How many of you have shot a movie?

Owen said:
If you don't shoot your script then you'll certainly not have distribution. While a star in front of or behind your camera helps, it is not going to make or break your career. Worrying about whether anyone will watch your film and not doing anything at all will break your career.
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Well said. :thumbsup:
 
Wow. Allow me to show off my Pollyanna pigtails a second and say that I'm not in this to become famous, win a statue, or make love to centerfolds on a shed-load of cash. Although I entertain those possibilities (wait...hold on...), the reason I'm here is because I can't do anything else. I've tried, but I'll sell dog food door to door and wear a dorito's bag for underwear if it allows me to create good stories.
Of course, I want to make money doing this, but only so I can devote all my time and whimsy to keep doing this.
Shoot, brothers and sisters, shoot. Fortune favors the bold! We worry too much about staying in line and what's gonna happen next. Sure, be realistic and have foresight, but temper it with just doin' your thing. And then when all else fails...um...uh...what the hell am I talking about?

Besties,

Mischief
 
i shot 1 feature, many shorts and docu's (also full length docus)
AND
this month, in the age of HD.. im about to shoot another feature with it!

and just as note, i really wish the new HVX will be for HD, what the DVX is for SD...
 
need to add, in the spirit of the discussion, the 2 features were/are extremely low budget. no celeries
 
Blaine said:
We shot a feature last August and are just finishing up our post production now. We hope to be done in 2-3 weeks.
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awesome Blaine would like to see it, any opening nite on that?
 
Owen said:
Distribution outlets are not clogged! More opportunities are opening every day, especially with the advent of broadband, podcasting, and on-demand video. Distributors are buying things up constantly. I went to MIPCOM last fall and you would be amazed at the crap people were buying!

If you don't shoot your script then you'll certainly not have distribution. While a star in front of or behind your camera helps, it is not going to make or break your career. Worrying about whether anyone will watch your film and not doing anything at all will break your career.
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I always talked about making a film, this and that and never did anything. So last year I decided to break that cycle and shoot my first feature, principal photography lasted 9 days, spent 3 grand and it took me 3 months to do post work.

now the film is finished, it's not the best film ever but it's not the worst. However something valuable came out of it, the experience, dealing with problems and all that good stuff.

I am in the middle of production of my second feature, i am not making the mistakes I made in the first one and feel more confident as a writer/director and even though neither the first or second film will win the oscar for best foreign film, I am having a lot of fun.

My suggestion to anyone who wants to make a film is to make it, you don't have enough money, cut corners where you can, don't expect to be the next filmmaker that makes it big with his first film, just keep making films and you will get where you want to go.

Edwin
 
CineMischief said:
...make love to centerfolds on a shed-load of cash...
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See? Now THAT's a plot for a commercial movie, if ever there was one.

Oh, wait... Are you talking about the models, or the actual centerfold pages of a magazine? Think of the papercuts!:2vrolijk_08:
 
I've made a dozen sketch comedy films and other various types of shorts. I've sort of made a feature, but it's nothing that was serious or meant to be a feature, just a 48 minute long art film/sketch comedy type thing. I'm writing something longer around the same concept. I'll probably shoot it for fun, and maybe as a personal challenge.
 
Yes

Yes

Distribution outlets are not clogged! More opportunities are opening every day, especially with the advent of broadband, podcasting, and on-demand video. Distributors are buying things up constantly. I went to MIPCOM last fall and you would be amazed at the crap people were buying!

If you don't shoot your script then you'll certainly not have distribution. While a star in front of or behind your camera helps, it is not going to make or break your career. Worrying about whether anyone will watch your film and not doing anything at all will break your career.
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Yes, you have a good point, and as JohnMilton said, experience. I agree.
 
I'm just finishing our ditribution deal on our DVX-shot first feature. We're also editing a short shot on the DVX. But I agree with the poster who says her probably won't do another feature with the DVX. It's great for first efforts but you do limit yourself commercially when you opt out of using film or HD. Our film playyed over twenty film festivals and every time the footage was projected on those 30 - 50-foot screens, I cringed. 720x480 just is not enough resolution for the big screen. The limited color space of DVD also made for challenging post, as the imager can only handle so much manipulation without breaking down. But get to work, shoot your feature. The worst thing that will happen is you will only have spent a year or so learning what it akes to make a film. But if you can put togetheer a team of perhaps four people, one to write/direct, one to handle technical/DP, another to produce/handle paperwork and one to do promotion/website/festivals then it is entirely possible to make a film on the cheap with this camera. Good luck. Oh, and one last thing. THE most important thing is script, but immediately after that is actors. It will not work without good actors with some experience, preferably SAG actors if you can get them.
 
no features for me yet.

Filmed 2 short films on my DVX now. One short on the Canon XL1s. And a Doc on my DVX.
 
Just finished my first feature, Vigilantes. now just trying to get it out there... you can check out the trailer at: vigilantesmovie.com

SmithHouse
 
3 "big" shorts about 15 minutes
10 (or more) "little" shorts about 3-6 minutes
2 music video (only one, but with 2 very different cut)
now making a new music video
and several 3D animation, they are a few sec long

very low budget, and with miniDV and D8 cameras
 
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I shot a 50 minute flick with my dvx last summer. Plus I shot a short (7+ minutes) which I was going to submit to the sci-fi fest but changed my mind--I didn't want to cut it to six minutes. It was perfect at 7 minutes. But I agree with DVXSan Diego about the limits of the dvx. It was a great experience shooting my first project with it, and I'm still shooting shorts; however, I think I'm moving on to film (super 8) to shoot future projects. Better resolution, more lattitude, superior to video all around.
 
I DP'ed a feature 2 summers ago.

After 15 years of saying no to dramatic stuff, I liked the script. I always thought it took toooo long & not enough money. Well, I was way right on both, but the movie was in 4 festivals and is being pick up'd by Magnolia (sorry I said Lion's Gate before). So all is well ….

So it is a pain for little cash, but if you have it in your blood then Go forth and Be Mary !!

Good Luck !!!

Steve

survivingtherush.com
 
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The guys who shot the Broken short proport to have made plenty distributing their DVD to the masses. They sell at around fifteen to twenty dollars a piece... and this is just a short.

It was shot on a DVX. Goes to show you that if you want to, and I mean you REALLY want to... you can.

I can't wait to shoot my first DVX short. Time to get my hands dirty!
 
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