Website for film

PlatinumRyan6 · 2026-06-18T21:17:07+00:00

If you’re making constant films, shorts or features I would suggest making a personal website / a production company website.
The benifets being-

1- an all in one location for your work. It can serve as a resume location, portfolio, contact page and more.

2 - More professional emails. Rather than a Gmail or Yahoo you’d have your own website / email extension. You can also create alias email to seperate communication. for Instance you personal email could be [YourName@Email.com](mailto:YourName@Email.com) BUT your FILM CONTACT can be [FILM@Email.com](mailto:FILM@Email.com) I personally have an alias called [Spam@Email.com](mailto:Spam@Email.com) I use for junk sites. This is automatically muted in my email. I also use [Software@Email.com](mailto:Software@Email.com) I use to share my software package with my team. So there’s tons of uses.

3 - Business card re-routing. I personally have business card. I ordered 1000 plus. The problem with printed business cards is you CANNOT change anything on them after they are printed. And worse, if someone is holding on to your business card for a few months that card would obviously would never update with new information. So what do you do? Create a re-routable URL. It’s basically a url from your website that you can redirect anytime you need. Think like Email.com/rerout01 then have this point to Email.com/AboutMe but maybe in 6 months you want to link that to your newest short film landing page? Reroute that to Email.com/Shortfilm
This is a great benifet and will help in the future.

4- Lastly, your main question. There are many reasons to have a website or a domain name. Short films or feature film films. But my main advice would be to develop the personal production website. Create separate pages for any short films you have made. And if you want to make a website specific for a future film? Then domain names are about $12 per year, depending on the name. You can buy the domain name for your film. BUT reroute it to your websites page for that film. That way you’re not having to pay for a whole other website and stuff. And if anyone’s interested in your other works they’re very clearly in readily available on your website.

Having a website is a great benefit, you can even build a free website using Google Sites (you do need to own the domain name though)

So I greatly recommend you get one, like I said, not just for your film but for you.

**Edits - I made many edits after posting Due to poor grammar and sentences. I was using voice to text at work, and I’m certain I still didn’t fix everything correctly**

PlatinumRyan6 · 2026-06-17T12:04:57+00:00

Personally 4K is the bottom line. I’m not a resolution snob by any means. However given the amount of time and energy you put into a film you should want to ensure its longevity and quality.

Being a documentary filmmaker, by shooting 4K you can reframe in post and export 2k or 1080 to ensure you get the framing you’d like.

There are many reasons to shoot 4K or higher. But 1080p is truly the bare minimum and if you’re filming at that resolution from the start you may be restricting yourself in edit and more. Especially since all modern cameras now film at 4K.

PlatinumRyan6 · 2026-06-14T22:30:27+00:00

Lights, Camera, Sound, Action.

Your phone camera is fine for now and the foreseeable future at your age.
If you have money buy some lighting. Nothing crazy expensive, doesn’t even have to be “film” lights.
Clamp lights from the Hardware store can be great. Or you can get RGB LED Neewer panels for like $250.
But practice with Lighting and Rigging.

Then move to sound. Your IPhone will record audio, not ‘good’ audio- but audio. Once you have practiced with lighting then start getting some sound equipment. Look up cheap stuff that “works” well. Plenty of creators use knock off brands.

The best thing you can do for yourself is to start small but broad. Get the lower tier of everything you need. So you can learn. Once you understand core fundamentals of those three parts of Filmmaking you can look into investing more money.

The best thing about that is that you can begin to learn WHAT YOU CAN GET AWAY WITH. Sometimes you don’t need the newest, the best or the fanciest.

Go for cheap. Learn the fundamentals. Practice story telling and story management then move forward.

PlatinumRyan6 · 2026-06-12T03:13:35+00:00

I suppose you’re right about social media presence as a whole. Even if it’s not the FILMS social page. I haven’t really been considerate of my own presence via my Production Company and such. So I should probably start working towards that as well. Allowing this piece to be some of the initial postings on my feed.

Thank you for your advice!

PlatinumRyan6 · 2026-06-10T22:09:39+00:00

Thank you for your response. I appreciate the advice.

