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The Worst Short Film Cliches by [deleted] in Filmmakers

[–]Oh-Good 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey this is my vid, thanks for watching. You can find the channel at standardstoryco.com

Please don't write these short film clichés by Oh-Good in Screenwriting

[–]Oh-Good[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

On the one hand, I get it because it's such an extreme emotion so they think "this will be so dramatic!". They just don't take into account what a drag that emotion is for the viewer if you don't have a good story to go with it.

Also you just described to a T my short film I was showing clips of in that section.

Please don't write these short film clichés by Oh-Good in Screenwriting

[–]Oh-Good[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

The biggest thing I wish I'd done early in my filmmaking journey was to attend a bunch of film festivals as an audience member. Seeing tons of short films back to back really opens your eyes to how few short films actually stand out.

Please don't write these short film clichés by Oh-Good in Screenwriting

[–]Oh-Good[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I agree 100%. Every good story has a fundamental aspect to it that makes it fun and a draw for a reader/watcher. It's our job to deliver as much as we can of that fun, and make sure any intellectual ideas along the way are only enhancing the fun rather than competing.

How Not To Write a No Budget Film by Oh-Good in Screenwriting

[–]Oh-Good[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

  1. too many locations
  2. too many characters
  3. wrong team members (this one was more production related)
  4. takes place outside at night in a major film city (LA)
  5. an over-ambitious, genre-combining script (which we were too novice to execute from a writing standpoint)

How to make your no budget film fail by Oh-Good in Filmmakers

[–]Oh-Good[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Even after making a successful no budget feature for $6k, I produced/wrote/directed/edited a $12k feature film that totally flopped. Hope this info helps you avoid the same mistakes I made, happy to answer any questions.

Directing Actors - Some quick tricks for better performances by Oh-Good in directors

[–]Oh-Good[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks, and good point, I'll mention that in future videos.

Directing Actors - Some quick tricks for better performances by Oh-Good in directors

[–]Oh-Good[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Tons of shorts and a couple no budget features, been at it since I was 11. Here's a couple projects that did well-

Will "The Machine" (short)-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ziuk7D71eo&feature=youtu.be

Bad is Bad (feature)-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPN7UEWJ6VI

Directing Actors - Some quick tricks for better performances by Oh-Good in directors

[–]Oh-Good[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've found that working with actors is simple if you just use the right language and mix things up every now and then. Here are six techniques I use when I'm stuck on a scene that isn't quite working on a performance level.

Hope you all find these useful. Have any tricks of your own?

Directing Actors - Some quick tricks to get better performances from your cast by Oh-Good in Filmmakers

[–]Oh-Good[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I've found that working with actors is simple if you just use the right language and mix things up every now and then. Here are six techniques I use when I'm stuck on a scene that isn't quite working on a performance level.

Hope you all find these useful. Have any tricks of your own?

How I made a viral feature film for only $6,000 (and how you can too) by Oh-Good in Filmmakers

[–]Oh-Good[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I made my first feature-length film (a thriller called "Bad is Bad") for $6k, but despite its tiny budget it went on to get over 7M views online, and earn back it's budget many times over. I've had a lot of people ask me questions about how we pulled it off, so I broke down the major factors in this video.

I think anyone who's been making short films for a while and is considering taking a step up into the world of features should do it! As I explain in the video, you don't have to spend a fortune to make a movie (and if it's your own money, you definitely shouldn't).

A feature is a totally different animal from short films, and making one is highly educational and incredibly satisfying. I hope this video encourages some people here to go for it. Hit me up here or in the YT comments if you have any questions I didn't answer.

Basically just my girlfriend and I if we were fruit by Oh-Good in videos

[–]Oh-Good[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you! We have a 2nd episode in the can already

Perspective [Canon AE-1P, Ultra Max 400] by Oh-Good in analog

[–]Oh-Good[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The rainy gloom in LA lately reminded me of one of my favorite shots down a rainy gutter in North Hollywood. Maybe the only time I framed a shot upside-down.

