Need filmmaking advice.

[Aboleo]

I'm in the market for a digital, 3-chip camcorder. Right now I'm looking at the Panasonic AG-DVX100B 3-CCD. I don't really have alot of money right now, but I want a nice, quality digital camera. Not a crappy lightweight palm-held one... Also, if you have any suggestions on editing software, I'm listening.

 

[KarmaSutra]

This is a good primer:

Click on me . . .

I have a Canon XL1 and it has served me in great stead. The Sony DSR-PD150 DVCAM is also a nice camera.

I particularly like the manual f-stop and white balance features.

Regarding editing; Are you going to edit on a mac or pc? I like Final Cut Professional for Mac. I like AVID Xpress and Adobe Premier for PC.

Although with my films I've used AVID Symphony exclusively. All of my student films were manually edited on a Steenbeck flatbed.

 

[Aboleo]

No, I just have a PC. Maybe someday I'll get the Mac, but for where I am right now I think a camcorder is the most important thing. I've been reading books on filmmaking for years, probably ever since I was about 12 years old. Now I think I've got the bug to actually do it, so I'd like to give it a try!

Anyways, I found a Cannon XL-2 online for about $1600.00-- thats about the price range I was looking for. I already have my own digital recording studio(Boss BR-1180), so I can do pretty much anything I want to when it comes to sound... now I just need to start shooting some pictures and I'll be happy.

 

[Aboleo]

I'll keep that in mind. I'm actually thinking of making a little horror movie if I ever get all the right stuff together. I have the perfect location picked out in the woods near where my girlfriend lives.

I've been reading '$30 Dollar Film School' and 'Rebel without a Crew' over and over again. I'm pretty serious about it. I just need some practice...

 

[Aboleo]

Well, I have a really big fog machine, a three-foot long homemade machete (bladesmithing is another hobby of mine), a gas mask, a really creepy looking raincoat... and me. I stand six and a half feet tall and I'm rather scary looking when the situation calls for it. But, to be honest... I hate those 'run from the killer/creature' movies. I'd like to do something different. Something very simple, but different... I'd probably try to do it more from the antagonist's perspective, but somehow still make him seem scary.

A good example would be the "Halloween" remake directed by Rob Zombie. It was a surprisingly good movie, but once the story shifted away from Michael Myers, I lost interest (I hated Rob's other films, BTW).

Then again, I might just try to do something like 'Evil Dead'-- demonic possession in the middle of nowhere.


Or maybe both.


Any ideas?

 

[KarmaSutra]

Don't make a film just to get something on tape. Start with a theme. You get engaged to a film only after you start to develop feelings for the characters.

You can have a guy getting bitten by mosquitos all day long but if you don't feel anything about his situation you don't give a sh!t whether he dies or scratches the skin off of his bones.

If said man was going to his wedding and he was swarmed by mosquitos then you start to feel something because he has somewhere to go with people who love him. He becomes material and tangible.

Get it?

 

[Aboleo]

I haven't yet seen the Halloween remake yet. I didn't know Michael was able to talk to tell his story? Or was it just filmed from his perspective?

It starts with his childhood and shows how he gradually becomes a monster... a 'slasher' if you will. In the early part of the film it shows him as a little boy and you really, genuinelly empathize with him and his situation. Even when he becomes a souless killer who never speaks later in the film, you still feel for him as the child psychologist Dr. Loomis (played by Malcolm McDowell) tries desperately to reach out to him. This isn't a great film, but it hit on a few interesting points. Watch it and you'll see what I am trying to get at... I hope. For some reason I'm having a hard time trying to express it, and this film is still fresh on my mind.

Don't make a film just to get something on tape. Start with a theme. You get engaged to a film only after you start to develop feelings for the characters.

Yes, I understand that. But at the same time, I'm not trying to make 'Schindler's List'. This will be my first project to work towards... and character development is what I am working on right now.

I have much better ideas than this... This isn't the 'ultimate' story I have to tell. But I don't have the money, the locations, the actors, or even the experience to make the movie I really want to. I gotta' start somewhere... and this will be a fairly forgiving place to do so.

Plus, if I put my good ideas down on here for other projects I'd rather make... well, they might be taken away from me...

 

[KarmaSutra]

One thing I took away from film school was this:

Talent borrows. Genius steals.

There is no originality anymore. Only different perspectives of what's already been done.

 

[Aboleo]

There is no originality anymore. Only different perspectives of what's already been done.

I'm guessing that you've never read the book of Ecclesiastes...


Long story short, it's been that way for a while now.:yes:


Picture this. In 'The Hitcher' instead of watching C. Thomas Howell run away from Rutger Hauer for an hour and a half only having the bad guy pop up for a few cheap scares, we follow the character Rutger Hauer plays as he systematically stalks C. Thomas Howell, framing him for his crimes as he goes along. The killer follows his trail and hunts him down, and we see C. Thomas Howell having the **** scared out of him several times along the way instead of having the the killer scare us through random 'pop-ups'.

Same style as a slasher flick, different perspective. You know who the killer is, but maybe the killer doesn't know who he is. Along the way maybe he will try to discover this.

it sounds dark, I know. But I get soo tired of all the freaking 'run from the killer/ whos next?' movies that sometimes I find myself wanting these idiots to die.

If they had done this with 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' it wouldn't have sucked.

 

[KarmaSutra]

I'm guessing that you've never read the book of Ecclesiastes...

Doesn't hold any relevance in my work so I wouldn't have read it. I can quote you most of Joseph Campbells work on story structure throughout mythology. That is relevant. Have you read those?

Any writer worth his salt would be remiss to not have the structure in each of his stories.

And what I said previously about perspective is what you elaborated on, and very well I'll say.

 

[Aboleo]

Doesn't hold any relevance in my work so I wouldn't have read it. I can quote you most of Joseph Campbells work on story structure throughout mythology. That is relevant. Have you read those?

Any writer worth his salt would be remiss to not have the structure in each of his stories.

And what I said previously about perspective is what you elaborated on, and very well I'll say.

Thank you for the complement.

I've read some Joseph Campbell, some Carl Jung, Friedrich Nietzsche, Alan Wilson Watts, Sigmund Freud... I do read a little. Theres actually quite a bit of three-act structure in the Bible. Hell, alot of the themes from 'No Country for Old Men" were taken from the bible... I know you enjoyed that piece of fiction. But I'm not a christian, and I'm not trying to 'save' you, so don't worry. But I think you would enjoy reading that particular book of the bible, it is very existential.

Wolf, those are great points. I agree totally. I watched 'When a Stranger Calls' earlier today and I thought to myself, wow... here is a movie where literally nothing happend until the last 15 minutes, and then what does happen is compleately pointless... I could have made that movie sooo much better!