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watch Action Movie Attempt

The audio is pretty bad too to be honest. Also, its lacking in ambient sound. There should be music when you're playing rockband, and some noise during the fight scenes. Also, your shots last a little too long. For an action short, the editing needs to be faster paced.

And by the way, are you using the auto-settings on your camera? Don't do that.
 
It was a cool video, but in addition to what was already said the lighting wasn't that great, and the two things that really make a good quality movie are good sound and good lighting. If the lighting is dim it makes the video quality decrease.
 
that1guyy said:
The audio is pretty bad too to be honest. Also, its lacking in ambient sound. There should be music when you're playing rockband, and some noise during the fight scenes. Also, your shots last a little too long. For an action short, the editing needs to be faster paced.

And by the way, are you using the auto-settings on your camera? Don't do that.
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Yeah. It's a really really bad camera that's not at all meant for actual films. Its meant for like family occasions or something. There's also no settings for audio or external mic inputs. This is the best I can do with this camera, but it wont be for much longer.
 
camera is no excuse. The camera you have right now would have been the ENVY of filmmakers 20 years ago.

Re shoot it all with good lights, better props and more actual acting. Treat this one like a "pre visualization" run. Have your actors watch it, analyze what needs to be better. And spend at least ONE hour for each camera setup. Take the time to LOOK at what your filming on the computer. Many, many takes. Making a movie like this is like trying to cook without TASTING what your cooking. An experienced cook only needs to taste near the end, the inexperienced should taste every step of the process.
 
wheatgrinder said:
camera is no excuse. The camera you have right now would have been the ENVY of filmmakers 20 years ago.

Re shoot it all with good lights, better props and more actual acting. Treat this one like a "pre visualization" run. Have your actors watch it, analyze what needs to be better. And spend at least ONE hour for each camera setup. Take the time to LOOK at what your filming on the computer. Many, many takes. Making a movie like this is like trying to cook without TASTING what your cooking. An experienced cook only needs to taste near the end, the inexperienced should taste every step of the process.
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First: obviously these aren't actors, their some friends.
Second: I've been doing this for a few months so I'm not gonna go out and buy a bunch of lights for youtube videos that don't pay me shit all. Everything in this video were things I found around the house so I wouldn't expect finding perfect replicas.

I appreciate the tips, but I'm not doing this for a living, this is more a way to kill a few hours. When I get into making money through it with a couple of years under my belt I'll start getting real actors and spending days, to weeks on one video.

Edit* I just read through that and it comes off fairly snarky sounding. Don't take it that way :)
 
I would heed the advice the others gave you.

You spent time making this video and asked others to take their time watching it and giving you advice on how you can improve and then you reply with "I'm only doing this for fun - of course it will suck".

If you do everything like an amateur, you will wind up with an amateur life.

"When I get into making money..."

Make that today.

Make a viral video with cats shooting each other.

Just don't become the next Rebecca Black.
 
p.s. I encourage you to find Steven Spielberg's original short films he made when he was a child. He used his friends and he got into it and made some awesome movies.

The attitude of "I'll make money-making pictures when I get the right equipment" is shockingly discovered to be not true because you didn't spend the first 2 years figuring out how to actually use your "poor quality" equipment well enough, and you're going to be stuck in the same boat, unfortunately.

If you're serious about making it in the film business, learn everything you can now and make some great videos even with whatever equipment you've got now. It will pay off later. Trust me.
 
You're right, it sounds very snarky - you ask for criticism and advice, and then tell off the folks who give the criticism and advice. If you are making videos for fun, that's great; but then you shouldn't ask professionals how to do better if you don't intend to follow up.

Low/micro budget indie is about being extremely creative with both your story telling and your problem solving of the technical aspects. For about $50 you can get some lighting at Home Depot. Is it professional? Of course not, but it's a hell of a lot better than nothing.

Alfred Hitchcocks "Psycho" was made for around $1 million (about $7.5 million today), yet it is an iconic film. The budget did not allow for a full orchestra, only for a string orchestra, and that restriction "forced" Bernard Herrmann to create one of the most recognizable scores in film. Film Noir is another example of low budget restrictions that actually became a filmmaking style.
 
