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Am i stupid?

P

Phil_UK

Hey there,

I am a 15 Year old pupil from London, thinking about filming a second world war movie. Of course, I would have 18 Years and over superviseres on set. Do you think I could pull this off?

Is there a chance that i am just not realising how hard it actually is?

What more can I add to the list here:

Location (thinking Wales)
Props (Uniforms, guns, cars....)
Makeup
Special Effects
Many Actors
Many helpers

And then the usual..
 
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Phil_UK said:
The thing I am not to sure about is, not many people, and I am not talking about the forum members, trust a young guy...
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You will have several challenges in making this (or any) movie. If
you are up to the challenges - including earning trust - then you
can make a movie. Are you up to the challenge?


Phil_UK said:
I don't have a script at hand yet, but I got some Ideas flowing.
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Tell ya what...

Write the script first. Polish it and make it the very best you can make
it. One of the reasons people tend to not trust a young guy is because
most of you (and I was one so I know) don't always follow through.
Show people you are worthy of trust and time by writing an excellent
script.

Are you thinking of a feature or a short?
 
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rayw said:
Can you do this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hE-ZmwATS8E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hE-ZmwATS8E

Pretty much just begin by "screwing around" with the equipment you have with the friends you have in the environments you have available.
Make some shorts.
See what looks like cr@p, what doesn't.
Try to recreate a few scenes by reverse engineering what you can watch over and over on DVD.
Get real familiar with your equipment (camera, mics, editing) and learn it's limitations so that you can exploit them.

Gopherit. But don't quit your day job. ;)
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LOL, my buddy Clinton Jones with Cardboard Warfare!!!! You know he's doing Cardboard Warfare II, right?
 
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Good Luck with it am 15 also
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Fantastic to find many same aged people around.I'm 16.

And Phil,I suggest you rather frame a solid script and then decide.Impossible is nothing,this applies even to film making.Go for it or wait for few more years to get decent practice.Wait,have you made any short earlier?

Good luck.:)
 
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suggestion

I have no idea how talented or intelligent you are, so it's hard to judge how to answer with so litle info. However, I would make this general suggestion about your ww2 piece.

Try shooting your film in miniture this time. Go buy toy soldiers for 10 bucks a box, get some smaller lighitng kits. Buy a folding table, clear a room, rent a macro lens.

If you are having trouble making your story under budget when you don't have to deal with peoples schedules, only need one lens, and only need to properly light a small area, it's a pretty good indicator it won't fly in real life. This will also help you plan sequences and shots strategically for the real thing. You'll notice that in war movies generals always have this setup, visuallizing the battle before it happens.

You can run and gun and see what happens, but at your level and the project difficulty, It would help a lot to plan and do test runs like the "storyboarding in real life" I suggested.
 
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The script is where you start. Write a compelling story. One where you actually care about the characters. The hardest thing I found involved with filmmaking is writing a script and finding a reason to care abouot the characters in the story.

Recently, a DP and I were talking about writing, and he used the word "motivation". What motivated a character to do something, would it motivate you to do the same thing or something different? It's a way of getting the audience to care.

It all starts with the story. I have yet to see someone make a good movie out of a bad or uncompelling story.

What about WWII? The entire war, a particular battle?

Watch "We Were Soldiers", the story of three days of battle.

Phil_UK said:
Hey there,

I am a 15 Year old pupil from London, thinking about filming a second world war movie. Of course, I would have 18 Years and over superviseres on set. Do you think I could pull this off?

Is there a chance that i am just not realising how hard it actually is?

What more can I add to the list here:

Location (thinking Wales)
Props (Uniforms, guns, cars....)
Makeup
Special Effects
Many Actors
Many helpers

And then the usual..
Click to expand...
 
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I see absolutely no reason at all you couldn't make a good ww2 movie, as opposed to any other kind of indie film.

Are you going to make Saving Private Ryan? Uh, no. But all that's standing between you and, say, a tight psychodrama about a fire team and an enemy sniper is a few props and some uniforms. The rest is the same as for any other project.

Just think what you could do with that psychodrama if you added some good sound. Some bombs exploding, gunfire, tanks firing, and you've got the war waging all around, just over the next hill.

But I could be wrong. It's happened before. :)
 
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gpforet said:
The script is where you start. Write a compelling story. One where you actually care about the characters. The hardest thing I found involved with filmmaking is writing a script and finding a reason to care abouot the characters in the story.

Recently, a DP and I were talking about writing, and he used the word "motivation". What motivated a character to do something, would it motivate you to do the same thing or something different? It's a way of getting the audience to care.

It all starts with the story. I have yet to see someone make a good movie out of a bad or uncompelling story.

What about WWII? The entire war, a particular battle?

Watch "We Were Soldiers", the story of three days of battle.
Click to expand...
NOT disagreeing with you here. I think scriptwriters are right up there with directors in terms of how important their job is to the success of a film. But don't you also find that getting the audience to sympathize with a character is as much about what the audience sees as it is about motivation? I.e., I think audiences naturally sympathize with the characters they see most, or rather, whoever they identify with relative to everyone else. It's almost as if simply being the protagonist elicits sympathy in the audience, and that sympathy is the writer's to lose.

I'm saying it's a glass half full kind of thing. If I lose sympathy for a character, it's usually because someone screwed up somewhere; the problem was more I was pushed away, rather than not sufficiently pulled in.
 
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Looks good. Very nice image and mood, wardrobe, props. Too focused on the main character for my taste. Maybe in the beggining you could show more of the surrounding area, some wide shots, to better place the character in the enviroment. Maybe vary the distance from the camera to the character more often. I feel the character is on my face all the time...get back a bit. :)
 
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Ok saw it on the ipad in the end,

For me personally the beginning was a bit too slow.

When he gets the gun it sounds like a plastic gun being dragged across a pavement on some string, also when he holds the gun it sounds unrealistic also, Iv held many guns (in turkey ) and the weight off them would never sound like that.

The ending, I wanted to hear loud gunshots, a proper gang banging finish him fatality instead I was left disappointed with a noise that I can't comment on..

Now onto what I did like, the colour of it, the feeling, the shots, the story.

I would have liked a bit of noise to it, it did seem a bit too clean cut.

Good work, though, very inspiring for other film makers.
 
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8salacious9 said:
Ok saw it on the ipad in the end,

For me personally the beginning was a bit too slow.

When he gets the gun it sounds like a plastic gun being dragged across a pavement on some string, also when he holds the gun it sounds unrealistic also, Iv held many guns (in turkey ) and the weight off them would never sound like that.

The ending, I wanted to hear loud gunshots, a proper gang banging finish him fatality instead I was left disappointed with a noise that I can't comment on..

Now onto what I did like, the colour of it, the feeling, the shots, the story.

I would have liked a bit of noise to it, it did seem a bit too clean cut.

Good work, though, very inspiring for other film makers.
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Hey dude, thanks for your comments.

The sounds are all original sounds. The dragging across the floor was recorded on location. The sound of the gun when he holds it is original as well. You've held many guns, then you should know, that this is an original german luger P08. A deactivated firearm from the 1st and 2nd world war. The sound you hear is the less than perfectly manufactured magazine rattling inside the handle :)

Thanks for your comments tho! I appreciate the input :)
 
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You did it! I'm going to take full credit, because I said "you can DO it!" ;)

This piece is one that you should feel really proud of, and it will no doubt lead to your involvement in bigger projects. Congrats!
 
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