First Short Film Help

[GMG802]

Hello all,

I've been a long time DVX reader, and recently got an account and starting posting and collecting gear. I've been doing freelance videography for the past 4 years, took a 2 year half day video class, and have pretty much always had a camera in my hands even before that.

I'm in the pre-pre-pre-production stages of a short film collaboration with 3 friends, 1 of whom is an extremely talented musician and has agreed to cover the soundtrack of the film and do all recording. The other, a very talented writer that has agreed to help write the screen play with me and the musician friend. Lastly a very talented actor who will be the main character, and also co-direct. I'll be the DP and will help contribute to pretty much the entire process.

We'll be filming on a BMCC (not sure if it'll be RAW or not yet) and renting Zeiss/Canon Cine lenses. We'll also have an HVX-200 at our disposal, but I don't think the video quality would match up very well.

For audio all that we have as of right now is a Rode NTG-2 Shotgun mic with a pistol grip, windscreen, and possibly some other mics from the musician friend.

Sturdy Davis and Sanford Tripod, Manfrotto 501 HDV video head, and a custom made dolly that will run on PVC track and allow the camera operator to sit with the camera.

No lighting equipment has been purchased yet, but I'd like to try and avoid it where it's not necessary as it's a looooowww budget film with very few people.

It's looking to be around 15 minutes long, and will include a quick green screen car crash, just showing the beginning of a car hitting the side of the other car.

I'm hoping for any suggestions; the Do's and Don'ts of a first short film. Any advice or tips that will help save time, money, or frustration would be greatly appreciated.

 

[drapeama]

For audio all that we have as of right now is a Rode NTG-2 Shotgun mic with a pistol grip, windscreen

No lighting equipment has been purchased yet, but I'd like to try and avoid it where it's not necessary as it's a looooowww budget film with very few people.

I'm hoping for any suggestions; the Do's and Don'ts of a first short film. Any advice or tips that will help save time, money, or frustration would be greatly appreciated.

1) For audio, you'll have a good mic for a first short film. I'm using the same one, with two setups (JuicedLink preamp/Tascam DR-05 and with a Zoom H4n). You should get good audio, as long as you can get the mic as close as possible from the talents/actors when they'll delivers their performances.
2) If you don't have *any* lights, I'd suggest you to get at least, a very basic setup like these 500w Halogen worklights and some parchment paper to diffuse them. This would be, a very minimal setup. A 3 lights basic setup would run for about 30$. No stands, but at least, you'll be able to get a decent picture quality with enough lights.
I don't have much equipment in lighting, and so far, I've managed to get decent results with DIY setups like these:
A coffee can with a bulb inserted in it:

Or even some of the work lamps I was talking about, with some high-temp white paint applied to the glass (on the exterior side):

3) Simple advice: Audio is about 50% of the movie experience. Bad audio could kill your production. Same applies for lighting and camera work.
I'm by no mean a professional, but I've tested those techniques and applied them to my work, and from a project to the other, I can see the improvement myself. So, best advice would be to show you the path, and let you decide what you want to do, or not. But, I'd say, if you invested nearly 300$ for a mic, get at least 10% of that budget to get some lamps and some parchment paper. Even if pretty basic, lights are lights, and visually it'll make a difference.

 

[GMG802]

Really appreciate all the feedback. I have been checking out some DIY lighting alternatives as well, but it seems like your set up would have some good results. I have a connection through a college near by me that let me take out some lighting kits in the past, I might see if I can get in contact with them again and see about that.

I was planning on doing all color correction in Resolve, but that's no longer an option because my mac doesn't have a fast enough GPU card, so any suggestions for a decent color correction alternative? I want to get the most out of the BMCC look. Tried using filmconvert but I didn't really like how it looked, I might need to tweak with the settings more. I've briefly used Magic Bullet, and wasn't totally impressed, but I might go back- leave no stone unturned.

 

[drapeama]

Really appreciate all the feedback. I have been checking out some DIY lighting alternatives as well, but it seems like your set up would have some good results.

A light, is a light. Plain simple. You simply have to know how to use them to create a good balance and the mood you want.

I was planning on doing all color correction in Resolve [..] so any suggestions for a decent color correction alternative? I want to get the most out of the BMCC look. Tried using filmconvert but I didn't really like how it looked

Well, I personally, do all the color correction into After Effects. To me, there's not much you can't do with the three basic plugins: Levels, Hue/Saturation and Curves. AE and Film Convert can be a really good team-up because you can "white balance" in post with FilmConvert. But in every NLE you'll have the basic three plugin needed to do what you want.

 

[sathvara81pratik]

Hi, I am new here. is anyone tell me how we can film best sequence for "wake up from dream"? Is there any website which shows how to film?

 

[mail4joeg]

"It's looking to be around 15 minutes long, and will include a quick green screen car crash, just showing the beginning of a car hitting the side of the other car. "


Yeah, this is a tired cliche now, sure to impress no one. There are many ways to crash a car.


"how we can film best sequence for "wake up from dream"?

That's wide open for exploration. Have you ever awoken from a dream? What's it like?