Oh okay thanks. Well that was just a test I did but as long as it looks convincing. It was actually the same scenario as the police sharpshooter for the telescope effect I was asking about. The sharpshooter shoots a car and it explodes but as long as the audience will buy that. I can also make the explosion shorter as perhaps it was a little too long here.
Is it possible to get rifle scope cross hairs in camera?
- Thread starter JimS2
- Start date
- Status
Okay thanks. Another sequence I had for the script, if possible was to involve a fire truck in once sequence. I thought about using a 3D model and buying one, just not sure if a fire truck will work, especially since I want the actors to interact with it. I can try, but don't want to have it blow up in my face later, if it doesn't work.
I don't have an example yet, because I was advised to buy a 3d model but haven't looked for one yet. Just been concentrating on other things for the project. Yes the truck would be driving and it was an accident and tips over. I want the actors to get out of the truck as it it's tipped over. I have possible ways of faking this, but this all depends on how real a 3D model would look in the first place.
One tutorial I watched is this one so far, on how to put a 3D model into your movie, but does this look convincing enough?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYVTgtrs8Ns
However, even though my idea is a fire truck, I want the actors to have to get in and out of it, if possible, if I could find a good cgi and 3D animator?
One tutorial I watched is this one so far, on how to put a 3D model into your movie, but does this look convincing enough?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYVTgtrs8Ns
However, even though my idea is a fire truck, I want the actors to have to get in and out of it, if possible, if I could find a good cgi and 3D animator?
ahalpert
Major Contributor
I doubt this will work. I would find the animator first and look at a sample of what they can do and what it will cost. My gut feeling is it will look like crap and still cost too much money. Maybe there's some green screen footage you can use. You need to do more research. Maybe you can make it work
Peter C.
Veteran
Now you are getting the full Ryan effect. You gave him good advice, 'the role of a director is being able to make lots of subjective decisions' he then proceeds to ask you a series of subjective questions. As soon as you answer one he has another. Most of his question are predicated on how do a recreate what I've seen in a big budget film without having anything they had. Don't get me wrong there are many small indie tricks but he is setting up one impossible scenario after another. Like you said before (I think) at this stage his films should be more about demonstrating he has the raw skills of a director, which is to have a vision and to bring about the realization of that idea or story. Trust me he doesn't have the aptitude to be a director.
So this thread started with a simple question about cross hairs that anyone with common sense would understand that it be done in post and how it looks is a subjective decision. But like all of his threads this is merely launching point to ask a million how to questions about his film.
So this thread started with a simple question about cross hairs that anyone with common sense would understand that it be done in post and how it looks is a subjective decision. But like all of his threads this is merely launching point to ask a million how to questions about his film.
Last edited:
combatentropy
Veteran
Why is a thread about crosshairs still going on, with so many posts? Oh.
Ryan, I looked at your demo reel, after you posted another video from your channel in this thread. Among young, no-budget filmmakers, I would say it is slightly above average. I've seen many microbudget clips over the years and produced several of my own. Making a movie is hard. Making a good movie is nigh impossible.
Your work could use some improvement, particularly the acting. I think it is good that you are trying to improve your work. However, the ways you're trying to improve it are bad.
1. Polling members of an internet forum.
2. Throwing money at the problem.
You have often floated the idea of hiring professional actors and a professional cinematographer to improve your problems of acting and cinematography. And it would work. Better actors would lead to better acting. A better cinematographer would lead to better cinematography.
All of that might make your film a little better, but it would not help you. Isn't your goal to be discovered by Hollywood and be hired for higher and higher budget films? Well, in those rare cases, what the talent scouts are looking for is not absolute quality but:
quality ÷ budget
You mentioned El Mariachi, which launched Robert Rodriguez's career. It launched his career not because of how good it was but because of how good it was for $6,000. Producers said, "Oh, if he can make that for $6,000, imagine what he can do with $6 million."
The more money you spend on your spec movie, therefore, you are actually decreasing your chances, because although you are increasing the quality a little, you are also increasing the budget, and diluting your quality-to-budget ratio.
