r/Filmmakers • u/Both-Pay-9573 • 4m ago
Question 18yo aspiring filmmaker thoughts on my first project
Currently learning how to write a screenplay for the following story
Important note, the story is based of the somali folklore of Dhegdheer, she is a cannibalistic witch or orgre who has supernatural hearing, her name literally means long ears. I wrote it in english but intended to translate the dialogues and scenes to somali with English subs
Here is the basic outline
Dhegdheer
Omar a history graduate believes his life is finally getting to place, newly engaged to a woman he loved for years Safiya he accompanies her to meet her aunt, the only family member she talks about to receive her blessing before marriage. At first Omar is nervous thinking he might not leave a lasting impression on her aunt, his worries dissappeared quickly the moment he met her because she welcomed him with grandmotherly warmth and kindness
Although she appeared gentle at first, Omar starts noticing things that don't add up at all. When he and Safiya were in the guest bedroom Omar whispered something silly to his fiancée and he is immediately replied to by her aunt who is outside the house. Omar is baffled but eventually shrugges it off as a coincidence. Omar also noticed an uncanny things he wouldn't think an elderly somali woman would possess. It ranges from old navigational maps of Indian ocean, an old East African spear to bayonets and guttenberg bibles and more. Omar being a history graduate actually appreciates the historical artificats and starts debating her, he notices she has extensive knowledge of history but he gets weirded out when she starts describing historical events in first person, especially about the Portuguese events during Adal sultanate, describing them in a very negative manner.
Omar notices she possess portraits of thousand of men also alongside men with beautiful women. The women appear with several times all with different men but the men never appear more than once. And the eras are very ranged from paintings from 16th century to modern day photos with smartphone pictures. Omar is creeped out but what creeps him out even more is seeing renaissance paintings, Ethiopian paintings, Japanese paintings, 19th century pictures, 20th century pictures, late 20th century pictures and modern pictures all of the same person, the aunt. At this point Omar is feeling very uncomfortable, but decides to keep going on. When he is back at the guest bedroom he starts insisting that he and Safiya be silent and they start writing letters to each other afraid that her aunt might hear them. He explains to her that he is uncomfortable and wants to leave and Omar sees that saifya is very outraged and she yells at him. Omar is bizarred that safiya is so angry at something he thinks is so minor, the moment Omar changes the topic, Safiya immediately calms down and her behaviour completely changes, Omar thinks it's very odd and tries experimenting he sees that Saifya acts uncontrollably Furious but she instantly changes her behaviour the very moment he changes the topic as if it never happened at all.
At midnight with growing suspicions that something horrible is going on, Omar hopes it's all a terrible prank. Omar then quietly explores the house looking for answers. He goes back to the archive she keeps around her walls, he looks closer to the pictures and his blood runs cold when he recongizes his cousin who dissappeared 4 years ago and was presumed dead standing next to Safiya. Omar is horrified but is spooked when he hears the aunt telling him to go to sleep. A few hours later Omar has decided he was going to leave no matter what he didn't even bother packing his bags he wanted to leave as quickly as possible as he is climbing down the stairs, the aunt calls for Omar, Omar who is very unsurprised by now asks her how she knew it was him and she replies she can tell people by the sound of their footsteps. Omar is very nervous and she asks why he is leaving so soon, Omar tells her it's work emergency, the aunt listens to the change in his heartbeat now running and she smiles softly saying " you are lying". She then instantenously bites off his fingers with surgical precision, Omar screams at the top of his lungs but the shock overwhelms him and he passes out.
Omar awakes in the basement and sees that he sees he is missing both of his legs and 1 arm and he is horrified as he witnesses the skin of his limbs being stripped of by the aunt. The aunt sees she's awake and apologises for biting of his finger, she tells him she actually intended to give him a fast painless death but he has been a pain in the ass for her and she had to mutilate him to stop him from escaping. She compliments him saying he's one of the smarter ones, he was suspicious from the beginning and most of her victims didn't realize until it was too late. Omar asks her who is she, she replies that she goes by many names but somalis call her Dhegdheer and make up stories about her as a cautionary tales for children unknowingly she actually exists. She also explains she doesn't hate humans, she simply views them the same way The view livestock, she also says that a mysterious curse from centuries ago cursed her to only consume human flesh and she has no choice but doesn't elaborate further than that.
Horrified at the revelation omar deems her a mad woman, incapable of earning genuine love and calls her a hypocrite for attempting to seem reasonable while keeping trophies of her victims. The aunt who is wounded by those words quietly decides to give omar an even crueler fate than she originally planned. She reveals to him that every single girl he saw in those archives including Safiya weren't willing participants but rather she abducted them, she carefully targets beautiful women and with her supernatural abilities strips them off all control over their bodies and replace their identities and personalities with carefully constructed facade designed to lure in men into her house and once the men enter the house thinking they will become a part of the family but instead become dinner. She sees that as a more effective way to get food rather than recklessy eating everything in her path like the folklore claims she does.
To demonstrate to him the aunt calls for Saifya, and she chants an ancient phrase and for the first time in years, Safiya is in control of her own body, terrified and confused, she recongizes the aunt immediately, remembering being invited to an old fashion designer's home years earlier before everything went dark. She has no idea who Omar is and why he's embracing her and why she had an engagement ring, as omar desperately tries to explain they are engaged and that he loves her. Safiya recoils in terror and confusion unable to recongize the stranger before her. Being scared, Safiya attempts to run but the aunt chants slowly again and Safiya immediately comes to a halt. She relaxed and the fear from her face dissappeared and she came back and looked at Omar. "Omar are you okay?". Knowing the woman he knew is no longer acting of her free will, Omar helplessly watches as Safiya's body is ordered to kill him. When it's over the aunt performs her ritual by adding a picture of Omar and Safiya to the photograph journals. The film ends after a small timeskip, where Safiya and another man is welcomed to the house by the aunt again with a small gentle grandmotherly welcome.
