Arshad Ali Posted June 26, 2008 Share Posted June 26, 2008 Hello This is Arshad. I am a software engineer by profession right now. I am fond of photography. I have a desperate desire to become a Movie director. When I think about cameras my creative sense starts glowing. I want to covert this glow to Fire. Right now my conditions not allow me to enter into this field directly. I cant even start any professional course rite now. But I want to START of my own. In short the question is that "How should I coach my self"? That is the only reason I have joined this forum. Seeking Guidance Arshad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chance Shirley Posted June 26, 2008 Share Posted June 26, 2008 In short the question is that "How should I coach my self"? Watch movies. Preferably well-directed ones. Pay attention to how the directors use shot selection and edits to tell their stories. Then get yourself an inexpensive camera and a couple of friends and start making your own movies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member John Hoffler Posted June 26, 2008 Premium Member Share Posted June 26, 2008 (edited) read and study! and practice! I've learned SO much in the last year from reading as many books as I can get my hands on and going out and shooting anything! 35mm stills/MiniDV shorts, anything! I recommend Cinematography: Theory and Practice and Motion Picture and Video Lighting by Blain Brown Cinematography: Third Addition by Kris Malkiewitz and M. David Mullen, Film Directing: Shot by Shot by Stephen Katz and a lot more that are listed in the Recommended Books section of the forum. Watch a lot of commentaries on DVD's as well! that's my two cents... I was self taught until last year and now am in school and these resources (cine.com + books and DVD's) taught me more than the first few months in school! good luck! Edited June 26, 2008 by John Hoffler Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ram Shani Posted June 26, 2008 Share Posted June 26, 2008 your passion is every thing books are great but as add on you should see as many movies as you can and shoot shoot shoot if you can get hold of cam like the canon hv-20 which is great cam for like 600$ shoot and edit your staff. you will see how fast you learn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ayz Waraich Posted June 26, 2008 Share Posted June 26, 2008 Watch a lot of commentaries on DVD's as well! I wholeheartedly second that. Also, watch as many movies that you can back to back. 2-3 a day if you can. Take a vacation if you have to. But spend a couple of weeks doing nothing but watching movies/commentaries. You'll be surprised by how quickly you'll pick up the language and the skills if you immerse yourself like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Adrian Sierkowski Posted June 26, 2008 Premium Member Share Posted June 26, 2008 I would also add in to watch some of the worst movies ever, and try to figure out why they failed (Manos: Hands of Fate) comes to mind! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Hibner Posted June 26, 2008 Share Posted June 26, 2008 Any movies with commentary anyone would like to suggest? -Rh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ayz Waraich Posted June 26, 2008 Share Posted June 26, 2008 Any movies with commentary anyone would like to suggest? -Rh David Fincher, Paul Thomas Anderson, Steven Soderberg, and Ridley Scott usually have something interesting to say about their filmmaking process on their commentaries. For lower-budget stuff... Anything by Robert Rodriguez. There's many others, but i'm having a brain-freeze. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abel alvarado Posted June 26, 2008 Share Posted June 26, 2008 read and study! and practice! I've learned SO much in the last year from reading as many books as I can get my hands on and going out and shooting anything! 35mm stills/MiniDV shorts, anything! I recommend Cinematography: Theory and Practice and Motion Picture and Video Lighting by Blain Brown Cinematography: Third Addition by Kris Malkiewitz and M. David Mullen, Film Directing: Shot by Shot by Stephen Katz and a lot more that are listed in the Recommended Books section of the forum. Watch a lot of commentaries on DVD's as well! that's my two cents... I was self taught until last year and now am in school and these resources (cine.com + books and DVD's) taught me more than the first few months in school! good luck! awesome nice advice im goin to check out this books as soon as i can! :lol: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arshad Ali Posted June 27, 2008 Author Share Posted June 27, 2008 Watch movies. Preferably well-directed ones. Pay attention to how the directors use shot selection and edits to tell their stories. Then get yourself an inexpensive camera and a couple of friends and start making your own movies. Thanks Chance..!! :rolleyes: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arshad Ali Posted June 27, 2008 Author Share Posted June 27, 2008 read and study! and practice! I've learned SO much in the last year from reading as many books as I can get my hands on and going out and shooting anything! 35mm stills/MiniDV shorts, anything! I recommend Cinematography: Theory and Practice and Motion Picture and Video Lighting by Blain Brown Cinematography: Third Addition by Kris Malkiewitz and M. David Mullen, Film Directing: Shot by Shot by Stephen Katz and a lot more that are listed in the Recommended Books section of the forum. Watch a lot of commentaries on DVD's as well! that's my two cents... I was self taught until last year and now am in school and these resources (cine.com + books and DVD's) taught me more than the first few months in school! good luck! Thank you John...!! It was a great advice..!