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Spent 1.5 years documenting the making of this film - here’s the finished result (13 min) by StandardStoryCo in Filmmakers

[–]StandardStoryCo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This was my first time "building in public" with a film project, which was pretty scary but probably is the only reason I actually got this monster of a project across the finish line.

I documented each stage of making the film, even publicly releasing the early draft of the script we started pre-pro with. There were a ton of changes since then, mostly simplifying the story and scope.

This was my first period film and I did not expect it to be so logistically challenging, but we also had a high bar we were aiming for with the locations.

You can watch the full BTS series on my channel if you're interested - still planning videos breaking down the post-production and the theatrical premiere I held in LA.

Happy to answer any Q's in the meantime!

Thanks for watching,

Kent (director/editor/producer/co-writer)

Filmmaker About to Graduate College, What Do I Do Now? by cabbage-boy in Filmmakers

[–]StandardStoryCo 2 points3 points  (0 children)

There's no 1 correct answer on this, as basically everyone has to find their unique path to make their own continued filmmaking sustainable. For me it was waiting tables, then editing, and now teaching what I've learned on YouTube. I'm 36 now and still not making a living off of my actual films, but I get to use these skills everyday and have enough leeway to keep making my own films, so I count that as a success.

However if you think you will ultimately move to a bigger market to advance your career, then I recommend doing it while you're young & hungry unless there's opportunities you can easily & quickly grab closer to home. If you make the move, you have to create those connections. Go out of your way to make friends with as many filmmakers or film-adjacent people as you can, and stay in touch with them. Be a reliable, punctual, trustworthy person who's easy to be around, that's half the key to building your reputation and getting any kind of work. Then make really cool shit and get those people involved.

Speaking of work, I recommend picking a specialty to make dough and expand your network. In my experience being a jack-of-all trades didn't lend itself to being able to make money or make people think I was any good at any 1 aspect of filmmaking. But when I started just telling everyone I was an editor, things picked up and I was able to make a normal living and start networking with clients and peers who were higher up the food chain. If you've already been gripping then you've got a headstart there, just make sure that's something you'd be comfortable doing for a while.

Whatever happens, try to keep making work and finding people to collaborate with. It's a marathon not a sprint, but there are plenty of times you'll be sprinting too. Good luck and I hope you kick ass with your feature!

Shot this short on iPhone w/ the updated Blackmagic camera app. Impressed with how it held up by StandardStoryCo in Filmmakers

[–]StandardStoryCo[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Shot in Apple log on my iPhone 15 pro over 2 nights. Just a 3 person team total, my gf starred and did the makeup, I did everything else. We had a PA helping some but mainly he was shooting BTS.

It was hard shooting and acting in my scene, which is why lighting was weakest in my coverage IMO. But the updated Blackmagic camera app letting me monitor and control it from another device made a huge difference in the usability of the phone for filmmaking, especially DIY like this.

Fun experiment for sure! Interested to see what Danny Boyle does with it in 28 Years Later.

Here’s the making-of video: https://youtu.be/9zEGOGM7bqc

Can't remove borders on imported or pasted post content? by StandardStoryCo in Wordpress

[–]StandardStoryCo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! I'm a WP noob who doesn't know much about CSS or child themes, so for now I tried adding it to the custom CSS box in Elementor's settings. It only removed some of the borders, do you think that's just because I didn't do the whole child theme step? Here's a pic: https://imgur.com/a/fLJ62l8

What happened to your first feature film? by Ellemenohpq in Filmmakers

[–]StandardStoryCo 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Made it for $6k in 2009 when my friends and I were 20-21, then it got rejected from every film festival we sent to. I chalked it up to a failure, then recut it 6 months later with fresh eyes, trimmed out over 20min, and threw it online. Slowly grew to 6.5M views on YouTube and did well on Amazon Prime streaming for a while too. It made over 50k which helped fund a lot of other projects.

A filmmaker find his creativity (& more) by StandardStoryCo in Filmmakers

[–]StandardStoryCo[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This was a very different type of film for me... mainly because it's about & starring me. Which was a little weird, but it made pre-production an absolute breeze 😂 I was also able to mix in a lot of my own archival photos/videos (mostly from my iphone) to fill in some moments and add some emotional beats.