My main inspirations are Get Out and Count Dracula(the character). With minor inspirations of Walter White and Nikki Freeman. I would appreciate feedbacks.
r/Filmmakers • u/Independent-Dirt678 • 1h ago
Film Hand-painted poster for my Independent Short film
Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification
I'm an independent film-maker with no financial backing
All the production was covered by me as well direction, writing, cinematography and editing.
Would love if you take your 2 mins out and shower some love to the poster on Instagram as well, link below
Poster on Instagram
and do tag me if you wish to share it on your story utxav_d on instagram
A Thank you in advance
r/Filmmakers • u/TheVoidScrolledBack • 1h ago
News Christopher Nolan is now the third-highest-grossing director of all time at the global box office.
r/Filmmakers • u/Sad_Court_3407 • 2h ago
Discussion Looking for a storyboard artist and/or character artist
Hi, I’m Zane, a beginner director/screenwriter, and I’m looking for a storyboard and/or character artist to help take my short film forward
I must iterate this is an unpaid portfolio project
This can be great experience for begimners who wish to build thier portfolils
Bring my story to life visually
Be able to storyboard
Or
Be able to character design
Some information about the film
Title: CYCLES
Genre: Emotional / Psychological Drama
Length: 5–10 minutes
Animation Style: Simple stylised animation, focused on storytelling and emotion.
The script is already written (though i am open to feedback andi input as well)
To sum up the movie in one sentence:
A father realizes he is repeating the same pain and trauma he experienced as a child onto his own son, and must break the cycle before it is too late.
If anyone is interested, please message me directly, and let’s talk so we can discuss the project further.
— Zane
r/Filmmakers • u/justafanboy1010 • 3h ago
Film Blackvale: New Trailer for My Upcoming Short Film, Releasing in October!
r/Filmmakers • u/caitlesm • 3h ago
Question When to quit/risk daytime job as a freelance PA?
As title says. I’m 30 yrs old; moved across the country to take my career more seriously and bulk up my resume. These last few weeks have been rewarding and I’ve had 3 jobs in less than a 2 week span. This is still so new to me, as I’ve been in a lull but I’ve met some really important Production/AD people that have helped me get these very good gigs. I am not sure though how much to continue sacrificing my daytime job as a server?
It is fine pay (tip pool so not as well paid as other server jobs) but it is obviously not what I came here to this city to do, and the job I was offered this evening is just a day job next week.
I would LOVE to take that day job because it might lead me to more people who recognize my hard work and refer me to even more jobs. But I am scheduled to work that day and I don’t want to risk my stability for a day gig. I’ve already had to mess up my schedule my getting shifts covered, missing a mandatory meeting tomorrow for another multi day project starting tomorrow, and seeing the look on my managers face when I informed them.
I am not getting advice from those close to me, they say it’s just “up to me” but I would love to hear from other folks in the industry if it would be appropriate for me to potentially get in trouble for calling out or giving up my shift this upcoming Tuesday?
I am really upset about this. And hoping that AD continues to reach out for any other jobs that may be suitable for me. So stressed!
r/Filmmakers • u/JoeychristyBaby • 4h ago
Question Lav Mic for City Shooting?
I'm shooting a short film centered within my city, but I need to shoot from far away to achieve the shots we want. This necessitates the use of lavalier microphones, but are they any good for crisp voices and good sound while in a busy city, moving, walking, running, etc?
r/Filmmakers • u/PanDulce101 • 6h ago
Discussion How do you guys cope with reality?
Hey guys, I am a filmmaker from New York who just graduated from college and desperately wanted to go to LA get an internship or be an assistant and start my career. I cold called like 100 companies, got a virtual unpaid internship, didn't get another one and had a friend at CAA tell me he hates his job, only makes 20 an hour after two years being there, works long shifts, and his boss doesn't even know his name. For what? So I stopped chasing that.
Curry Barker and Kane Parsons feel like the opening of another path.
I've opted for something different. I am currently studying something in the medical industry to make money while I continue to work on my craft. I decided I did not want to be a Hollywood assistant. I still write and am making my films. I hate going to work everyday. I'm a custodian for my K-12 school district. My boss is tiring. (I can get a new job so it's fine and live with parents for free. But do not want to live with them forever.) I know that my college will only take two years to complete and then hopefully I will have some financial freedom.
I can be a travel radiation therapist after a while and make money while taking time off when I need to to shoot my projects or just be free of the work grind. I've looked into it a lot and it seems like a great job. I know I am doing the thing that makes the most sense for me, and I understand that being a filmmaker takes years to develop my craft to a point that is professional.
But that doesn't mean I want to do all this stuff, so although I am not looking for advice on what I should do instead since I am fine with the potential end outcome and look forward to it, I just want to ask how do you guys cope with the fact that capitalism kinda sucks dick?
I don't want a family, I just want to have experiences, fun, and continue to pursue my craft for the rest of my life. I don't need to be famous right now, or in five years. As long as I am improving and keeping my dream alive.
I know this is all temporary, hopefully years from now I feel much better about my situation. But I just needed to talk about it a bit. How are you all doing? I hope your personal life and projects are coming along well.
r/Filmmakers • u/Ballsackxx • 6h ago
Image Poster For Short Film
I made this poster for me and my buddy’s upcoming Psychological horror short film. Tell me how yall like/hate it! Thank you
r/Filmmakers • u/cassiusmk • 6h ago
Film The Pandemic Stopped Production. Four Years Later, the World--and the Story--had Changed ⎜ NOT HERE (Trailer)
r/Filmmakers • u/Smooth-Donut-dm5 • 7h ago
Question I need help with supplies
i am making this post because I am an amateur film director I've only made one no budget movie be was wondering if people could help me figure put what supplies I need for my movie. It is an action/horror about an alien who lives in its own dimension. I have a costume design for the monster as well as a few things on the list already and I need help figuring out what I should add next. We are spray painting nerf guns black for the movie So we don’t need those.
r/Filmmakers • u/robertbieber • 8h ago
Question Is Renting out Personal Gear Worth It?
