What am I waiting for?

S

Stryfe

Active member
I want to make my first movie right now. The longer I have to wait the more complicted everyone's, including me, schedueles get.

I have a DVX100B, Anamorphic lens, Shotgun mic, boompole, XLR cables, tape Adobe Premiere. But the catch is I've never used any of this equipment before.

I ordered the audio DVD by Barry Green and am getting the Barry Green DVD and Book of DVX in 6-8 weeks by rebate. But I don't have 6-8 weeks. I want to make it now.

What do I need to shoot a basic movie with natural lighting.?

24pa, in LP, with my 16x9 lens and I should be good, right? What else should I know or wait for?
 
natural lighting...then have refectors (ghetto style, if u like,u can use foil on cardboard,windscreen shields...white foamcore) to bounce watever natural lighting there is.
 
SP, not LP? Thanks.

Got a script that's copyrighted and looked at by a scriptdoctor.

If that's it than that's awesome. I'll just shoot it now and use the rest of the money on marketing and distribution.
 
If you've never shot a film before, I strongly advise you to pick up some books on filmmaking. Amazon has a fair collection listed at reasonable prices. I would also advise you to shoot a few shorts before you try anything more ambitious. It will surprise you how much hard work goes into a five to ten minute short and it will give you valuable experience.
 
I've read Scott Billups Digital movimaking up and down and I've taken Dov Simons 2-day film school but that's it, besides my theatre degree.

I hate I gotta wait 6-8 weeks for Barry Green's DVX book. I'm this close to buying the book just so I can have it right now.

It's only ambitious in the fact that I plan on submitting to festivals and such. As far as locations and shots, it's much like Clerks and Puffy Chair in that in it's locations I have access to and actors working for free. So simple, one camera stuff. KISS method.

As far as a DP and Sound guy. I live in small town southern Arkansas. Not much to work with. The colleges with film programs are three hours away and I couldn't get anyone reliable to work with. So I've become a one man band with charitable friends.
 
Just a few suggestions:

With an Anamorphic lens: You have definite focusing limitations, something like 3 ft even in the widest zoom, so be careful about using this lens indoors.

Lighting: Get some work lights from Home Depot or whatever you have in Warren (I live in Ft. Smith), and, if you can, order some lighting stands from B&H. I got mine used for little money. Get some foamcore sheets from Michaels or Hobby Lobby, or even Wal-Mart and get some clothspins to hang your reflectors too. Lots of painter's masking tape to attach things without tearing up paint.

If you can, paint the walls of the places you're shooting light green. Shooting talking heads against white is the mark of the boring amateur.

Using non-pro actors is difficult, but since you have theater experience maybe you'll be okay. If I'm telling you something you already know, I'm sorry: Direct the actors by subtext, i.e., if you want someone to play angry, ask to read the lines like their talking to someone they dislike. People can understand this sort of direction.

Sound: The Sound DVD is the best investment you can make. Loads of good advice and methods. If you're desperate to shoot soon, then use your boom as much as you can, which means avoiding wide indoor shots, which is okay, since your anamorphic adapter won't allow you to focus close under 3 feet.

Shooting: Shoot a lot, although having a set storyboard will help you decide what angles to shoot. If there are any glitches in a take, i.e. sound goes bad, actor flubs line, make sure you do the take again. Once the set is struck and the actors all gone, you can't reshoot (on a no-budget feature).

Editing and post: Make sure to checkerboard your shots, i.e. alternate each shot between video and audio timelines. This makes editing much more manageable. Make sure to log each tape and each tape meticulously. I just finished a doc with 37 hours of tape, cut down to 1:37, and I can't tell you how much time went into logging, and how much time (and sanity) it saved me.

About the DVX: You can set it Function 6 (24p on the scene setting), white balance, and you're good to go. I would strongly suggest that you take the camera out and shoot around your town and edit that footage into something, which will give you a much better feel for filmmaking then any book could. Don't get caught up in gearhead mania (a problem in the DVX world) The DVX gives you want you see in the viewfinder without knowing every little setting.

Best of luck.
 
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Just going for it has it's own cachet that cannot be 'taught'.
Saw a short the other day by a guy who'd never taken a class, never read a book other than the camera owners manual, and it was just fantastic what he ended up with.

He didn't know the specialized tool set required to pull off sophisticated 'moves', or 'looks'- so he fabricated them on his own in the garage.
In the event he hit a brick wall (trying to get a particular shot) he'd improvise.

Although the subject matter was dated and beaten into the ground over the years, you could easily see he had an 'eye' for framing and pace.


The KISS thing might be a breath of fresh air?
 
Anamorphic: Thanks I'll keep that in mind.

Lighting: Haha. I'm pretty much stuck with the white walls and talking heads for for some scenes. I believe if I frame it right it won't be too bad.

Hopefully I'm getting a DP from SAU tech that will help me with the lighting. I have no eye for that kind stuff at all. I'm more into acting, pacing, and editing.

Acting: My time directing plays, and studying improv with Improv Olympic in Hollywood gives me all the confidence I need in getting naturalistic acting out of my non-actors. Plust the characters were written for them as well.

Storyboard: Eighty pages into storyboarding a one camera shoot I realized how monotonous and useless it was. Werzog's quote also persuaded me against it.

Sound: Was going to just use a shotgun mic with a DIY boompole but the sound guys scared me into the DVD.

Editing: Checkerboard? I guess that means when you hold up something infront of the camera to let them know what shot it is.

DVX: White balnace, 24PA, SP and I'm good to go. Good to know. Cool there's someone else on the board from Arkansas. Even though Northern and Southern Arkansas are a lot different.

Yeah, NoNoob, I believe my just grab a camera and shoot a movie technique would be much more fun to watch than the Film School student's machine-like, predictable style.
 
the checkerboard comment meant each clip u put on another timeline i think (alternating timelines between clips...clip one on timeline 1 clip 2 timeline 2....clip 3 back to timeline one ect) U could use more i guess
 
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Stryfe said:
Lighting: Haha. I'm pretty much stuck with the white walls and talking heads for for some scenes. I believe if I frame it right it won't be too bad.
Click to expand...

Shadows can make white walls look more interesting.

Stryfe said:
Editing: Checkerboard? I guess that means when you hold up something infront of the camera to let them know what shot it is.
Click to expand...

I think that he's talking about cutting the sound and video separately, so that your timeline looks like a checkerboard. In other words, you may cut to sound for shot 2 while the picture for shot 1 is still running. You see it in commercial pictures all the time.
 
Shadows, interesting. I'll try that out.

Still having trouble understanding the checkerboard thing but I guess it's post production stuff anyway. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

The anamorphic lens makes things appear really skinny.

I ordered some more tape and am going to start shooting in two weeks since there's nothing really stopping me but inexperience.

Even though I haven't made a short I'm going to make my first feature. Though making a short would teach me some things and get me experience I want to make this film now. Spending time on a short and doing post production will stall this film another few months to the point where I'll be burnt out on this project. I'd rather do it while I'm full of inspiration and drive.
 
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