Student Film: A new question for a previous post- What can we do right?

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Erojo12

New member
I went through a post that listed many things that make a student film apparent that it is a student film. People continuously listed what we students do wrong. Here is the thread: http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthrea...ke-a-student-film&highlight=smoking+character

I would like to know what tips and positive advice veteran filmmakers have for students so that they can avoid these mistakes. Listing what we do wrong doesn't always show us how to fix the issue.

Thanks
 
To me, the number 1 thing that separated the good and the bad films at my school was audio. The films that were recorded and mixed well always seemed to be leagues better than ones that were not. The trouble at my school was no one was there for the sole purpose of audio, aside from a couple of graduate students. What you usually ended up with was someone willing to come to set, hold a boom microphone, and in general just not give a s*%t. Or the director ended up holding the boom because we couldn't get someone to come, and both the audio and performances suffered.

In order to fix this problem, you need someone to record your sound that knows what they're doing, and is actually interested in recording sound. I recorded for a number of shorts and always found it best to work in 2 man teams. A boom and a mixer.

After the edit, you need to do the sound editing correctly. Find someone with Protools, Audition, etc or learn it yourself. Export it correctly and do the sound editing in outside of Final Cut, Avid, etc. I've never been in a situation where those programs are able to edit the sound well enough for a film.


I struggled with this until I was a senior. I still hadn't found anyone that would work sound for me, but turned my roommate's budding interest in music production and turned it into a budding interest in doing sound for my projects. ;)
 
PLANNING!!!!!!!!!

If you know you are going to shoot a scene, have a good idea about what shots are needed for that scene. If you try to just wing it.......things usually don't work out as you envision, and the project suffers in the edit room. This doesn't mean you have to follow it to the letter, but use it as a guide to get the minimum number shots needed to cut it, once you know you have that covered....then you can go after the spur of the moment shots.

Make sure you have people for all the jobs, and they do them to the best of their ability.
 
I have definitely seen weaker audio skills, I've even had a mic give out on me in the middle of an interview, but I was able to save it and use a boom on both people rather than the wireless. I also had to deal with a pesky air conditioner, but I will look into the editing software to see if I can clear up the audio tracks a little bit more.
As far as planning goes, I definitely agree. Many students just want to film and then when they get to the editing room, they dont have anything they'd really like to use, or they aren't equipped enough to tell a god story.
My biggest downfall with planning was trying to do a promotional video for a Tattoo parlor. The owner was excited about it and encouraged his employees to participate. In the end, I got one good interview, one employee would only talk when off camera and one would only talk while he was working. Imagine trying to clean up audio with a tattoo gun by someone's mouth. All in all, it was a total nightmare. I didn't plan, horrible audio, and I tried to do most of it on my own, with no help. It was a rookie video.
 
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But on the other hand.......I have seen some amazing "student" film work. I love the creativity and willingness to try new things. As long as it doesn't get out of hand........it brings a fresh ambitious look.
 
Erojo12 said:
I have definitely seen weaker audio skills, I've even had a mic give out on me in the middle of an interview, but I was able to save it and use a boom on both people rather than the wireless. I also had to deal with a pesky air conditioner, but I will look into the editing software to see if I can clear up the audio tracks a little bit more.
As far as planning goes, I definitely agree. Many students just want to film and then when they get to the editing room, they dont have anything they'd really like to use, or they aren't equipped enough to tell a god story.
My biggest downfall with planning was trying to do a promotional video for a Tattoo parlor. The owner was excited about it and encouraged his employees to participate. In the end, I got one good interview, one employee would only talk when off camera and one would only talk while he was working. Imagine trying to clean up audio with a tattoo gun by someone's mouth. All in all, it was a total nightmare. I didn't plan, horrible audio, and I tried to do most of it on my own, with no help. It was a rookie video.
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While planning is essential, in this case, having shot some amount of footage, I would have looked to editing such that the 'one good interview' was 'on screen', the artist who didn't want to talk 'on screen', have their 'audio' as voice over for shots of them at work, and the person who wanted to talk while working, have his material just as part of a montage.

Also, 'scope of work'... for some thing like a 'student promo piece'... I'd think about 1-2 minutes is it... show location, show people in action, a few comments by the artists... get out.
 
I find Sound to be above and beyond EVERYTHING.

Take super rudiment films like Blair witch, paranormal activity, etc and its the sound that sells.

Then the actors.

Everything else is neglible.
 
Experience...

IMO that's what really counts. Asking how to make your student film not look like a student film, is like asking "how can I make my first film not look like a first film?"

What you're asking is how to make your film a good film. This distinction between student films and non is a bit vague as some student films are amazing, usually because the people behind them have previous experience. There's something to be said for talent as well, but even talented people make awful first films.

If you want some advice, the above information is great. However I'll excuse a student film for it's bad technical qualities if it really tries to focus on story. Story is first and foremost. It is the backbone of any film. It's the blue print. Try something different and unique. Avoid cliches by making real characters and situations. Give us something never before seen.

Most student films really suffer from a boring story riddled with cliches and structure problems. This is because many students try and make something 'hollywood' and 'proffesional', and don't focus on what's really important.
 
Aside from the technical things like having intelligible dialogue, I think pacing is the hardest thing to get right on early films. I don't mean pacing from a story structure POV, I mean moment-to-moment pacing, particularly during dialogue. Information needs to come quickly, whether that information is the next line or a subtle expression from the actor. Often on bad films the audience is shown far more than they need, again not so much in the story structure, but on every single 'beat' there is some extra padding/fat/time that builds up to induce extreme boredom.
 
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