when did you start?

Re: when did you start?

I'm like thartley... been making movies and writing stories in my head since forever. Started actually putting them on tape and editing when I took the Video Production class my last year in college... I was 22. Now I'm 24. My church pays me to make movies for them. Granted, they're mostly talking head mini-doc-type stuff, but you still learn a lot.
 
Re: when did you start?

The first movie I ever made was "The Shrinking Machine", a very short, very amateur production that almost brings a tear to my eye when I see it! I was 5, and from then on made MANY small short videos.
The first film that one could consider a "film" (had editing, a proper screenplay, etc) was a James Bond ripoff in eighth grade. Shot on VHS of course, with a lovely tape-to-tape edit. I ended up getting a live audio mixer with which I could add music and such to the final cut!

Did a feature two years ago, and yesterday had the screening of my first DVX film, Gray Christmas! :D
 
Re: when did you start?

started around 11-12 years old.. 8mm baby

Lord knows how many videos/films... most of them i've forgotten about or lost.
 
Re: when did you start?

12/13 yrs old - Argus Super 8 camera / splicer and editor/viewer. God this was fun! The dream is born. At that moment I knew I wanted to make films. 8)

High school - Distracted by girls, sex & parties. ;D

Post high school - Dream still there. Excepted to U.S.C. film school (Yaaa :D ) Could not afford the tuition. (booo :'( )

Went to work to save up tuition. Got into construction to grab some cash.

little wavy lines to show passage of time like in Wayne's World...

Many years pass. Dream fades to black and slowly dies. >:( ... Crawl up the construction ladder to self employed private contractor.

2003 - Realize just how much I hate my work. Too old to start over and go to school ( mid 30's) ... NEED something creative! Write a few screenplays and start researching the current filmmaking biz. :-/

and then... "WOW - This DV **** is pretty cool. No need to buy expensive film!" Very exited. Heard of the XL1. More research would be needed before I rush out and grab a camera. Very excited. Heard about the PD150 and then "the DVX"... :) :) :)

2004 - Fresh dream is reborn/revised and the learning process begins. Very exciting.

2006/7 - Generally considered as the "leading icon" in independent filmmaking. A "genius" many would say and revered as a god in the industry. Marry Charlize Theron.

How I found DVXuser? - On the internet looking for good chili recipe and some how needed up here. :P
 
Re: when did you start?

;D That was the feel good post of the year, Dakota. ...I laughed. I cried. I ??? .

But stay away from Charlize Theron. She and I have plans too.
 
Re: when did you start?

Charlize? No, no no gentlemen - she's been dating me for a while! I thought we had something special...

Can we say pistols at dawn?
 
Re: when did you start?

[quote author=Mike_Donis link=board=Offtopic;num=1102817159;start=15#25 date=12/12/04 at 19:49:26]she's been dating me for a while!

[/quote]

>:( >:(


[quote author=Mike_Donis link=board=Offtopic;num=1102817159;start=15#25 date=12/12/04 at 19:49:26]
Can we say pistols at dawn?[/quote]

Oh ya!
 
Re: when did you start?

Charlize Theron, She's carrying my baby! If the baby comes out looking purple and already humping, then its mine. If it comes out banana shape then its TC.
 
Re: when did you start?

Gentlemen, gentlemen....

I do declare!

I am just butting in here to thank you for the laugh!

been silent all day :-X because I have been commanded to pick up the pace on my edit or "get a real job!" F##$@%@#$%#$^%# that!

now I am back to :-X :'(
 
Re: when did you start?

women? There's more than one?

That's not fair to them, Dakota!

Treat a woman with respect - I know that's how Charlize likes to be treated... ;D
 
Re: when did you start?

I started writing in college, and decided to actually finish a novel a couple of years ago. I was 36 with a wife and 2 kids. My days of playing in bands and partying were gone and I was wondering what the hell I had gotten myself into (read: mid-life crisis) After a first draft, my brother in-law approached me to write a screenplay. I did it as an exercise, but when the interested director passed, it pissed me off. It was something I'd want to see (large, sexy women, midgets, explosions, winnebagos...have I mentioned this before?) So we decided to start doing some shorts to develop our chops in order to someday shoot this B-minus movie masterpiece. I shot 2 shorts on my own with family, friends and my home mini-dv camera. Then I did a 3rd short in September with Dave (my brother in law) which should be edited before Christmas. I start shooting my 4th short in January. Dave and I will do at least one more short together after that, then try to move onto a feature in the next 18 months. In the meantime, I am trying to break into some commercials and corporate videos.

