D.I.Y. Film - the democratisation and spread of home-made feature-length movies

Through laptops, easily-downloadable software and Myspace, among other things, it became possible to record and distribute one's music with increasing ease.

Next, I believe, is film. Not just Youtube shorts, but feature-length, professionally-edited and brilliantly-shot movies, made by ordinary people who happen to have a video camera and a laptop, some spare time and a few enthusiastic amateur actors, not to mention a decently-researched knowledge of how to ensure good lighting/sound.

I'm sure it's already happening in some circles, but I predict a boom. Myself and some friends are considering doing something along these lines. It'll take time, but if it happens it'll be a great validation of this forecast. Here's to a few of you ILXors joining in too.

i distributed one of our films on bit-torrrent and through the internet archive ( http://www.archive.org/details/TheRecommendations - divx is best). that was mostly because it had ended what festival run it had, and we didn't really have any hope of it getting picked up by a distributor, and i just wanted people to see it.

i don't have much hope that you're going to see a lot of feature-length, brilliantly-shot and professionally-edited movies just being spread around online, though. it just costs way too much money to make a feature, even with today's easier-to-use technology.

good actors and screenwriters willing to work for little/free are still pretty rare, that's the hurdle these guys face. suppose you might see a few good indies coming out of home studios, tho.

Precisely - there's a lot less acceptance of the maxim that taste is subjective with respect to acting - there's plenty of variance as to whose style you do or don't like, but the basic chops (believability, ease) are still entry-level requirements. Big exception I guess is Troma-style horror: wink-nod camp stuff. But I don't see any Jandeks of cinema making a splash in the near future.

oh hey maybe i should distribute my film on the internets.

Cheers s1ocki!! I'll check that out! As for your opinions, well, you know better than I do, but I have faith that especially young college graduates with big ideas will come up with easily-executable movie scenarios with everyday set scenes and normal-person characters (think Metropolitan or Before Sunset), but their own unique plot, script or character spins. Plenty of people have good creative urges (my friend for instance is a fucking incredible dialogue writer, with an award-winning Fringe play and much else besides to his credit), and I think the leap to transforming this into film is not too far away for many of them.

Finding good actors will probably be the hardest bit. I guess I'll have to use some connections and plead well. If not, we'll just make a documentary. :D

Metropolitan is a totally awesome film btw, my friend basically wants to make something in that mould but updated and British

i mean i absolutely encourage anyone to do this... but it's a lot harder than it looks and takes a shitload of time/money even on the lowest level. i just produced a very very very low budget film and even that required a ton of $$, literally years of work, 6 weeks off my job for pre-production and production, working out deals with a post house etc...

but ya check out my movie, it is kind of old and even lower-budget, but you might like it, it's a comedy about jealousy and revenge in the literary demi-monde!

guys what about PRIMER

i need to see that fuckin film

and yah s1ocki i shall do, sounds delish

the actor thing is definitely a good point, but even more to the heart of the matter is crew... you are always going to be able to find actors with various levels of talent who haven't gotten a break yet and are willing to work for cheap/free. not so much with gaffers, grips etc. you can do your movie w/o that kind of assistance but it will limit your aesthetic choices.

ok, obviously hand-held video camera = shaky picture, not always perfect focus. how difficult must it be to construct or purchase a trolley/tripod? like i say, DIY. also what resolution video camera would get you a good shot? or do you need genuine film reel for professional-quality?

it's cheap! you can do a lot for cheap.

at this point i would recommend getting a decent HD videocamera, they are pretty cheap right now and the footage can be easily edited on a fairly recent computer.

another really good investment is a decent microphone... onboard camera mic sound is a huge giveaway.

it's finding those little details that you can burnish that will elevate your film above the home-movie aesthetic.

the problem isn't getting the equipment it's the skill level it takes to use the equipment properly

ok well personal current financial and employment situation means decent HD videocamera purchase unlikely atm (unless someone decides to give me the best birthday present ever in february), but it may be different for my friends, and it only takes one person to own such a camera and other things might click into gear. ditto decent microphone. actually if this turns into a thing it might be worth a few of us pooling some cash for equipment. you only live once. the niggly logistics bits will sort themselves out: solving such problems is half the fun. and acquiring through trial and rror the correct skill level the other half!

cheers for the advice s1ocki (and everyone else), it's good to hear from someone who's gone out and done it!

i was hoping i could find a link to it somewhere but i helped "produce" a film in lol college and it was a lot harder than it may seem, right now. we were lucky in that we were shooting in CA and had access to a lot of technically skilled ppl - i remember lighting was a major issue for us - but we still very limited in what we could accomplish, aesthetically. and s1ocki is v. v. much otm when he says that the quality of your crew is a huge factor. i think that's the major difference between film and music right now you can't really translate a large range of vision on a microbudget in film the way you can in music.

nice reality check :-P

youthful naivety and wordy static outdoor shots will prevail :D

These films will be as good as the music of MySpace bands, duh

yah s1ocki also otm when he says to go for it. we had a blast making that film and another couple of shorts and my friend used it as her admissions piece for the producer school at USC but there was a tremendous (for me at least) shock when we first started filming at just how much you had to think about. and getting all (or at least most) of the small details right is what will help make your film watchable

Like, 90% of bands are MySpace these days, right?

Also, I got a video camera for Xmas! XD

I would just like to say I loved s1ocki's movie.

feature-length, professionally-edited and brilliantly-shot movies, made by ordinary people

Making a watchable, entertaining feature-length film requires a much fuller set of skills than writing, playing and recording music. Just pulling together a working script and storyboard is a major undertaking for a 90 minute (or longer) film.

A lot of people can act - up to a point - but genuinely skilled actors are rarer and most of them know that a feature film would require committing a major amount of time and preparation. It's not something a good actor just tosses off in a few lunch hours and weekends. Either it's all a lark, or they had better believe strongly in the project.

A full-length documentary is a bit easier for a couple of people to DIY, but it would probably be two-year project to do it remotely well.

Heck, just putting together some background music for a DIY feature length film would be a considerable job - unless you completely ignored copyright and just stole freely.

I suspect most DIY films will be short subjects. Feature length is too big a mouthful to chew for most "ordinary people".

thanks alex, cant wait to have a new one to show you :D