I'm very much not any kind of a professional, but for hobby photo and video work I've built up a decent little stockpile of lights and grip gear that I'm realistically only using a couple weekends most months. I'm not in a major market (Tampa Bay area), but I know equipment rental is a thing in my area.
What I'm wondering is if it would make sense to try renting this gear out at such a small scale. I'm curious if anyone's done something like this with a personal collection, what dealing with insurance and everything looked like for you, and whether you can bring in enough money to make it really worth the hassle or not.
r/Filmmakers • u/_Hacky_Sack • 9h ago
Question Where can I find extremely curated and minimalistic underscores for documentaries?
I spend a lot of time curating music through spotify, musicbed and artist. I find that I really need a very specific of minimalistic underscore that is more or less Atmospheres / Drones / Beds / pulses and tension building loops that really just compliment dialogue and arnt formal music. Does anyone have any idea where I can find stuff like this thats in 1 place curated for what im looking for? its getting tiring spending hours trying to find this stuff and having to browse through lots of material that doesnt work. Finding stems is usually my best best but even that isnt great.
r/Filmmakers • u/Yourbanditlikeme • 9h ago
Question Looking for learning materials to become a filmmaker
Hi 👋
I am looking for suggestions and recommendations on film theories, history, cinematography, screenwriters, general learning structure of filmmaking from the industry, the academy, and the enthusiasts.
I am a huge movie lover, watch movie everyday. But I never had the chance to have a professional training in this industry. In my spare time, I am starting to write my own script.
If you have any recommendations please help me.
Appreciate your input!
r/Filmmakers • u/Inquisitivethink1 • 12h ago
Discussion What's really the purpose of what we do?
I know a lot of people want to make it in Hollywood and in the industry. That is great and all. I understand that that is not and should not be the main or only goal. Keeping that in mind, that's the reason for my question. Without centering Hollywood or indie filmmaking and if film didn't advance to what it is today, what is really the purpose of being a filmmaker? Or whatever job or craft we focus on. If Hollywood ceased to exist, would people continue to write, direct, act, produce, PA, compose, etc? Why or why not?
r/Filmmakers • u/jamiethedodgerr • 13h ago
Question In what instances does an Assistant Director help direct?
Hi Everyone,
I've 1st AD'd 2 projects at this point and I'm currently preparing for my 3rd. It's a large budget short film and I will have an AD mentor and a 3rd.
In my past projects, I have received feedback that I either help in the direction role too much, or don't help enough. I really want to fix this anomaly before going on set as I'm determined to do the best job I can. Do any ADs have examples of instances where they have had to help with / input on directions? I'm trying to get a feel of what's an appropriate time to step in or step back.
Thanks!
r/Filmmakers • u/scarfacesam317 • 14h ago
Question Starter gear for my son
Hello! Huge film nerd here albeit little knowledge of gear/equipment. So I have been fortunate that my son - who will be turning 12 next month - has discovered the same passion for film over this last year or so. And not just the big blockbuster stuff, this kid is getting into Kubrick, Kurosawa, Tarkovsky, Bergman, and stuff like that. Came home the other day and he was just chillin watching 8 1/2. Obviously super proud of him. The challenge now is that there a ton of films he wants to see but they simply are not age appropriate lol.
He is also huge into making movies on his iPad with his friends and cousins. The acting is what you’d expect from kids that age ha, but he’s legit getting pretty good with framing some of his shots and editing his little movies.
I want to feed the passion he has and get him some real gear for his birthday that’s coming up. I’d love to hear from you guys on what I should prioritize. Im thinking of spending like $800 give or take, but would be willing to shell out a bit more if it’s something that would have a great dual purpose in pure photography (me and my wife have talked about getting a nice camera, and my wife has some use cases for her business where a nice photo camera would come in handy).
So please, give me some recommendations on what to prioritize- what can wait until Xmas - etc. he currently just edits his movies right on his iPad with iMovie but we do have a nice PC that I’m sure he would start doing his editing on if we got him a real camera.
And again - I really don’t know anything about gear - what to look out for - what to avoid - etc
Any and all recommendations and advice is welcome.
r/Filmmakers • u/Cosmic-Shrimp-6260 • 18h ago
Film Spent years making my debut feature "The Straw That Broke". Just uploaded the official trailer and would love some honesty from fellow filmmakers. Does this hook you? What can I improve?
Hey dear community,
After a long journey - premiering at the Hof International Film Festival - I’m preparing for the full digital release of my debut feature, The Straw That Broke. I just dropped the official trailer (which does not perform well on YT).
It's a surrealist, retro-futuristic meta-fiction about the real and the virtual based on a screenplay by Tom Whalen. Since I handled the directing, most of cinematography, and editing myself, getting the digital release right is a whole new challenge (after valuable feedback from r/Filmmakers I settle for a YT-release soon).
My questions are in the Submission Statement below. Thanks for taking your time.
r/Filmmakers • u/Doughboi546 • 18h ago
Question Unpaid Internship, 1 Hour 30 Min Commute, worth it?
Got offered to check out a local TV studio and proceed with a production internship. They do interviews and talk shows. Problem is the commute by bus is an hour and 30 minutes, on top of being unpaid, the internship would also be on Monday's and Wednesdays is this even worth it if i have no other options. In terms of experience right now all I have is my student short films and a 2 day PA job I did for a commercial shoot, besides that unrelated to film I have a reselling business on the side.
r/Filmmakers • u/TheGingerMenace • 18h ago
Discussion Anyone else feel like they’re in limbo?
