What do you think?

A

Attio

Member
Hey guys!
I'm currently writing a mini series. I have reasons for a mini series and not a full blown short film.
Basic concept is there are these pills that do amazing things to the human body. In a non-supernatural way.
The UK TV series Skins has influenced the way my characters are shaping and because I live in Manchester the style is influenced by British grit and grime like in Kidulthood.

It is low/no budget however I have these incredible visions of making it something pretty dang worthwhile. This will all take time to finish though. So I was wondering if I continue writing this small series but at the same time write up a short of about 3-5 minutes in the meanwhile to rack up some experience before the bigger project.

This will be my second time directing and filmmaking. Although I don't count my first one an official project since it was for college Media studies.

I have people very interested in this, likewise I too am immensely enthusiastic but with my feet firmly on the ground with where I want to go with this.

After lurking a little on the Directors section I came across advice being given to people about taking up bigger projects and not doing smaller ones first. Small steps first I guess. However do I continue with things are going with my "Pills" project or write up a short on the side?

Best Regards
Aatif
 
Are you asking if it's a better idea to jump directly into a huge project that you are very attached to with little or no experience versus practicing first? Do you really need us to answer that? If you don't know what you're doing, odds are you won't do it well. So unless you're hiring someone to produce it for you the answer is pretty clear.
 
Please go excercise on some shorts. I started this path two years ago, wrote a script for a short, it failed. Wrote anothor one and got it rehearsed and shot (still in post, because I don't know exactly what I am doing), meanwhile started three other short project, failed one again, finished one with great satisfaction (and nice result) and have the other one 90% finished. What do I try to say with this? When you start out, you'll have a pretty hard learning ahead of you.

Does it bother you that in ten years you'll look back and are able to say: "I remember starting out clumsy but ambitious and it took me two or three years before I made that mini series I'm still proud of showing". I think in ten years you would not mind. Just now in your enthousiasm it might feel like wasting your own foreward momentum. But if you do other stuff while maintaining busy with building your mini series, I bet you'll keep that going.

I have difficulty looking at the footage of my unfinished first ambitious short. The lack of directing skill are showing. The less ambitious things I've been doing in the time between shooting the first and the present are better than that first. You have to start somewhere of course. But why not give your best idea the chances it deserves?


Jasper
 
Ahh that makes perfect sense! I was at the point where I was thinking "if I want this project to be something I want to be proud of then I really should practise up whilst I have this energy"
 
Hopefully it's the concept of filmmaking that interests you, not just this one project. Otherwise you should get someone else to make it.

When I was in high school, I started a huge project. Too huge. It fell apart, and that hurt. It did get me my basic crew for the next few years of making shorts, but that project counts as a failure because it was too much too soon and I didn't know what I was doing.
 
Ryan - the whole process of seeing your words on a page and then on the screen helps a writer understand what works and what doesn't.

Not everything translates well from paper. Without that experience, you just don't get it.
 
For purely practical reasons, a mini series sounds a very dangerous project. Let's assume for a moment you actually get it made somehow without going bankrupt or insane, and you have your 4-6-hour long mini series finished and ready to watch. Great. But who's going to watch it and how? You think a tv channel is likely to even consider a mini series by a complete unknown? Film festivals don't handle this kind of length. Sure, you could upload it all to Youtube or similar, but how many viewers are going to bother watching something that long? - i'd be immediately put off by the length.

But I do see a different angle - can you split the mini series up into separate self-contained episodes of say 20 minutes? (By self-contained, I mean each being completely watchable without having seen any of the others, or seeing them out of order.) Then you have a pile of individual short films which can be considered for film festivals etc, but also work as a series for people who love them.
 
clang said:
But I do see a different angle - can you split the mini series up into separate self-contained episodes of say 20 minutes? (By self-contained, I mean each being completely watchable without having seen any of the others, or seeing them out of order.) Then you have a pile of individual short films which can be considered for film festivals etc, but also work as a series for people who love them.
Click to expand...

Hehe That was the idea. Yeah it is the concept I'm deep into. The Pills will be a series of shorts with individual characters. I wasn't exactly aiming for film festivals just yet. Should I be? That seems an even bigger goal... wow.

Thank you for the great advice though guys. I thought I'd get flamed...

Ah yes it is the concept of filmmaking that interests me since I'm currently studying it at university too.
 
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Good to hear. I suggest you write 'Pill One', try to get it made, and in the meantime write 'Pill Two' etc in the hope that One is a success.
 
I'd go for 'Prelude: Something Slightly Different'. That would be a 10 minute short that contains some of the important elements of the 'Pills of the Future', without the element that made you want to make a mini series out of it.
Then I'd make 'Overture: Some Pill to Wake up my Followers'. (Episode Zero, also at something like 10 minutes).

(You can allways deny it's existence if it doesn't come out like you hoped.)

Then I'd go for 'Pill One' and so forth.

But other than that, I think we all kind of agree on this subject. :)

Jasper
 
Aww you guys are great!
Hey when I get it fully written would you guys mind giving feedback on it too?

Thanks!
Aatif
 
This sort of relates to what I'm thinking about... How ambitious is it suitable to be for your, first or second short movie?

Is it best to just start out simple? I find it hard to not be ambititious - like thinking about cool flashbacks and so on. thing is I need to apply for a budget to make something.. since I don't have a camera myself.
 
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