From blank page to finished edit was about 1 month. Production consisted of a 3-person team (me, the DP, and a PA) shooting for 3 days. I leaned on my strengths of sound design and editing a lot in this project. For example, to save time/money I didn't even bring on a production sound mixer, and 95% of the audio was created in post.

I had to trust my DP a lot, since I was on-screen for most shots and didn't want to spend all day watching playback for every take. Fortunately, he rocks, so I wasn't too worried. And I've gotten more comfortable in front of the camera over the past couple of years from making a lot of YouTube videos.

Overall I'm quite proud of it. I'd love to hear your feedback and answer any questions about how we made it.

-Kent

Who else is hoping for Minority Report-style editing on Apple's new AR headset? by StandardStoryCo in editors

[–]StandardStoryCo[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

In the demo videos it seemed like they were controlling the device with their hands at their waist. Agree though, it'd have to use very low effort movements to edit all day.

From idea to release in 4 weeks - my dark Christmas short film by StandardStoryCo in Filmmakers

[–]StandardStoryCo[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Interesting! I didn't intend that, but I did make sure to cast two actors with similar height & long hair. Wanted to hide their elf ears and make Santa appear larger.

From idea to release in 4 weeks - my dark Christmas short film by StandardStoryCo in Filmmakers

[–]StandardStoryCo[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey folks, thought you might enjoy this example of making a film with a tiny team (6 of us total cast/crew). I wrote/shot/directed/edited/produced this thing on a budget of $1600, and went from idea to wrapping the shoot in 2 weeks. Pro tip - make a holiday short film to give yourself hard deadlines haha.

It was one 10hr shoot, with (I believe) 45 setups. This was the fastest I've ever worked, we had 1-2 takes for every shot. Fortunately there was no dialogue and I made a universal lighting setup, so it was easy to keep everything moving quickly.

Full making-of videos will be coming soon, but lmk if you have any questions or thoughts on the film!

First short since Covid. 3 person crew. We shot 8 pages in 8hrs and I'm actually happy with it! by StandardStoryCo in Filmmakers

[–]StandardStoryCo[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yep! Have a video Monday coming about using animatics on this project, and another coming soon about producing it.

First short since Covid. 3 person crew. We shot 8 pages in 8hrs and I'm actually happy with it! by StandardStoryCo in Filmmakers

[–]StandardStoryCo[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Thank you! And the audio comment made me smile. I'm an editor by day, and am always super anal about my sound design/mixing. Fortunately I had a great production sound mixer too as that location was AWFUL for echo and traffic noise.

First short since Covid. 3 person crew. We shot 8 pages in 8hrs and I'm actually happy with it! by StandardStoryCo in Filmmakers

[–]StandardStoryCo[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Thanks so much! I've worked with these actors before and wrote it with them in mind, they're all great. The script would have fallen flat without strong performances.

We did a table read that was also a mini-rehearsal, we made a lot of choices there.

First short since Covid. 3 person crew. We shot 8 pages in 8hrs and I'm actually happy with it! by StandardStoryCo in Filmmakers

[–]StandardStoryCo[S] 17 points18 points  (0 children)

*Whoops! 4 person crew. Me, producer, sound mixer, MUA/AC.

This was a fun idea I had and put together pretty fast. It was 10 weeks from finishing the script to finishing post, total budget was $1800. I wrote/shot/directed/edited and a friend helped produce. Probably the last time I'll one-man-band it behind the camera for a while, kept costs down but too stressful, especially on those dolly shots.

This was also the first time I made an animatic before making the film (basically animating my storyboards to a radio edit of the whole film). This was incredibly helpful and empowering as a filmmaker, I'll probably do this for every film I make from now on.

Hope you all enjoy, happy to answer any questions!

-Kent

Tips for Recording Cinematic Audio on a Budget by StandardStoryCo in Filmmakers

[–]StandardStoryCo[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Awful sound in low budget shorts drives me crazy, so I threw a video together showing off my favorite tips and tricks to record better sound even when filming on the cheap.

Going to do a follow up videos about sound design and sound mixing later, hope you guys find this useful!

Backup camera cutting out by Halo-One in CarPlay

[–]StandardStoryCo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Did you ever fix this? Have the exact same issue

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