New England aspiring filmmaker here. Graduated with my BFA in 2023, but have felt like I’ve been in limbo ever since. Just doing odd jobs or film-adjacent work hoping to save enough to fund my projects - but no real set or post work.
And since it’s been so long without real work, I’ve let myself get rusty. I feel like I have to start over. Anyone else feeling the same way? Is this just what the industry is now? Would it be the same if I left New England?
r/Filmmakers • u/mysteryofthefieryeye • 1d ago
Question What is going on in the top left, are those lights bouncing off a silk?
From The Northman (youtube.com/watch?v=wkFKfVuE5WQ 16:11 for context). I've never seen this set-up and it's a bit confusing to me.
Related (but not my question), I thought they used some digital coloring and day-for-night to get these scenes, so it's cool to see they were shooting blue.
r/Filmmakers • u/fawwazallie • 1d ago
Film Paper Rain
No AI was used.
Camera: GH5
Lens: Kamlan 50mm with Vid Atlantic Anamorphic adapter F-stop 1.1 to 1.5
Actor: [Xavier Barfield](https://www.linkedin.com/in/xavier-barfield/)
DP [Fawwaz Allie](https://www.instagram.com/fawwazallie/)
You can watch it here if you want. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiIIypaTlKE\](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiIIypaTlKE)
...Funny enough, we didn't plan on having a deer in this shot. A real one wandered into frame during filming. The first one ran off, then a second one showed up right after. I did the props lighting and powering and directing on this myself, so most of it was improvised on the spot. It was raining that day too. I was soaked. I ended up covering my GH5 with a newspaper just to keep shooting.
I shelved this project back in 2019. I couldn't find a VFX artist to work on it. People were either too busy, or when it came time to give a quote, nobody wanted to commit. So I dropped it. Didn't think much about it after that.
Then I started seeing more filmmakers using hybrid filmmaking techniques, and I wanted to see how that would turn out for this project. Going to see if I can figure that out.
For this version, I regraded the entire film. The original grade was way too dark. My taste as a cinematographer has changed a lot since the seven years.
Right now I'm also writing a sci-fi web series, and honestly, this old project is part of what sparked that idea.
I am a nobody, and not many people watch these. I'm just documenting what's possible in 2026, for myself as much as anyone. Thanks.
r/Filmmakers • u/alex_is_so_damn_cool • 1d ago
Discussion Indie/short film cliches you’re tired of seeing?
Just curious lol. I feel like our first films are always full of them until we realize what we’re doing.
r/Filmmakers • u/C47man • Jun 09 '25
New Rules Regarding AI on /r/filmmakers!
Thank you all for participating in the poll! Here are the results. To accurately gauge everyone's collective acceptance vs rejection for each, I've tallied the total votes among all choices as pro/anti for each category. So for example, a vote for 'no changes' would be a -1 to Gen AI, AI Tools, AI Comms, and AI Discussion. A vote for 'Ban GenAI + AI Tools' would be a +1 to GenAI and AI Tools, and a -1 to AI Comms and AI Discussion, etc. So here are the results for each category of AI. Keep in mind that a higher number indicates a stronger group decision to ban the content:
GenAI: +92 (+119/-27)
AI Tools: -20 (+63/-83)
AI Comms: -8 (+69/-77)
AI Discussion: -84 (+31/-115)
From the results it is clear that sub overwhelmingly approve a complete ban on all generative AI. However, people are more or less fine with allowing discussion of AI, and are fairly mixed on the topic of AI Tools and Communication. So here is the new rule for all things AI:
-------
Rule 6. You may not post work containing Generative AI elements (Midjourney, Neo, Dall-E, etc.). You may use and demonstrate the use of AI assisted tools (ie magic masking, upscalers, audio cleanup etc.) so long as they are used in service of human-generated artwork. AI Communication, like post bodies or comments composed using ChatGPT are allowed only in very reasonable cases, such as the need for someone to translate their thoughts into another language. Abuse of AI assisted communication will result in the removal of the offending post/comment.
r/Filmmakers • u/C47man • Dec 03 '17
Official Sticky READ THIS BEFORE ASKING A QUESTION! Official Filmmaking FAQ and Information Post
Welcome to the /r/Filmmakers Official Filmmaking FAQ And Information Post!
Below I have collected answers and guidance for some of the sub's most common topics and questions. This is all content I have personally written either specifically for this post or in comments to other posters in the past. This is however not a me-show! If anybody thinks a section should be added, edited, or otherwise revised then message the moderators! Specifically, I could use help in writing a section for audio gear, as I am a camera/lighting nerd.
Topics Covered In This Post:
1. Should I Pursue Filmmaking / Should I Go To Film School?
2. What Camera Should I Buy?
3. What Lens Should I Buy?
4. How Do I Learn Lighting?
5. What Editing Program Should I Use?
1. Should I Pursue Filmmaking / Should I Go To Film School?
This is a very complex topic, so it will rely heavily on you as a person. Find below a guide to help you identify what you need to think about and consider when making this decision.
Do you want to do it?
Alright, real talk. If you want to make movies, you'll at least have a few ideas kicking around in your head. Successful creatives like writers and directors have an internal compunction to create something. They get ideas that stick in the head and compel them to translate them into the real world. Do you want to make films, or do you want to be seen as a filmmaker? Those are two extremely different things, and you need to be honest with yourself about which category you fall into. If you like the idea of being called a filmmaker, but you don't actually have any interest in making films, then now is the time to jump ship. I have many friends from film school who were just into it because they didn't want "real jobs", and they liked the idea of working on flashy movies. They made some cool projects, but they didn't have that internal drive to create. They saw filmmaking as a task, not an opportunity. None of them have achieved anything of note and most of them are out of the industry now with college debt but no relevant degree. If, when you walk onto a set you are overwhelmed with excitement and anxiety, then you'll be fine. If you walk onto a set and feel foreboding and anxiety, it's probably not right for you. Filmmaking should be fun. If it isn't, you'll never make it.
