My first ever short film? please help.

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If equipment is an issue, ask around. Ask your friends and family to borrow a camera. It doesn't have to be great, or even that good.

Study and learn. The internet is an endless pool of knowledge, swim in it!

Write a short film, get some friends together, film, and edit that sucker.
 
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It doesn't have to be complex- maybe a walk in the park, maybe a trip to the store-something day to day, put a little story to it. I saw a short film once of about 3 min of a guy who kept losing his money in funny ways on his way to the store. It was funny and well shot and edited, and not a complex idea at all :)
 
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Hi, David

A drama would be the quickest and easiest to shoot.
Once you start getting into action and zombies and whatnot you start requiring props and costumes.

Got camera? Great.
Got separate audio recording equipment? Yes/No?
If no (and most normal people don't, even around here) then plan for your stories to be fairly close to the camera. Inside shots and you'll have a lot of reverberation/echo to deal with. Outside shots and you'll have wind to deal with. Your call.
If yes then GREAT! You got yourself a boom guy! Go crazy!

Shoot in the daytime and you'll have changing sunlight to consider.
Shoot at night and you'll have more time to set up shots without sunlight to fool with.

Why is interior/exterior and daylight/night relevant?
Finding locations that you can get in and get done and get gone with almost zero hassle is why.
Shooting inside your home or around it is fine - no hassles.
Shooting outside your school while it's out for summer - fine. no one's probably going to give you any hassle.
Shoot in the parking lot of wherever, day or night - and no one's going to hassle you, probably.
Find somewhere that's out of business (usually they've got a big FOR SALE sign up)
Train tracks.
Service areas behind strip malls.
The forest.
The beach.
The boat docks.
Wherever.

With your location pool known you can then figure out who your talent pool is (or isn't).

Now think of a story with the locations and actors you have access to, maybe even a vehicle or two.

Copied from another thread, consider a short about:
- some friends that have locked themselves out of their car.
- two guys complain about their fast food.
- a couple that uses happy meal toys to communicate/argue/flirt.
- a conversation between someone under the hood on the side of the road and a mischievious passenger riding shotgun.
- conversation between a kidnapper and the kidnapped.
- a conversation before the kidnapping between a pair of kidnappers.
- a game of "I Spy" that goes wrong.
Whatever.

Story, rather than cinematography, is the painful weakness of the overwhelming majority of films, shorts or features.
Situation -> Resolve -> Outcome that makes sense.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiction#Types_of_conflict

GL!
 
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I don't have much experience on making short films but when I tried to make my first one it didn't went as I expected.
tips from a newbie:
-choose the location wisely
-don't go to the location not knowing where your going to place the camera
- try and organize what you can before you get to shooting
I'm saying this because when I shot my first short film I had to do it quickly and I didn't study the location so when I got to the place all I wanted to do was in my head. The ideal shots I had imagined I wasn't able to accomplish.

Do your homework before you get to the location so you don’t have do it all over again once you look at the final footage.
 
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