The Nature of Choice

[yeahfilms]

I'm nervous about posting stuff like this, mainly because I've been part of CRAZY forums where everyone rips each other apart.

I'm looking for criticism anyways so here we go!

I'll start by introducing myself... My name is Miguel Barbosa, I just turned 18 and I've been in love with filmmaking for the last 5 years. I started making skate videos, but I didn't want to settle at that. I made 2 features with skateboarding but also with a storyline then some shorts and blah-blah i feel like this is more like a rant so lets skip the A&E Bio and get right down to business!

My new feature is called The Nature of Choice. It follows a university professor giving a lecture to a high school class. The professor has a very complicated theory about our choices so he uses the stories of 3 different groups of people.(No, the stories don't intertwine in the end haha).

To explain this further, here is quote from the movie:
"Every choice you make has a number of possible results, and they all happen in different universes. You can decide which of these universes you want to reside in." And we show just that. No flash backs like the Butterfly Effect, no time stuff. We literally split the shot into two individual shots and each one plays out for a little while.

This movie was shot on the DVX100b with a budget of 0 dollars. Everything was cost-free(besides the gas for driving actors around etc.)

I casted people from my previous movies, as well as people from the drama department at my school. I try to stay away from stories that involve "mature" roles that adults should play so the characters in the movie are just teenagers, not cops or anything like that.

We shot the film over a 3 week period. Everyday for 5 hours a day, which was brutal because I had school from 7-3, droning myself all day, then had to shoot after that till whenever. But I didn't mind it much, it's always a blast. Filmmaking to me is one gigantic problem that you need to solve, from your vision to actual problems on set... it's all a challenge, which i know we all enjoy!

Getting extras/actors was no big problem, I had the ultimate marketing thing going for me. Basically I have a website which I post really youtube-ish style videos too, i don't take pride in them, but it gets me views between movies. Then when I advertise a movie, or the casting of a movie, i've already got the fan base. People think its real serious and thankfully no one really ever backs out.

I know i'm on a really small scale here, but the hardest part is getting the movie finished!

Enough of me blabbing HERE IS THE TRAILER: http://www.thenatureofchoice.com/
I hope I don't break any rules by posting a private site like that...
Please give me your thoughts on the whole deal... and sorry for the long post!

 

[filmman]

You're getting better, I can tell even though I haven't seen the first two movies you've done. LOL

You show murder. Is it in a dream?

If you're going to show guns and murder with high school kids involved in the story, don't "normalize" it, trivialize it or sensationalize it -- show it as it really is or brutalize it. Go into the horror of it -- you've never done it; you've never murdered anyone, so do it bigger than life, show it for what it is.

The biggest mistake of B-movie makers -- especially the new ambitious and greedy ones who have little or no experience in filmmaking -- is having a nonchalant attitude about murder and violence in a movie. It's like jaded pornographers; don't fall in the trap. Be a serious filmmaker, regardless of the type of movie you end making.

Rent and watch Louis Bunuel's Los Olvidados.

 

[egyptianboxer104]

We shot the film over a 3 week period. Everyday for 5 hours a day, which was brutal because I had school from 7-3, droning myself all day, then had to shoot after that till whenever.

I remember for my last shor ti went 3 days no sleep because i decided to shoot the weekend before finals.

Good trailer. I'm sure you'll get even better with experience . Link to your website?

and careful abotu copywritten music. you can't sell this feature using that song without rights.

 

[jls4]

I like it. I made my first movie at 21 and yours looks 10times better than mine. In fact it looks better than my second film, I made at 24. so you've got a 6 year lead!

I would encourage you only to try to up a piece of your prod quality with every movie. Make lighting better, or get better sound, etc. Also maybe go ahead and make something that can sell. I saw a movie Automation Transfusion recently. Just a bunch of teenagers getting attacked by Zombies. No plot, but I still liked it. anyway he sold it and made some money.

Get into the "Movie Business" - make cool movies, but why not get paid too. while you're young it's much easier. I'm 32 and to do what you're doing I have to schedule around my job, my wife, etc.

 

[Marlon Ladd]

I think you've done an amazing job just to get everything finished with the amount of people involved, especially considering the budget. The film looks professional. Having said that, the trailer, I think could be more compelling. I think there were spots in there where you showed way too much. The thing about trailers that pull people in is that you're left hanging to wonder what's going to happen in the actual movie. Like the scene where the guy holds the gun to the girls head. What would have made that more compelling and thought provoking is if you faded to black right when he points it at her. Fade back in and show the other guy running just for a second or two and fade back out. You wanna' see intensity and emotion in a trailer. Something that will strike a cord with the audience. If you show too much, there's nothing left to the imagination.

The trailer is good, but I think it would be more powerful if it was shorter and showed nothing but action and emotion.

The title and credits were very powerful BTW. Good luck with everything and keep it going.

 

[yeahfilms]

Thanks for the compliments and criticism!

You show murder. Is it in a dream?

The murder isn't in a dream but it does affect her very gravely.

Link to your website?

http://www.yeahfilmscompany.com just a bunch of teenage nonsense.


JLS4: a six year lead thats ridiculous! you bring up a good point though about the business aspect. thanks for the advice.

LEENEWTON: cutting a trailer is hard for me i always get lost in it and include the best stuff, i tried to not do that for this one! I never looked at the gunshot part that way...

 

[blamtastic]

just do it, like i say, its all in the first step.

 

[yeahfilms]

Haven't updated this in a while, got caught up wrapping the whole thing.

The movie 'premiered' at a local theater near me. I live in a small city that has a real tight-knit downtown area. So basically we flooded it with posters advertising the premiere. This is real low-key compared to other projects i've read about on here, but you gotta start somewhere. The posters generated a little local buzz, especially since there was no charge$$ for admission.

This buzz led to a nice little piece in the newspaper: http://www.oakvillebeaver.com/news/article/197569

But before that, chaos hit. The worst thing that can happen, WILL happen. So prepare for it. I didn't. I had most of the raw footage/editing files on a western digital external, which crashed the night before the premiere. You'd think I would have the movie all ready by then, well I did. I burnt a test version for my producer to look at and give his 2 cents. We wanted to change more things, so I ripped the DVD the day of and dove into not-quite-raw footage to make changes. BRUTAL.

The show went on, and it was ridiculous. The theater is small(200+ seats) But we packed the place. Unfortunately I don't have any decent photos from the premiere! The ones I have aren't even worth posting.

The movie was ultra-dramatic and I got a lesson in creating a film to match your target audience. The crowd was mostly teenagers, mixed with adults here and there. The films genre was definitely a drama, which(not all the time, but most of the time) isn't appealing to teenagers.

No matter, we made a feature with no budget(DVXuser obviously trained me on how to deal with little to no money haha) and gained a lot of experience.

If you have the time you can view it here: http://www.thenatureofchoice.com

ps

sorry about the large post!