Alexisincolour said:
I was just wondering if anyone has any tips for me. I haven't been doing this for too long and other than the 1) bad lighting, 2) camera quality, and 3) horrific acting lol, how can I improve?
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Hmm...
Doesn't leave much to discuss, does it?

Screwit, I'll talk about one simple lighting fix.
Those high contrast shots, ones with a window or open door, cause your camera to close it's aperture making everything inside dark.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HcbXWv3dv0&feature=player_detailpage#t=2s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HcbXWv3dv0&feature=player_detailpage#t=23s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HcbXWv3dv0&feature=player_detailpage#t=49s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HcbXWv3dv0&feature=player_detailpage#t=147s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HcbXWv3dv0&feature=player_detailpage#t=165s

Fix: Set up your indoor shots minimizing having a window or open door to outside - UNLESS - you're going to spring a few bucks on interior lighting to bring some bright/dark equality.

Now that it's spring, go shoot outside on an overcast day.
Do the same/similar gunplay in your local forest.
Go ahead and use big orange Nerf & water guns so rubberneckers won't call the po-po.
No one gives a sh!t if your video has you guys popping a cap in a "clone's" ass with a water gun.
This is an educational exercise.

The camera, audio and actors are fine. Consider them all "representational". They're gold in that respect!

Does your editing program allow you to alter the brightness or colors of the video you import?
if so, monkey with it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_grading

Setting up shots:
The first scene has three "clones" at a distance of (L-R) 12, 16 & 14 feet away.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HcbXWv3dv0&feature=player_detailpage#t=2s

The second scene has three "clones" in nearly the same positions but closer at 4, 8 & 7 feet away.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HcbXWv3dv0&feature=player_detailpage#t=15s

When watching these two scenes it looks as if all of a sudden BAM! the whole set not only got closer, but also changed = W? T? F?

Don't do that.
Sequential shots need to have a significant change of presentation - UNLESS - you're going to try a match cut.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Match_cut

FWIW, the sequence that begins at 1:04 to 1:16 was done well, other than the cameraman got a wee close to the one actor's shoulder.
Also, I liked the dolly-in or zoom (can't tell which it is) shot between 1:18 and 1:27.

Best suggestion is to find some shots in a movie or two you like and try to recreate them with the sets you have available.
This way you can reverse engineer figure out the problems the director/cinematographer had to figure out.
Consider how you would have done it and then figure out what the difference is.

GL! Don't poke yerr eye out!
 
Alexisincolour said:
First: obviously these aren't actors, their some friends.
Second: I've been doing this for a few months so I'm not gonna go out and buy a bunch of lights for youtube videos that don't pay me shit all. Everything in this video were things I found around the house so I wouldn't expect finding perfect replicas.

I appreciate the tips, but I'm not doing this for a living, this is more a way to kill a few hours. When I get into making money through it with a couple of years under my belt I'll start getting real actors and spending days, to weeks on one video.

Edit* I just read through that and it comes off fairly snarky sounding. Don't take it that way :)
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Funny, I just re read my comments and I thought I came off like a jerk.. sorry about that.. I meant well and deserve to be slapped.. so were cool! lol
 
Im not saying to buy anything.. just move the lamps and stuff you have on hand. Can you get some aluminum foil? Tape it to a piece of cardboard and use it to reflect light. This forum LOVES to come up with CHEAP\FREE alternatives.. The key is the TECHNIQUE not the equipment.


Read up and study the million dolor techniques, you'll discover at the core its very equipment agnostic. For example, flagging a 2k HMI is conceptually no different then using a piece of cardboard to shape the output from a table lamp, just a matter of scale. So you dont have a big fancy movie light, that doesn't mean you cant use the table lamp more effectively.

One quick pointer as your starting out, try and film out doors. Lighting becomes less of an issue and your quality will improve with more room to work. The hard part is the weather.. this winter seems to be hanging on in the western hemisphere..
 
Even though these have been fairly painful to read through, most have been very helpful. (Especially rayw and wheatgrinder)

Quick question: How can I get better audio without any settings on my camera or external mic inputs?
 
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for sound, you can try shooting a separate take for just the dialogue. Set up your shoot for how you want it to look. Rehearse the action and dialogue and take the shot, Then have the actors move RIGHT in front of the camera up close to the mic and repeat their lines without moving around. For this take the idea is to get the BEST SOUND you can..

