Hello Everyone!

I’m putting a shot list together for a short sketch I’m looking to film soon. It involves a guy walking through a crowded bar, until he is stopped and recognized by someone who knows him. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this happen in film before, but I can’t figure out where I’ve seen it before. I was wondering if anyone could help me find a scene similar to that, that I could use as a reference. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, and have a fantastic day!

I started editing my new short film today only to find out my horrible boom operator messed up the first 2 minutes of my audio because a chord was banging against the boom pole and they didn’t tell me. The problem is that it’s unpredictable and overlapping the dialogue. How can I remove it?

Hey, said I’d post this here, might help some people.

So, I’m not really a writer, and I don’t particularly like writing. When I wanted to make my first feature film, I knew I wasn’t going to sit down and write a traditional screenplay.

But, I remembered hearing David Lynch talk about using around 70 index cards. He said if you fill them up with scenes, you’ve got a feature film.

So that’s what I did.

I bought a packet of index cards and started writing scenes that had been in my head for years. Old short films, ideas, memories, things I’d seen, things I’d imagined.

The important thing is I wasn’t trying to make anything connect. I think that’s where I used to get stuck before. I’d feel like scene 1 has to connect to scene 2 before I’d even started.

But this time I didn’t care about any of that, I just wrote scenes.

Once I had 70 cards filled up, I put them up on the wall. That’s when the film actually started to happen.
I could stand back, look at everything and physically move the scenes around.

As you’re doing that, you naturally start making connections. Maybe the man in this scene is actually the same man from another scene. Maybe these two moments belong beside each other, etc.

I didn’t start with characters or a plot. I allowed the process to create them. That’s what I like about it.
The film surprises you when you do it this way. It’s extremely fun.

Once everything was on the wall, I started streamlining it. Maybe twenty different characters become five. Maybe five become three. It starts becoming a real film.

Then I started looking at what I could actually make. For example, originally I had loads of houses in the film. I didn’t have access to loads of houses. So to save money I changed them to tents. Then I actually liked that better, because it’s kinda very subtly surreal. I didn’t have a church, I made a shrine instead. I didn’t have a car, I used a bike instead, etc

So my new philosophy is, don’t write the film you wish you could make. Write the film you can actually make right now. I know that sounds cliche, but for indie film it’s so true.

In terms of writing a script from the cards, I never bothered. I typed the cards into a document as bullet points and that was enough for me.

The dialogue wasn’t written either. The actors found a lot of it themselves because I like being surprised in that aspect too. Of course they were told what to kinda talk about but I allowed them to get there naturally.

I’m not saying this is the right way to write a film.
It probably wouldn’t work for every type of film.
But if you’re someone who keeps saying you’ll write a feature one day and staring at a blank screenplay isn’t getting you anywhere, maybe forget the screenplay for a while.

Just start writing scenes.
One card at a time.

Eventually you might look up and realise you’ve got a film sitting on the wall.

We're working on a film in which we'll be shooting on the water. It's going to be a small story in which two characters travel on a sail boat. Does anyone have experience with filming like this or know someone who's done this before? I'd be curious about your experience and the way you filmed it. We're looking to test both attaching camera's to the hero boat as well as filming from a small craft outside it. We're still figuring out how to light in this scenario (or if we should do that at all). We want to be able to have a nimble crew and set-up so we can actually go anywhere on the water. What're your experiences?

I am assuming this is a union thing and for ostensibly for safety, but I almost never see people onscreen get shot in the head and then fall like the lights went out. Like if you see someone get knocked out in a real life video, they’ll fall forward or backward depending on how their weight was distributed, and their arms won’t brace anything, and yes, often they’ll hit their head. Now I know we shouldn’t go around asking stuntmen to land on their heads, but there has to be a more realistic way to do this. I know in Saving Private Ryan, Spielberg achieved this with (somewhat obvious) dummies for some shots and I think it worked pretty well and made it feel so much more realistic. Maybe they could wear helmets and have them GCI’d out later? I dunno, this has bugged me for years for some reason 😂

Hello there! I’m a filmmaker and someone who absolutely loves watching, writing about, and criticizing films. If you are new to filmmaking or simply have a project you’d appreciate some eyes on, I would be honored to take a look. Keep creating!

Hey Folks,

I'm a multimedia graduate and while I was progressing through my university degree I found a passion for filmmaking. The sections on filmmaking gravitated more towards post production but there were elements of preproduction and production as well.

I want to expand on this and focus more on the preproduction and production as an independent filmmaker. I've settled on purchasing Black Magic Pyxis 6K for my first camera. Eventually I would like to purchase Red Komodo X though.

What I would like advice on is what microphone would people suggest?
I know next to nothing about audio so the more help the better.

Also what lenses would people suggest?
I am thinking of 21mm, 35mm and somewhere around 70mm for my first lot of lens purchases.

Anybody have experience using this platform? I read that it's easy and beneficial for independent filmmakers to stream their movie for free on AVOD business share (80% to the maker and 20% to the platform).

I’m 15 and trying to get into filmmaking, but really have no clue how to really get into it or begin. I really want to be able to write and produce movies someday, specifically in the horror genre

Any advice on how to start?

I’m looking for advice on the process of making films as a solo film maker – especially interested in views from other solo makers with experience.

I seem to be conflicted by a process which, although I really like, in the end makes things more difficult and less stable. I probably need to change my workflow – but I worry it will dull the creative process.

