New movie on the make,Advice required.

[Sam K]

Hey Guys ,

I'm starting a new thread basically because next weekend I'll be shooting a new short action movie, Giving me an extra week to get all the preparation down. ( We were due to film saturday, but for various reasons that's not gonna happen).
So anyways I'm looking for pointers on what I might be missing out, or any advice which will save me a lot of trouble, so here goes what I've done so far

- First I had an Idea, with an actual story, not much more elaborate than my two initial movies, but better idea still IMO.

- Next I made a list of all the stuff I had access to.
*My House for Location
* 5 gun props: a Steyr, an M15, An AK47, A pistole, and two M4a1's (one of them is broken and can be used more savagely)
*A load of old Debris: Wall paper, newspaper, sawdust etc
*3 "actors" plus me. Basically my two bros a mate of mine, and Me ( although I'm trying to limit the time I spend on camera so I can focus on being behind it, I only have to do the "stunt" parts, because I'll volunteer to do them, my brothers won't.

- I then thought it'd be cool, to have a few stacks of money, so I printed out a few of 500euro note pictures I found on google, cut out a shitload of newspapers to the size of the money and I then strapped an elastic band around em, and tadaaa. ( This was actually just trickin myself into thinking I was improving on getting on with preproduction.

- I then wrote down the main idea of the film on paper. One line per action. Showed it to my bros, they gave in a few Ideas, so I changed that. ( I'll call this piece of paper my first step towards a script)

- I then went through the scene myself in real life seeing how it all worked out, removing or changing bits which would hurt the pace of the movie.

- I grabbed my little bro, and started filming how the film would go, to try out the camera angles I had in mind.

- Put the sequence together on my computer

- Analysed it to see what was wrong with it, what shots looked wrong.

-Wrote down on a sheet of paper what should be changed, inspired by movies with similar scenes on which I analysed how they shot the scenes.

- Came to indietalk to ask you guys what to do next? Haha

Thanks in advance.

Sam.

 

[Dreadylocks]

These "films" are EVERYWHERE, and you can't get away from them. They're like a plague.

Really? Maybe it's just your circle of friends, I don't run into them any more than other stuff. Especially not horror.

And I've definitely seen people make a simple 'shoot 'em up' without much more plot that has been done well and entertained me.

You're of course entitled to your opinion, but I think that post came of as unnecessarily harsh. But what can you do? This is the internet. These kinds of "posts" are everywhere, and you can't get away from them. They're like a plague. For educational value (for you) that seems like something to do. As for reading the end result, not really interested.

 

[Sam K]

I went to pick up my main actor because he was away. We managed to get every shot of my storyboard within an intense 4hours.
And I agree Shoot em ups will quickly grow old for me. And I agree these films are everywhere. And I agree we're all white.
But Nonetheless they're quite fun to make. Today was a great experience, my first time directing for more than an hour, and more than two people.
It was great. You really have to step up and lead the guys, because they get there and start chatting about everything, so there comes a moment when you have to step up, bring your voice up and tell people what to do while staying funny and easy going.
I'm so knackered right now, and my mates will have to stay the night so I'm just chillin in front of my computer and they're jamming in my bedroom with my guitars.

 

[Sam K]

And Also I'd like to add that whether my movies are gonna be worth watching or not, they are worth making. Because everytime I make a movie, I do something new learn more.
For example
my first movie: Hey guys we should do a movie I've seen some cool stuff on YT.[Grab camera shoot movie-done in 1h]
Second short: Hey guys we should do a movie tomorrow, this time I'll write a script. [wrote the script once shot in one hour]
This one: Hey guys what do you say in 3weeks we shoot a movie? I'll write and rewrite and rewrite scripts, I'll do storyboards and tweak,I'll think about audio before the film (Thanks Alcove) and I'll invite a couple of friends to come and act.[We did all this and took a whole afternoon to shoot, since nobody had anything planned because I prepared it all in advance]

The weak point is the lighting. Real weak point, I'll neeed to get a lighting kit some time.

But still I think actually doing something is better than those who say! If only I had a red camera I could make a film, if only I had a shitload of mics I could make a film, If only I had a dope lighting kit I could make a film, If only I was friends with Brad Pitt I could make a film.