If somebody had told me a couple of years ag that I would be a filmmaker, I would have told them that they were nuts. And a big part of the reason I have gotten as far as I have so quickly, is s the slack-jawed, pasty-faced, code-writing mo-fos who help me out on this site.

For that I say thank you.
 
Re: when did you start?

I started at age 7 on my dad's kickass Panasonic VHS camcorder. Yeah yeah the DVX is great, but I'm nostalgic... Oh the memories.
 
Re: when did you start?

Good story Jim. I actually had a tear in my eye while reading it. ...Not because of emotions but because of an eye infection. Possibly pink eye. ;)

Seriously, I totally respect you for doing what you love and not letting anything stop you. Keep on truck'n!
 
Re: when did you start?

INT. JERRY'S ROOM - NIGHT

It's dark, except for a faint light of a street light outside. Sheets of falling rain whip the window panes. CAMERA pans along the dark walls with drawings taped to them. At a small desk in the corner sits a ten-year old boy (JERRY), drawing cartoons of war scenes as usual. A sudden flash of a lightning reveals a shadowy figure entering the room. It's DAD.

The lights come on. Dad pulls out a little box wrapped in newsprint.

CUT TO:
Jerry taking a small camera out os the unwrapped box.

.....
Okay - a little overdone attempt to dramatize the real thing. Does still photography count? If yes, I started on my 10th birthday, some time between 07:13:28;21 PM and midnight. If not... ???

All my highschool years I was absolutely positively sure (oh how I miss being a teenager!) that film is my future. Two weeks before university application deadline, I heeded the advice of my aunt who worked in the industry, and decided that I don't have the talent and/or contacts to be accepted to a film school with 2.5% acceptance rate. The only other thing I liked other than photography was math and physics...

In university I hooked up with a friend who was making 'independent' shorts. My friend's creative endeavors served him conditional expulsion from the university, I got away with a verbal warning. Did I mention this was in 1983 in communist Czechoslovakia? End of film. Until...

2003 - I take a side gig to shoot my daughter's dance studio picture day. The owners asked me if I did event videography. I said no, but if they don't find anyone (this is three weeks before their recital show), I'd do it.

So I ended up renting an XL1 for a weekend and shot the damn show, with a second camera (the original Canon Optura) operated by my son. Somewhere in hour 156 of editing (attempting to match the two cameras look), I realized I love this stuff and it's what I had always wanted to do...

So, here I am at 42, more than a few of (mid-)life crises behind me, learning about lighting, screen grammar, not crossing the line, gamma, chroma phase, anamorphic, J-cuts. L-cuts, ..., ...

I don't regret I never tried a film school - I found science to be a great way to let imagination go wild. It's the corporate environment I could live without... but then again, could I afford my beloved DVX? :)

Oh boy, how do you guys do it that you always express yourselves so shortly and succintly? Forgive me my winged writing - Dostoyevski was my great-grandfather's brother's friend's roommate. ;D
 
Re: when did you start?

[quote author=Jerry XCheck link=board=Offtopic;num=1102817159;start=30#37 date=12/13/04 at 13:12:10]. ... I heeded the advice of my aunt who worked in the industry, and decided that I don't have the talent and/or contacts to be accepted to a film school with 2.5% acceptance rate...
[/quote]
:( not very supportive.

But you are here now and that is what is important! 8) Good story Jerry.
 
Re: when did you start?

[quote author=Jerry XCheck link=board=Offtopic;num=1102817159;start=30#37 date=12/13/04 at 13:12:10]
Oh boy, how do you guys do it that you always express yourselves so shortly and succintly? Forgive me my winged writing - Dostoyevski was my great-grandfather's brother's friend's roommate.  ;D[/quote]

That could be be longer than my post today. Scary to see your own ramblings take up a screenful and worse when they have nothing to do with any DVX.

Good luck, while you may wish to be a teeny-bopper again, don't forget that life experiences account for A LOT (now, I'm copying Dakotapod :) with the zealous tagging.)  You have nothing to draw from if your world is extremely narrow and small and short.  Thats not to say a teenage mind amounts to zilch..but you have no story to tell unless you've lived and failed and tried again.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top