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watch Film shot by ONE GUY.

My name is Max Normandin, and I've ALWAYS wanted to be a filmmaker. The problem is, I suffer from panick attacks and a pretty severe case of social phobia. I don't get out of my house often, and I certainly don't surround myself with people. Which makes it pretty darn hard to make movies...

This is the story of how I went ahead a shot a 25min short film all by myself, with no crew, using family members as actors. I don't know if this is unusual or not, but I think the quality of the final product, given the very limited ressources I had, might be uncommon.

When my father passed away last year, he left me a little bit of money. My dad was always very adamant of my filmmaking/screenwriting, and no matter what stupid decisions I made to pursue my dreams (quit college, quit my job, etc) he never lost faith in me and did everything he could to help me reach my goals.

So with the money my dad left me, I purchased a Blackmagic Camera, a couple of lenses and a microphone, and went ahead and started shooting my first short film.

I was so excited by the idea of making this film that I began without a script, which made things a little difficult. Since I have virtually no friends and very little contact with the outside world, I cast my girlfriend in the lead role and my niece as the secondary. My mom and sister also played roles in my film, as well as myself.

Making a movie all by yourself is silly hard, but not impossible. I often had to operate the camera, pull focus and boom at the same time. Often times I would just abandon sound and do everything in post. It certainly involves a lot of foley, ADR and post production.

I shot basically all my ''alone'' scenes by myself, when my grilfriend was at work. I would place a mirror behind the camera to arrange my frame and focus. I even tied a rope to a DIY dolley to pull some camera movements since I had no camera operator. I was filming theses ''alone'' scenes, well, all by myself...

I shot for 5 months, on weekends, mostly at night. A friend of my girlfriend did come out to help on two or three occasions, and I credited him in the movie because he's a great guy. But it's safe to say that 99,99% of the film was made by a single dude.

Basically, the message I want to send out with this film is that if you're really passionate about cinema, just go out there and make a film. You don't need a budget and you don't need a crew lol. I know that sounds ridiculous, but all you need is a little inspiration, alot of determination *and a WHOLE LOT of patience.

Here's the link to my film:*

http://vimeo.com/102559146

Thanks for watching, and I'm hoping you can help my movie garner a little bit of attention.
 
Basically, the message I want to send out with this film is that if you're really passionate about cinema, just go out there and make a film. You don't need a budget and you don't need a crew lol.

You don't need a script either, apparently
 
A script is essential, but didn't have one.

Fortunately, we made things work perfectly in the end.

Did you do all the editing, sound, etc too?
Looks nice, I am 8 minutes in.

The blood seemed a little thin in the spray shot, like kool-aid or something, but overall I am pretty impressed.
 
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Basically, the message I want to send out with this film is that if you're really passionate about cinema, just go out there and make a film. You don't need a budget and you don't need a crew lol........




You had a budget.
Look:

................
So with the money my dad left me, I purchased a Blackmagic Camera, a couple of lenses and a microphone, and went ahead and started shooting my first short film......
 
havent watched the whole thing yet, but nice job!

I like to do a bit of self shooting myself as well sometimes, while it's a lot more challenging, it can also be very rewarding as youve got complete creative control.
 
Loved the film and also your story behind it, there is no excuse not to film. I liked the jump scares and also the evil side of the antagonist (and that knife nod to Psycho :P). It is true although that you had some money on your side for equipment. I have no problem filming with my Nikon, but problem is that I don't have lights to achieve certain looks that I want and that backs me off many times from filming, because I don't believe that I will get good shots without proper light.
 
I'm at work so I'm going to have to watch this later but I did want to jump in to congratulate you. It must have been quite difficult. I love the different ways movies can be made now!
 
Congratulations!

Anyone who completes a short with a crew of under three, let alone one (!), deserves a huge W E L L D O N E!

Plus I liked it, super job. :)
 
With the workflow that my cousin and I have, we usually don't need over 4 people on set. And that's including those on screen. He's usually the director and actor while I usually run the camera, sound, grip, and anything else that we might bring along (dolly, crane). I'll sometimes even edit and do folly work. So working "alone" is not new to me. But I also highly appreciate those that also partake in that kind of practice. Is it easier with more people? Absolutely. But it's not impossible to do it solo. Plus it gives you the experience on several different fields. It's true indie work at its finest.

The best part about being the cameraman and editor is that you already know which shots work and editing goes by so much faster.
 
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Thanks to everyone!

I'm glad most of you liked it!

You guys are truly awesome!

(Wish I could participate more, but for some reason this website fails to recognize my email adress 90% I try to log in.
 
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