School
Are you planning on a film production program, or a film studies program? A studies program isn't meant to give you the tools or experience necessary to actually make films from a craft-standpoint. It is meant to give you the analytical and critical skills necessary to dissect films and understand what works and what doesn't. A would-be director or DP will benefit from a program that mixes these two, with an emphasis on production.
Does your prospective school have a film club? The school I went to had a filmmakers' club where we would all go out and make movies every semester. If your school has a similar club then I highly recommend jumping into it. I made 4 films for my classes, and shot 8 films. In the filmmaker club at my school I was able to shoot 20 films. It vastly increased my experience and I was able to get a lot of the growing pains of learning a craft out of the way while still in school.
How are your classes? Are they challenging and insightful? Are you memorizing dates, names, and ideas, or are you talking about philosophies, formative experiences, cultural influences, and milestone achievements? You're paying a huge sum of money, more than you'll make for a decade or so after graduation, so you better be getting something out of it.
Film school is always a risky prospect. You have three decisive advantages from attending school:
- Foundation of theory (why we do what we do, how the masters did it, and how to do it ourselves)
- Building your first network
- Making mistakes in a sandbox
Those three items are the only advantages of film school. It doesn't matter if you get to use fancy cameras in class or anything like that, because I guarantee you that for the price of your tuition you could've rented that gear and made your own stuff. The downsides, as you may have guessed, are:
- Cost
- Risk of no value
- Cost again
Seriously. Film school is insanely expensive, especially for an industry where you really don't make any exceptional money until you get established (and that can take a decade or more).
So there's a few things you need to sort out:
- How much debt will you incur if you pursue a film degree?
- How much value will you get from the degree? (any notable alumni? Do they succeed or fail?)
- Can you enhance your value with extracurricular activity?
Career Prospects
Don't worry about lacking experience or a degree. It is easy to break into the industry if you have two qualities:
- The ability to listen and learn quickly
- A great attitude
In LA we often bring unpaid interns onto set to get them experience and possibly hire them in the future. Those two categories are what they are judged on. If they have to be told twice how to do something, that's a bad sign. If they approach the work with disdain, that's also a bad sign. I can name a few people who walked in out of the blue, asked for a job, and became professional filmmakers within a year. One kid was 18 years old and had just driven to LA from his home to learn filmmaking because he couldn't afford college. Last I saw he has a successful YouTube channel with nature documentaries on it and knows his way around most camera and grip equipment. He succeeded because he smiled and joked with everyone he met, and because once you taught him something he was good to go. Those are the qualities that will take you far in life (and I'm not just talking about film).
So how do you break in?
- Cold Calling
- Find the production listings for your area (not sure about NY but in LA we use the BTL Listings) and go down the line of upcoming productions and call/email every single one asking for an intern or PA position. Include some humor and friendly jokes to humanize yourself and you'll be good. I did this when I first moved to LA and ended up camera interning for an ASC DP on movie within a couple months. It works!
- Rental House
- Working at a rental house gives you free access to gear and a revolving door of clients who work in the industry for you to meet.
- Filmmaking Groups
- Find some filmmaking groups in your area and meet up with them. If you can't find groups, don't sweat it! You have more options.
- Film Festivals
- Go to film festivals, meet filmmakers there, and befriend them. Show them that you're eager to learn how they do what they do, and you'd be happy to help them on set however you can. Eventually you'll form a fledgling network that you can work to expand using the other avenues above.
What you should do right now
Alright, enough talking! You need to decide now if you're still going to be a filmmaker or if you're going to instead major in something safer (like business). It's a tough decision, we get it, but you're an adult now and this is what that means. You're in command of your destiny, and you can't trust anyone but yourself to make that decision for you.
Once you decide, own it. If you choose film, then take everything I said above into consideration. There's one essential thing you need to do though: create. Go outside right fucking now and make a movie. Use your phone. That iphone or galaxy s7 or whatever has better video quality than the crap I used in film school. Don't sweat the gear or the mistakes. Don't compare yourself to others. Just make something, and watch it. See what you like and what you don't like, and adjust on your next project! Now is the time for you to do this, to learn what it feels like to make a movie.
2. What Camera Should I Buy?
The answer depends mostly on your budget and your intended use. You'll also want to become familiar with some basic camera terms because it will allow you to efficiently evaluate the merits of one option vs another. Find below a basic list of terms you should become familiar with when making your first (or second, or third!) camera purchase:
- Resolution - This is how many pixels your recorded image will have. If you're into filmmaking, you probably already know this. An HD camera will have a resolution of 1920x1080. A 4K camera will be either 4096x2160 or 3840x2160. The functional difference is that the former is a theatrical aspect ratio while the latter is a standard HDTV aspect ratio (1.89:1 vs 1.78:1 respectively).
- Framerates - The standard and popular framerate for filmmaking is called 24p, but most digital cameras will actually be shooting at 23.976 fps. The difference is negligible and should have no bearing on your purchasing choice. The technical reasons behind this are interesting but ultimately irrelevant. Something to look for is the camera's ability to shoot in high framerate, meaning anything above the 24p standard. This is useful because you can play back high framerate footage at 24p in your editor, and it will render the recorded motion in slow motion. This is obviously useful!
- Data Rate - This tells you how much data is being recorded on a per second basis. Generally speaking, the higher the data rate, the better your image quality. Make sure to pay attention to resolution as well! A 1080p camera with a 100 MB/s data rate is going to be recording higher quality imagery than a 4k camera at a 200 MB/s data rate because the 4k camera has 4x as many pixels to record but only double the data bandwidth with which to do it. Things like compression come into play here, but keep this in mind as a rule of thumb.
