Need advices for a motorsports-centered movie project

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RAF_Motorsports

Hi there folks ! :)

I'm making this thread to introduce my project. My main concern here is to get feedbacks and tips on how to make it become a real, watchable and enjoyable short film. Being kinda new to all of this, I have lots of things to learn from you guys. ;)

# Let's start with where the idea originally came from.

I'm a car enthusiast. The kind of guy who enjoys driving for the sake of driving, spends nights in his garage working on his ride, goes to car meets, and such. You get the idea. My beloved car starts to feel worn out overall. After almost 20 years spent on the road, nothing surprising... So I plan to give it a second life, which will also be an opportunity for me to learn how to rebuild a car inside and out (one of my dreams). At first I thought filming the rebuild would make for a cool YouTube video, but it quickly went further. In facts, I've always wanted to make something bigger; something that would depict the lifestyle of a car enthusiast. And I think this rebuild would be a good starting point.

# I've been thinking about it for months and here are my ideas.

-- The film would follow me and my car through the whole 'adventure'. It would include scenes from the rebuild, but also car meets, race track events, day/night time cruising (alone and with friends), etc.

-- Ideally, I'd like it to be somewhere in between documentary and fiction, using both genuine, untouched footage, and staged scenes. The reason for it being that I want my film to be entertaining for a wider audience than just 'car guys'. I believe it could work fine with clever editing. Let me know what you think.

-- Another thing worth mentioning is that I don't want my film to have any dialogues, at all. I tend to believe good editing supported by a good soundtrack will work better to create the various atmospheres/paces I want. I know it's a debatable opinion, so once again don't hesitate to tell me what you think.

-- I pretty much already know how it could be structured. But due to its concept, I can hardly make a proper scenario/storyboard for my film, since I don't precisely know what I will be shooting, except for the staged scenes ofc. If needed, I can post the structure I'm thinking about, for the sake of criticism. ;)

# To be more practical:

I have a few friends that offered me their help. I'll try to gather them up as a film crew. Most of them have a car, a camera and/or a GoPro.

To sum it up:
- I'll be able to borrow up to 4-5 GoPros in addition to my own, which means multiple angles.
- I'll be able to have at least another car filming mine on the road, and probably also on the track !
- I'll be able to have at least one cameraman to shoot some "shaky passenger footage", staged scenes, fly-by's and whatnot.

I, myself, plan on buying my own GoPro and camera + tripod. These will be particularly useful during the build part, since I'll let them roll while I work on the car. The GoPro will also be used to get some FPV footage. Of course I will also buy a good laptop, SD cards, an external hard drive for back-up, etc.

# Now the tough part... and newbie questions. :blush:

1) Which camera could I get under 1000$ ? My priority is to have low noise as much as possible, even in a darker environment... Being able to attach it somewhere inside the car would help too.

2) Should I even buy a (quite expensive) GoPro ? Or is there another camera/brand I should check out in the same category ?

3) I will probably end up with lots of material from a variety of cameras, each with their own format, screen size, etc. Which software could I use to sort out that mess with as little loss of quality as possible ?

4) I've tested Lightworks, and kinda liked it. I didn't have a hard time figuring out the basics, so I'm considering using it for this project. Would you recommend another editing software, or is this one enough ?

4) What kind of mic could I use to record engine sounds inside and outside the car ?

--
Don't hesitate to post links to other threads if these questions have already been answered in details. Feel free to comment anything I've said above as well !

Sorry for the long read, and thanks in advance to anyone who will reply.
 
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RAF_Motorsports said:
I want my film to be entertaining for a wider audience than just 'car guys'...
I don't want my film to have any dialogues, at all. I tend to believe good editing supported by a good soundtrack will work better to create the various atmospheres/paces I want. I know it's a debatable opinion, so once again don't hesitate to tell me what you think.
Click to expand...

You start off talking about a short but the way you describe the content, you seem to be talking about a feature length project or a series. Also, it's not really "a debatable opinion", as there is no market or demand for semi-fictional documentaries/narrative films without dialogue. If you want a "wider audience" you are going to need to present a compelling story and dialogue will be expected by your audience. Telling a compelling story through film is not easy!

My advice is to practise by making a number of simple shorts, getting feedback and improving before you tackle your real project. You're going to be facing a number of difficult technical and artistic challenges which you're not going to fully appreciate until you actually start practising. I'm sure you'll get some good responses to your questions but one thing you'll learn is that there are no definitively correct answers to any of them!

G
 
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The silent movie feature usually does not go anywhere, so I would skip that idea.

