What was the first film you ever made?

B

Barry_S

Moderator
Just wondering--what got you hooked? How old were you and what was the film about?

I was in 7th grade and had convinced my parents to buy me a Bolex super-8 camera. Before that I had been regularly shooting annoying montages on my Dad's 8mm Bell & Howell camera as part of our family vacation movies :-)

I made this "Perils of Pauline" type silent movie. We made a cardboard train engine and had a scene with a damsel in distress tied to the railroad tracks by the villain. I got the cutest girl in my class to play the damsel, and I thought--"Hey, maybe I'm on to something here". I fried everyone with open faced photoflood bulbs on the flimsiest light stands in the universe. But we all had a great time and our little movie turned out to be very popular. The next movie was pretty elaborate with a large cast and becomes a topic of discussion everytime I meet an old friend.
 
Re: What was the first film you ever made?

I never had a camera as a kid, but several friends and I used a friends camera to make a few sketch comedy videos in high school. What got me hooked was writing. I began writing short stories in elementary school and continued to write ever since. For me, filmmaking is another way to be a storyteller.
 
Re: What was the first film you ever made?

First film EVER? A bunch of little stupid Super-8 things. But the first one I undertook seriously was in 1978. A re-creation of the entire Star Wars film, in stop-motion animation, using the old Kenner figures, plastic models, all that stuff, and home-built sets and props (my Mos Eisley buildings were some shoeboxes that I smeared Elmer's glue on, then dunked in sand... the blaster bolts were toothpicks that I painted neon orange and neon red, then I'd glue it on to the end of a stormtrooper's gun, then the next frame I'd pull it off and glue it onto the body of the victim, etc) . I was 14 and it was an absolutely solo effort, and it's about as horrible as you'd think :) and 20 minutes long, but my film teacher insisted on showing it to the class. For a soundtrack I took a pocket cassette recorder into the film with a 120-minute tape and recorded the whole thing, then did a cassette-to-cassette dub, which of course sounds dreadful... ::)
 
Re: What was the first film you ever made?

..my first was also a stop motion animation. pretty much about stupid stuff with clay. Hilarios.. ive still got it on VHS somewhere at home ..if i have time somtime ill post a little clip. ..would certainly be a humbling experience. :P
 
Re: What was the first film you ever made?

Do you still have a copy of your Star Wars recreation? Just wondering if you've gone back and watched it all these years later. I don't have any of those comedy sketches I did in school.

I'm actually doing something similar with toys right now. I'm using random toys from my childhood (including old Star Wars figures) and shooting scenes of a screenplay I'm writing (doing the voices off screen). I'm doing basically as a test of the dialogue and as sort of a video pre-storyboarding test. Does anyone else do this kind of thing or am I just strange? I actually find that in the absence of actors to do a reading, it's a helpful test.
 
Re: What was the first film you ever made?

I've got the Super8 footage, yeah. Years ago my wife had it transferred to VHS, and I took a stab at sync'ing the sound up to it, but gave up partway through...

I forgot -- I got kind of lazy in the middle, and Lucas had released some actual footage of the movie on Super8 reels (two scenes, one was with Obi-Wan giving Luke the lightsaber, and the other was the escape from the Death Star) so I just cut that and spliced it in. ;D
 
Re: What was the first film you ever made?

The Last Battle

8th Grade

Chinon Super 8

Really bad but even when I didnt know anything about I didint cross the line! LOL
 
Re: What was the first film you ever made?

Barry--20 minutes of stop-motion animation..what a job! I know because I used to do some pixilation and some 2-D stuff, and it was exhausting. I ought to start a film festival of first-time movies--you can't have too many festivals :-). Editing Super-8--what a trip that is. You could go blind trying to look at those tiny frames. I used to end up with huge numbers of splices and the projector could hardly feed the thing.

John-- What are you waiting for..get on with it.
 
Re: What was the first film you ever made?

M&Ms vs Skittles, I did a stop motion animation of a skittle and M&M bumping into each other and the skittle runs off to get some friends. They come back and the M&M runs off to get some friends. They do that about 3 times and then the M&Ms drag a bag of M&Ms over and they all come out surrounding the skittles. This sparked the idea for my M&Ms vs Skittles in 3D. This was more Sci-fi though. heres links on some old test renders for it. Its still in the works. . They are still on an old geocities site too.. heh.
http://www.geocities.com/warpath_3D/M_n_M/

I dont know what happened to all the dinosaur tests but the skittles were not as advanced as the M&Ms and they road on dinos. I have them on VHS somewhere though.
 
Re: What was the first film you ever made?

Although I never had a camera when I was a kid (age 7), my mom used to write for a couple of comic books in Mexico City. I remember writing my own stories based on her comics, and then storyboard them to shoot later. Her brother used to be a documentary director (Jose Rovirosa). he was one of my first influences. anyway, here is the very first movie I shot in 16mm during the Democrat convention in the summer of 96 in Chicago. God knows how I got away shooting it in the John hancock center, given the nature of the story.
http://homepage.mac.com/ecoloco/iMovieTheater25.html

ecoloco ;D
 
Re: What was the first film you ever made?

Ecoloco--That was great for a first film. Very funny. That must have been some cigar.
 
Re: What was the first film you ever made?

[quote author=Barry_S link=board=Offtopic;num=1086971740;start=0#10 date=06/11/04 at 12:19:25]
John-- What are you waiting for..get on with it.[/quote]

I am Barry, I'm going to enter into this month's competition  :)
Wish me luck..
 
Re: What was the first film you ever made?

I'll be looking for it. And remember, there's no restriction on nude scenes in the contest--or female nudity at least. (sorry, my 7 seconds was up) 8)
 
Re: What was the first film you ever made?

Bell & Howell Super 8? Stop motion animation making books race like cars...?? Who know's...my mom was a hippie :)

anyways, I stopped about half way through when I didn't have the money to send it out to develop it, so I switched to video...

WAIT A SEC! 15+ years later...That's the same reason I bought a DVX100A!!! ;) WEIRD!
 
Re: What was the first film you ever made?

[quote author=Barry_S link=board=Offtopic;num=1086971740;start=15#15 date=06/11/04 at 14:44:09]I'll be looking for it.  And remember, there's no restriction on nude scenes in the contest--or female nudity at least. (sorry, my 7 seconds was up)  8)[/quote]

I'm actually starting shooting tomorrow, nude scenes however, shall be limited... to 0 ;(
 
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