I'd like to make a couple of short films because I'm really bored all the time and just to practice, but I want to make sure they're actual short films that look good and have a real script, rather than youtube videos like Smosh, but I have no idea where to smart in terms of equipment. What types of accessories (in terms of lighting, sound, cameras) do you guys recommend to make a really top-notch movie?

Oh my god you just asked a pretty complicated question with multiple answers. I'll pass the opportunity to someone who has the time. Anyway good luck, i'm gonna start some projects of mine quite soon too. Being a fan of things that look natural and logical I'll try to do stuff that is less genre-driven, because imo while that's a good way to start and gain experience, it's also a creativity-killer.

prince0gotham wrote:Oh my god you just asked a pretty complicated question with multiple answers. I'll pass the opportunity to someone who has the time. Anyway good luck, i'm gonna start some projects of mine quite soon too. Being a fan of things that look natural and logical I'll try to do stuff that is less genre-driven, because imo while that's a good way to start and gain experience, it's also a creativity-killer.

Why would you say genre-driven is a creativity killer?

Kyle Higgins wrote:

prince0gotham wrote:Oh my god you just asked a pretty complicated question with multiple answers. I'll pass the opportunity to someone who has the time. Anyway good luck, i'm gonna start some projects of mine quite soon too. Being a fan of things that look natural and logical I'll try to do stuff that is less genre-driven, because imo while that's a good way to start and gain experience, it's also a creativity-killer.

Why would you say genre-driven is a creativity killer?

For me it is in like 97% of the cases. 97% of the short low/no-budget homemade movies (it's a big percentage because I feel obliged to add all those videos from youtube to the statistic because we're ofcourse talking about 'how to start') are genre-driven and revolving more around replicating established concepts and genres (lately even more often aiming towards spoof-purposes) that can be technically requiring and do count as a considerable experience, but really, let's face it... Building a true logically driven plot-structure from scratch is a lot more complicated, unlike taking good-n-ready formats and trying to fit the story in them. I mean in the end one way or another the movie you've made falls under some categories and genres but it is not truly GENRE-DRIVEN, at least not like most of the starter vids and experiments out there. Creativity is required in any case, but in the genre-driven case it's required mostly technical creativity. Stuff like dealing with low-budget limitations and ofc everything that's directly related to the shooting process itself.

Get an HD camera, some sort of tripod, or not. You'll need an NLE (non-linear-editing) suite something like Premiere Pro or Sony Vegas. You may want additional lighting.

Filmmaking Occurs in three basic stages
They are as follows

1. PRE-PRODUCTION
This stage basically involves the formulation of ideas, the story, concepts. It then morphs into writing the script and getting all the planning done like casting, storyboards, shot lists.

2. PRODUCTION
This stage is when you're ready for filming. This is the actual act of filmmaking. You take your camera and film actors, cutaways, establishing shots, etc.

3. POST-PRODUCTION
This stage involves the editing and assembly of clips. See the main difference between story telling and home videos is the power of editing, knowing when to cut to which shot, knowing what to throw away and what to keep. During this stage visual effects are applied like CGI, and graphics, colour correction, adjusting the contrast, brightness, levels, etc.

4. DISTRIBUTION
This isn't really a stage, it's just parting with your movie.

Stuff you should learn:
Learn basic cinematic grammar, what I mean by that is how one tells a story through their visualizations. This includes learning the rule of thirds, the 180 degree rule, and shot compositions. This becomes intuitive after you've watched a lot of movies.

JIMBOTHY wrote:Get an HD camera, some sort of tripod, or not. You'll need an NLE (non-linear-editing) suite something like Premiere Pro or Sony Vegas. You may want additional lighting.

Filmmaking Occurs in three basic stages
They are as follows

1. PRE-PRODUCTION
This stage basically involves the formulation of ideas, the story, concepts. It then morphs into writing the script and getting all the planning done like casting, storyboards, shot lists.

2. PRODUCTION
This stage is when you're ready for filming. This is the actual act of filmmaking. You take your camera and film actors, cutaways, establishing shots, etc.

3. POST-PRODUCTION
This stage involves the editing and assembly of clips. See the main difference between story telling and home videos is the power of editing, knowing when to cut to which shot, knowing what to throw away and what to keep. During this stage visual effects are applied like CGI, and graphics, colour correction, adjusting the contrast, brightness, levels, etc.

4. DISTRIBUTION
This isn't really a stage, it's just parting with your movie.

Stuff you should learn:
Learn basic cinematic grammar, what I mean by that is how one tells a story through their visualizations. This includes learning the rule of thirds, the 180 degree rule, and shot compositions. This becomes intuitive after you've watched a lot of movies.

thank you

If you have a Mac, go for Final Cut. I love it.

CrazyEight wrote:If you have a Mac, go for Final Cut. I love it.

I've heard of Final Cut, and I've considered getting a mac laptop just to acquire it, even though I'm normally a Windows man. Maybe I should go along with this plan

Don't get a mac just for that...

Really think about what kind of camera you're going to get. Don't fall prey to the low-price of some HD cameras. If you buy cheap, you will realize that you need to buy the proper lenses and things like that and what started off as a simple $800 purchase could sky-rocket into the upper thousands. Spend your money wisely is all i'm saying. If it feels like you'd be spending more money in the long run by starting off cheap, bite down, wait and save up some more money, and just buy a good camera.

Check this link for good stuff.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/

An HVX-200 is a very common indie filmmaker camera. Also, with some pro-sumer cameras you can buy a 35mm adapter to produce film-like images.

I would definitely save up for a pro-sumer camera versus a consumer camera.

Whatever camera you get, you need to make sure the NLE system (I've been using Avid lately) can properly handle the media file. For instance, some versions of an NLE may not support the AVCHD media file that comes in consumer HD cameras.

Be sure to check these sorts of things.

Lights: If you need to go cheap, just get high wattage bulbs like Flood lights. Best not to get fluorescents. Remember that indoor lighting will be easier to handle and manipulate than outdoor as you can actually control the indoor environment.

Audio: If you don't have good audio, it will account for nothing to have a good image. Most people overlook the importance of sound. I use an Zoom H4n currently myself. Works nice. But the on-board mic of most cameras aren't generally the best thing to capture audio with.

As a general tip, focus on the story. If you don't have a good story then the image won't account for anything. You could go out an buy a RED camera and get a fully decked out editing suite equipped with Avid and ProTools but none of it will matter if you can't tell a good story. You'd just be wasting money.