Ever made a short film?

[mcstoklasa]

Have you made a short film? Whether for fun or for film school perhaps.

Post it in here.

It doesn't matter if it's great or not (my short film efforts are certainly flawed). I'll watch it and write a little critique/constructive criticism of it.

I enjoy the process of making films. My film I post here is called 'The Duel' and was the first time I ever made with -mostly- actors (had always been friends before). My short film is an action thriller, as I love creating action/physical sequences.

It's inspired by Spielbergs 'Duel', the book and movie of 'First Blood' (the first Rambo), and believe it or not, the Brock vs Cena match from 2012.

I'm not saying it's near as good as any of those things, but it was fun to make. I love film-making and plan to make a black comedy next. I want to focus on a stronger script and better cinematography on this next one, whilst keeping in an action sequence. I love writing comedy.

Heres my attempt:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry_RIddHmbU&list=UUms6SEZZoGenohp8mDFtraQ

Post yours!

[Deleted]

I make a lot of short narrative videos:

vimeo.com/typeandrew to check them out, but here's the most recent.

[Sephiroth]

Not exactly a short movie, but here is my old reel. I'm planning on getting a new one made soon.

[the2ndevil]

I wrote both of these.

The first one I got over 5,000 views, which is frankly a lot more than I ever thought that would get.

[mcstoklasa]

Aug 4, 2014 14:33:51 GMT -5 @personman01 said:

I make a lot of short narrative videos:

vimeo.com/typeandrew to check them out, but here's the most recent.

Sorry for the late reply, had to fix my laptop speakers.

Thanks for posting, I like watching others work as its always helpful to see what other people are doing.

General thoughts-

Smart font at the start.

Your picture quality is nice, is it a DSLR or what? My film was in HD but the picture quality is just average. The cinematography is all quite good, the performances are believable apart from one shaky spot where the what I think was a cry didn't look real. You used the focus a lot for emphasis and it works as a cinematic tool, although sometimes it seems to be out of focus inadvertently. Then again the blurriness perhaps helps to represent fading memories. Particularly in that last shot. It works really well there.


I should stress I'm not speaking as if I think I'm some kind of expert here by critiquing others short films. This is more a hope to get a discussing going about short films we make etc.

[Deleted]

Aug 5, 2014 14:22:07 GMT -5 mcstoklasa said:

Aug 4, 2014 14:33:51 GMT -5 @personman01 said:

I make a lot of short narrative videos:

vimeo.com/typeandrew to check them out, but here's the most recent.

Sorry for the late reply, had to fix my laptop speakers.

Thanks for posting, I like watching others work as its always helpful to see what other people are doing.

General thoughts-

Smart font at the start.

Your picture quality is nice, is it a DSLR or what? My film was in HD but the picture quality is just average. The cinematography is all quite good, the performances are believable apart from one shaky spot where the what I think was a cry didn't look real. You used the focus a lot for emphasis and it works as a cinematic tool, although sometimes it seems to be out of focus inadvertently. Then again the blurriness perhaps helps to represent fading memories. Particularly in that last shot. It works really well there.


I should stress I'm not speaking as if I think I'm some kind of expert here by critiquing others short films. This is more a hope to get a discussing going about short films we make etc.

Yeah, I used to use a HD video camera, but wanted more control over the settings (focus ring, ISO, contrast, white balance, etc) so I switched to a DSLR cam a while back. It works really well but good lenses are expensive as hell! haha! I end up shooting with a really shallow DoF as a result as it allow me to really control where the eye should be and just makes a prettier picture in general. It also makes shot composition easier as you can hide uninteresting backgrounds easier. I definitely use it as a crutch though, but I'm no pro DoP so I'll lean on it all I can! With such a shallow DoF combined with the fact I'm usually running and gunning I don't always get everything I need exactly in focus.

Actors are the tough part. Usually begging friends or friends of friends to be in videos. Working with musicians on music videos is really fun because they bring in more people for me to direct.

[Kevin Hamilton]

For a film class in college I did a documentary on The Dover Lights:

www.rivervalleyleader.com/article_62743172-3a9b-516c-98fe-d119631f133e.html?mode=jqm

It's basically 'mystery light' phenomenon that takes place in this valley in Dover, Arkansas. It's pretty clearly naturally based, but it does really look cool. When we went up there once, a small ball of light was floating around. It was yellow, and looked to be about the size of a softball. Then all of a sudden it went bright red and grew twice it's size before flaming out.

You never know when it's gonna do anything. Been a couple times and it looked like a valley of fireflies; been others and it didn't do anything.

I could never actually get the light itself on camera. Either the times I went with equipment it didn't do ANYTHING, or it was too dark to really capture on film.

I told the professor about my problems, and told him I got interviews and whatnot, and would that be ok. He insisted I get the phenomenon on camera; as if I could just will that to happen. After a few more times out there, the deadline was approaching.. so I ended up hoaxing it a bit. I had an emergency flashlight that would do a variety of effects and colors--strobe light whatever. So a buddy of mine went off into the darkness and messing around with the light, while I filmed and a couple of us did the "ooh there it is.." bullshit.

