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Framing in cinemascope


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No I had no free access to any location. My favorite films are usually talking head pictures, mainly All About Eve or anything made by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. I think I resorted to some hand held to have more movement as I feel a camera on a tripod doesn't work all the time, especially when you want some kind of energy behind it. Come to think of it hand held isn't so bad, it just depends on who is operating the camera.

 

Really filmmaking is a combination of everything- location, set design, wardrobe, etc- it's really a missing character in my two shorts, but all of that requires more money which led to my point as to how limitations create boundaries. To create a color palette etc all those things are required, which means rooms have to be painted etc.

 

But this is good practice, I've always wanted to do the Tell Tale Heart, I adapted it into a screenplay several years ago, and it's mostly a silent film. it really takes you inside the mind of a schizophrenic, but to make it would require thousands of dollars. I'll figure out a way to make it one day.

 

Thanks for the advice everyone.

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But this is good practice, I've always wanted to do the Tell Tale Heart, I adapted it into a screenplay several years ago, and it's mostly a silent film. it really takes you inside the mind of a schizophrenic, but to make it would require thousands of dollars. I'll figure out a way to make it one day.

Thanks for the advice everyone.

 

Interesting! I think you would learn a lot by making a silent film. You're dealing solely with visual language, then.

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No I had no free access to any location.

 

Really filmmaking is a combination of everything- location, set design, wardrobe, etc-

 

but all of that requires more money which led to my point as to how limitations create boundaries. To create a color palette etc all those things are required, which means rooms have to be painted etc.

 

Really? You don't have an apartment, friends and family with houses, a workplace where you can ask your boss for permission, a nearby school or church, etc? How about outside in a park, streets, etc.? I've shot in all those places for free when I was a student. Stop thinking about what you don't have, and open your eyes to what is all around you. The opportunities are there, just waiting to be recognized.

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Really? You don't have an apartment, friends and family with houses, a workplace where you can ask your boss for permission, a nearby school or church, etc? How about outside in a park, streets, etc.? I've shot in all those places for free when I was a student. Stop thinking about what you don't have, and open your eyes to what is all around you. The opportunities are there, just waiting to be recognized.

 

........or a meeting room in a public Library? Should be free, but probably cheaper than renting a hotel room.

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I used a hotel because the story was structured around it. Why would I want to film in a public library? You can't even talk in there, all you do is sit and read books and public schools won't allow any non-students, it's considered trespassing. Same goes with "public" hospitals, etc. These locations will end up requesting million dollar insurance.

 

In my next film I'm starting every single take with a long shot, and then work within the long shot, find the cut within that take. Long to medium, medium to long or long-medium- closeup. This sequence of shots are the norm in most of the classic films. It's very generic but effective. I should think wide first and then get in there.

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I used a hotel because the story was structured around it. Why would I want to film in a public library?

 

 

Because it would possibly be a free location. A meeting room could be dressed as a hotel room. It's part of the creative process. Many low or no budget shorts have their story written to suit locations they can get for low or no cost, using cast that will work for the experience, set dress, wardrobe, props, etc. similarly.

Edited by JD Hartman
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Because it would possibly be a free location. A meeting room could be dressed as a hotel room. It's part of the creative process. Many low or no budget shorts have their story written to suit locations they can get for low or no cost, using cast that will work for the experience, set dress, wardrobe, props, etc. similarly.

 

I have a similar problem... no money... but I am starting to develop contacts with real estate agents who may be 'sympathetic' to my need a house or office, for a day, with no impact on the property...

 

I don't know how successful this may be...

 

For one short I participated in last year, we 'built' a hospital roomesque set in the corner of a day activities room at a apartment complex.

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Here i am worried about my amateurish camera work and then I see this idiotic short film make it to all major film festivals.

 

 

I mean, can anyone seriously explain how this thing made it to Sundance, SXSW, AFI, etc. Did this guy blow somebody to get his work seen. It is the most horrendous mumblecore piece of shi** I have ever seen.

