Do I tend to overthink things in filmmaking?

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay, I see, what do you mean exactly by block in this context?

Also, as far as using one location goes, I have had bad experience with this in the past, because a lot of location owners will not let me use an entire location for a whole shoot. There is a script I tried doing two years ago, where it was all set in one location but I couldn't find a location owner who could say yes to that long amount of time.

So based on past experiences, I thought a script with a few locations is better because a location owner is more likely to say yes to their location being used for 8 hours for example, compared to 8 days. But are my experiences unusual that a location owner will say yes more likely, if the shoots are kept shorter?

[Pete Cofrancesco]

I can't fathom why you want to make these indie films. They're expensive, complicated, with little chance of success. All we hear from you how you are mired in intractable problems with no resolution. You can't find a proper cast, crew or raise the needed money... Either you are resourceful and come up with creative solutions or you just don't make independent movies by yourself because you don't have what it takes.

A colleague recently told me of an indie movie success story of a Scandinavian guy. He started filming horror shorts gained notoriety on the internet and eventually caught the attention of Hollywood producers, they flew him to the states and now he makes feature films. He filmed shorts, no dialog, in his house, of his gf/wife. His shorts basically demonstrated his skill as a film maker with little to no money to have a unique vision and to execute it to achieve professional results. It is simple, focused and to the point.

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay. Well I could attempt to just make it then and hope for the best, perhaps being okay, with not everything being planned in advanced, and just hope it turns out, even though not everything is planned if that's best. Should I stop trying to plan so much and try a more fly by the seat of my pants approach, hoping that it doesn't go wrong as a result of not planning more?

But I was wondering, it was said on here before, to post more shorts. I posted another one, but there haven't been much comments on it, unless maybe I shouldn't focus on that?

[Josh Bass]

Yeah, you guys should take a look at that.

[Greg Miller]

Link, please?

[Pete Cofrancesco]

He must have taken it down. I'm glad because poorly acted and filmed disturbing content isn't my cup of tea. Some things can't be unseen.

[Ryan Elder]

No I didn't take it down.

[Josh Bass]

Still there. Post #116 in this thread.

[Ryan Elder]

I guess I should have posted it in another thread if that's better.

[Paul R Johnson]

I think we probably were very unsure how to comment on it.

Did you really think putting a colour grading credit on this was appropriate, when it was so inconsistent between shots? You seemed to have differences in overall brightness between shots wight from the start - that corridors shot looks like something from a home movie 30 yrs ago. The intro where the cameras lurches left then lurches up = how weird. As usual, the acting was very variable. The fella you picked to be the lead acted like he was a secret psychopath kind of those facial expressions are usually found on people quite ill. Was the music really appropriate? I didn't find it fitted very well. You also lost it on some very basic features - captions for one. It's normal for multi-line captions to be centred so the middle of one line is below or above the middle of the others - it got overlooked.

Seriously though, it did look like something shot in the 80s. The image quality, the sets, and the audio. Was that intentional?

[Ryan Elder]

Okay thanks. I tried the camera movement as best I could. As for the look of it, I tried to match the color correction as best I could but just need to get better at it.

I didn't mean for it to come off as '80s, what exactly was '80s about it more specifically if you can tell me? As for the music some of it I like but some of it I didn't. I showed the composer examples of the kind of music I wanted but the music just didn't come out sounding the way I wanted it to in the end, like the examples I gave him, which were different.

[Ryan Elder]

I was using a new pan and tilt tripod, but I find myself having difficulty panning and tilting, at the same time, and just need to get use to how it moves more.

[Josh Bass]

Im pretty sure the lead IS Ryan. Mask aside he looks like the guy from the youtube pig sitcom, and is credited at the end of the cast credits.

[Greg Miller]

This is exactly why I suggest you shoot some very short films, but get them technically perfect. You could spend a few hours just practicing tripod moves, until you can do that perfectly. It could be a silent film about bicycle riders ... go downtown and shoot everyone who goes past on a bike. Practice following the bike smoothly. Then zoom in a bit and practice following the riders' heads smoothly. Then practice zooming at the same time as the pan and tilt. You could spend a day practicing that until you are really good at it.

That's nothing that we can teach you by discussion on a forum. You need to actually practice, and develop a skill. If you don't possess these skills, then you're not qualified to be doing that job in the finished film.

(BTW, on my laptop screen, in a lighted room, it was a real strain to see what was going on in those dark scenes. Maybe the detail is actually in the file (I didn't re-watch it with the room darkened) but in my viewing situation that was the result.)

Why do you want to make a film? Do you want to convey some message to the audience, by telling a story? If so, you need to be a good storyteller. So you need to master all the skills and arts that you are going to use. Otherwise the audience will be distracted by the mediocre technique, and won't focus on the story. Do you understand the importance of this?

[Ryan Elder]

I want to tell good stories, and understand the importance of it.

However, as far as camera movement goes, I only did the opening shot which I ended up getting later on after, and the DP was not available then. Everything else was shot by the DP. Did the DP do a better job than me when it comes to the rest of the camera movement throughout?