Cancel Film College and Learn No Budget Film Making Skills At Home

I can't stress this enough. You MUST have a story worth telling.

Let me ask you a question. Let's say you went to a person's house and he started telling you about his trip to the supermarket. He started it something like this.

"I went to my local ShopRite to buy some food. First, I went down the produce lane and got some bananas and oranges. Then I went to the bread aisle and picked up a loaf of whole wheat."

And this went on and on and on through his entire shopping experience. Wouldn't you be bored to tears? Would you even want to hear about his whole shopping experience? If you went to a movie and the movie itself was JUST like this, wouldn't you get up and walk out?

Okay, let's take the same premise, going shopping, but add a little twist to it that makes the story worth telling. What if the person started his story like this.

"Did I ever tell you about the time when I went to the supermarket to buy a loaf a bread and came home a multi millionaire?"

Do you not think that you'd be intrigued enough to at least want to find out how this person goes to the store to by bread and comes home a multi millionaire? I know I'd want to hear every last detail, especially if they are nice and juicy.

Okay, so right there, we have a story worth telling. That doesn't mean we can't screw up the telling of the story itself, but at least we have something to start with that has a lot of potential.

You MUST have something to tell that is going to get people interested or there is no point in telling it.

For some great film making instruction, check out this great site.

Film College

Like it or not, nothing in this world is free. Well, almost nothing. You can breathe the air for free but that's about it. Point is, it costs money to make a movie.

Now, having said that, we live in some great times. Technology has made it so that we can make movies for under $200. Digital movie cameras today are very cheap and the software, even cheaper. In fact, some of the software you can get for free.

Point is, you don't want to start making your movie without a budget. You need to sit down and figure out what you need and how much it's going to cost. See, here is what's going to happen if you don't do this. What follows is a very simplified example but I am sure it will get the point across.

Let's say you want to make your first movie and don't give any consideration to budget or cost. You run out and buy the cheapest digital video camera that you can find and start shooting your movie. Great...now what?

Well, you later find out that because you bought a cheap camera, it doesn't have certain features that allow easy downloading to PC. So you have to buy some kind of accessory to do this. You later find out that the movie format is only compatible with certain kinds of software that is VERY expensive.

Do you see where I am going with this?

By trying to take the cheap, quick, and easy way out, you can end up spending more money than you would have spent if you planned everything out in advance. That way, you would have gotten a video camera that is compatible with all kinds of software, even free software, and without the need for other accessories.

There is an old saying...haste makes waste.

It is especially true with making movies.

Go to this site for more info...Film College

One of the most important things you can do in film making is fixing things as they come up. This article will discuss what some of the common areas that need fixed and how to write within the means of your budget.

Okay, so just what do I mean by fixing things and what common things need to be fixed? By fixing things, I mean when something during the shoot just isn't right. It could be something obvious like the dialogue is wrong or something not so obvious at first, like the camera angle is wrong or the lighting isn't quite right.

Question is...when do you fix things?

The answer isn't so obvious.

In the case of somebody flubbing their lines, the answer IS obvious. You have to re-shoot the scene. But what if it's something subtle that can be fixed in post production.

Here is a tip that will save you a lot of grief in the long run.
Unless you are an absolute expert in post production editing or know somebody who is, fixing things in post production is MUCH harder than just re-shooting the scene. In some cases, you will find that either the problem can't be fixed in post production OR after fixing it, you find that the quality isn't as good as you wanted it.

In short, post production fixes, unless you are a pro, are a nightmare...even with today's technology.
So my advice to you is simple. Take it for what it's worth to you.

If you see a problem, fix it IMMEDIATELY.

You'll be glad you did.

Also, you'll need to write within your means. Many people don't really understand what this means. I'm not talking about not writing over your head, such as using fancy dialogue that only a Harvard graduate can understand. I'm talking about writing within your means such as what you can realistically do within the budget you have available.

For example, this following line in a script is very simple.

"The Firemen arrived on the scene."

Right, nothing complicated about it. But hold the phone. What exactly does this mean?

It means a fire truck for starters. Do you have the budget to get one? If not, what are the firemen going to be arriving in...a Good Humor truck? Oh wait, that costs money too.

And what about the firemen? If this is a big fire (I won't even touch on the expense of creating a fire) you're going to need a lot of firemen. Can you afford them all? Can you afford all the uniforms and equipment that you're going to need?
Imagine if the line read this instead.

"The army arrived on the scene."
Can you picture it?

Tanks, jeeps, halftracks, armored cars, soldiers, weapons, uniforms and on and on.

Okay, write within the means of your budget. Don't have things popping up in your movie that are going to take you into Avatar land. And yes, that means anything to do with spectacular special effects as well.

Otherwise, you are going to have a movie that you can't possibly make.

To YOUR Film Making Success.

One of the biggest rookie mistakes that beginning filmmakers make is that they try to stuff everything into their movie and end up with a six hour monster. Problem is, most beginning filmmakers don't have the experience or the skills to pull something like this off and they end up with a muddled disaster.

So, what you want to do, when first starting out, is make the film shorter than you actually want to make it. Leave the audience wanting more...even a sequel. In fact, you might want to leave the ending of the movie open ended so that it lends itself to a sequel. You can never give the audience too little, but you can give them too much.

What you should do is map out your whole movie ahead of time with storyboards.

For example, let's take this murder mystery.

1. Murder is committed.
2. Police arrive on scene.
3. Investigation begins.
4. Suspects are questioned.
5. Clues begin to surface.
6. Hint of who murderer is surfaces.
7. Final clue reveals murderer.
8. Murderer is hunted and caught.

It's basic, but you get the idea. Then, after you have your storyboard designed, you fill in the pieces as sparsely as possible. Don't drag things out.

If you find your storyboard is pages long, then your movie is probably way too long to begin with. Storyboards should be relatively short and simple.

Think Hitchcock.

For some great training, check out the site below.

Film College