my experience making my first low-budget feature

sorry, didn't mean to call what YOU do crap,
it's just what i call the regular commercial and TV editing that has nothing to do with my personal driven artistic desires.
it DOES pay for my equipment, that's for sure.
 
this was a good thread. i learned a lot. I will probably not follow one shred of advice here = but it was very helpful with a lot of solutions for him.

Its a tough decision - i feel like its better to plunge ahead and complete things - but sometimes you have to let stalled projects go and move on to the next and learn from the mistakes. either path is good - unless it takes you five/ten years to complete - which I have seen someone do before.
 
john threat said:
this was a good thread. i learned a lot. I will probably not follow one shred of advice here = but it was very helpful with a lot of solutions for him.

Its a tough decision - i feel like its better to plunge ahead and complete things - but sometimes you have to let stalled projects go and move on to the next and learn from the mistakes. either path is good - unless it takes you five/ten years to complete - which I have seen someone do before.
Click to expand...

i don't think this footage is useless and shouldn't be used and completed as some kind of a film. perhaps even a decently good one.
it's just that the "feature" will have to become something else. the script definitely doesn't hold more than 30 minutes at the moment.
my feeling towards it at is the other factor. if i'll be able to at least translate it and let some of you guys to read it, it might inspire me to do something about it.

* please share some of your personal experience, if you like to.
 
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Sorry I don't have time to read all the posts on this thread but I wanted to come in and add my 2 cents to the discussion.
My story seemed very similar. 2 years ago I bought a bunch of filmmaking gear and couldn't wait to jump in and shoot my 2nd film. I found another producer/director/actor/writer lol with a very decent and shootable script. I put my goals of shooting a full length on hold and we began a 3 month shoot for the short film "One Man's Goal"

A story about a soccer hooligan getting himself into trouble and the last line of the film is the main character sitting in a jail cell being asked what he's in for. His reply ..."for England." I was hooked.

We made a few mistakes (although I think we did pretty consistent work) and we had to reshoot a couple scenes and take out a few weren't happy with. The end result was an award winning short film that was highly ambitious. But I look back and remember fighting a lot with the director and generally having a tough time working because it was such a learning experience. BUT film number 2 was in the can.

This was nothing compared to my first run at a feature. Months later we had finished the short and had slammed a 65 page feature length crime movie "Fathoms Deep" into production.... Day One, people got fired (our director, 1st AD and our Lead Actor) Terrible day. We had to put the production on hold for 2 weeks to re-cast and re-structure. Within the next 3 weeks we finished shooting the movie and I worked tirelessly on it for a 14 months. The film just had it's world premiere in LA on OCT 13th 2011. www.fathomsdeepmovie.com

What a job it is making a movie. My attitude was similar to a few others on this thread. I said to myself "As long as I can make a movie that sits on the 65-100% percentile I'll be happy. I don't want to wait until things are perfect because yeah... "you'll be 400 years old and still not shooting." Overall you have to do what you want to do. Shoot, edit, distribute, repeat. This is how you get to be a working professional. No guts No glory... BUT No brain, No gain.

I'm now working on a webseries and in development on my 4th feature length.
 

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thanks for sharing your thoughts.
i'll have a look on your stuff.
i just didn't get what was your role in those works, cause you mentioned other directors involved..

*watched the trailer.
looks like a lot is happening, which is good. i hardly had the time to criticize it ;)
do people buy the DVD? did you manage to get some money out of it?
btw- i have to say i wish you put more into outputting better audio, at least for the trailer.
it's a bit of a downside cause some of the lines sound almost as on camera recorded.
(i don't mean to be rough, sorry, but trailer audio is a must- especially after this well constructed site).
 
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I wrote/directed/acted in "Fathoms Deep." I produced and Dp'ed "One Man's Goal"

So far since Oct 2011 I've sold almost one hundred copies of the movie and I've given away another 50 as screeners and gifts. I have to sell 500 dvd's to get back my budget. Right now the plan is to tour a few cities in the spring and get rid of the last of the dvd's. Some of our audio was pretty rough but the only parts I hear that are off are the lines spoken by the detective in the blue room. Nothing was on-camera audio we just had an inexperienced boom op. We spent almost 8 months in sound design.
Maybe I exported with too much gain. I'll go give a listen.

