ITT: we post awful student/amateur films (doesn't necessarily need to be yours, just shitty ones you found work fine) and pick apart just what makes them so bad, so that we can try to do better in the future.
What better way to kick off a shitty homemade shorts thread than with my own?
This is one I parrot a lot around here because it was my first college project and I really wanted to do something ambitious.
>nothing about the bag at the beginning is explained >Russian homeless man out of nowhere >ending(s) ripped directly from Clue >What the fuck is that sound >What the fuck is that lighting >"Start Walking"
That's a huge cliche for bad student films, but I haven't seen many shitty shorts that are black and white. Most of the time they just don't bother with grading it at all and hope their special snowflake shots of sunlight filtering through trees makes up for it.
Isaac James
Fuck yourself with a rake.
Alexander Sanchez
this shot made it worthwhile
Joshua Walker
That was one of the shots I was most proud of. In fact, considering all the light we had was either natural or from a single flashlight one of the dudes brought it's a miracle most of the shots turned out as well as they did.
Jaxon Carter
Making this thread I wasn't aware of how hard it was to actually find bad shorts if you're not already aware of them, since most people don't like admitting their shorts are bad.
I'll just post my latest, which was shot on a whim with an iPhone 7 and a selfie stick, then be on my way. Please, rip it apart so I know what I can do better.
Why do people release shit like this? I can understand the lighting and other aspects that one learns to do better with practice but whats with the shitty audio gaps.
Why was the 1:56 audible "camera" left in? Okay so it was for a class ran out of time to edit it, but why would you post that version on YT? Why not just edit it out and work on the other aspects like the sound design before sharing it?
Is it laziness? It can't be pure incompetence because again, how do you look at that work and say "yeah that's fine I don't need to fix it before sharing my work"
Levi Anderson
>only three minutes long That's it? That's all they expect out of you in college classes nowadays?
Cameron Reyes
Originally that was supposed to just be a rough cut and I was gonna fix up the sound later, but then I got lazy. Plus, I attempted bringing people in for ADR for the first time and it literally made me fucking cry.
Thank you though, I appreciate that.
Luke Hall
It was a "digital storytelling" class, meaning they just wanted you to prove you could develop a story from beginning to end then make something out of it.
Lucas Richardson
What was so hard about the ADR?
Elijah Hughes
am i supposed to know what ADR stands for
Ethan Diaz
That video has no redeeming qualities; there isn't really any ground for improvements to be made.
Colton Hernandez
>unironic fedora tip
Benjamin Bennett
I didn't slate properly, or have even close to the right equipment, actors couldn't hear their lines to properly dub over them, and this fat girl kept bothering us while we were working. Really just a combination of incredibly poor decisions.
Automated Dialogue Replacement, dubbing over your lines because the on-board mics on cameras are universally trash.
Evan Bennett
>no redeeming qualities Alright list the bad ones then
These are cinematic masterpieces what the fuck are you talking about
Jaxson Cook
>caring about lengthlet films
Noah Rivera
(if this poster is the one who actually shot this video) >You're a non-european and a non-jew. >You not only went through the trouble of cobbling together this worthless footage, but also had the idotic idea of posting it on Sup Forums. Based on that, I would assume you have very low self awareness if any at all, which imo is the most important aspect of doing anything creative i.e. being able to naturally tell when something's shit or when something's good and worth sharing. The time you spend dreaming up a film career without any discernable talent is time you should be spending on concrete self improvement.
Xavier Cooper
>lengthlet Incredible.
Attack the video, not me.
You're actually completely correct though.
I post all my shit on Sup Forums because I want to track my own progress and build as a filmmaker by learning what I'm doing wrong as I go. Critique is healthy, and I thrive off it.
They actually did some pretty clever stuff in there. The twist at the end was retarded, yeah, and the wide shot of her and the van was annoyingly out of focus, but I dug how they did phones in this.
Cooper Bailey
Not even joking those opening credits (pretentious as they are) are aesthetic as all hell.
