Bella Roberts

Hi everyone, I'm 18 years old and I've been editing for about four year now, on premire pro. I wouldn't say I'm a pro editor (yet) but I'm definitely not an amateur. Basically I was asked by a mate to edit and produce a film for him. I did many rough cuts until he was finally satisfied. Everything seemed normal when I exported it, there were no red flags that anything was wrong. However when I exported it as an OMF and sent it to the sound editor, she got this message (https://drive.google.com/file/d/16RzMgFF_6GG7yoo65deo5_BZ13C_3EcM/view?usp=sharing) and was unable to open it into pro tools. I tried removing all effects and sending it to her, same message. I tried just sending her the dialogue, same message. Even though I wasn't paid to do this film, it is now my responsibility because I decided to take on this project. I have never encountered this problem and I don't know what to do. I don't really want to re-edit the whole project again because that took me a really long time. I'm honestly stuck and the sound editor can't do anything until this is fixed. It's really upsetting seeing all my work wasted and I don't know how to fix it. If anyone more advanced me, or has encountered this problem before could give me advice or help I would seriously appreciated it right now. Thanks, Bella

Hi everyone, I’m shooting a short film on the weekend. There’s a shot that I want to do which is an overhead shot downwards of a couple In a bed. This is a low budget student film so we don’t have amazing equipment. How can you do this shot with the equipment I have. we have a tripod and a zhiyun crane 2. Should I get the camera operator just to stand on the end of the bed and point downwards? any advice would be great. Thanks. bella

I have an upcoming film project, a short film based entirely in a hotel. I don’t have the money to make a set of a hotel so I want to use an actual hotel. It’s a student project and there is little/no budget. What’s the best way of asking a hotel to film there for no money? Thanks, bella (the producer/director of the project)

Ahah yeah love the old people... always so curious. But thanks for the advice. Quite like the idea of wearing vests, looks more “official.” The good thing about looking younger than you are, you tend to get away with more stuff. And generally when people ask what I’m filming, police etc. I just say it’s for a school project and they just let us be. I think if it was a more professional shoot I might get a permit but I don’t think it’s a necessity, as you said it’s not illegal to film in public or else they’d have to ban everyone from taking pictures/videos on the beach etc. This weekend I’ve been shooting all day with a 8 person crew, in Trafalgar Square. And no one seemed to mind. The tourists loved taking pictures though and being very annoying, walking in front of shots etc. But I was quite happy because I was just meant to be a runner on this shoot, but I got upgraded to cameras operator, so that was a new experience. I’ve mostly just been like “sir/madam please may you move out of the shot.” I’m absolutely knackered, ready for nice nap ? but yeah thanks so much for the advice guys - really useful.

Hi, Lemme just start by saying, thank you so much for this advice Phil & Phil. For a starting off filmmaking this is really appreciated. I actually didn’t know that it was okay to film in public and thanks for the documents, I shall be carrying them around from now on. Luckily the police in the uk don’t carry guns! Yeah I think I’ll look at the hourly rate, and work from there. I’ll try and find a reasonable price, but I don’t think I will sticking with the £4.35 minimum wage for under 18s though... because that’s ridiculous, I’m nearly 18 anyways. I’ll talk to my client and make sure I have some sort of formal agreement on paper. And generally when I’m filming in public (other times) people stare but never really kick up a fuss because we look like ‘kids,’ not professionals. I’m looking at going to uni in 2020 after sixth form to study film production at ravensbourne (if I get in). So yeah I’ve been serious about this for a long time, and I’ll join the student register (because i didn’t know that was a thing either) I would like to become a film director or an editor as a job... I don’t know if that’s ambitious but you can only dream eh? I actually didn’t think anyone would reply to this so again, thanks so much. This is only the beginning for me so... we’ll just have to see how it goes ?? -Bella

Hi everyone I’m Bella, I’m 17 and I’m a student filmmaker, from the UK. I’m not trying to boast, but I would say my work has got to a point where I can charge people for it. This last year people have started to come to me for jobs, which I haven’t asked for money for. But now I think I should. I have a client who would like a music video done at the seaside. A. Would I be allowed to film there as a ‘student’ and B. how much should I charge the client to film and edit the video. Bare in mind I don't live anywhere near the sea so I would have to travel there. Also I would be using a canon 80D and a sigma 18-35 1.8 lens. Any advice for a student filmmaker would be greatly appreciated ??