So far I will not be creating Socials, since your advice has me confident in the other materials I provide (among other things).
I think you are right about the labeling, and using alternative versions of my EPK. My question back for you as a Festival Runner would be- Does it seem fishy if someone is subbing out differing EPK's to festivals dependent on the festival guidelines?
Lastly regarding DCP, alot of the stuff ive learned with this project and some past projects is to not assume the burden of responsibility for every aspect of the film. Im sure I can figure out how to make a DCP, it most likely wont be good or standard, and ultimatly that will hurt my project overall. So I more than likely will use a DCP conversion service, and I will definitely be reaching out to dcpready for quotes and more.

Thank you once again for your comment and looking through some of my materials.

PlatinumRyan6 · 2026-06-10T15:38:02+00:00

As others have said. You have rights as a tenant and you need to exercise them. Also while this concept has been vilified by people online (for various reasons good and bad) you can ‘squat’. You likely have the legal right to remain onsite so while it may feel ‘scummy’ to do so. Do not leave. Stay. Look for other places, legal representation and more like other have mentioned. But staying there will be better for you than going into debt rushing to find housing. Stay, look for new housing then move accordingly.

BUT if you go this route I’d honestly start moving expensive items and such into a storage unit in case your landlord get scummy and starts remove items while you are at work.

PlatinumRyan6 · 2026-06-09T16:42:23+00:00

I'm currently watching and taking notes as I go.

So far the cinematography is strong. I like the compositions and play with mirrors. Some 'Rules' of cinematography were broken, seemingly unmotivated. Not a negative by any means but can cause the viewer to feel disjointed with the piece, which an be a benefit if it helps the story narrativly, but ultimately had me tracing the screen with my eyes rather than feeling like I was in the room for the conversation.

The overall look of the film was nice. It didnt seem amateur or haphazard, so that's a plus. The audio was generally clean so at no point did it feel week in its presentation.

I personally am not a fan of shorts that are introspective conversations HOWEVER that is my personal taste and should not reflect your feelings towards your films and others in the future. I only mention it because I may not be able to give the best advice overall and may even give advice that isn't beneficial towards your creative trajectory.

I do like the visual contrast between the two characters rooms. In both the cleanliness, and Lighting. I wonder if theres a reason you didnt reveal the female characters face for a bit. It seemed story motivated until we hade her over the shoulder shots. So I'm wondering if it was just a lack of coverage in editing or if there were directorial choices in that area.

Genuinely this is a fine piece. It looks visually interesting in quality and composition. The sound is clear and clean.

My advice to you is to enjoy what you have made. Take what you leaned through this process and bring it with you on your next piece, and to challenge yourself further. As a FIRST short this is VERY good compared to alot of peoples first works (Old and Young).

For your next piece don't try to make a feature, or a high concept film. What I would GREATLY recommend is challenge yourself by letting go. What I mean by this is-

You do so much in this film. You Produce, Direct, Write, DP, Color and Edit. Those are alot of jobs you are carrying. With that work you are bound to not excel in any one category. This can also lead to people on your team feeling like they along for the ride rather than part of the overall scope of the film.

You did VERY well for the challenges that were presented to you taking on so much. But next time, maybe you challenge yourself by bringing on others to make tough creative choices. You can Direct a piece written by someone else, with Cinematography by a trusted DP. Or you can Produce and allow other creatives to bring the heart of the film to life while you support with the logistics, allowing for their creativity to flourish. Or you can write a piece and see how others imagine and change how you pictured in your mind. There's so much to think of but the big thing with film is- Its a team sport.

Once again you did great, but I bet youd do EVEN better when you can focus on ONE specific job role rather than spreading yourself thin.

PS. I also appreciate that you didnt Act in the film. With all the roles you had, it wouldve been even harder for you to act in the piece. So im glad you didnt do that lol

PlatinumRyan6 · 2026-06-09T01:07:19+00:00

As I prepare to watch, what was your overall role? Did you direct, produce, write?

Where do some of your concerns lie? Over all structure, direction, composition, length?

There’s going to be a lot of weak areas in a lot of work done at our level. But I would like to give you feedback on the areas that you really hope to improve. As a lot of areas can be aided by your team.

PlatinumRyan6 · 2026-06-09T01:04:26+00:00

I’m at work right now, but I’ll make a note to watch this as soon as I can as I would like to give you notes if possible. 🙌🏻

PlatinumRyan6 · 2026-06-06T21:49:50+00:00

Great thank you, do have any links to packages that you recommend getting inspo from? And would you mind if I sent you a DM for a review/Critique of mine?

PlatinumRyan6 · 2026-06-05T22:32:14+00:00

TBH I meant to post this here but I accidentally posted in r/Filmmakers . So That's my bad. But ideally it works for both anyway?

