Oh okay, I guess I am not sure sure what I am capable of not, especially that this script is a horror thriller script and new genre territory for me. Perhaps horror/thriller was not the best genre to select on a low budget maybe. How do other directors know what will work and what will not though? For example, when Spielberg went to make Jaws let's say, how did he know whether or not audiences would accept the shark effects, especially since he said the shark didn't even work a lot of the time? Did he just roll the dice and hope for the best?
Is it possible to get rifle scope cross hairs in camera?
- Thread starter JimS2
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You should actually do something. Anything. Literally, make a short. And then another. And then another.
You’ve been chasing your tail on this cop film for years - YEARS - now. In 10 years, you should have produced a dozen short films, at least. Because THAT’s the only way to learn. We’ve discussed this... weeks ago, months ago, even years ago, but you’ve fallen into your same, old pattern. If you’re unable to break that pattern, then you’re unable to direct a film.
Yes, you’re going to get some contradictory advice on the Internet. Filmmaking is subjective. Ask 50 people how to do something, you might get 50 different answers. That’s just the way it is. You need to be able to make a subjective decision and act on it without asking 50 people how they’d do it. Yet, you seem to be in search of a very objective, paint-by-numbers solution to filmmaking, and you’re not going to get that.
Worse, you seem to think that asking 100 people instead of 50 will give you a better idea of what to do, and all you end up getting are more confused and less certain. So you ask even more people even more questions, and it just confuses the matter even further.
Ryan, whatever that was that you posted in User Films is not what we’re talking about. You need to make narrative shorts. A lot of them. And yes, the first one, or the first few, may suck. We all start off making not-so-great content. But again, you learn by doing and by making mistakes because each time you make something you’re not happy with, you figure out how to avoid that with the next one.
Drawing these threads out for pages and pages and pages won’t teach you a damn thing. This isn’t opinion. It’s 10 years of activity across three different forums that say it is true. Just make something.
Oh okay sure. I have made things in between as as well as helped out on other people's projects as well. I am currently making something right now with some others as well.
But I thought I should eventually make something that where I do spend money on hiring more talent and try to go for the feature, cause I have to try eventually, like other filmmakers, don't I? I talked to other filmmakers I know, and they said I should just go for it, and everyone has to bite the bullet and do it sometime, rather than keep sticking to no budget shorts. Do they have a point as well?
But I thought I should eventually make something that where I do spend money on hiring more talent and try to go for the feature, cause I have to try eventually, like other filmmakers, don't I? I talked to other filmmakers I know, and they said I should just go for it, and everyone has to bite the bullet and do it sometime, rather than keep sticking to no budget shorts. Do they have a point as well?
Peter C.
Veteran
Alex is right if you had spent the last 10 years producing 50 shorts then you would have a large enough body of work to receive meaningful and useful assessment from a professional. Yeah you got what it takes, no but you're making progress, or sorry you're a nice guy but this isn't going to happen try doing something else. But instead you are here hoping that random advice on a forum is going to help you make a feature film to propel you to success.
Oh okay, well I didn't make many shorts because I was saving money for a much bigger project. My first short cost a couple of thousand dollars, so if I kept doing that I would have been out of money by now for a bigger, and more ambitious feature.
I guess what I could do is just take the knowledge I have so far and see if anyone wants to collaborate with me on a feature and if they do, maybe that is a good sign then and I should give it a shot.
I guess what I could do is just take the knowledge I have so far and see if anyone wants to collaborate with me on a feature and if they do, maybe that is a good sign then and I should give it a shot.
combatentropy
Veteran
You have sought opinions and got them. The consensus is: with your skill set you cannot go far.
You should not have confidence in yourself. Having low confidence is a logical conclusion after people tell you that you can't do it.
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I'm sorry I mentioned self-confidence in an earlier post. It can help a person overcome temporary set-backs. If a person has an overall good track record, then it is logical to remain confident on a bad day when a few things go wrong or some people criticize you.
But confidence is mainly an effect, not a cause. It comes from evidence. You should not try to manufacture confidence without evidence.
