Day 1 on my feature film (consumer camera)

danko said:
Help-i'm Sure I Will Open A Can Of Worms With This Question-but I'm Going To Ask It Anyway. I Have Recently Decided To Look For A Camera And Begin Filming The Stuff I've Been Writing. I Have Absolutely Zero Experience Or Knowledge About Filmmaking And Was Lucky Enough To Happen Upon This Website. My Question Is-for An Absolute Beginner With Intentions Of Experimenting And Feeling My Way Around-what Would Be A Good Beginner Camera For A Reasonable Costs That I Won't Outgrow For A Little While And Would Allow Me To Do My Own Editing? Any And All Help Greatly Appreciated-thanks In Advance!!!!!!!!!!
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LMAO! The funniest **** I've read all day. :thumbsup: :cheesy:
 
Ok, well guys...I've made a decision. It was a hard one. After a lot of thinking and problems and trying to solve everything, I decided to postpone the movie till next summer. I figure, this will give me time to read some books on directing, cinematography, framing, and everything I need to read on filming. This will also give me time to save up to buy a DVX so that this movie can look a lot more like a real film. I don't want to say that I'm a quitter. I hate making this decision. I just feel that if I keep going with this movie now, I will struggle with school, with my hip-hop band that I'm part of, and everything else in my life. I feel like a quitter, but I feel this is the best decision for me as a director and filmmaker to make. I have my oldest sister and her husband backing me up. Everyone else doesn't understand why I am stopping all of a sudden.

Do you guys think this is the wrong choice? It's not rock solid yet because I haven't told any of the actors yet, so I still have time. But what do you guys think? I feel like this is a really good story, and I don't want to make an ok movie and ruin it.

Let me know what you guys think. Peace!
 
And this brings us to this seasons cliff hanger.......:cry:

Join us again next season for " More of the Same".......:undecided

Same bat time, same bat channel.:thumbsup:
 
After reading this entire thread and having a lot of great laughs here is what I will say.

YOU ARE SHOOTING ON DV. Tape is cheap.

Make the movie, finish it. Then over the next year look at the footage. This will give you 1 year of preproduction, plus a moving storyboard. You will be able to plan your shots off the initial footage, and actually get someone to do your DP work since you said that you want to direct. Think about it. Invest some more time, any day of filming is better than a day not filming, and then you're good to go.

Finish it up. Then again you're hip hop band does sound interesting...
 
And by the way, if you plan out your shots and actually go through a preproduction phase, then you are in a much better position.

Something it seems like you are forgetting is that movie making is not about one person. Movie making is a collabrative experience, and you need people with different areas to specialize in.

The other point I want to make requires involvement. As you are reading this, take your right arm and make a fist. Put the fist in front of your face about eight inches away. Now extend your pointer finger so that it points directly up towards the ceiling. Now with your left arm mirror this exact position, but with the pointer finger pointing down, leaving approximately 2" between the tips of the two finger tips. Now Adjust the left arm so that it is two inches behind the right. Now, this is the key part, rotate the left finger around the right finger in a circular motion and repeat "THE WORLD DOES NOT REVOLVE AROUND ME"

If you do this for three hours then you are well on your way to making movies.
 
Ok, well...I really think I should not do it and focus more on hip hop band. I don't have the time to make an "ok" movie. I know even with preproduction my movie probably won't turn out "awesome" but if I'm going to spend all this money and time to this movie, I might as well take more time to make it the best instead of making everything else in my life suffer as well. So that is why I made my decision.

I will still be making short films though. Just for fun stuff you know.
 
Why are you justifying your decision in an online forum? It's up to you to make your choice and you don't need to convince us.

Quitter... :evil:
 
Devils Advocate says "We all a lot of shitty, bad movies in us...it's best to get them out of our system....Christ, this was your first short film! Get this one done and under your belt and learn from it and move on. If you want to reshoot it later great, but finish one short while you're still inspired and have access to the camera, people, location...etc. The hip-hop will be there next week, next month..."
 
All I know is that no one achieves anything by quitting. I have friends who tell stories about:
Yeah I tried to make it in XYZ, tough business.
Dude, you have a camcorder and some people, what do you really have to lose?

Go buy a diary, or a blog page. Rehab is for quitters (and I should know), not a forum to discuss filmmaking
 
maybe it's just me.. but I don't think anyone cares anymore about LuckyProducers plight..... I enjoy the fun running commentary by pookie.... sly and clever as always...bwahahahaha.

If your giving up this easy perhaps you just weren't meant to make films? I dunno I just did a LOT of BLOW.... so I am ****ed out of my mind now.. woooo..



disclaimer: hah.... I can't even afford blow... oy :undecided
 
Yeah, sure. Something that makes you paranoid, gives you a headache and makes it so you can't get a hard-on. That's my idea of a good time.....
 
I'm thinking that once I finish my movie, I'm gonna submit it to pookie for an audio commentary track that will be included on the DVD! :thumbsup:
 
Curtis_Rhoads said:
I'm thinking that once I finish my movie, I'm gonna submit it to pookie for an audio commentary track that will be included on the DVD! :thumbsup:
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Pookie RAW.....

cool:thumbsup:
 
Tim,
If you indeed have bit off more than you can chew, it's okay to step back and try again later. But quitting to spend more time rapping seems to imply that you don't have a lot of commitment to making films, and honestly, that's okay, but if you're looking for somebody to encourage you to quit filmmaking, don't do it on a forum filled with people who love filmmaking (and who have varying degrees of love for hip-hop). It is not wrong to quit this particular project, but if you don't make it through to the end, you will join the ranks of "filmmakers" who have "almost made a film". For a young guy, you have talent, and it looks like your attitude has changed quite a bit as you realize you have a lot to learn. You will learn lots more by doing this project than by reading any of these forums.

Myself and two partners put together a feature and along the way found out how hard it was. We wanted to quit at times, but in the end we had a product that we were happy with. If the people on this thread saw the film, and some of the mistakes we made along the way, we would probably be derided as hacks, but I really think the victory was in finishing. It has encouraged us to make more films together and learn how to do it better next time.

With that in mind, if you want to continue, I have several suggestions:
1) Try to find at least one other person that cares about this project as much as you do. Don't be afraid to share the workload or the credit for the final project.
2) Is there anyway to put together a few scenes that would suffice as a short? It's better to have a completed short than a dozen disjointed scenes.
3) Don't be ashamed if each scene doesn't turn out perfectly or if it doesn't match up to some one else's work (especially those who have done this for their whole lives)
4) Keep filming. Why can't you film when school starts? From what I can tell, many of the people here have day jobs other than filmmaking and get a lot done in evenings and weekends. Do it before you have kids, it's a lot easier to find time!

In summary, if you really want to do films, I would push back the hip-hop until later in the semester. BTW, I really like the new persona. I like that you are getting out there and doing things instead of asking question after question. I think the right balance should be at least 40 hours making films to one hour on the forums. I also think the approach of humility is good (if your work is good, it will speak for itself). The old threads were fun, but in the end, I really want you to learn something and to enjoy making films.

Please don't reply to this message, just think about it before you decide to quit.

Belarussian2001
 
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