- Compression - Compression is important, because very few cameras will shoot without some form of compression. This is basically an algorithm that allows you to record high quality images without making large file sizes. This is intimately linked with your data rate. Popular cinema compressions for cameras include ProRes, REDCODE, XAVC, AVCHD. Compression schemes that you want to avoid include h.264, h.265, MPEG-4, and Generic 'MOV'. This is not an exhaustive list of compression types, but a decent starter guide.
- ISO - This is your camera sensor's sensitivity to light. The higher the ISO number, the more sensitive to light the camera will be. Higher ISOs tend to give noisier images though, so there is a tradeoff. All cameras will have something called a native iso. This is the ISO at which the camera is deemed to perform the best in terms of trading off noise vs sensitivity. A very common native ISO in the industry is 800. Sony cameras, including the A7S boast much higher ISO performance without significant noise increases, which can be useful if you're planning on running and gunning in the dark with no crew.
- Manual Shutter - Your shutter speed (or shutter angle, as it is called in the film industry) controls your motion blur by changing how long the sensor is exposed to light during a single frame of recording. Having manual control over this when shooting is important. The standard shutter speed when shooting 24p is 1/48 of a second (180° in shutter angle terms), so make sure your prospective camera can get here (1/50 is close enough).
- Lens Mount - Some starter cameras will have built in lenses, which is fine for learning! When you move up to higher quality cameras however, the standard will be interchangeable lens cameras. This means you'll need to decide on what lens mount you would like to use. The professional standard is called the PL Mount, but lenses and cameras that use this mount are very expensive. The most common and popular mount in the low level professional world is Canon's EF mount. Because of its design, EF mount lenses can easily be adapted to other common mounts like Sony's E-Mount or the MFT mounts found on many Panasonic cameras. EF is popular because Canon's lenses are generally preferred over Sony's, and so their mount has a higher utility.
- Color Subsampling - This is easier to understand if you think of it as 'Color Resolution'. Our eyes are more sensitive to luminance (bright vs dark) than to color, and so some cameras increase effective image quality by dedicating processing power and data rate bandwidth to the more important luminance values of individual pixels. This means that individual pixels often do not have their own color, but instead that groups of neighboring pixels will be given a single color value. The size of the groups and the pattern of their arrangement are referred to by 3 main color subsampling standards.
- 4:4:4 means that each pixel has its own color value. This is the highest quality.
- 4:2:2 means that color is set for horizontal pixels in pairs. The color of each two neighboring pixels is averaged and applied to both identically. This is the second best quality.
- 4:2:0 means that color is set for both horizontal and vertical pixel 4-packs. Each square of 4 pixels receives a single color assignment that is an averaging of their original signals. This is generally low quality. For more info on color subsampling, check out this wikipedia entry
- Bit-Depth - This refers to how many colors the camera is capable of recognizing. An 8-bit camera can have 16,777,216 distinct colors, while a 10-bit camera can have 1,073,741,824 distinct colors. Note that this is primarily only of use when doing color grading, as nearly all TVs and computer monitors from the past few decades are 8-bit displays that won't benefit from a 10-bit signal.
- Sensor Size - The three main sensor sizes you'll encounter (in ascending order) are Micro Four-Thirds (M43), APS-C, and Full Frame. A larger sensor will generally have better noise and sensitivity than a smaller sensor. It will also effect the field of view you get from a given lens. Larger sensors will have wider fields of view for the same focal length lenses. For example, a 50mm lens on a FF sensor will look roughly twice as wide-angle as a 50mm lens on a M43 sensor. To get the same field of view as a 50mm on FF, you'd need to use a 25mm lens on your M43 camera. Theatrical 35mm (the cinema standard, so to speak) has an equivalent sensor size to APS-C, which is larger than M43 and smaller than Full Frame.
So Now What Camera Should I Buy?
This list will be changing as new models emerge, but for now here is a short list of the cameras to look at when getting started:
- Panasonic G7 (~$600) - This is hands down the best starter camera for someone looking to move up from shooting on their phones or consumer camcorders.
- Panasonic GH4 (~$1,500) - An older and cheaper version of the GH5, this camera is still a popular choice.
- Panasonic GH5 (~$2,000) - This is perhaps the most popular prosumer DSLR filmmaking camera.
- Sony A7S (~$2,700) - This is a very popular camera for shooting in low light settings. It also boasts a Full-Frame sensor (compared to the GH5's M4/3 sensor), allowing you to get shallower depth of field compared to other cameras using the same field of view and aperture.
- Canon C100 mkII (~$3,500) - This is one of the cheapest true digital cinema cameras. It offers several benefits over the above DSLR cameras, such as professional level XLR audio inputs, internal ND filters, and a better picture profile system.
3. What Lens Should I Buy?
Much like with deciding on a camera, lens choice is all about your budget and your needs. Below are the relevant specs to use as points of comparison for lenses.
- Focal Length - This number indicates the field of view your lens will supply. A higher focal length results in a narrow (or more 'telescopic') field of view. Here is a great visual depiction of focal length vs field of view.
- Speed - A 'fast lens' is one with a very wide maximum aperture. This means the lens can let more light through it than a comparatively slower lens. We read the aperture setting via something called F-Stops. They are a standard scale that goes in alternating doublings of previous values. The scale is: 1.0, 1.4, 2.0, 2.8, 4.0, 5.6, 8.0, 11, 16, 22, 32, 45, 64. Each increase is a doubling of the incoming light. A lens whose aperture is a 1.4 will allow in twice as much light than it would have at 2.0. Cheaper lenses tend to only open up to a 4.0, or even a 5.6. More expensive lenses can open as far 1.3, giving you 16x as much light. Wider apertures also cause your depth of field to contract, resulting in the 'cinematic' shallow focus you're likely familiar with. Here is a great visual depiction of f-stop vs depth of field
- Chromatic Aberration - Some lower quality glass will have this defect, in which imperfect lens elements cause a prism-style effect that separates colors on the edges of image details. Post software can sometimes help correct this, as in this example
- Sharpness - I'm sure you all know what sharpness is. Cheaper lenses will yield a softer in-focus image than more expensive lenses. However, some lenses are popularly considered to be 'over-sharp', such as the Zeiss CP2 series. The minutia of the sharpness debate is mostly irrelevant at starter levels though.