Edited by joshua gallegos
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It pisses me off how some of us are trying hard to improve and then you see something like this play at every major festival, it's discouraging as **(obscenity removed)**. And it's not even scripted, he's just improvising the stupidest lines, it makes no sense to me. At least Lena Dunham has stories to tell and she scripts her movies and she can act, but this is beyond me. What are these festival programmers even looking for? I don't even know what they want or what they look for, and it's sad because you have to go through them to get any type of validation as a filmmaker.

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I know I'm not a great filmmaker, I will be in time when I do a couple more shorts and then finally my feature, but this makes me question who these curators are. The fact that the AFI chose to screen this is an insult to the art of filmmaking. The fact that he didn't even use a tripod, the fact that it's not even a story and a situation that isn't even funny. And I said it before, short films are nothing but situations, they are rarely transcended into an art form, the ones who can make art out of shorts are people like David Lynch. Feature filmmaking is the big leagues, the one that counts. Stanley Kubrick could not have said it better "there is no future in short films", which is why he made Fear and Desire. That's where the men are separated from the boys.

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Well, I thought the punch line was funny... Craft-wise it was crappy, reminded me of a lot of projects I saw in film school. It would have been improved immensely by just using a tripod. But I think it probably got selected because it wasn't trying to be a genre film. The filmmaker was trying to show what it's like to live in a specific time and place, while camouflaging that with the character's stream of consciousness monologue, and in that I think it was mostly successful.

 

You hear the guy talking about jumping over a moat, and you just see that it's just a bush. You see him drop the soda can, and you wonder when it's going to explode. His shopping bag falls apart. You hear him talk about falling into the creek or getting run over by a truck and you start to worry (or hope?) that those thing will happen. All the while, you see him traverse this cold, empty landscape alone talking to his friend on the phone. Then he finally gets to his car, and his phone rings. That's a pretty well constructed setup from a writing perspective. It could have been more ambitious in character and story, but for what it was I thought it was fine. It's just too bad the cinematography was not up to par.

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I just finished watching the short - film linked above and I was going to comment on it, exactly what Satsuki commented so I will keep my words because he explained it very well, as always.

 

Regarding short - films, the following one won loads of awards around the world (believe it or not), it is called: "The Stranger"

 

 

And I really liked it and see why the director got a lot of awards.

 

As for the "short - films are just to practice" I think there are stories that have to be told in a short format and other ones which need a longer duration.

A lot of the best directors in the world, including Hitchcock, made short stories even when they were very successful filmmakers.

 

And you can see how well short dramas do in commercials, it is very hard to tell a story in a good way in 30 seconds, and if you can make those 30 seconds to be hypnotic, punchy and great, it is very likely that you know how to tell a story in a feature film.

 

Just keep practicing as all of us do and do not get frustrated because you don't get up to a certain age without a feature under your bell :)

 

Have a lovely day!

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A lot of the best directors in the world, including Hitchcock, made short stories even when they were very successful filmmakers.

 

 

1/2 hour TV shows hosted by Hitchcock, and he apparently directed 17 episodes, would indicate that he saw some is merit for 'shorts'.

 

While it may be true that one can not 'live' on making shorts if they are one or two a year... but for TV, or in the modern era, for some sort of Internet channel, shorts may begin to have some economic viability.

 

The biggest problem of course is getting one's work out there for people to know about and then view...

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I wouldn't want to learn from people who defend this **(obscenity removed)** piece of poop.

I mean even in a logical sense, how can anyone not realize someone has hung up after talking for hours! Surely you would wait for your friend or whoever the **(obscenity removed)** he was talking to respond!

 

If there is a moderator, delete my account. You people don't even know what you're talking about. It makes me sick to my stomach. I'll show you how it's done.

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Uh?

 

Well, I think it's back to figuring out how to work my dogs into a short film that I can submit to a local fest...

 

 

I recommend Bruce Weber’s “A Letter to True"

 

And I don’t think anyone is defending the film. It’s one thing to point out merits, it’s another to write off people who do so based on personal opinion.

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