It was dishonest, but I rationalized it that I had seen the actual atmospheric lights in the past so it wasn't a 'total' hoax.

Funny thing is, prof was completely convinced and advocated me taking the footage to the news stations. I didn't do that of course. Haha.

[nickcave]

[Deleted]

I helped my friend work on his short film in college, appearing in it and acting as a crew member.

[edgestar]

I have a video of me singing livin on a prayer.. I don't think anyone wants to see that lmao

[vashondude]

[lildude8218]

I've taken a picture once. That's technically a really REALLY short film.

[mcstoklasa]

Aug 5, 2014 10:00:47 GMT -5 Sephiroth said:

Not exactly a short movie, but here is my old reel. I'm planning on getting a new one made soon.

Where was this shot?

Sound quality is good for an on location shoot. Did you use an onboard camera or a boom?

The acting is not bad though the guy with the stripey tie does a few weird facial expressions when he isn't talking. That sounds mean but it's a little jarring.

Shot all handheld, which isn't distracting but it seems a little too on-the-fly for this kind of conversation. Otherwise, the angles chosen are all standard but work fine.

Also it's good that you got the actors to remember so much dialogue. Did you have to do rehearsals. For my film, there aren't many lines admittedly, but the actors improvised the general idea of the lines rather than learning them exactly.

Also at the end as the shot fades out you see the two actors stop and start to turn around as they think the shot is over.

[KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!!]

A few mostly for school. I'll post some links later.

[Sephiroth]

Aug 6, 2014 12:27:03 GMT -5 mcstoklasa said:

Aug 5, 2014 10:00:47 GMT -5 Sephiroth said:

Not exactly a short movie, but here is my old reel. I'm planning on getting a new one made soon.

Where was this shot?

Sound quality is good for an on location shoot. Did you use an onboard camera or a boom?

The acting is not bad though the guy with the stripey tie does a few weird facial expressions when he isn't talking. That sounds mean but it's a little jarring.

Shot all handheld, which isn't distracting but it seems a little too on-the-fly for this kind of conversation. Otherwise, the angles chosen are all standard but work fine.

Also it's good that you got the actors to remember so much dialogue. Did you have to do rehearsals. For my film, there aren't many lines admittedly, but the actors improvised the general idea of the lines rather than learning them exactly.

Also at the end as the shot fades out you see the two actors stop and start to turn around as they think the shot is over.

I believe the stripes the guy is me actually, lol. And yeah, I can see it in retrospect. I was trying to convey my character as a smartass. My memory is that we had microphones clipped to our shirts, no boom mic.

[mcstoklasa]

Ha, whoops. I meant no disrespect. Speaking objectively you're a good looking guy, but yeah you do do a bizarre facial expression at one point. A bit of editing, or cutting to the other guy earlier might have helped.

Good effort all around thoughh! Did you write it?

[Sephiroth]

Aug 6, 2014 15:06:34 GMT -5 mcstoklasa said:

Ha, whoops. I meant no disrespect. Speaking objectively you're a good looking guy, but yeah you do do a bizarre facial expression at one point. A bit of editing, or cutting to the other guy earlier might have helped.

Good effort all around thoughh! Did you write it?

Eh, no problem. The funny part is that I remember going into it with this idea of the character as a real true blue type out to change the world and takes the case very seriously, thinking it would play well off the other character, who would be more a grizzled veteran who can't believe he's been stuck with this case. But during the course of our rehearsals the suggestion somehow came up thst maybe the mermaid client would be a minority who got civil rights lawyers involved-and instantly my image of my character changed. Now I saw him as a cocky, smart alecky young guy who thinks its cool that their case is getting headlines because he is not yet seasoned enough to feel embarrassed to have his name attached to such nonsense.

[mcstoklasa]

Thats cool you're really thinking about the character. I like to act although I very rarely do and I suck at it.

[Sephiroth]

Aug 6, 2014 16:25:39 GMT -5 mcstoklasa said:

Thats cool you're really thinking about the character. I like to act although I very rarely do and I suck at it.

I like yo do it too, though I rarely get the chance anymore. I did not write that one, I hooked up with a videographer who had a stack if scripts and partnered me with another one of his clients. And funny part about the facial expression thing; years ago I starred in a theater production of Frankenstein and during my death scene out director kept complaining I was smiling, I thought I looked like I was selling it. But then when I saw our production pics afterward I was like "Why am I smiling, I'm about to die!"

[tigermaskxxxvii]

What tends to be the endgame with making short films? I know these days most of them tend to be uploaded to Youtube, Vimeo, Dailymotion, and Funny or Die. But what else do film makers do after making a short if they don't necessarily want to just post it online? I'm sure film festivals must have a "short subject" category, but does much come out of that. I doubt any one sells their short films at film festivals seeing as how they tend not to be screened in movie theatres (since you can't really justify such a high ticket price for something that isn't feature length) and we're long past the "You get a newsreel, a cartoon, a short, and a feature" days of cinema. I guess there's potential to have it shown on IFC or Sundance, or sell it digitally. But I'm guessing most people who make short films do so for its own sake, or in the hopes of using it as a sort of portfolio to show off their writing/directing/acting abilities and hope it leads to something bigger.