Is it worth helping to make a feature if it's intended for youtube only?

Someone I know asked me to help be the assistant director and help with whatever I can when shooting his feature. But he is intending it for youtube only he says. Is it even worth making a whole feature if that's the only intention? Is it worth it really to help out? My ambitions are a lot higher, and I don't know if working on his movie would benefit either of us really, if youtube is your goal. Unless I wrong and their is opportunity there?
 
Yes. Many films have been successful through youtube, vimeo, etc. But I don't think you should be worrying about how the film is going to be distributed. That is the director and distributors job. And who cares how the film is going to be released? Shouldn't working on a feature be for practice. Also, I thought you were gathering cast and crew for a short film. I would skip the feature, and make your short asap.
 
Is it worth it really to help out? I don't know if working on his movie would benefit either of us...

You gain experience. That is always a benefit.


My ambitions are a lot higher

You mean that you will make two shorts in the next three years?


Dreams are great. Deal with practical reality. You keep telling us that there are no opportunities where you live, yet they seem to keep cropping up. Then, as you work on these projects, all you do is complain that others are doing it wrong; yet you have no experience with doing it right.


Are you really ready to be 1st AD? That's probably the toughest job on the set. Oh, if you take the gig you'll have nothing to complain about, because everything will be on you! Everything becomes your responsibility.
 
The feature will not be shot till next summer, which gives me time to do my projects in between.

Even though I don't know a lot I do know a lot more compared to everyone I have worked with so far. The feature I am currently helping make, they are making many mistakes I already know not to make. They use auto white balance, auto focusing... And they aren't even moving the camera around hardly. They will shoot mastershot, then zoom in only three feet and reshoot the scenes again. But this hardly looks like an angle change, and looks more like a skip or jump cut cause it's only three feet away. Plus when it cuts to almost the exact same angle, the actors have completely different facial expressions and it's completely obvious.

Their editing is also very illogical and the movie cuts at the most random times and isn't edited for emotion at all. So even though I don't know a lot, I still know a lot more than them and wouldn't make their mistakes. I only complain about things people do wrong constantly that I do know, and when they don't see it themselves at all, and keep doing it. The sound is also completely done wrong. They won't even let me get close enough with a mic, and have no idea about the physics about how the mic works from what little I know.

When I say their are no opportunities where I live, sure there is them. But they are not experienced enough to help make a movie to my standards and it will be a disaster. I don't mean to sound rude about them, but it would be. I don't really count them as a good opportunity, especially if they don't even know how to work their own cameras.

As far as being assistant AD, I probably am not ready, but I didn't agree to anything yet. So their have been successful movies on youtube then? Successful enough to get feet in the door I presume.
 
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The feature I did runner work on was a Youtube only feature. It cost ~£100k and currently sits on over 300k views after a month. It's been a big success for the company and I hear it may go into a limited theatrical release.

If you have a budget for advertising then nothing is wrong with doing a Youtube feature. I wouldnt want someone involved with the project who thought they were too high and mighty for a Youtube feature, though
 
Someone I know asked me to help be the assistant director and help with whatever I can when shooting his feature. But he is intending it for youtube only he says. Is it even worth making a whole feature if that's the only intention? Is it worth it really to help out? My ambitions are a lot higher, and I don't know if working on his movie would benefit either of us really, if youtube is your goal. Unless I wrong and their is opportunity there?

:lol:

you crack me up sometimes
 
The feature will not be shot till next summer, which gives me time to do my projects in between.

Even though I don't know a lot I do know a lot more compared to everyone I have worked with so far. The feature I am currently helping make, they are making many mistakes I already know not to make. They use auto white balance, auto focusing...

Auto white balance and auto focusing is fine if the director/DP is shooting quickly and/or doesn't have a focus puller. You're not going to get the best footage, but it works.

And they aren't even moving the camera around hardly. They will shoot mastershot, then zoom in only three feet and reshoot the scenes again.

Watch some Jim Jarmusch films.

But this hardly looks like an angle change, and looks more like a skip or jump cut cause it's only three feet away. Plus when it cuts to almost the exact same angle, the actors have completely different facial expressions and it's completely obvious. editing is also very illogical and the movie cuts at the most random times and isn't edited for emotion at all.

Watch some Darren Aronofsky films.

So even though I don't know a lot, I still know a lot more than them and wouldn't make their mistakes/. I only complain about things people do wrong constantly that I do know, and when they don't see it themselves at all, and keep doing it. The sound is also completely done wrong. They won't even let me get close enough with a mic, and have no idea about the physics about how the mic works from what little I know.