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In a previous post I said you lacked (1) confidence and (2) emotional intelligence. The more pressing problem is your emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is intelligence about your own emotions as well as others. It is awareness of exactly how you feel in a given situation (this is harder than it seems it should be). And it is the ability to accurately guess what others are feeling right now, especially the people that you are face to face with.
Emotional intelligence will help you in some of the areas you are struggling with. It will help you with screenwriting, because it will help you make believable decisions about what your characters would do in a situation. And it will help you in directing, because it will help you connect with you actors and say things that are on their level.
Besides emotional intelligence, instead of confidence I think I would revise my list to include intuition. Intuition is the ability to look at 100 details and quickly come to an overall impression of the meaning of it all. If you had better intuition, then you would more easily make decisions at your desk and on set.
We don't have a whole lot of samples of your work, but we do have a lot of samples of your conversation style, from all your posts on this forum. And the consensus is that you are sorely lacking in intuition. I read others' replies to you and the conclusion is clear. But you miss the overall impression and focus on a few snippets of what someone said.
Honestly, it could be that you just don't want to let go of your dream, because the overall gist of the replies is that you should change course. I can sympathize with your resistance. I would feel the same way. But I think I would more quickly come around to the conclusion that everyone is sending to you.
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If I'm making it too complicated, I would assure you by saying that emotional intelligence is a subset of intuition. Details like an eyebrow raised, arms crossed, a certain tone in her voice --- she must be upset! That is intuition in general and emotional intelligence in particular.
If you could somehow cultivate your intuition and emotional intelligence, then later on down the line your movies will improve in quality, and lastly your confidence will get better.
Unfortunately, I don't know how to improve those things easily. Like I said: spending time around healthy people, reading books (not on filmmaking but on relationships and emotional intelligence) and maybe seeing a professional psychologist --- those are the only things I know of.
Peace!
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Oh okay thanks. I guess when it comes to decision making, there is always that worry I will be wrong, and really want to take time to make the correction decisions. I also have a habit of second guessing things, when perhaps I just just guess once and that's it, and stick to it more, rather than reconsidering a lot?
But as far as the confidence thing goes, this is an example of why I find some things to be contradictory is that I am told I need more confidence in myself and that's my problem, but then also told that if people say you cannot do it, then you shouldn't have confidence in yourself. But that's what confidence is isn't it? Is believing in yourself, when others tell you not do something.
But as far as the confidence thing goes, this is an example of why I find some things to be contradictory is that I am told I need more confidence in myself and that's my problem, but then also told that if people say you cannot do it, then you shouldn't have confidence in yourself. But that's what confidence is isn't it? Is believing in yourself, when others tell you not do something.
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Ryan.
You need to start doing, and stop discussing.
It is as simple as that.
Understanding this advice without asking another question would be the best course to take right now.
Good luck.
You need to start doing, and stop discussing.
It is as simple as that.
Understanding this advice without asking another question would be the best course to take right now.
Good luck.
There you go.
Good luck
Good luck
Oh okay thanks. I think the most difficult part will be finding other people who would be interested, I think, and I feel that a director is only has good as their collaborators and team, if that is correct. But maybe that won't be the most difficult part, and I can keep looking. Some others have said that a first feature is a learning experience and that I should treat it was one and make it a no budget feature. But I didn't think that other people would want to do it if they were not being paid though. But maybe I am wrong.
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ahalpert
Major Contributor
If you can't marshal a team, you will fail. Getting together a team and managing them is one of your crucial tasks. But you should be doing as much of the work yourself as humanly possible.
And I think that the consensus of the forum is that people don't want to read another post from you unless it has a link to your finished film. You can do it!
And I think that the consensus of the forum is that people don't want to read another post from you unless it has a link to your finished film. You can do it!
Remember what I said about “if you can’t break your old pattern, you can’t direct a film”? This is exactly what I’m talking about.
One of the things you should have learned in film school was how to network, and much of that should have been learned by doing... by networking with the people around you.
And that’s part of what making serious short films does for you, too. You build your network. If you haven’t established a reliable network by now, I’m not sure what else you can do.
But this thread is done, because you can’t take an end to a conversation. There’s always that one more thing. Stop posting and make something.
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