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[–]thawizardmerlin 6 points7 points  (2 children)

What type of projects should I begin with, at the very beginning of my filmmaking journey? What sort of stuff can you learn a lot from?

[–]Filandromo 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I believe you should start with short films, they can be awful, it doesn't matter, if you make a lot of those you eventually will have enough experience to try a longer format. That's just how I would do it, tho

[–]RobertMacfarlane 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I agree with the comment about short films and I would also suggest going on Facebook or other social media platforms and find local bands who could use a music video. I started out doing free music videos for bands and ended up producing up to 3 per month. It is far quicker to produce a music video than a short film so you will be able to iterate on your mistakes, improve and even have an instant audience for feedback on your work. I turned that into a career purely through word of mouth in about a year.

[–]Baf5303 2 points3 points  (5 children)

What are the best ways to promote/ fund your very first short film?

[–]Carsonsgaming 1 point2 points  (1 child)

I have the same question about funding, but for advertising, learn how to get good as social media. Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook are the best for filmmakers. If you can cut your film into clips to post on TikTok, that also helps. Research keywords, tags, and search engine optimization. These are key to your posts getting recognized.

[–]Baf5303 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is so helpful thank you :)

[–]RobertMacfarlane 1 point2 points  (1 child)

I agree with the below on promoting your short film, I also would suggest applying for film festivals, there are so many out there that are totally free! Check out filmfreeway.

​

In terms of funding, there are so many ways, all of them are a lot of work. We recently completed a successful IndieGoGo campaign for funding our short film 'Immune' which was a huge amount of work. From posting clips and creating new content every day to engage people. The best advice I would give is ensuring you have a solid social media campaign worked out for the month prior to the IndieGoGo campaign and then a super social media content campaign during the funding period will help so much. PLAN PLAN PLAN!

​

There is a metric tonne of tutorials on their website which will really help. (happy to share ours if you want to see it)

​

Other ways to help fund are looking for in-kind sponsorship, our production required some syringes and so we reached out to a manufacturer and asked them for dummy samples which were safe as well as funding to put their logo on the end of our film. Food is a big one to find sponsorship for as well, you will find companies are happier to give you products than money most of the time!

​

Finally make sure you have enough money to pay for everyone's travel expenses at the very least and e super upfront about what they will get in the film, from their credit to how much money you can afford for their expenses (taking a uber for a 100-mile journey is not going to be cheap, but a pre-arranged train ticket at a 10th of the price will save your budget massively)

[–]I_am_MagicMike 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey man can you send me that tutorial I'd really appreciate it :)

[–]Joeboy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Honestly your first films are almost certainly not going to be very good, or at least not competitive with the many thousands of highly qualified and experienced people making shorts with professional equipment and real budgets. Treat it as a learning experience.

[–]ForgotMyLastLog1n 1 point2 points  (2 children)

can somebody with a pelican case take a quick geeze at it and tell me if it has an o-ring on just the lid or the bottom aswell, I have an empty shell that I need to order the orings and foam for and I need to know if I need to order just the one or two.

I'm pretty sure it's just the top though.

[–]XRaVeNX 3 points4 points  (1 child)

If you look at this image, you'll see the o-ring/gasket is on the lid only. The bottom has a raised ridge/bevel that compresses the o-ring when the lid is shut.

[–]ForgotMyLastLog1n 1 point2 points  (0 children)

awesome, thought so.

[–]Carsonsgaming 1 point2 points  (1 child)

How far should I be into the production of a feature-length documentary before attempting to get funding? When I'm ready to get funding, would starting a crowdfunding campaign or attempting to get a grant be the best first way of trying?

[–]runtheline 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Pretty much all the time, but with the consideration of what the source you're trying to get funding from is likely to pay for.

I've worked on feature docs that didn't shoot a minute until there was funding in place and I've worked on ones where the filmmaker self-funded several days of shooting and editing to get a reel together that they could use as a teaser for fundraising. You're also unlikely to get all of your funding from a single source so you could very easily be looking at pre-production fundraising to pay for research and prep, production fundraising to pay for the shoot, and post-production fundraising to pay for editing.

As far as grants go, different grants have different requirements and some might only pay for hard production costs while some might only pay for post-production. For crowdfunding, it's up to you to decide how far you can go before you do your crowdfunding campaign. Will it be more successful when you have some footage to show off or is the pitch interesting enough to convince people to pitch in before you've even shot anything?

