of really pretentious people
>there's just one
:^)

i can somewhat relate to this. i'm not a filmmaker, but i attend a music school in LA. everyone wants to make fucking dubstep or "djent".

Yes, sometimes i feel like i am dealing with mentally retarded people.

>Logan is the best film i have seen this year! Can't wait until logan NOIR!

I remember a kid bragging about how hes seen every episode of lost 6 times

No waking up and hitting the alarm clock. A-

Dubstep is still a thing?

I think that's already implied.

kek free

>"chillstep"
>"djentstep"
>"math rock"
this is shit i hear on a daily basis from retards in my classes

I'd rather deal with retards than pretentious snobs. That's why I'm here and not on reddit