Your Shorts...

JES 47

JES 47

Okay NOT those shorts...:lol: I was just wondering what were the first mini movies you have made? I know a good way to practice is to copy a scene from a movie or book, and was curious what has been done???

(I'm actually thinking about doing "Little Red Riding Hood" where the WOLF is the good guy.):P
 
I made a series of movies called "Grocery Death", in which an evil man opens a grocery store in his basement, and tries to kill Farrison Hord (his first customer) to expand his meat section. At the time, I didn't know what Sweeny Todd was.

Before each short, we filmed a bunch of trailers that spoofed current movies (at the time)... the 2nd Sense (I smell bad odors!)...Star Wars Episode 2: Anakin Finds his Puberty (Ani: I think I'll call myself Vader - Obi: Why? - Ani: Because it ryhmes with Mader - Obi: What's a Mader? - Ani: Nothing, what's the mader with you?).. Mission Impossible 3: Mission Possible ... The almost-but-not-quite-perfect storm... Daft: The British Shaft... etc, etc.
Doing trailers was awesome, because they're ULTRA short, easy to film, and you only go for the BEST shots. They're a lot of fun. My friend Geoff also did the same thing- he called his fake trailer series "The Ultimate Rush", and it was just senseless action... but it's FUN as hell. The first part of being a filmmaker is "getting the bug"... and those are a great way to get it going!
 
We did a make it up as you go short about a bank robbery commited by the dreaded killer rabbi from cleveland and he was being chased by spiderman who was working in the bank "under afghan" (we didn't have a cover for him to be under). We shot my first poor man's process car chase and did a beautiful in camera cut between one side of the door where the heroes were using gilbert gottfried as a battering ram to the inside where the evil rabbi was holed up. I wish I could find that tape...that would be so cool to post.
 
I made a bad Matrix short based around my friends black vette, a lot of "time jumping" (cross disolve) back and forth, about 5 total words spoken...The best thing was the squirt gun I spray painted black..(actually looked real)
 
Oh the memories...

First things we did was a theme based "if commercials HAD to tell the truth." We'd video each other doing 30 second spots and PSA's then judge who's was the funniest.

This eventually lead to a dating game spoof.
 
I forget exactly what came first, but I did a number of short film type projects when I was in middle school, etc. As I recall most were for science classes. I recently ran across an old VHS with one of 'em on it. Something about Meiosis and Mitosis of cells, and detailing all the different parts of the cell (RNA/etc)

It was a very simplistic animation I had done on my old Amiga 1000 with some disney animation software. While I don't recall, I imagine it must have been a rush job.. For one, there's no audio, and two, well most any school thing I did was generally a rush job because I'd put things off until I had to rush. What can I say, I work well under pressure. ;)
 
My first short was a Super8 short filmed in a hospital with the title of STAT.

A doctor walks down a hallway for a seemingly very long time. We hear only his clicking footsteps... Fast, slow, and medium gaits...

In the middle of a super long hallway the loudspeaker calls his name for an emergency and so he starts running... Now we have FAST clicking.

Only trouble is...

He never gets anywhere... He keeps running and he just doesn't get anywhere... At one point he turns around and runs in the other direction... Surely that will work.

Nope.

We see him pass doors... Offices... We see him move but when we cut to his POV, he's in the same exact place he started. No dialogue at all except for the loudspeaker.

Eventually he collapses in the middle of the hallway from a heart attack.

Shot it in the early 80s. Won a few festivals. The ex-wife destroyed IT and my only two copies.

Marriage... You gotta love it.

filmy
 
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I've neglected to post in this thread because I was afraid of the reaction I'd get... but what the heck, here goes...

My very first short was titled "Dump" that was the influence for the entire Bad Cat series. Yep, it was another Spy vs Spy type me-against-the-cat film. It sucked royally, much more than any of the BC series but it was the most intensive learning experience of my life.

"Dump" was shot on 8mm. I have the only copy. It will NEVER see the light of day again.
 
OMG, this is a film festival in the making. Anyone with footage of their first attempts at films can enter and we'll have mock elections for funny categories.

LOC I'm sending a team of ninjas to your house sometime in 2007. I will get a copy of that film.
 