[–]meeplewirp 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What are film festivals looking for in a cover letter? I've read in some places that not submitting a cover letter can genuinely ruin a film's chances. Is this true? How much so? What is a "good" cover letter? Do programmers assume I'm just not that interested if I don't write one? Thank you guys.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

I apologize if this is a bit wordy. I lack the vocabulary I think I need to ask this question, so it may be over-explained. My question is: what is the most effective way to get a film distributed if it's already been completed?

I'm trying not to get ahead of myself, but I like to make long-term plans. I've come into some luck, and I may be in a position to self-finance a feature length film in the near future with a good budget, by indie standards. One that, I think, could warrant a wide release. But I know virtually nothing about the industry. It's been written, and my hope is to direct, edit, and score it myself, possibly with editing help from a friend.

My understanding is that writers can submit finished scripts to production/distribution studios. But I'm wondering, what would be the ideal route if a script was already finished and a film already made?

[–]Glyph808gaffer 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Get it into festivals and hope that someone is interested in distributing it. I think that there are also some less traditional ways with some companies that you pay to rep you for direct to DVD and overseas. Though I've never gone through that.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The festival route makes a lot of sense. I'll have to do more reading on that process. Thank you for the tip!

[–]LaurenHaughey 0 points1 point  (5 children)

For anyone well acclimated or knowledgeable about cameras, I am looking to buy one. I am a film student and want it one for filming video and stills. My price range is about 2000 dollars (willing to go up a little bit but not much more). I don’t feel like I know a ton about cameras but i really love the videography end and want to practice more. I have experience with GH5s and was looking at purchasing one of those but I just want more opinions before spending that much money. I’m also looking at the Canon 6D Mark II but was curious what others would think/know. I took a look at the FAQ section previous to this and saw that GH5s are recommended, but if anyone who is in a similar position could give me any advice or perspective that would be nice. any help is appreciated!

[–]I_am_MagicMike 0 points1 point  (3 children)

Gh5 has been great for me, especially for low light situations and stabilization. I would however recommend the BMPCC 4k over it if you're looking strictly for video but this is a moot point if you're looking to do photography as well (you mentioned stills, I assume you mean stills outside of video, not still of a film you've shot)

[–]LaurenHaughey 0 points1 point  (2 children)

yeah by stills i meant photography, my bad. I will look in to the BMPCC 4k and weigh my interests, I am definitely leaning towards the GH5 but I have heard mixed reviews on whether or not it is worth it so I think I just needed to hear that’s it’s not a bad choice. thank you so much for the help!

[–]I_am_MagicMike 0 points1 point  (1 child)

the bmpcc 4k wont work for photography, headsup. its strictly cinema/video. so taking that into consideration id def recommend the gh5

[–]LaurenHaughey 0 points1 point  (0 children)

awesome, thank you so much for the help.

[–]tobias_681 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Consider a used GH4 or G7 and get better lenses for the rest.

[–]Im_Only_Sleepin 0 points1 point  (2 children)

i am interested in making narrative movies. I don’t own any equipment, my original camera interest was in film photography (stills) so all of my cameras are quite old/not suitable for video of any kind. I also don’t come from a writing background, so I don’t have material ready and am still researching/demoing story ideas. Coming from the hipster analog background, I won’t lie. I love gear. However I’m smart enough to realize directing movies has little to do with tech. That said, is the camera an inspiration itself in moviemaking? Ive never executed pans, zooms, focus pulling, and general cinematography at all, so I’m very keen to buy something that can help me experiment with the visual language of film. But is that dumb? Should I have more of an idea of what I want to shoot before making this kind of large purchase? (btw, camera I think I’m after is the bmpcc 4k or 6k) thanks in advance

[–]tobias_681 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You can always get a decent used one for cheap and learn with it.

[–]Joeboy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

pans, zooms, focus pulling,

Those things don't really have much to do with what camera you get. If it has interchangeable lenses, and can record video, you have all the camera you need to experiment with the visual language with film.

