Amateur film making is one of the most popular hobbies especially today with the advent of HD video. Everyone loves Hollywood movies and wants to be famous. It’s not as easy as you would think. The basis of any great movie is story. Start with a great story and you have a chance. Your final project will never be any better than the story you start with. Filming the movie is loaded with complications. You probably need someone to put out the fires. Once the film is finished the tough part starts which is the post production. A great video editor can really save a film. One trick to great post production is sound. Not just the dialogue but the back ground noise and sound track.
The single most important aspect of movie making is the script. Start with an average script and it becomes very likely you end up with a bad movie. But the quality of the story isn’t the only important element. If you are working with limited funds you need a story that can be filmed on the cheap. Look for something that takes place over a couple of hours with a limited number of actors and locations. Locations can really eat up resources. It’s not just finding locations to film in. It’s getting everything there actors and equipment and filming in a location without annoying the locals. If you don’t have a film permit the last thing you want is for the police to come and arrest you.
A lot of people think that great acting is important to make a great movie. This might not be true. Famous actors are key for getting people to see your movie but if you direct the movie properly you can get a great performance from an average actor. If you allow for enough takes you can cut around poor acting. Obviously you need someone with a certain level of skill. Just keep in mind that a lot of bad acting can be fixed in post. Cut away from poor gestures or hide per vocal delivery with back ground sounds or music. You can even bring your actors back into the studio to re-record their dialogue.
When you do post production of an amateur film think of it as a multi step processes. First you want to get a rough cut put together. Second you need a final cut and lastly you need to finish the final cut with a final edit. The final edit includes your color correcting and sound. You start your rough cut by doing one edit of master shots. The second edit you go through the film and add the mid shots. The third edit you go through and add the close ups. The fourth edit you go through and insert the cutaways. By the time you get to your fourth edit you should have a fairly watchable rough cut put together.
Once you have your rough cut done and re filmed anything that was missing or unusable you can start work on your final edit. One key for a final edit once your edit is locked down is color correcting. This is particularly important with HD video. You match each camera angle to the others so it blends well. Correct lighting and over exposures to make your film look more professional. Probably the most important part of the edit is adding in the sound. You can remix the background noises called folly. An example of this would be someone walking or shutting a door. The second part of sound in post is called looping. What you do is run a segment of video on a loop and re-record the actors delivering their lines to fix any poor audio issues. The final part of post is when you add in the sound track. Music can really enhance the drama in your film think of Jaws or Halloween.
When you have finished your film the goal is to get is seen. You obviously want to make some money for all your hard work. The best way to get your movie seen is via the film festival circuit. There are hundreds of film festivals all over the country that are looking for movies to exhibit. If you are lucky you might even sell your movie at one of these festivals. If you have your heart set on selling your movie you can take it to the film market which is held once a year in Santa Monica. Another great way of getting your film seen is online. Places such as youtube, amazon and netflix will allow you to exhibit your film and make some money. You might even be able to sell copies of the dvd on amazon.
Also think about filming your movie on a green screen using a Tricaster. The new Tricaster Extreme 850 just came out.
Recent Comments