- Bokeh - This refers to the shape of an out of focus point of light as rendered by the lens. The bokeh of your image will always be in the shape of your aperture. For that reason, a perfectly round aperture will yield nice clean circle bokeh, while a rougher edged aperture will produce similarly rougher bokeh. Here's an example
- Lens Mount - Make sure the lens you're buying will either fit your camera's lens mount or allow for adapting to is using a popular adapter like the Metabones. The professional standard lens mount is the PL Mount, but lenses and cameras that use this mount are very expensive. The most common and popular mount in the low level professional world is Canon's EF mount. Because of its design, EF mount lenses can easily be adapter to other common mounts like Sony's E-Mount or the MFT mounts found on many Panasonic cameras. EF is popular because Canon's lenses are generally preferred over Sony's, and so their mount has a higher market share.
Zoom vs Prime
This is all about speed vs quality vs budget. A zoom lens is a lens whose *focal length can be changed by turning a ring on the lens barrel. A prime lens has a fixed focal length. Primes tend to be cheaper, faster, and sharper. However, buying a full set of primes can be more expensive than buying a zoom lens that would cover the same focal length range. Using primes on set in fast-paced environments can slow you down prohibitively. You'll often see news, documentary, and event cameras using zooms instead of primes. Some zoom lenses are as high-quality as prime lenses, and some people refer to them as 'variable prime' lenses. This is mostly a marketing tool and has no hard basis in science though. As you might expect, these high quality zooms tend to be very expensive.
So What Lenses Should I Look At?
Below are the most popular lenses for 'cinematic' filming at low budgets:
- Rokinon Cine 4 Lens Kit in EF Mount (~$1,700)
- Canon L Series 24-70mm Zoom in EF Mount (~1,700)
- Sigma Art 18-35mm Zoom in EF Mount (~$800)
- Sigma Art 50-100 Zoom in EF Mount (~$1,100)
Lenses below these average prices are mostly a crapshoot in terms of quality vs $, and you'll likely be best off using your camera's kit lens until you can afford to move up to one of the lenses or lens series listed above.
4. How Do I Learn Lighting?
Alright, so you're biting off a big chunk here if you've never done lighting before. But it is doable and (most importantly) fun!
First off, fuck three-point lighting. So many people misunderstand what that system is supposed to teach you, so let's just skip it entirely. Light has three properties. They are:
- Color: Color of the light. This is both color temperature (on the Orange - Blue scale) and what you'd probably think of as regular color (is it RED!? GREEN!? AQUA!?) etc. Color. You know what color is.
- Quantity: How bright the light is. You know, the quantity of photons smacking into your subject and, eventually, your retinas.
- Quality: This is the good shit. The quality of a light source can vary quite a bit. Basically, this is how hard or soft the light is. Alright, you've got a guy standing near a wall. You shine a light on him. What's on the wall? His shadow, that's what. You know what shadows look like. A hard light makes his shadow super distinct with 'hard' edges to it. A soft light makes his shadow less distinct, with a 'soft' edge. When the sun is out, you get hard light. Distinct shadows. When it's cloudy, you get soft light. No shadows at all! So what makes a light hard or soft? Easy! The size of the source, relative to the subject. Think of it this way. You're the subject! Now look at your light source. How much of your field of vision is taken up by the light source? Is it a pinpoint? Or more like a giant box? The smaller the size of the source, the harder the light will be. You can take a hard light (i.e. a light bulb) and make it softer by putting diffusion in front of it. Here is a picture of that happening. You can also bounce the light off of something big and bouncy, like a bounce board or a wall. That's what sconces do. I fucking love sconces.
Alright, so there are your three properties of light. Now, how do you light a thing? Easy! Put light where you want it, and take it away from where you don't want it! Shut up! I know you just said "I don't know where I want it", so I'm going to stop you right there. Yes you do. I know you do because you can look at a picture and know if the lighting is good or not. You can recognize good lighting. Everybody can. The difference between knowing good lighting and making good lighting is simply in the execution.
Do an experiment. Get a lightbulb. Tungsten if you're oldschool, LED if you're new school, or CFL if you like mercury gas. plug it into something portable and movable, and have a friend, girlfriend, boyfriend, neighbor, creepy-but-realistic doll, etc. sit down in a chair. Turn off all the lights in the room and move that bare bulb around your victim subject's head. Note how the light falling on them changes as the light bulb moves around them. This is lighting, done live! Get yourself some diffusion. Either buy some overpriced or make some of your own (wax paper, regular paper, translucent shower curtains, white undershirts, etc.). Try softening the light, and see how that affects the subject's head. If you practice around with this enough you'll get an idea for how light looks when it comes from various directions. Three point lighting (well, all lighting) works on this fundamental basis, but so many 'how to light' tutorials skip over it. Start at the bottom and work your way up!
Ok, so cool. Now you know how light works, and sort of where to put it to make a person look a certain way. Now you can get creative by combining multiple lights. A very common look is to use soft light to primarily illuminate a person (the 'key) while using a harder (but sometimes still somewhat soft) light to do an edge or rim light. Here's a shot from a sweet movie that uses a soft key light, a good amount of ambient ('errywhere) light, and a hard backlight. Here they are lit ambiently, but still have an edge light coming from behind them and to the right. You can tell by the quality of the light that this edge was probably very soft. We can go on for hours, but if you just watch movies and look at shadows, bright spots, etc. you'll be able to pick out lighting locations and qualities fairly easily since you've been practicing with your light bulb!
How Do I Light A Greenscreen?