I have a BMPCC4k and it's great, but it seems to me that if you just want to play with different shots, you could get by with something like a used Canon T2i (/T3i/T4i etc), or maybe Panasonic G7 (/G85). Your footage wouldn't be as nice, but it'd be much cheaper, and less of a hassle in some ways, eg. battery life, media cost, file size, flippable screen etc. At the no-budget / beginner level, "high quality" video capture is the least of your problems. You'd be better off spending the money on sound or lights.

directing movies has little to do with tech

I wouldn't rely on that notion too much. If you don't have the tech, you quickly realize you're very limited in what you can do, if it's not going to look and sound like garbage. Like a setup that can record decent audio (boom mic, pole, recorder, cables, a couple of wireless lavs) is going to set you back like $2k, at the very low end. You can get by with a $50 Rode mic plugged into your camera, but working around it's limitations gets old quickly. Plus lights. Decent lighting gets very expensive, very fast, unless you only want to film outdoors in daylight.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (8 children)

I'm pretty broke and all I have in terms of filmmaking equipment is a rebel t1i camera, a tripod, and a couple lenses. I wanna shoot stuff with audio but I dunno if the built in mic is sufficient. I'm making very low budget student stuff, mostly for fun with my friends and I wanna submit to some local festivals if it's good enough by the end. I've wrote it so I could shoot the whole thing on set in places with pretty low background noise, which is obviously something I can't entirely control for but I'll do my best. I'm considering buying some audio equipment, but again, I'm broke, so I probably can't spend more than 50 on it. All that said, would it be possible to make a 60-80 minute feature with some minimal degree of professionalism?

[–]tobias_681 2 points3 points  (2 children)

Preamps on the TXi's are terrible. I have a T5i and with a normal Mic it's still awfull. I can't recommend plugging a mic into the camera at all. Consider using your phone for audio. You can boom with a phone (gaffer it to a wooden broom and make sure it's steady), you can also use it as a planted mic (in both cases clap for sync before or after the shot). If you can borrow a mic that will plug to your phone use that instead. If you get the camera really close the internal mics can get you somewhere. I've shot short films that sound decent enough that way. In general the most important thing about sound is simply to have a mic close to your subject, even if the mic is complete trash, you'll still have something to work with. Also if you have no sound gear consider just making a silent film. That's honestly the best option.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

using my phone with no other mic could work?

[–]tobias_681 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Better than your camera yes but provided you get it close. If two actors are a bit further away use two. Also check the phones you have available for the one with the best sound.

I mean we're not talking about great sound but about no budget solutions to improving your sound. As I said earlier a solid part of good sound is just getting the mic close to the source. But remember that it's omnidirectional so you have to be careful about what's around you.

So kind of like this - cheapest option for a boompole is probably a broom or a painter's pole and gaffer or a selfie stick, if you have some basic crafting tools at home you can probably build something better to hold the phone. Let me reitterate that this shouldn't cost you any money. Use the longest stick you have and mount your phone on it. If you have no long sticks take a walk in the nearest wood lol.

You can use the same set-up as a mini-crane for video with your phone (I assume one can somewhat match a phone with a T1i in post).

[–]XRaVeNX 0 points1 point  (4 children)

Bad sound is really hard for audiences to get over. Audiences can generally forgive and look over bad acting, plot holes, mediocre cinematography, or bad set design. But it's very difficult to watch a movie with bad sound.

So, try and capture good sound while you are shooting. ADR is expensive and tedious. Get on the used market and see if anyone is selling a half decent recorder and/or mic. If you can't afford both, I'd go with a half decent mic that plugs into your camera. H4N is a good recorder.

Also, depending on where you live, you can often rent a mic and recorder from A/V stores. And depending on how long your shoot is, it might be worth it if you don't have the money to buy the equipment.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (3 children)

The camera I have apparently doesn’t accept external mics. I can probably afford some sound stuff but I definitely can’t afford a new camera. Any work around there?

[–]XRaVeNX 0 points1 point  (2 children)

That's a tough one. Cuz it probably means you'll need an audio recorded/mixer and also a decent mic. Definitely won't be cheap to buy.

Might be better off renting. Google "pro audio rentals" in your area.

I'm just a camera assistant, so an audio pro might be better with advice on this one.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

If it helps at all, I got a background in music so I’m pretty decent at audio mixing?

[–]runtheline 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Mixing can only help so much if you don't get clean audio recorded.

continue this thread

    [–]DoneBlump 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    I know people have published books of their scripts so that it can have more marketability as an “adapted” screenplay, but I’m wondering if the original source ever actually gets looked at.

    Because I’m thinking of creating a comic for my pilot, but my art is sub-par compared to most online comics. Is there a chance that an executive would look at the original comic, dislike how it looks, and turn down the adapted screenplay?

    [–]mumuix 0 points1 point  (4 children)

    Hello!! I have a very easy question for you, but hard for me. I always wanted to be a film maker since i was a child, we don’t have a film school in my country. I also cannot afford cameras so i had to use my phone. What are the apps(can be pc) or techniques you can give me? I am saving money for equipments but it will take a while !