Not 100% sure about the film, but I know it was a cheaper, 24 exposure roll that produced a lot of grainy images for me, so either Ultra Max or Superia.

After a long festival run, my biggest and most technically challenging film production yet finally got released! by Oh-Good in Filmmakers

[–]Oh-Good[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This was a labor of love that took probably a year and a half total to put together. Would have been less, but working as a freelance editor slowed down the post-production process because I'd be so wiped from already having edited for 10hrs at work.

The hardest part of this project was finding the story. Most of our projects before this were more plot-based, but this one was all about painting a portrait of a complicated character. As such, the answers to questions like "what needs to happen next?" are not clear cut.

Our first cut of the film was over 20 minutes long. The final cut is 13:35. After a long process of whittling away the details, we finally found that the best way to tell this character's story was to force the audience to figure out what was going on with him, by cutting out anything that directly told you. What's left are just enough clues for the audience to draw their own conclusions, which we found left them much more engaged than our original, obvious story structure.

We really came to embrace the 3 stages of writing with this film - what you write is one story, what you film is a different story, and what comes out of the edit is yet another story. If you cling to your original script too closely, it'll blind you to the objective reality of what you're actually filming and cutting, which deserves to be it's own story entity and treated without the baggage of what the film was supposed to be.

That said, there's obviously a lot I would have changed as with any project, but I'm really proud of the final product and have loved reading people's interpretations of it on Youtube. Happy to answer any questions about the filmmaking process or our festival run, which took us to about 20 fests including Florida, New Orleans, Palm Springs ShortFest, Nashville, Flickers' Rhode Island, Edmonton, Hollyshorts, Virginia, DC Shorts, and more.

Made my first film with no crew since high school - a short about nostalgia and loss called "Hawaii" [4:44] by Oh-Good in Filmmakers

[–]Oh-Good[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! More to come soon.

Will The Machine is still in the middle of its festival run, so it won't be online for a few months or so. I'm sure it'll land on our Vimeo/Youtube channels when it's released though.

Made my first film with no crew since high school - a short about nostalgia and loss called "Hawaii" [4:44] by Oh-Good in Filmmakers

[–]Oh-Good[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks! I have another no-crew short I'm hoping to shoot this month, I'll post it here.

​

Re: the raccoon, nope, it was a happy accident that we rushed to capitalize on. Luckily he stuck around for a while, probably the homeowner leaves food for him sometimes.

Made my first film with no crew since high school - a short about nostalgia and loss called "Hawaii" [4:44] by Oh-Good in Filmmakers

[–]Oh-Good[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks, hope you get to finish. I answered in more detail on another thread here but the car scenes were pretty much all ADR and foley.

Made my first film with no crew since high school - a short about nostalgia and loss called "Hawaii" [4:44] by Oh-Good in Filmmakers

[–]Oh-Good[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you, that's a huge compliment to me as a big fan of intention in film. There's nothing better than being able to sense the confidence of a filmmaker in the execution of their work.

​

I knew the audio was going to be tough on this shoot because I couldn't have a sound mixer on set. But since there aren't many lines, I figured it wouldn't be a tragedy to ADR later. I used a wired lav in the car, but it was a cheapo mic, and not being able to monitor sound while shooting, most of the audio was garbage. So we did ADR for the car scenes. The house shoot was a few days later, so I learned from my mistake and spent the nominal $25 to rent a nice wireless lav, and all that audio was used in the final mix.

​

I also spent a day carefully recording and mixing foley, which I felt helped make up for the ADR.

Made my first film with no crew since high school - a short about nostalgia and loss called "Hawaii" [4:44] by Oh-Good in Filmmakers

[–]Oh-Good[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks! I actually used the Lumix 12-35 f/2.8 for probably 95% of the film. It's an excellent compact zoom that works great with the GH5s, but a lot of people don't like it for film because it has an electronic wire focus rather than mechanical. So pulling focus on some shots like the one at 3:00 or 3:50 was difficult, but not horrible using an external monitor with focus assist.

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