You sound incredibly pretentious and egotistical. Making a low budget feature film is much more difficult than you think. You have to direct actors, and manage the whole audio/camera/lighting department while making sure that
there is not too much money and time spent. You have not experienced that yet. Do you know what he does know? The basics of quickly shooting a very low/no budget feature film. Sure, there's quirks and flaws, but they're learning and doing the best they can.

When I say their are no opportunities where I live, sure there is them. But they are not experienced to help make a movie to my standards and it will be a disaster. I don't mean to sound rude about them, but it would be. I don't really count them as a good opportunity, especially if they don't even know how to work their own cameras.

You don't need them to shoot a film. Pull out a camera, and a mic, and shoot something! Get a friend and shoot a quick short film!

I think working with them would be fine. They could learn from you, and you could learn from them.

As far as being assistant AD, I probably am not ready, but I didn't agree to anything yet. So their have been successful movies on youtube then? Successful enough to get feet in the door I presume.

I know of short films that have been successful on youtube, but I don't know of any features. You shouldn't be trying to get your foot into the door yet though. You should be trying to become a better filmmaker. Make films, and get a reel together. Getting your foot in the door is great, but you should try to improve first. Once you have your foot in the door, what's going to make them want to let you in?
 
Should you do it?

No.

Why?

You're not ready yet. The questions you're asking and the things that you're saying are showing that you're thinking about it all wrong.

An AD who doesn't even realize that he doesn't know the right questions to ask is a f'up waiting to happen.

If you can do it well and the film has the potential to be a great film, youtube is a great platform to help launch your career. The benefit is you don't have to worry about raising the 8 digit budget to market the sucker, you can do it simply by word of mouth. If it's good and it's free on youtube, people will tell their friends and you should get discovered.

Just remember, in feature films, the job of an AD isn't to make it done your way. Your job is to ensure the directors vision becomes a reality, within the reality of the budget. If the movie comes out any other way than how your director envisioned it, as an AD, you failed. You have to ask yourself, is that something you're capable of?
 
I don't mean to be egotistical. It's just I was told on here before that things like auto white balance and auto focus are NOT fine, cause the camera will change focus and change color at the wrong times. Color, you may be able to fix but focus you cannot. I was told on here that doing things in certain ways is the way to go. Now you're saying it's just fine and to throw that out the window? If they posted their movie on here for viewing, you would tell them all the problems and everything they did wrong, so why say it's fine, when everyone who posts movies on here is told not to do that all the time?

I didn't know movies actually got picked up off of youtube. The reason why people aim for film festivals is because I thought it was better for business and you have to have a certain aim of quality to be accepted. When friends say they want to make a movie for youtube, it sounds like they don't care about quality at all. But if youtube is an okay place to get picked up, then I will help out. I hope later they don't tell me that whatever they do is okay though, cause it's for youtube and quality doesn't matter. Anyone puts anything on youtube, and almost nothing gets rejected, so it just doesn't sound good when you say you want to aim for youtube.

I don't have to be the AD but I wasn't sure what else I would be, since I haven't mastered focus pulling or audio mixing on set yet. The guy who wants to direct originally asked me to help with camera and sound. Of course that doesn't mean I would be a good AD either, he as just making suggestions as to how I could help.
 
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Maybe they would be better off without you.

I can't believe the nerve in you. Every time you show us something, it's frickin' far from being even just barely acceptable. And yet, you dare say that you have "high standards" ?

I've never seen any frame in anything you ever showed us that looked anywhere near good enough.

So for everyone's sake, stop fluttering around in every direction. Stop thinking, stop blabbering, put the camera down and record a single static shot that is acceptable.

Then, MAYBE, you can talk about standards.
 
I'm not good either, you're right. But I would hire experienced DPs, who know what they are doing and experienced focus pullers, etc, for a feature. The practice shots I post on here, for doing tests, are not at all what I would do if I was making a feature. I would get a good DP and focus puller rather than them relying on themselves, risking a whole feature. But I'm not good either, you're right. I am in the same boat is them, which is why I thought they should recruit more experienced people.

Which is for my next short film, I am not going to move on, unless I find a crew that can help pull it off first.
 
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I'm not good either, you're right. But I would hire experienced DPs, who know what they are doing and experienced focus pullers, etc, for a feature. The practice shots I post on here, for doing tests, are not at all what I would do if I was making a feature. I would get a good DP and focus puller rather than them relying on themselves, risking a whole feature. But I'm not good either, you're right.

Which is for my next short film, I am not going to move on, unless I find a crew that can help pull it off first.

Without being rude.. But then what use are you?
 
I want to direct and act. Those are my main goals.

I can get some more equipment and devote more practice to other areas. I was told on here before not to bother getting more equipment when I would just be using the money to get people already have their own stuff anyway, and are more experienced with it.

But in order to make myself of more use, I can get more, if that's best. I was actually going to get more lights and practice some lighting I was thinking.
 