However the movie itself, I definitely would like to see a car movie but I still think that you could think a plot for it, a road movie for instance.
 
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Alcove Audio said:
These will get you started...
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These were excellent reads, thanks a lot !

Properly recording engine/tire sounds is crucial for my opening scene. I can't resist the urge to tell you more, since I am very excited about it.

One of my main objectives with my project car is to be able to go racing on a track with it. Assuming I succeed to go that far, it will be the ultimate achievement, a proof that I built it right. *

Therefore, I thought that it would be interesting to go for a non-chronological approach and start with a scene on the race track. I've even made a short storyboard for that very specific scene as I have precise ideas on how I want it to look. To sum up:

-- No music at all, emphasis on the engine sound in various situations (basic acceleration/deceleration, heel-toe, double clutching, and such), hence the need for something really sharp. :)

-- The car or myself will not be seen yet. I only want that scene to include bumper cam POV (most impressive angle imo) and shaky tach/steering wheel/pedals/shifter close-ups. Two reasons for that: I want that 'pumping adrenalin' feeling to catch the viewers' attention from the get go, but I don't want to spoil later scenes. For safety concerns, some of the close-ups might be shot on a deserted parking lot.

-- The scene quickly ends with a fade to black; "x months earlier" pops on the screen; first song of the soundtrack kicks in... and we're at my garage at the very beginning of the rebuild.

(* if, for whatever reason the car fails, I will also show it at some point, as it'll be part of the story. But I'm confident that even if it happens, I'll be able to get it to run fine and make that race track scene)

AudioPostExpert said:
You start off talking about a short but the way you describe the content, you seem to be talking about a feature length project or a series. Also, it's not really "a debatable opinion", as there is no market or demand for semi-fictional documentaries/narrative films without dialogue. If you want a "wider audience" you are going to need to present a compelling story and dialogue will be expected by your audience. Telling a compelling story through film is not easy!
Click to expand...

I first though about making it a series, but imho the story wouldn't be as interesting to follow in that format. The reason why I'm talking about a short is because I hardly imagine it being longer than 15-20min. Maybe that does not qualify as short though ? Let me know, so that I use the proper term.

I said it was a debatable opinion because I do understand that with no dialogues, it might be harder to make it understandable for the audience. ;)

The only form of dialogue I think could fit would be a voiceover made by myself about the project, and what it means to me. There's actually a much deeper background than one could think. It's not just about cars. I am challenging myself to do something most have never attempted (rebuilding an engine), and the whole project has been criticized a lot (too ambitious, expansive, etc.). Because at some point in my life, I was always late to work (which got me fired), not very involved in my studies, etc. my parents also doubt I'll be able to tackle such a big project. I've made lots of efforts to get back on track since, but they still haven't realized. So all in all, I have a lot to prove to myself and my relatives.

But is all this personnal drama really worth being told to the viewer ? Somehow, I think it would be better to focus more on that very special car/driver relationship, the pride of having achieved something, and all the social interaction between car enthusiasts. I don't know. Any feedbacks on this would be appreciated.

My advice is to practise by making a number of simple shorts, getting feedback and improving before you tackle your real project. You're going to be facing a number of difficult technical and artistic challenges which you're not going to fully appreciate until you actually start practising. I'm sure you'll get some good responses to your questions but one thing you'll learn is that there are no definitively correct answers to any of them!
Click to expand...
Well, I already made two test videos, but these were more focused around trying to make proper use of the editing tools I had at disposal. There is not story telling at all.

# This one was the first I ever made using Lightworks. For whatever reason, the music and video are slightly out of synch, which make it look kinda terrible. It was shot without a bipod or travelling rail, so it's rather shaky. Image quality isn't even decent, lots of noise, and it's sometimes badly out of focus (walking part).

The good side is that editing it made me realize how much I needed better equipment and filming skills to get a good result. I still had fun making it, especially editing the song to make it fit my needs, with the high-pass filter and reverb effects to make it sound like it was actually playing in the parking lot at the beginning and end. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqDV045t7ho

# This one was made using the worst software ever, that is, Windows Movie Maker. Skip to 1:15 to get something somewhat interesting to watch. I'm pretty proud of how the music and video are synched, as well as the overall pace of that 'night racing' bit. I really wish I had a better camera that night though, these roads looked amazing in reality.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nwvua2mhnBI

itarumaa said:
However the movie itself, I definitely would like to see a car movie but I still think that you could think a plot for it, a road movie for instance.
Click to expand...
It's hard for me to find a plot, since my aim is to be as authentic as possible, hence what I said about it being somewhere between a documentary and a fiction. ;)
 
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