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Shoot a film in 6 hours


Charlie
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Normally i script everything, but with this film all the actors improvised....everything.........it was shot in just six hours........The best part is i only told the actor about the beginning.....the last part i surprised him just before we shot it........he was angry jjajjajajajaja

 

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Sometimes I'm tempted to go shoot an entire feature film improvised with only a rough outline, but that is just because I'm lazy and I need to find a script writer to partner with!

 

It was an on camera mic? (oh wait, maybe maybe there was one lav)

Nearly 10 minutes is quite a long short film to do in only 6hrs, I'd keep it more compact. From my skim over your film I feel it would benefit from snappier cuts?

But then again a couple of weeks ago I shot around 20 pages of script in only a single day :-o Shit

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1 hour ago, IronFilm said:

Sometimes I'm tempted to go shoot an entire feature film improvised with only a rough outline, but that is just because I'm lazy and I need to find a script writer to partner with!

 

It was an on camera mic? (oh wait, maybe maybe there was one lav)

Nearly 10 minutes is quite a long short film to do in only 6hrs, I'd keep it more compact. From my skim over your film I feel it would benefit from snappier cuts?

But then again a couple of weeks ago I shot around 20 pages of script in only a single day ? Shit

One cheap sound guy with the most basic equipment and no experience ?

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1 hour ago, Charlie said:

One cheap sound guy with the most basic equipment and no experience ?

Great short Charlie, I liked it, I know the pain of bad sound, it is my biggest nightmare all the time, I also would like to do something improvising, but a good actor is hard to find in a budget…..yours here was very good, I would like to fond something similar here….keep the good work man!!!

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43 minutes ago, hijodeibn said:

Great short Charlie, I liked it, I know the pain of bad sound, it is my biggest nightmare all the time, I also would like to do something improvising, but a good actor is hard to find in a budget…..yours here was very good, I would like to fond something similar here….keep the good work man!!!

muchismas gracias amigo!!

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16 hours ago, IronFilm said:

Sometimes I'm tempted to go shoot an entire feature film improvised with only a rough outline, but that is just because I'm lazy and I need to find a script writer to partner with!

Do it!!

I know people who specialise in directing dramas and they found that most scripts don't result in natural performances without a lot of effort.  I think the progression went something like this:

  • The script likely isn't natural, or isn't immediately natural for the actors, so the first run-throughs are mostly about remembering the lines instead of acting fully
  • After more run-throughs they either internalise and/or tweak the language to feel more natural, but they get tired and the acting suffers
  • After many many more takes you can sometimes get magic before you burn the cast/crew out for the day

I've been on set when the 30-40 second long monologue got nailed on take twenty-something, and became the cornerstone of the artists showreel, but it's a pretty brutal way to make a film.

The alternative is to improvise things, which makes the language natural, reactions genuine, but shifts the storytelling from the script and on-set to the edit room, and normally involves a multi-camera setup if you want to have multiple angles of the first time an exchange is delivered.  This approach should also allow more authentic performances from less experienced actors.  You can also run through a lot of variations and then combine them in post, perhaps taking the line from the "you've just found out she cheated on you" and the reaction shot from the "you've just found out she cheated on you because she found out you cheated on her first" etc.

16 hours ago, IronFilm said:

Nearly 10 minutes is quite a long short film to do in only 6hrs, I'd keep it more compact. From my skim over your film I feel it would benefit from snappier cuts?

Quote

"Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short." - Mark Twain
(source: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/04/28/shorter-letter/)

Six hours is a very short time to edit a 10 minute film, let alone do the whole thing!

I started paying attention to my editing efficiency in terms of how many minutes of final edited footage I would create per hour editing / grading, and comparing that to feature films, TV shows, vlogs, etc.  The comparison didn't really work because the shorter the film, the snappier and more carefully crafted it tends to be, at least for me.

Each of the films below took only a few hours to shoot, but took perhaps 10+ hours in the edit despite being quite short.

 

 

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