Some very important questions!!!

Alright so I've always been interested in movies and how to make one. A good one. no, scratch that, a GREAT one. I had a dillema though, I didn't know what to make it about.

Well a couple weeks ago somebody told me about a story they came up with and its BRILLIANT! So I said hey lets make that into a movie...

Now I'm not new to making movies, but I'm new to all the stuff that indie film makers use (cameras, lighting, how to get permits for things, etc). So I've got 7 BIG questions! Here goes...

1. Top three cameras to get for a reasonable price (think around $700)?

2. How to get that "hollywood" feel... is it filters, or is added in post production?

3. How do I do sound, I know it has to be recorded sepratly so how does that work? :huh:

4. How/What to do to get permits for explosions/car chases?

5. How do I find/get actors/camera men/cinematographers/hair and makeup artist in my area for a film? :huh:

6. The movie has alot of gun shooting in it, would it be better to get airsoft guns and add the sound/muzzle flash in post, or spend twice as much and get blank firing guns? :huh:

7. What post production editing/CGI software should I get?


Thanks to anyone that helps me out on this, I appreciate it.

Well for now I'm out. LATER! - Thrift.
 
I don't know. Its like asking Monet or Picasso whether they'd like a paintbrush that made their paintings look like Monet or Picasso. I'm enjoying tweaking the visual and audio more and more now that I'm getting some real equipment and working with some resolution. The only thing I wish cameras had was a visual checklist so I wouldn't forget to white balance for a new scene or something.
 
Wideshot - I thought film cameras were way more expensive than video cams? or maybe its just the price of film itself that makes video the better option?

And I was basically just asking what I could do to get an end product that resembled something that came out of hollywood. Which I've pretty much gotten that you need a good DOF, good lighting, shoot in 24p, do some color correction in post and make sure you spend the extra time that it takes on audio to pull it all together.



Thanks everybody for all the help, info and links. I appreciate it. Right now I'm working on getting the script done, and getting a schedule for shooting and finding the rest of the cast/crew. Still don't know which camera I'm gonna go with. I wanna be sure it's the right one because its gonna be the most expensive thing. And I really can't do this movie without gunshots and at least two explosions. It's just the nature of the film. I started asking around and luckily I have two connections through family members. One for the permits to do the explosions, and one for post production and special effects. I figure one explosion will be real and he'll do the the other one (the BIG one) with CGI. I'm also thinking of going with after effects for editing and post audio, and get the magic bullet suite plug in for the color correction.

I guess now would be a good time to ask... is there a general order of doing things in post to follow? i.e. 1. edit scenes 2. color correction 3. add extra audio 4. special effects. or does it not matter?
 
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I think we have all tried to stress that you would be much better off going with several simpler films prior to jumping into this thing with explosions and whatnot. But apparently you're choosing to overlook that advice, so....

Good luck. I hope you're happy with your results. Don't kill anybody in the process.
 
haha no I'm not overlooking it. I'd be stupid to overlook advice that good. I just didn't mention it cause I figured nobody really cares about little projects... but I'm going to do three smaller films about 12-15 minutes long before I try to do the big one. There going to be a sort of test and to get used to the cameras/lighting/angles/etc and give me some practice with post editing and all that. Don't know what the short films are gonna be about yet but I figure once I buy a camera and after effects something will hit me. I'd love to have them tie into the story of the movie somehow though.... hmm, idk yet.

And I'll still be working on the script and everything for the big one while doing these.
 
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I am not sure where, however, it is possible to find audio files of gunshots. That way you can fake the shots. And with some clever editing, you might be able to fake a car explosion. Look around the internet. You can probably find something...

-- spinner :cool:
 
Spinner - check this clip out. I'm gonna use this guys method for the building explosion. I think its a pretty awesome result.

EDIT* how do you embed youtube videos?

WV - Yeah either way I'm gonna have to add the sounds. Hopfully it's not to hard. The major problem with airsoft guns though is no brass ejection and no blow back. I'd have to add those to. Which it can be done. Just depends on how diffucult/time consuming it would be.
 
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