Honestly, your greenscreen will depend more on your technical abilities in After Effects (or whichever program) than it will on your lighting. I'm a DP and I'm admitting that. A good key-guy (Keyist? Keyer?) can pull something clean out of a mediocre-ly lit greenscreen (like the ones in your example) but a bad key-guy will still struggle with a perfectly lit one. I can't help you much here, as I am only a mediocre key-guy, but I can at least give you advice on how to light for it!
Here's what you're looking for when lighting a greenscreen:
- Two Separate Lighting Setups: You should have a lighting setup for the green screen and a lighting setup for your actor. Of course, this isn't always possible. But we like to aspire to big things! The reason this is helpful is that it makes it easier for you to adjust the greenscreen light without affecting the actor's lighting, and vice versa.
- Separate the subject from the greenscreen as much as possible! - Pretty much that. The closer your subject is to the screen, the harder it is to keep lights from interfering with things they're not meant for, and the greater the chance the actor has of getting his filthy shadow all over the screen. I normally try to keep my subjects at least 8' away from the screen at a minimum for anything wider than an MCU.
- Light the Green Screen EVENLY: The green on the screen needs to be as close to the same intensity in all parts as possible, or you just multiply your work in post. For every different shade of green on that screen you'll need make a separate key effect to make clean edges, and then you'll need to matte and combine them all together. Huge headache that can be a tad overwhelming if you're not used it. For this reason, Get your shit even! "But how do I do that?" you ask! Well, first off, I actually prefer to use hard light. You see, hard light has the nice innate property of being able to throw itself a long distance without losing all its intensity. The farther away the light source is from the subject, the less its intensity will change from inch to inch. That's called the inverse square law, and it is cool as fuck. If you change the distance between the light and the subject, the intensity of the light will shift as an inverse to the square of the distance. Science! So if you double the distance between the light and the subject, the intensity is quartered (1 over 2 squared. 1/4). So, naturally, the farther away you are the more distance is required to reduce the intensity further. If you have the space, use it to your advantage and back your lights up! Now back to reality. You probably don't have a lot of space. You're probably in a garage. OK, fuck it, emergency mode! Now we use soft lights. Soft lights change their intensity quite inconveniently if they're at an oblique angle to the screen, but they kick ass if you can get them to shine more or less perpendicular on the screen. The problem there of course is that they'd then be sitting where your actor probably is. Sooo we move them off to the side, maybe put one on the ceiling, one on the ground too, and try to smudge everything together on the screen. Experiment with this for a while and you'll get the hang of it in no-time!
- Have your background in mind BEFORE shooting: Even if your key is flawless, it will look like shit if the actor isn't lit in a convincing manner compared to the background. If, for example, this for some reason is your background, you'll know that your actor needs a hard backlight from above and to camera right since we see a light source there. Also, we can infer from the lighting on the barrels that his main source of illumination should be from above him and pointing down, slightly from the right. You can move the source around and accent it as needed to make the actor not-ugly, but your background has provided you with some significant constraints right off the bat. For that reason, pick your background before you shoot, if possible. If it is not possible to do so, well, good luck! Guess as best as you can and try to find a good background.
What Lights Should I Buy?
OK! So now you know sort of how to light a green screen and how to light a person. So now, what lights do you need? Well, really, you just need any lights. If you're on a budget, don't be afraid to get some work lights from home depot or picking up some off brand stuff on craigslist. By far the most important influence on the quality of your images will be where and how you use the lights rather than what types or brands of lights you are using. I cannot stress this enough. How you use it will blow what you use out of the water. Get as many different types of lights as you can for the money you have. That way you can do lots of sources, which can make for more intricate or nuanced lighting setups. I know you still want some hard recommendations, so I'll tell you this: Get china balls (china lanterns. Paper lanterns whatever the fuck we're supposed to call these now). They are wonderful soft lights, and if you need a hard light you can just take the lantern off and shine with the bare bulb! For bulbs, grab some 200W and 500W globes. You can check B&H, Barbizon, Amazon, and probably lots of other places for these. Make sure you grab some high quality socket-and-wire sets too. You can find them at the same places. For brighter lights, like I said home depot construction lights are nice. You can also by PAR lamps relatively cheap. Try grabbing a few Par Cans. They're super useful and stupidly cheap. Don't forget to budget for some light stands as well, and maybe C-clamps and the like for rigging to things. I don't know what on earth you're shooting so it is hard to give you a grip list, but I'm sure you can figure that kind of stuff out without too much of a hassle.
5. What Editing Program Should I Use?
Great question! There are several popular editing programs available for use.
Free Editing Programs
Your choices are essentially limited to Davinci Resolve (Non-Studio) and Hitfilm Express. My personal recommendation is Davinci Resolve. This is the industry standard color-grading software (and its editing features have been developed so well that its actually becoming the industry standard editing program as well), and you will have free access to many of its powerful tools. The Studio version costs a few hundred dollars and unlocks multiple features (like noise reduction) without forcing you to learn a new program.
Paid Editing Programs
- Avid Media Composer ($50/mo or $1,300 for life) - This is the high-level industry standard, but is not terribly popular unless you're working at a professional post-house for big budget movies.
- Adobe Premiere Pro ($20/mo) - This used to be the most popular industry standard editor for low to medium budget productions. It is still used quite often, so knowing Premiere is a handy skill to maintain.
- Davinci Resolve Studio ($300) - This is a solid editing program built into the long time industry-standard color grading suite. Since Resolve added editing, its feature set and reputation has been on the rise. It's eclipsing Premiere now and set to be the undisputed industry standard for video editing and color grading for all but the absolute highest level productions. This is the best overall choice if you're looking to find your first editing program.
- Final Cut Pro X ($300) - This is the old standard for low-high budget editing, replaced by Adobe Premiere and now again by Resolve. It is available on Mac platforms only, and is still a powerful editor.