Let's say the quality of your film at $1,000 is 3. 3 divided by 1,000 is 0.003. So let's say you spend more money: $10,000, and your quality goes up to 20. Well, 20 is greater than 3, but now your quality-to-budget ratio is 0.002.
Some producer might say about your more expensive film: "Well, the acting and cinematography are fair," but when you tell them that you hired professional actors and a pro DP, they will say, "Oh, well then I can't really credit you with that. I should hire them."
And let's say you get chosen. You're not going to be able to keep sending out polls to DVXUser for all the new decisions you'll have on your new film, and if you pepper your cast and crew there with these questions, you will be fired before the film is finished.
---
So I agree that the acting and cinematography of your demo reel will not land you a job from a Hollywood producer (and the screenwriting and directing could use some help too). But you can't (1) keep polling people here, or (2) throw more money at the problem.
So, what do you do?
Well, I learned something today!
---
EDIT:
Actually, I take back what I said about the acting and cinematography. If I knew I was watching a no-budget movie, I would accept the acting and cinematography in your demo reel. I would be listening to the dialog to judge the writing, and I would be paying attention to the directing. And those are not impressive enough to land you a gig on a higher-budget movie.
Your problems cannot be improved very far through this forum, because writing and directing are Tacit Knowledge.
Ryan, I looked at your demo reel, after you posted another video from your channel in this thread. Among young, no-budget filmmakers, I would say it is slightly above average. I've seen many microbudget clips over the years and produced several of my own. Making a movie is hard. Making a good movie is nigh impossible.
Your work could use some improvement, particularly the acting. I think it is good that you are trying to improve your work. However, the ways you're trying to improve it are bad.
1. Polling members of an internet forum.
- This is bad because, first of all, you don't know the people who are answering back at you. Some of them are pros, some of them newbies just like you.
- Even if you do a survey of award-winning professionals, they will disagree with each other or give you slightly varying advice, which I can see throws you into a confused state.
- It would be better if you were posting results --- videos you have finished. Then you would still get varying answers, but they would be more concrete. Instead you are asking about your plans. Plans are hard to talk about, because there are so many details left undescribed (which a finished product would answer).
- Forum questions about plans would be okay if they were about broad plans, like should I shoot in Los Angeles or Vancouver. But your questions are about small details: crosshairs, character choices at a very particular points in very particular scenes, the exact length of script paragraphs.
2. Throwing money at the problem.
You have often floated the idea of hiring professional actors and a professional cinematographer to improve your problems of acting and cinematography. And it would work. Better actors would lead to better acting. A better cinematographer would lead to better cinematography.
All of that might make your film a little better, but it would not help you. Isn't your goal to be discovered by Hollywood and be hired for higher and higher budget films? Well, in those rare cases, what the talent scouts are looking for is not absolute quality but:
quality ÷ budget
You mentioned El Mariachi, which launched Robert Rodriguez's career. It launched his career not because of how good it was but because of how good it was for $6,000. Producers said, "Oh, if he can make that for $6,000, imagine what he can do with $6 million."
The more money you spend on your spec movie, therefore, you are actually decreasing your chances, because although you are increasing the quality a little, you are also increasing the budget, and diluting your quality-to-budget ratio.
Let's say the quality of your film at $1,000 is 3. 3 divided by 1,000 is 0.003. So let's say you spend more money: $10,000, and your quality goes up to 20. Well, 20 is greater than 3, but now your quality-to-budget ratio is 0.002.
Some producer might say about your more expensive film: "Well, the acting and cinematography are fair," but when you tell them that you hired professional actors and a pro DP, they will say, "Oh, well then I can't really credit you with that. I should hire them."
And let's say you get chosen. You're not going to be able to keep sending out polls to DVXUser for all the new decisions you'll have on your new film, and if you pepper your cast and crew there with these questions, you will be fired before the film is finished.