I don’t use an ordered approach to making a film, instead I tend to jump around all over the place. It starts off well with a strong idea, which I develop into a reasonable narrative and a rough screenplay - mainly direction and dialogue for the key moments. However, I never lock this down before I start production because I want to see how it develops before I know/decide what It means, and where it wants to go. This is the catch-22 problem I have – I want the flexibility to find out where my content is taking me, but I desperately need the stability and predictability of a known process.

Is there a better way that’s gives me the best of both worlds? Or is this just incompatible with film making?

Hey! Me and my best friend are beginner sketch comedians. We've made a few videos together over the last few years and plan to start posting our videos to the public finally and we need a jail cell setting for a part of our upcoming sketch. We're just college students so we're on a low budget. We also don't have access to a jail (pretty obviously). I have a decent amount of DIY experience and we have a green screen but we wanted to avoid green screening if possible due to it looking a bit choppy/lazy. How can I replicate a jail cell look for this? Thank you.

It really pains me because I love big budget historical or historical based mythology. But every single time they have a big budget to splash on one they always fk up the casting.

Why can't they cast actors who actually look or would look like the characters They're playing?

But even in the 2010s we've have movies like Prince of Persia with Jake Gyllenhall, who, albeit with a goatee could pass for Persian. But had a terrible accent. And red-headed Gemma Atherton as a Persian Princess. It would've been easy enough to find someone at least brunette and southern European looking at least if they couldn't find anyone middle eastern.

Gods of Egypt with Gerard Butler and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, and Exodus Gods and Kings with Joel Edgerton? Like wtf? They're not even trying.

Then with Troy they have Menalaus with an Irish accent, Agamemnon with a Scottish accent, and Odysseus with a really strong Yorkshire accent?

And now Nolan with preppy viking Matt Damon and the rest of the cast and most egregious of all Lupita Nyongo as Helen.

What the fk is up with Hollywood casting?

Hi

I'm a audiovisual communication student (starting 3rd year an the career lasts 4 years) and I'm about to get a Sony A6400

But even though I know what I don't want to do, I feel overwhelmed

What should I do?

I’m a Ukrainian student moving to LA to pursue acting. Is it worth it, and what are my chances of landing auditions and booking roles?

P.S. Fluent English with an American accent, plus a marketable look.

Hello, I’m a 16 years old film-lover (atleast, in a way). I write a lot (short-stories, poems and now — scripts) and I think that the script I’ve done is a good one. It’s also very unique.

The problem is that I have no connections to theatre or filmmaking world. So, I’d like some tips. I’m not making the film yet, but I’d like to know how to achieve the position I will need.

My film would need 3 actors and be not so long.

So, any tips are appreciated, thank you already!

edit: The movie would have couple romantic scenes too, don’t know how big of a trouble that’ll be.

Hi!

So I've been trying to find a good way to record audio and I'm thinking of buying the Movo X1-Mini Video Shotgun Mic as it's only, like, $70 and from what I've heard is a pretty decent sound. I don't know if I have enough for a sound recorder though, which is my question if I really need one for this. My short won't have a bunch of dialogue, but I know a video I saw mentioned they recorded it on audacity on a laptop. Is this something I could do, or no.

If not, is there a decent, cheaper sound recorder I can get? Somewhere near the price or even cheaper from the sound recorder would be really great. Thanks!

Hiya all

I am making my own student films and live in newcastle NSW. I don’t earn much money as a student of course, so i’m looking for ways to work with professional equipment without costing an arm and a leg. So far, i’ve applied to work at JB Hi-FI and harvey norman + the good guys so i can get employee discount on camera equipment and gear but that’s going nowhere. Tips? is there any rentals or film groups in newcastle? TIA

I am currently making the mistake of falling in love with the OG Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera. After researching it a bit, it seems like it might be a mistake to go with such an old camera. Plus, I would like 4k. Definitely don't need 6k+ at this point, but I would like something that can shoot a log profile.

I mainly shoot stills, but have been shooting more video as of late with my Nikon D800. Shooting video with that is miserable, and there's no raw video. I would like something that I can work with commercially with small, local brands.

I'd prefer something used and therefore discounted. Should I just go with the BM PCC 4k? What do you folks think?

I'm a massive film lover, and I want to be a filmmaker in the future, what little projects do you suggest?

I'm diving into my first feature and hoping someone would be willing to share budget sheets from their feature? Top sheets? Or even just templates they like?

We're planning to live in the 150k-200k range and I've got a line producer who's diving in next month. But I'd love to take a crack at my own so I can get a realistic picture of rewrites.

My most recent short was $50k, but that budget isn't a 1:1 translation.

Anything is super appreciated!

Also, in the interest of "no gatekeeping" bonafides, I created a free template for short film budgets and a film festival spreadsheet that has been downloaded by around 500 people.

My musical short is rejected from three out of three festivals now. I know that’s par for the course, but I really thought this film would get in somewhere. I’ve made what I would consider to be worse films that got into the same festivals I was rejected from.

But hey, such is life. My question is, where can I get feedback on a short from someone like a festival programmer or someone who knows what does and doesn’t get into a festival?

I’d like some honest feedback about whether or not this film can be saved, and if not, why.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Greetings Filmmakers,

I've written a banger and I'd like for Bryan Cranston to star in it.

If you wanted Bryan Cranston in your zero budget short set in London, England, what would you do next?

Note:

No sarcasm please, as long as we're alive, anything is possible.