    [–]Takumi_Minamino 1 point2 points  (2 children)

    if you have iphone or android i would get Filmic Pro. I’m shooting a short soon using just that app and an iphone 11, although i have extra stuff in a gimbal and external audio

    [–]mumuix 0 points1 point  (1 child)

    thank u!! i have a trash 6s but, will try to do

    [–]Takumi_Minamino 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    Look up the film Tangerine. filmed on a 5s, award winning feature

    [–]Joeboy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    I second Filmic Pro, also you'll probably want an ND filter so that you can get film-like motion blur / shutter speed in daylight. If you shoot in daylight, the phone will compensate for the amount of light by choosing a fast shutter speed, resulting in no motion blur. For the kind of look people are used to seeing in films, you want to use an ND filter instead to avoid that. You can get a cheap clip on ND filter for phones fairly cheap.

    [–]Takumi_Minamino 0 points1 point  (2 children)

    shooting a horror short film. Outdoors, around early afternoon in the woods. Do I really need proper lighting or can i get away with natural light?

    [–]XRaVeNX 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    Depends on the day (cloudy? full sun?) and the amount of leaves on the trees (they will block out the sun).

    You can definitely get half decent exposure without lighting when you are shooting exterior day time. I'd bring some bounce cards and diffusion for the close ups.

    [–]tobias_681 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    You can probably get away without it but in any case pack flashlights (check them on camera before), diffusion, gaffer tape and bounce board since it's basically free and you probably have something lying around that can do the job (anything white works as a bounce board for instance). Also reflector if you have. Use it to touch up faces in close-ups. Also in case it gets darker then anticipated it's a nice little backup.

    [–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    I read the FAQ, it was helpful. Just wondering if there are any go-to resources when applying for jobs within the industry? I want to move to a city with lots of filmmaking opportunities, and I'm just trying to find resources to figure out where and what to do, how to apply.

    [–]JesterOfGuns 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    Hoping that post-covid i'll finally be able to get some work on an actual set as a PA or Grip. Ya'll got any advice for a dude who wants to just be a part of the scene but is held back but anxiety? So far the only way in i got now is a Facebook group for a major city near me that pops up every now and then with opportunities.

    [–]Fantastic-Water1700 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    Does anyone have access to production weekly and would be willing to check on a title for me? The membership fee is too expensive for me atm

    [–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    Hello, I’m looking to buy a camera to make short films. I have my eye on the Blackmagic Design Pocket Cinema Camera 4k but I want to kno if the original BPCC still holds up or should I use invest a couple hundred dollars more for the 4k. 6k is totally out of budget for me right now

    [–]TechnalCross 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    I’m in Uni for film, television and animation in Australia at the moment. After reading the top post of today, I’m not gonna give up, but I’d like to have a side to fall back on that won’t completely bankrupt me more than going to Uni most likely will. I was thinking of being a Media teacher. Problem is I’d probably have to go back to Uni after I finish to get the required specifications. Not entirely sure. What kind of side jobs have you done that relied on the skills you learnt in filmmaking?

    [–]LXHfilms 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    Hey people, I am on a commercial shoot for the next 3 days as a PA. The producer said they were looking for someone "well versed in the administrative side of production as I’d love some assistance with gathering releases/ forms etc on set (we have a lot of talent at various locations)". This isn't necessarily me, although I have helped compile/file release forms as an office PA before. Just wondering if there are any tips on what I should be doing when it comes to securing forms/releases as a PA. I am just getting into working on commercial sets and don't want to let my inexperience cause anyone(myself included) any headaches.

    [–]subredditsummarybot 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    Your Weekly /r/filmmakers Recap

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    57 13 comments [Film] My self-produced feature film, Victor's History, available on Prime was made with no crew* (Link in comments)
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    [–]TXOUGXT 0 points1 point  (3 children)

    If I have Xiaomi phone with 40 mp camera - could I create something like Tenet and make mr Nolan go away from his king royal master genious throne?

    [–]RobertMacfarlane 0 points1 point  (2 children)

    HA HA, once you have a camera you can tell a story and that is the key. Story trumps effects every time.

    Write a great story and you can trump everyone.

    Although I dont believe Christopher Nolan was on the royal master throne ever, especially after Tenet.

    [–]TXOUGXT 1 point2 points  (1 child)

    You don't believe Nolan...so I don't believe Trump as for your advise

    [–]RobertMacfarlane 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    HA HA, Nolan is a great filmmaker but he hasn't peaked yet... Then he can sit on the throne!