---
So I agree that the acting and cinematography of your demo reel will not land you a job from a Hollywood producer (and the screenwriting and directing could use some help too). But you can't (1) keep polling people here, or (2) throw more money at the problem.
So, what do you do?
Well, I learned something today!
---
EDIT:
Actually, I take back what I said about the acting and cinematography. If I knew I was watching a no-budget movie, I would accept the acting and cinematography in your demo reel. I would be listening to the dialog to judge the writing, and I would be paying attention to the directing. And those are not impressive enough to land you a gig on a higher-budget movie.
Your problems cannot be improved very far through this forum, because writing and directing are Tacit Knowledge.
Last edited:
Oh okay thanks. That's interesting. When you say that if I hire pro actors and a pro DP, and that a producer will look to hire them if I do, are you saying I should be my own DP and act myself though? Isn't it expected of a director to have his own DP and own actors?
As for El Mariachi, I read that the post production of the movie was 200 K though, so if that's true, is that budget still impressively low for producers? Because I wasn't even planning on going near that high.
As for El Mariachi, I read that the post production of the movie was 200 K though, so if that's true, is that budget still impressively low for producers? Because I wasn't even planning on going near that high.
combatentropy
Veteran
Your real problems are:
1. self confidence
2. emotional intelligence
You will not get very much improvement in either from talking to people in an internet forum. Counterproductive, actually.
The only way I know to improve those things is to spend time every week with loving and emotionally healthy people (their knowledge of film is optional). Do this for a few years. Do you have any people in your life who are safe and make you feel good? They should make you feel good in the way that eating a healthy but tasty meal does (like a grilled chicken salad or even homemade lasagna) not the way that eating candy makes you feel good. And they certainly should not make you feel like it feels to have food poisoning.
I wish you the best in your life.
1. self confidence
2. emotional intelligence
You will not get very much improvement in either from talking to people in an internet forum. Counterproductive, actually.
The only way I know to improve those things is to spend time every week with loving and emotionally healthy people (their knowledge of film is optional). Do this for a few years. Do you have any people in your life who are safe and make you feel good? They should make you feel good in the way that eating a healthy but tasty meal does (like a grilled chicken salad or even homemade lasagna) not the way that eating candy makes you feel good. And they certainly should not make you feel like it feels to have food poisoning.
I wish you the best in your life.
Oh okay thanks. I was a lot more self confident before, but then that caused the products to be bad I thought because I was too confidend, so I thought maybe I should take a step back and not let my confidence go so far, and I need to learn to be more objective I thought.
What I could do is do what I've have always done now and make a no budget movie, it's just when I did that before, it turned out bad, so I thought I would learn from my mistake and spend more money on more experienced people. But now if I am told to do what I have done before even though it failed, isn't that risky though, as oppose to trying something different?
Also, I was advised by others that I need to stop trying to do so much myself, and need to hire different people so I can just work on directing and excel at that, rather than trying to be a jack of all trades, master of none, all the time. Did these people have a point? Or should I just try to do a lot of things myself still?
Because I feel like if I just do the same thing over and over again, rather than spend money on trying to bring in more talent, that I will keep failing because I am doing the same thing over, and not doing anything different.
What I could do is do what I've have always done now and make a no budget movie, it's just when I did that before, it turned out bad, so I thought I would learn from my mistake and spend more money on more experienced people. But now if I am told to do what I have done before even though it failed, isn't that risky though, as oppose to trying something different?
Also, I was advised by others that I need to stop trying to do so much myself, and need to hire different people so I can just work on directing and excel at that, rather than trying to be a jack of all trades, master of none, all the time. Did these people have a point? Or should I just try to do a lot of things myself still?
Because I feel like if I just do the same thing over and over again, rather than spend money on trying to bring in more talent, that I will keep failing because I am doing the same thing over, and not doing anything different.
Last edited:
Peter C.
Veteran
This post and the previous post is very good but he has received very lengthy and well thought out advice from many others over the years with little to no effect. I suspect someone who has emotionally/psychologically deficits is unable take proper advice no matter how sound it is.