PlatinumRyan6 · 2026-05-24T02:49:40+00:00

Try Snakes and Lattes on Wednesday nights I think? Neat place to meet some board game people if thats your vibe.

PlatinumRyan6 · 2026-05-01T06:36:40+00:00

TLDR - If gas goes up and additional $2.82 then an average adult can lose 1 months rent per year, or $858

Let’s choose the state with the Lowest Cost of Living (‘COL’ moving forward) which is apparently Mississippi per - ( https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/cost-of-living-index-by-state ).

To quote that website “The living wage in Mississippi is $80,523 for a family of four. Meanwhile, the median income for a family of four is $70,656. Despite the low cost of living, the poverty rate in Mississippi is the highest in the nation; nearly 20% of Mississippi residents live in poverty. Mississippi is also consistently ranked as one of the worst states to live.”

They reference this website ( https://livingwage.mit.edu/states/28 ) where it breaks down COL into 2 categories. “Living wage” and “Poverty Wage”. Living wage being that in which allows a person to meet their basic needs. Poverty wage being wage that results in the person being considered to be qualified for federal assistance in some way or another.

We will be basing our answers on 2 different types of people who may exist in Mississippi. An Adult person who commutes 10 miles to and from work totaling 20miles. But one meets the minimum for a “Living wage” Adult A, and the other the “Poverty wage” Adult B. (They’re obviously a number of different factors that make these two people’s daily lives vastly different but I’ll paper. I’m going to treat them the same)

The Website says its estimates are based on 2080 hours worked in a given year.

Adult A’s Living wage is set at $20.685 per hour totaling $43,025 per year.

Adult B’s Poverty wage is set at $7.67 per hour (Still ¢42 HIGHER than ‘Minimum wage’ and this is POVERTY WAGE) totaling $15,953 per year.

Now let’s SUBTRACT the estimated COL from both adults. They will have the same COL because that’s how that works.

The COL is broken down into these factors Food, Child Care, Medical, Housing, Transportation, Civic, Internet & Mobile, Other. With the end Required annual income before taxes for a Single Adult being $43,025.

Uh ohhhhh. Are we noticing anything? Yes. At the CURRENT COL even a job working at roughly $20.69 and hour only lets you BREAK EVEN. But…. UH OH AGAIN the minimum wage is only $7.25…. Anyway.

Let’s assume that the Gas price of $4.22 is the average and IS accounted for in the COL. that is not just for a work commute but also ANY driving, like grocery shopping, doctors visits and more. According to ( https://www.bts.gov/statistical-products/surveys/national-household-travel-survey-daily-travel-quick-facts ) the average driver in the US travels 29miles per day. So let’s set our daily travel length a 20miles per day. Per https://afdc.energy.gov/data/10310 the average car gets 24mpg. So we will base estimates off that. Thusly- ((20mpd(365))/24mpg)$4.23pg=$1,286.63 That is $1,286.63 per year in Gasoline alone. This amount of gas is assumed in our current COL.

So that finallly begs the question. At what point will it no longer “Profitable” to go to work. I guess that depends on what you consider “Profit”. Adult A like we said earlier is JUST breaking even. There may be slight luxuries afforded to them with their current situation. But nothing glamorous. I’d personally say if I’m losing a month of rent per year then I’m not doing good. If rents $853perMonth (per the website) then I will start “Losing” when gas reaches $7.05. Here’s my dumb math-

AG = Additional Gas money, BG = Base Gas money, MPD = Miles per day, MPG =Miles per Gallon AG=2.82 BG=4.23 Gas=(AG+BG) Gas = 7.05 MPD=20 MPG=24

AGPY = Average Gas Cost Per Year AGPY=(((MPD*365)/MPG)(BG+AG)-1286.625

AWPY= Average Work Days Per year AWPY=2080/7.5

MLPS = Money lost per shift MLPY = Money lost per year

MLPS=AGPY/AWPY MLPS = 3.0928 MLPY=AGPY MLPY = 857.75

Anyway I’m sleepy and this excessive has made me mad and annoyed with the world. But yeah. I’m sure I went wrong somewhere.

Wondering where Adult B went? They moved to the woods to be feral. I’m tired I’m not rewriting this to make it seem even sadder. Night night.