Oh yeah if you're looking on the website you're seeing an older trailer. Check this out for our release. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRDtltpDozc
 
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roei z said:
i don't think this footage is useless and shouldn't be used and completed as some kind of a film. perhaps even a decently good one.
it's just that the "feature" will have to become something else. the script definitely doesn't hold more than 30 minutes at the moment.
my feeling towards it at is the other factor. if i'll be able to at least translate it and let some of you guys to read it, it might inspire me to do something about it.

* please share some of your personal experience, if you like to.
Click to expand...

Forgive me if it's already been suggested, as I haven't stayed entirely up to speed with this thread...

You could always take the footage you have, rewrite some things, add a few scenes, and cut it all down to a nice 10-minute short. Shorts are a lot easier to screen at festivals than features, and the shorter the better; longer shorts discourage festivals from adding them to the show because they want to show as many good shorts as they can.

You would be much better off with a solid, 8- to 12-minute short film than a sloppy, shaky feature that barely makes 70 minutes.
 
Jordan Scott Price said:
Forgive me if it's already been suggested, as I haven't stayed entirely up to speed with this thread...

You could always take the footage you have, rewrite some things, add a few scenes, and cut it all down to a nice 10-minute short. Shorts are a lot easier to screen at festivals than features, and the shorter the better; longer shorts discourage festivals from adding them to the show because they want to show as many good shorts as they can.

You would be much better off with a solid, 8- to 12-minute short film than a sloppy, shaky feature that barely makes 70 minutes.
Click to expand...

thanks for the idea. most chances this is what will happen. that's the time for a good editor to step in and scramble all the pieces.
 
I would go with the short idea - most peoples first features are really solid shorts stretched out way too long.
Distilling it will be good and it helps one learn to trim the fat. A lot of first features, including my own first scripts didnt know how to get to point a to b without a lot of uninteresting fluff.

Learning to craft scenes and connecting scenes that are interesting and keep building the momentum and telling the story is skillful work!
 
if some of you here have time to lend me a hand...
i'll try to translate the script in the weekend and let you read it..
will not be easy to confront it again now but i think it's the right time.

who'll be willing to read it?

thanks.
 
Learn the format. Use it. Break that stuff up into readable chunks.

"1. OPENING AND CREDITS.

Black screen. We start to hear dark musical soundtrack that
slowly evolves into a bigger emotional score. In the
background we see blurred spots of colors, rapidly changing.
Still images starting to appear withing the background, and
tell a story of YONI and DANIELLE (aged around 30, both good
looking) who have a romantic relationship. The still images
are accompanied with sound bites that correspond to the
event. The first picture is the couple hugging, happy,
enjoying themselves with laughter heard in the background.
Next picture we see the couple in a more intimate moment, in
bed, feel closer and warmer.We hear intimate bits of a talk.
Next picture shows Danielle in a kitchen, cooking, but
looking less happy. Some sound of crying is heard. Last
picture is Danielle very frustrated and angry, looking at
the camera, screaming. Sounds of screams and vocal fighting
is heard. The opening sequence ends with a black screen and
sound of a door slamming."

Your slugline is supposed to tell us where we are. Where is the camera crew going? What the hell are we filming?

Half way through this dense, off-putting paragraph we get a hint that these are photographs. By that time, a lot of readers would have tossed it already, or be ready to.

This is one approach...

FADE IN:

BLACK

Slowly dissolving in a series of blurred colors like Christmas lights into:

SERIES OF STILL IMAGES

1. YONI (30s) and DANIELLE (30s), deeply in love kissing on the sofa. A KISS
2. Holding hands at the beach. WAVES CRASHING.
3. etc. blah blah.
 
thanks. i guessed that some of you might find the "script language" a bit sluggish.


the opening scene is more complicated so i think the rest is more fluid.
 
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