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I'm not good either, you're right. But I would hire experienced DPs, who know what they are doing and experienced focus pullers, etc, for a feature.

Can you afford to do so? Unless you're really lucky and can get their services for free.

My partner and I have just completed shooting of a feature and short - both our first. The only production crew we had was ourselves. She co-directed. I did the audio, worked the camera etc. We could not boom, instead used a mic on a boom stand. But we got it done and we'll ensure it's pretty damn good. Sure, a crew would have been hugely helpful but that simply was not available, and we could not afford to hire one.

The point though is that it's given us a huge amount of experience, and we're much better for it.

And prior to filming we watched 1000s of shorts - both festival winners and many many bad ones. We've learnt a huge amount from watching those and have applied that to our work. Sure it's better to learn from real people on-set but if that's not attainable then you can learn a huge amount by watching shorts, tutorials on youtube here, and from the advice from fellow IT folks. Then apply that knowledge to your own film making. That's the step you never seem to do - it's always hand-held test shots....

Which is for my next short film, I am not going to move on, unless I find a crew that can help pull it off first.
I completely disagree. I think you'd be much better off just filming and directing yourself. Forget the big crew. You need experience, experience, experience. People have told you that before OP. Sure if a crew is available or relatively easy to get then use them... But that's unlikely to be the case (particularly given your location)... So the danger with your attitude is ... that you'll never actually complete anything. Which would be a huge shame.
 
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You seem like a nice guy and I hate how some people on the forum are pretty rude to you , but I think it is all for your own good.

You keep on asking questions and you keep on telling people how you are helping other folks for features , I think you're working on about 28 features by now?

If you want to direct , why don't you make some short film and post it here on the forum so people can critic it ,rather than posting a million tests of white balance ,color grading etc and asking if it's good or not .

 
I can pay for a crew of four I have budgeted for. DP/camera operator, focus puller, PSM and boom operator. But there aren't a lot around where I live that care to make themselves that available. Maybe it's cause I don't have short films to show off on my resume. I want to get experience with my friends though, and with the other directors I have worked for this year. But everyone seems to want to jump right into features, each one of them. No one wants to just get experience first. I even talked to an actor who is really talented and has done shorts and TV, and he says he has done enough of that and from now on it's feature time. I guess I would be more up for doing things ourselves, if everyone just didn't want to dive into the deep end first.

I can do things myself, and will have to research more on what equipment I should get. How do I operate the camera and work the audio equipment at the same time though?
 
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How do I operate the camera and work the audio equipment at the same time though?

Like I said, it's what I had to do.

It's not ideal but the results were acceptable. We used this:

On-Stage SB9600 Tripod Studio Boom Stand
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/407080-REG/On_Stage_SB9600_SB9600_Studio_Tripod_Boom.html

If your talent is moving then you need to either boom it or use a lav. Or (better yet) have them not speak whilst walking, get them to hold their dialogue till they get into mic range (3-4 feet).

And if you boom, you'll need to get someone else to do it (if you're working the camera). At the very least, ensure they watch a few youtube videos on basic booming technique.
 
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I can pay for a crew of four I have budgeted for. DP/camera operator, focus puller, PSM and boom operator. But there aren't a lot around where I live that care to make themselves that available. Maybe it's cause I don't have short films to show off on my resume. I want to get experience with my friends though, and with the other directors I have worked for this year. But everyone seems to want to jump right into features, each one of them. No one wants to just get experience first. I even talked to an actor who is really talented and has done shorts and TV, and he says he has done enough of that and from now on it's feature time. I guess I would be more up for doing things ourselves, if everyone just didn't want to dive into the deep end first.

I can do things myself, and will have to research more on what equipment I should get. How do I operate the camera and work the audio equipment at the same time though?

Well , to be quite honest buddy I know quite a lot of people who just show up with an actor and a camera and pull off pretty fantastic stuff !

Think of a nice ,short , clever film without dialogue . Then shoot it . Spend enough time on foley , color grading and so on and you can do some fantastic stuff without focus pullers and DP's and boom operators and all that.

There are so many filmmakers on Youtube who work with no crew whatsoever and they make amazing shorts .

Just be creative and write something that fits your budget .
 
Okay thanks. The film I am acting in right actually, the director is doing almost all close up shots so he can lav one actor at a time. But I would like to have mastershots with people walking around. Is this possible? I tried teaching how to boom from tutorials to a friend before but that friend, didn't understand the concept of how the mic had to be right on the mouth, and just didn't seem to take that seriously enough. They also could not tell the difference between off axis sound and on axis, while listening through the headphones, and could not figure it out after practicing. But I can probably find someone else who understands that better.

As for focus pulling, how exactly do I get away with it, since people going out of focus is quite easy to happen?
 
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