Complete Newbie in Need of Advice

M

MLouie

New member
Hi there,

I just joined recently (as you can probably tell) and I'm an NYC-based actor who is interested in making my own material. I've been talking to a lot of of my classmates about making our own material but the big problem is pretty much the fact that none of us are knowledgeable in everything when it comes to making a film.

I know it isn't easy and I have done my research (researching all the types of cameras, sound equipment, lighting, etc. makes my head spin after a few hours haha) but I figured it'd be best to ask those who are "well-versed" on the topic, so I guess I have a few questions:

- Where do I start? All this info is so overwhelming (we have a script and ideas, but in terms of equipment)

- Considering we have all of our cast and I'd try to film during the daylight to use natural lighting to save on lighting equipment (is that smart?), what is the bare minimum you think I would need to make a reel-worthy short film (so it looks quality)?

- How much do you think that would cost (if I planned to rent) to produce a short film, no fees to enter a festival or anything?

- Any other tips I should know of.

Considering I'm probably less knowledgeable than anyone on this forum, any info is greatly appreciated, even if it seems obvious (cause I bet you it isn't to me).

Thanks again for reading this and feel free to message me if you'd like!!!
 
I'll go first. There's nothing wrong with wanting to create your own material, but, here's the bad news---you can't shortcut your way to good production values/professional quality work. The long and the short of it is that if you want to make something that "looks quality" (your words), you will have to learn to use cameras properly, learn to light well (or, as you said, use daylight creatively to work around artifical lighting, which is still an art form in and of itself), learn how to do proper location audio. All those things factor into what is commonly called "quality." Where to start? Take classes, watch tutorials, read books on all those topics I just mentioned. It will take a while and there's just no way around it, if you're doing it yourselves. The other option would be to come up with the money to hire professional crew people to do all those tasks for you and only handle the writing/directing yourselves.

Speaking of money, if doing it yourself, the learning curve is not something you can simply throw money at. . .the best camera, best lights, best mics in the world still won't create good looking/sounding material unless you know how to use all that stuff properly.
 
Perhaps watch some film-making tips from youtube, try out some of the most used filming techniques and start small! Do a minute long short film before jumping into anything longer! You'll get better by making. And try to have fun while doing it. :smile:
 
^^^^^^^^^^

Yeah, that. (EDIT: BOTH of those.)

Good quality comes from technique. Tools make it easier to employ technique, but technique is the key, not the tools.

Where to start? Different people will tell you different things. Some will say start with shot composition. Some will say start with lighting. Some will say start with sound, because you can have the greatest visuals in the world, and they'll be ruined if your sound is terrible. (It was kind of funny that the live broadcast of "The SOUND of Music" on NBC had such terrible sound, and that made it very hard to watch.)

Others will say not to bother until you have a great script, because if your content is excellent, you can be forgiven for shortcomings in other areas -- which is somewhat true.

Even others will tell you just to make a film, and figure out everything you can do better from it, like a game tape.

There's value in all of those approaches, because you (meaning you and the people who work with you) have to get it ALL right at some point.

But the question is, how do YOU learn best? Do you learn best by breaking something down into its smallest pieces, learning each, and then assembling them into a whole? Or do you learn best by applying broad strokes and then learning the individual details?

There's no right or wrong answer there. Different people absorb information differently.

If you're more of a break-it-down person, pick a basic topic. Do not worry about anything else but that -- keep everything else out of your mind and concentrate only on that small thing. Learn it. Then move on to the next topic, building off the previous one.

If you're more of a broad-strokes person, there are a few things you can do, a few very broad "rules" you can follow to get you in the ballpark quickly (our tutorials in my sig below start out with them), and then it's the details which really take things into greatness.

Of course, you can do both, sort of -- start with the broad strokes and then pick a topic to learn more in detail. It all depends on how YOU learn best.

But the thing to remember -- it's not the TOOLS which make you. It's the technique. The very LAST thing you need to be worrying about right now is which camera to use. ANYTHING out there now will work. Trying to sift through the minutiae of why one camera is "better" than another is a task for a much, much later day, when you know enough about all of it to understand what the differences even are and how they'll affect your images. So put all of that out of your mind. Get A camera, ANY camera, and use it; that's all you need to know about that at the moment.
 
Thanks for the input so far guys! I know I should have expected it, I definitely know that even with the best equipment and the most money, it won't get you anywhere.

I know classes are probably something I'd rather not do right now considering I'm so new that I probably wouldn't even understand all of that, are there any good books you recommend? I'll definitely take a look at those links in your signature David and I'm going to continue looking stuff up as I have been for some time.

I noticed you mentioned just grabbing a camera and use it, which I think is a good idea (I'm best at hands on learning as opposed to visual or audio personally) but what should I be looking for when I just go and "use it." I mean, I'm sure I could see stuff when I view it but anything in particular? This is definitely a long process and I don't expect to get anywhere soon (no matter how much I'd like too)...
 
There are so many (good) books out there on the subject that instead of recommending something rather general, I'll list the books that have helped me the most:

The five c´s of cinematography - Joseph J. Mascaselli
Make your own damn movie - Lloyd Kaufman
Directing actors - Judith Weston
Motion picture and video lighting - Blain Brown
Designing for screen - Georgina Shorter
On directing film - David Mamet

But like I said, these were the books that spoke to me the most. The books that you'll find interesting will most likely differ. But these are the ones that I can recommend! And the dvd's that Jim and Barry have done, from what I can tell, look great!
 
MLouie said:
I noticed you mentioned just grabbing a camera and use it, which I think is a good idea (I'm best at hands on learning as opposed to visual or audio personally) but what should I be looking for when I just go and "use it." I mean, I'm sure I could see stuff when I view it but anything in particular? This is definitely a long process and I don't expect to get anywhere soon (no matter how much I'd like too)...
Click to expand...

Just a suggestion: find images you like -- from movies, or whatever -- and try to copy them. If what you do doesn't match, figure out the differences and get rid of those differences. Shoot something every single day. And then, study it thoroughly. Do things from several different angles or do something different in between shots so you can take note of what you did differently and how it affected the image.
 
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