Making your own films: C/D?

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I Love Film, certainly, but i have never really had much interested in making my own films. i don't know why this is - I also love Music and Literature and i am constantly working on musical/literary projects of my own, yet with film i feel content to just be an observer/scholar/critic.
i guess i find motion pictures to be so overwhelming - perhaps it's the lack of complete control over the artwork (even as a director you have to deal with someone else acting, cinematograpy, etc.) or maybe it's just the expense that scares me away.

i sense that there are a lot of filmmakers on this board which is actually piquing my interest in maybe taking a basic 8mm class at the local film school....

― j fail (cenotaph), Monday, 5 May 2003 14:20 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't see how this could possibly be dud. But if you want to make a film that features other people, has some continuity, and looks decent, it can be fairly exhausting. You can spend more time carrying heavy equipment to and fro, setting up lighting, and waiting for weather to change than actually choreographing actors, framing, and shooting (=the fun stuff, although some people think setting up lighting is fun and if I were better at it I might agree)--and that's if you're organized. If you're not, and most beginners like myself are pretty disorganized no matter how hard they try, you can spend almost all your time doing stuff like this.

The biggest problem for me re. making movies is the money issue. In the here and now I find the price of developing 8mm (let alone 16mm) to be prohibitively expensive, not to mention the costs of renting lighting and other equipment. 8mm cameras can be had very cheap nowadays, but that's the easy part. In terms of film as a career, the idea of hustling for money to make a feature seems incredibly daunting to me. To convince others that your project is worth funding requires either a preternatural confidence or a great ability to bullshit--I have neither. It's this aspect more than anything else that has inhibited me from seeking professional training.

― amateurist (amateurist), Monday, 5 May 2003 15:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Classic, though it does take tons and tons of time and effort, and a fair bit of cash. If you have access to some equipment though, and you don't mind working with video, you can do it cheaply, though. (this is my whole guiding philosophy)

― slutsky (slutsky), Monday, 5 May 2003 16:02 (twenty-two years ago)

One problem is that I like tracking shots. A lot. And track is a bitch.

― amateurist (amateurist), Monday, 5 May 2003 16:04 (twenty-two years ago)

Me too, I like all sorts of fancy shit. You can get away with a lot though if you're persistent.

― slutsky (slutsky), Monday, 5 May 2003 16:07 (twenty-two years ago)

my feeling from working in the no-budget milieu is that if you're okay with a certain amount of failure (or at least with getting different results than you had planned)--and you keep on making shit--then this is a kind of success--and you will eventually figure out how to do whatever you're looking to do.

― slutsky (slutsky), Monday, 5 May 2003 16:09 (twenty-two years ago)

i don't know why i put "C/D" in the title. i guess i was just looking for more philosophical posts about filmmaking.

― j fail (cenotaph), Monday, 5 May 2003 17:11 (twenty-two years ago)

I much prefer the process of shooting documentary. You can work more impulsively, with less of the mad prep time and unfortunate ass-kissery involved in narrative production, and discover your movie in the editing room.

― theodore fogelsanger, Monday, 5 May 2003 17:41 (twenty-two years ago)

You have a greater responsibility with documentary, though. And it still has to look nice, I think.

― amateurist (amateurist), Monday, 5 May 2003 17:44 (twenty-two years ago)

And you can't really do any re-shoots (save establishing shots etc) if you fuck something up. Also you generally have to shoot a lot more, and the logistical problems can be way more complex (or not, I suppose).

― slutsky (slutsky), Monday, 5 May 2003 17:46 (twenty-two years ago)

But it's more acceptable to use Mini-DV for documentary work (much like 8/16mm and B&W), which eases some of the logistical problems.

Or at least that's my take.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Monday, 5 May 2003 21:09 (twenty-two years ago)

I meant other logistical problems (ie following subjects around etc etc). But yeah.

― slutsky (slutsky), Monday, 5 May 2003 21:21 (twenty-two years ago)

eight years pass...

^ my first through re-reading all of this stuff is that it's probably different now, but, while i'm sure this is true of the digital side, i wondered if there had also been any shift in film processing etc, both at a 'local' level of being about to get 8mm done & regarding the wider problems with 16mm labs closing and stuff.

would love to hear about any ilxors experiments/routines/breakthroughs, etc, anyway. i can't imagine making films without a team of die-hard enthusiast peers.

― (using no way as way) (schlump), Wednesday, 24 August 2011 11:14 (fourteen years ago)

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