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member John Hoffler Posted June 27, 2008 Premium Member Share Posted June 27, 2008 (edited) I would also reiterate that going out and shooting ANYTHING at all is the most invaluable tool ever. Once I started going out and shooting just simple setups, I learned 10 times faster. some of my favorite commentaries are: American Beauty (Sam Mendes and Conrad Hall) Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola) - actually most of his are good (Godfather 1 &2) Requiem for a Dream (both Aranofsky's and Libatique's) Taxi Driver (Scorsese) Dark City (Roger Ebert) Citizen Kane (Roger Ebert) Memento (Christopher Nolan) Following (Christopher Nolan - his first low budget feature in B&W) Boogie Nights (P.T. Anderson) Amadeus (Milos Forman) Aliens (James Cameron and Cast/Crew) Primer (Shane Carruth - film made for under $10,000) Heat (Michael Mann) Seven (David Fincher and Darius Khonji's) a BUNCH of Criterion DVD's have excellent commentaries as well! while not every one of these is SUPER educational, they are the ones I find myself listening too more than once... I hate when Director's or DP's on commentaries just kind of mumble about some guy they met, and where there were good sandwiches near a location, or just dote praise on their lead actor without telling you anything informational. or the "long pause" while they just watch it with you... ugh! and I second Ram's post.... you have to have a passion for it!! Edited June 27, 2008 by John Hoffler Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benson Marks Posted October 8, 2008 Share Posted October 8, 2008 Do what I did, read Dov S.S. Simens book "From Reel To Deal." Not only will it teach you what the director does, but also how the entire filmmaking process works. I should warn you, though, that it was copyrighted 2003, so it's a little old. But it is a very excellent learning tool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Steven Beverly Posted October 8, 2008 Share Posted October 8, 2008 Ya know yu mentioned in your first post, you weren't able to enter the field directly but with all due respect, that's not entirely true. The FIRST rule of indy film making is use what ya got!!! Well what is it you got? You GOT an significant knowledge of computers and access to a lot of computers. " So What " you say, "What has that got to do wuth turning my dream of making a movie into a reality??!!" Well I'll tell you what that has to do with making your dream a reality. You're a software developer. You now computers inside and out. might I recommend computer animation. You can do it right on you computer at home, you already have a strong working knowledge of programming so graphics should come easy to you and you should be able to pick them up very quickly. I would recommend Lightwave or Maya but you can even start with Blender: http://www.blender.org/ which is a free animation program you just download. It was originally designed as a gaming program and the learning curve is a little steep but I learned on it so pretty much anyone can. Another free program is Terragen: http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/ which is used to create 3d landscapes and MAN for freeware programs just take LOOK at what these puppies can do!!!! Other commercial programs are Poser, Bryce, Studio Max 3D and the list goes on but those are the biggies. I personally use Lightwave and it is utterly amazing, You have virtual cameras and lights, you set the lenses, it's exactly like having your own virtual set and you can learn a LOT from computer animation. Don't believe you can make a movie like this? Let me COUNT the ways!: Toy Story Cars Shrek Final Fantasy The Incredibles The Polar Express A.Li.Ce Alibaba The Ant Bully 0 Antz Appleseed Appurushîdo Appleseed Ex Machina Ard Al Taaf Ark Arthur and the Minimoys aka. Arthur and the Invisibles Atagoal: Cat's Magical Forest Back to Gaya aka. The Snurks Barnyard The Bee Julia and Mrs. Vita L'Apetta Giulia e la signora Vita Bee Movie Beowulf Bonobono: Kumomo no Ki no Koto A Bug's Life Cars Cassiopéia Chicken Little Delgo Dragons: Destiny of Fire Una Película de huevos Egon & Dönci Elias and the Royal Yacht Elysium The Emperor's Secret Especial Everyone's Hero Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within Finding Nemo Flushed Away Fly Me to the Moon Free Jimmy Happily N'Ever After Happy Feet Hoodwinked Horton Hears a Who! Ice Age Ice Age: The Meltdown Igor Impy's Island The Incredibles Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie Kaena: The Prophecy Khan Kluay Kung Fu Panda Little Vuk The Living Forest Madagascar The Magic Roundabout aka. Doogal Meet the Robinsons Midsummer Dream Monsters, Inc. Monster House Nak Open Season Over the Hedge Pinocchio Pirates in the Pacific The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie The Polar Express Ratatouille Robots Shark Bait Shark Tale Shrek Shrek 2 Shrek the Third Space Chimps Spirit of the Forest Star Wars: The Clone Wars Sunshine Barry & The Disco Worms Surf's Up Terkel in Trouble Terra TMNT Toy Story Toy Story 2 The Ugly Duckling and Me! Thru the Moebius Strip Valiant Vexille WALL-E The Wild Winx Club - The Secret of the Lost Reign And THAT'S just the 3d animation!! Here's the ones that are coming up: Around the World in 50 Years The Bear and the Bow Bolt Calling All Robots A Christmas Carol Citizen Siege Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs The Fake Hero Frog Paradise Goat Story - The Old Prague Legends The Golden Donkey Holy Night! How to Train Your Dragon Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs In Search of Oniria En Busca de Oniria Jack and Ben's Animated Adventure Krakatuk Кракатук Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa Monsters vs. Aliens Neanderthals Newt Planet 51 Plumíferos Punk Farm Puss in Boots: The Story of an Ogre Killer Rapunzel Resident Evil: Degeneration Biohazard: Degeneration Roadside Romeo Sapsan Shrek Goes Fourth Shrek 5 Spike and Suzy: The Texas Rangers Sultan the Warrior Sword-bearer's Heart Сердце Оруженосца (Serdtse Oruzhinostsa) Tale of Despereaux Toy Story 3 Up The Wild Bunch Yona Yona Penguin Never say never. If you want to make a movie NOTHING will stand in your way unless you allow it to. Get a decent graphics card with dual monitor setup al FAST processor or 4, loads of ram and hard drive space and if ya want to get REAL fancy set up a small render farm. Get a copy of Photoshop, and and editing software program like Premiere and go to town. Write a script, RE_WRITE IT till it's good. have a couple of good actors do the voices while you video tape them, create the animation based on their movements and expressions, add sound FX, music and titles AND whola!! YOU, my friend have just made a film! B) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJ Garcia Posted October 12, 2008 Share Posted October 12, 2008 Good advice all, even if it were bad i wouldn't know the difference, or for now at least. Thanks for posting that question Arshad. I was watching commentaries on the movie "Snatch" by Guy Ritchie and they talked about how they made the movie, i thought it was very interesting. JJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJ Garcia Posted October 12, 2008 Share Posted October 12, 2008 Not "Snatch" but "Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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