Keep in mind that most of us dont "film movies"

We write a script.
We film the footage.
We EDIT the movie.

In this mode, filming\shooting is more about gathering good raw material for editing.

Expect to shoot lots of footage, at least 80% of what ends up on my camera is garbage.

Keep it up.
 
I'll be completly honest.
It's crap.
Now, I don't mean this in an insulting way but on the critique (italics make everthing fancier, deal with it) kind of way.
People told you to reshoot stuff with better lighting, to which you answered with an excuse.
Having no money to invest in equipment is no excuse.
If you are doing this for fun, go right ahead and light things as you wish, and shoot with whatever you think suits the shot.
Now, if you ever want to be a serious filmmaker, then you should start by finding a way to shoot your movies with 0 budget, since, let's face it, you won't be founded for a long log time.
Also, special effects look awful, and with the amount of free tutorials and resources on the web, there is no reason for them to do.
 
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YouTube is riddled with homemade action movies and, as has been rpreviously alluded to, this is not one of the best.

Don't worry about the camera.
Don't worry about the sound.
Don't worry about the lights (sorry wheat).

Instead of making an 'action movie' that's three minutes of largely incomprehensible plotting, try shooting an action scene. Too many of these videos are made by people who know how to do muzzle flares and are desperate to work that into the story. The best way that you learn to do action scenes is to do it piece by piece. You don't need any more equipment than you had to shoot that film, you just need to use it better.

Some tips for doing this:
1.) Don't use the camera mic at all. If you can't switch it off on the camera, mute it in editing. It sounds rubbish. Gt some sound effects from websites (gunshots, explosions...etc), grab some music (preferably unlicensed) and do a little bit of your own foley work for punches and stuff. That will sound much better than what it sounds like at the moment.

2.) Cut much faster. Every action scene that you watch the pace is dictated by the speed of the cuts. Have you ever seen an action scene with as few cuts as there are in your film? Coverage is the the one thing, in the digital age, where blockbusters have no advantage over consumers: shoot as much as you need and then cut from that.

3.) Try and avoid any wide two shots of your actors. They aren't stunt men, you can't afford the pros, so when they're fighting you need, as the cameraman, to cheat the action and cheat the proximity. When you go out for the wide you will expose your deficiencies, the more claustrophobic you make it, the mlre the viewer will have to take for granted and the more you'll be able t get away with.

Just some thoughts.
 
My advice would be get a story on film and present it professionally edited.

This takes real filmmaking skill - tell a story. The films that don't make money had no story or told it incorrectly so the audience didn't get it.

As much as I like seeing Justin Bieber get it, this video had no substance and looked like a bad excuse to show off how you could use after-effects.

Tell a story. This is what producers and directors look for in their technical staff.

I see some of the best technical experts in sound get turned down for a job because they simply cannot tell a story with their soundtracks. Same goes for cinematographers to directors, the whole gamut.
 
I rather liked the energy, actually - but then I've got a soft spot for action a mile wide.

A couple of less-technical recommendations:

- Action is all about reactions. All your actors are trying very hard to be "action movie cool", and that comes across as expressionless. Look at the really awesome action movies - Die Hard, Indiana Jones, even The Matrix - the actors spend a hell of a lot of time looking scared, hurt, angry, and every other emotion under the sun. If you want to make it real, get your actors to spend more time reacting.

- Trained killers are well-balanced. One of the most common mistakes I see when acting action is not paying attention to your feet. Watch Kiefer Sutherland in any action scene in "24" - he's very, very balanced. His weight's evenly spread, even when he's running. If there's ever a point where you could push your badass character and they'd fall over, your actor needs to concentrate more on their balance. Drop the weight a bit, spread it between both feet, and move CAREFULLY - after all, there are a lot of guns around here!

- Guns have recoil. Any time someone's squeezing off a round, they should simulate that. It'll make it look cooler, trust me.

- Any fight scene is a conversation. It's all about reversals and unexpected things happening. I'd recommend reading "Story" by Robert McKee if you get a bit more serious - otherwise, watch the fight scenes you love, and notice how your expectations - and the expectations of the characters - keep getting changed. "I've got him pinned down - no, he's kicked down a door and run for it - aargh!"

Have fun with your moviemaking!
 
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