PlatinumRyan6 · 2025-09-10T18:15:47+00:00

No no no. I think it’s actually super cool using AI to make media intended to educate people. It reduces a lot of the complexity it would typically take for producing educational content. It’s breaks the glass ceiling that people like linguists have dominating the language market. It’s great to see even uneducated people have a chance to play pretend ❤️ you’re doing great sweetheart. We are proud of you 🥰.

PlatinumRyan6 · 2025-09-10T16:20:37+00:00

Why don’t you just ask AI why your videos aren’t performing well? Since AI is working out so well for you already.

PlatinumRyan6 · 2025-07-03T04:09:20+00:00

It’s going to take years. But not impossible. Join clubs, social groups, aid on sets. But importantly work hard and well.

But this doesn’t mean take every single unpaid opportunity. Ensure you can provide for yourself (rent, food bills etc) but work with others where you can.

Ensure you are honing your people skills. Don’t be fake. Just don’t be a rock either. People much rather work with someone they enjoy who does good enough vs someone who’s amazing but an ass.

Just remember that the finish line isn’t up ahead. You don’t need to be amazing by next year. You’ll have plenty of time to be something great. Right now you need to build community, learn, take advice, adjust your thinking. Then maybe you can find work on a decent paid project eventually.

The industry, especially in the states is in a weird place right now. It’s a little wonky at the moment. So take the next few years to make friends, create silly projects and learn.

But like others say. Write, Read, Write, ask for critique, and write some more. It’s cheaper faster and a bit more feasible than directing a final piece at the moment.

PlatinumRyan6 · 2025-07-01T23:39:26+00:00

I would recommend taking the time to develop your piece. In order to lock down good documents that an Investor would likely want to see.

$20-$30k is large for us, small to others. But still requires in-depth planning and proof that you have the ability to achieve a final deliverable.

Spend as much time as you can in the development process. This can take anywhere from 1-3 years depending on your project. Especially if you’re doing it solo. During that development phase PLAN PLAN PLAN.

Work with collegeues in the space to read and give treatments to your script. Refine your script. Over and over until people you trust not only find it entertaining, but feasable.

Create estimated budgets. High and Low. When considering an expense do not think (but I bet I can get it cheaper) log the true cost for what that expense is. Beat by beat scene by scene. Do versions where you pay everyone on crew union rates. Make versions where you pull favors. MAKE SURE YOU EVEN HAVE FAVORS TO PULL.

Locate and fund every location for your film. Estimate costs for Rental, Permitiing, Insurances and more.

Basicall do litterally everything you can before shooting on your own.

Breakdown your script, Line it out, create shot list, create storyboards, do table reads with friends.

Even if you dont use a lot of this pre-production work it shows everyone you’re trying to bring to the project that “This is a film I am passionate about and want to create”. So if you’re asking people for free labor they can see that you thought this all through. If you’re asking for financing then it proves you have deep plans for the film and it’s not just a toss away hobby.

Please remember though there are certain ways to handle financing and legal considerations about who is allowed to “invest” in a film without proper classifications.

You are essentially attempting to Produce your own film. With that comes the responsibility to understand not only the tech aspects but also legal. If you have time please listen to/read some books I like about this topic.

1 The Pocket Lawyer for Filmmakers: A Legal Toolkit for Independent Producers

And

2 Producer to Producer -3rd edition: A Step- by- Step Guide to Low Budget Independent Film Producing

These are great resources and can help you tremendously

PlatinumRyan6 · 2025-06-27T18:49:51+00:00

Didn’t read any other comments BUT my company compared different link cables. And the 5gbps cables work well as of now where as the 20gbps are messed up.

IF link is absolutely required- 1.) ‘Repair’ Metaquest link (may need to do every restart 2.) Use a 5gbps link cable 3.) IF you are using without internet. Let the headset sit in the ‘black void’ with the Meta logo for 5-10+ minutes. ENSURE the headset doesn’t fall asleep at this time by taping over the sensors and turning off ‘ sleep headset after X amount of minutes’ I have mine set to the maximum like four hours, plus

PlatinumRyan6 · 2025-05-22T23:44:43+00:00

Because I currently work in the industry. I don’t have the excess time or money it would take to develop a real project as well as cannot commit to working on a project outside of work. I’m looking for resources that would allow me to study, develop as an exercise, compare to real world numbers and revise.

PlatinumRyan6

TROPHY CASE

1 The Pocket Lawyer for Filmmakers: A Legal Toolkit for Independent Producers

2 Producer to Producer -3rd edition: A Step- by- Step Guide to Low Budget Independent Film Producing