Oh sorry, I didn't mean to imply that the advice has had no effect. It has a huge effect and I have gotten a lot of good advice. It's just that some things in the advice, can be kind of contradictory, and so I feel I have problems working around those, which is my problem. I am not sure what to do in those cases.
Last edited:
Peter C.
Veteran
You're missing the point. If I decided to do something that doesn't align with my skill set no matter how much great advice I receive and how much I improve, in the big picture it still won't make sense. For example, I'm a 40 years old, 5'8" and not that athletic. If I decided on an unrealistic goal like playing in the NBA, no matter what work out or skill advice I receive, I have no chance of succeeding. If I go at it for over 10 years and I still keep asking things like how do I improve my dribbling, how do I increase my jumping, no amount of small improvement is going to matter in the long run. However, if I could be honest with myself and set a reasonable goal that involved my love of basketball, I could spend my time becoming an assistant coach for a high school basketball team and if things worked out I could advance as far as my abilities would allow.
If you had the aptitude to be a director and create a feature film, you wouldn't need advice. If you don't have the aptitude you'll always be in need of advice. This is unsustainable if you want to pursue a career in film making.
Last edited:
paulears
Veteran
If you have the budget to employ real people to make the movie for you - you still have to be in control of what they do. They have no interest in the project, it's their job. If you ask them to shoot rubbish, they will. If your actors don't understand your aims, they'll do a bad job. Or - you can try to do it all yourself and mess it up.
I see no real way to make it work. In the UK we have a very old phrase - "You can't polish a turd" - is there something similar your side of the water?
You have a rotten script that you cannot fix. The script requires facilities you don't have. It requires decent actors, technicians and behind the scenes people. It demand an excellent editor to even vaguely glue it together. If I had $100 to invest, I'd not put it into this movie, you're considering quite a bit more you tell us? It's a bad investment, and almost guaranteed to waste your hard earned money. It's stacks higher than your ability level. You need to understand this, and you don't.
Everything we have seen over the past few years says this very, very clearly. You do not have the ability to make this work. You have made this clear so many times. It's too hard, to complex, and frankly a bit boring. Make something else that's simpler and easier.
I see no real way to make it work. In the UK we have a very old phrase - "You can't polish a turd" - is there something similar your side of the water?
You have a rotten script that you cannot fix. The script requires facilities you don't have. It requires decent actors, technicians and behind the scenes people. It demand an excellent editor to even vaguely glue it together. If I had $100 to invest, I'd not put it into this movie, you're considering quite a bit more you tell us? It's a bad investment, and almost guaranteed to waste your hard earned money. It's stacks higher than your ability level. You need to understand this, and you don't.
Everything we have seen over the past few years says this very, very clearly. You do not have the ability to make this work. You have made this clear so many times. It's too hard, to complex, and frankly a bit boring. Make something else that's simpler and easier.
Oh okay, but this is just it though, is how do I have confidence in myself, if people tell me I can't do it? Should I just do it anyway, and have confidence then?
I don't think doing another script will help, as every script is going to have it own problems to tackle though. I chose the script, which I thought could be done for cheaper, out of the scripts I have access to.
I don't think doing another script will help, as every script is going to have it own problems to tackle though. I chose the script, which I thought could be done for cheaper, out of the scripts I have access to.
Last edited:
Peter C.
Veteran
Confidence is earned in small achievable steps and should be based on reality. If I have friend who is shy and I give him a pep talk and build him up to over come his irrational fears to take on a project he is capable of, that's one thing. If I encourage someone to pursue an unrealistic goal that's above their ability level. That will more likely backfire and do more harm than good. You need to be able to accept an honest, realistic assessment.
That might mean you are only capable of very low level job on a movie set or doing basic job that's unrelated to film and in your spare time you do projects like this with your friends for fun.
That might mean you are only capable of very low level job on a movie set or doing basic job that's unrelated to film and in your spare time you do projects like this with your friends for fun.
Last edited:
- Status