Hmm, you may have something there. I'd like to see all these first attempts everyone's talking about. Why isn't anyone posting links?

Boz, I have cardboard cutouts of Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeoh at the front door to scare away your Naruto-wannabe ninjas.
 
*in my best Yoda voice* Your film is too good. Yes too good for the festival.

When the chain saw hit the Asian chef and his entrails flowed out, what did you use for entrails? They looked awesome.
 
Liquid latex and cotton.

Spread a very thin layer of liquid latex on a flat surface - in this case a mirror - and let it dry. Then laid down cotton, varying the thickness. Then rolled the "tubes". Since latex sticks to itself it was pretty easy and turned out to be waterproof.
 
First Shorts

Hey Guys,

So since I'm new I'm just trudging along through some of the older posts... perhaps no one will ever see this LOL...

Anyways, I've always wanted to work in film, write, and produce my own stuff... I think hish school was my first ever attempt at putting something together... I was failing drama class ( I never did the work, because I assumed it was a fluffy course) anyways, my teacher sat me down and had a talk with me said a fail wasn't going to look good no matter what class and I was really going to think about what to do...

I made her a proposal that I would try to change my ways and produce a film for her class if she would consider realizing I wasn't failing because I was stupid, but rather that I was an idiot...

And so "Indiana Jones: Vader's Lost Ark" was born... A silent film (with sub title screens) cross between to two epic trilogies of the time :) I used almost the whole class as cast, had scenes in sandpits, swampy forest (a cool effect with a bubbling lake and Indy using the force to retireve a key from the murk) and a bathtub tie fighter...

Later I created a whole running soundtrack which had to be played from a tape deck at the same time as the flick...it was pretty hiarious attempt and garnered me an 80% overall for the course...

This film has been lost forever and I really regret it!

Of late my long time friend and I have started up again with a few small projects a short about a pool shark who engages a gambleholic and destroys him on the pool table, shuffle board, even rock paper scissors... This film lost forever as well...I regret it less :)

Our last short for a local contest ended up on the local cable channel... No biggie I guess... We had a good time filming it... This one .. imortalized on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7np1pbEkL0w

Enjoy! Critique as harsh as you like :) We are jsut starting out and really want feedback... I'm in the beginning stages of a more major project and hope to learn a lot here!
 
I miss all the pieces I've lost to time too :( Nice short...very well done for in camera edits, you must've done alot of planning for that to go together so well. I like the stark lighting and the room you have there has lots of production value to it. Some of the cuts were a little long, I noticed a couple of places where the actors had finished, but the camera person hadn't stopped recording yet. I like the guys reactions to the pictures. Gets all sheepish (pun intended) with all the pix of animals, but is truly offended that he be linked to hitler and osama :) Funny.
 
blackcloak, you have the true sign of a visionary filmmaker. I love a film that can tell me more through visual elements than through dialogue. My favorite example of this is when when the wedding ring hits the floor in The Sixth Sense. I thought your film was well done, especially given the 24 hour time limit. Too bad, though, you couldn't somehow mask or lessen the chain rattle because it did get a bit distracting at times.

I'd let those slightly long takes slide because once they're there, you can't really go back and tighten it up since everything is done in camera.
 
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yes, I did notice (think I even mentioned it ;) ). It's hard to do in camera edits...he asked for harsh critiques. Those are the things that stand out in the piece. When I break down for critique, I don't let any production woes or constraints color my assessment...that way, the filmmaker can say...we saw that too, but didn't have time to reshoot or whatever. All of the shooting I've done has been time constrained stuff, I've done one piece with in camera edits (we had one cut out of dozens that actually looked good - the rest were waiting for the camera man <me> to fumble my way to the stop button).

I love the time constrained format as it forces you to move quickly and get the job done (I could reshoot to perfect forever and have nothing to show for it at the end of the day). It also forces you to have a smooth workflow to keep your sanity on the set.

In camera edits are a really fun challenge and save so much post time it's not even funny :)

So to sum up...I do let it slide, but it's the one thing that stood out to me, so I mentioned it anyway cause I'm cruel but honest. :)
 
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