I Want To Make Movies - Now What? PT. 1

With the ever increasing ability both through financial means and technological means for people these days to create their own movies, big or small. Many people who are passionate about this are left saying, "where do I start?" This blog is my attempt as an independent filmmaker to explore and consolidate information that might be useful to the new filmmaker.

First let me explain a little bit about myself. I am a self proclaimed hobby filmmaker, with a passion for photography and cinematography. My first production was done with a couple Sony Handycams with absolutely no idea what I was doing. I had a partner in my film making ventures at the time who shared in the same level or lack of film making knowledge as I had. We managed to write a script, cast the movie, gather some production crew, and carried some of the project into editorial. The problem was, we were trying to make a feature length film with absolutely no idea what we were doing. What we learned was, a good camera makes a world of difference, and we learned about the cinema frame rate of 24 frames per second. Luckily at this time, Panasonic released its revolutionary AG-DVX100, which I purchased.

After showing our rough edits and title sequences to friends, we managed to gather some interest in our production outfit. Our ability to sell ourselves was responsible for %90 of the attention we got. Another indie filmmaker, after reviewing some of our footage was so taken with what we'd done, he actually "hired" us to be the production crew for his next feature. We still didn't know much, but we had a nice camera and an approach that was unique. After battling with bad acting, long hours and compensating for our lack of proper film making knowledge, my partner and I realized that we needed to take a step back from feature film making and get into short films.

This was the birth of Bitterman Productions and our short film Liquid Country, which was a easy 13 minute film that was shown at the New York Independent International Film Festival in Los Angeles. Nothing is more exciting than being able to show your work to an audience in a theater. Prior to this film and during, I soon realized that I had little to no interest in directing, but I was in love with the photographic aspects of movie making. I loved my DVX and I loved editing in Final Cut Pro, but my problem was I was focused on too many things and not getting accomplished at just one. So I was the jack of all trades, master of none and I looked up to Robert Rodreguez and his rebel attitude towards film making. Of course I now see that focusing on one area is better than chasing all areas. I also learned that to make a good movie one needs a lot of skilled people around to help out.

So I burned out on film making with all the work and stress of attempting to produce, co-direct, DP, edit and market a film and a "production company". So from the motivation of being a feature film maker with a Sony Handycam, I went to being a burnt out short film maker with a DVX and a toy chest of indie movie making equipment.

So I took yet another step back and focused on cinematography and still photography, which is where I am now. I've worked on other shorts as a camera man, I've helped run audio for productions, and I've been an Assistant Cameraman on projects all in an effort to learn more about what it takes to be on set and be useful. I also a student of film making and cinema technology, trying to learn as much as possible through reading, discussion and experimentation.

So from my own experience, working on films is a huge thing that isn't as simple as pointing a camera and someone and calling it a movie. Here are a few things to remember for the beginner filmmaker:
1. Your passion will make you succeed!
2. Don't try and do it all, focus on one thing you love doing and surround yourself with people who are good at doing all those other things.
3. Your film won't look like a movie without some of the right equipment.
4. Your equipment won't make your director, writer or actors any better, so before you shoot, analyze your production cause its only as strong as your weakest link (and hopefully that will be you).
5. Start small and learn big. Take an opportunity to start with a short film and learn how to produce it with the same production value as a large budget feature film (of course doing so with little or no budget).