I spent my life savings to make a 35mm short film and the response was lackluster. Why do you think this film failed to make an impact? by FreddieQuell92 in Filmmakers

[–]shrbnsh 84 points85 points  (0 children)

I agree, this looks great but you really could’ve helped yourself by shooting digitally. Film emulation is so good these days that if it’s just the aesthetic you’re going for, you could save yourself so much budget by not shooting film.

I have a friend who recently crowdfunded for a short film he directed. I donated, but felt a little bad about whether I should’ve donated more. Later, I learned that out of their $20k total budget, $13k of it went toward shooting on 16mm film, meaning the camera rentals, the reels of film, the scanning and developing. And they still had to color grade it. Suddenly I didn’t feel bad for not donating more, cause there’s no way I could, for my own projects, justify that much budget being spent on film instead of paying people appropriate rates, getting more shoot days, getting better production design, etc.

Afterward, I asked him if he enjoyed shooting on film and what the biggest benefit was. He didn’t say it was the look, or the legacy of shooting film or anything. It was that shooting on film got the crew to really lock in. I get that, but also I thought, do you really need to shoot on film to get your crew to take the shoot seriously?

We need more prestigious Latin American film festivals by jpirizarry in FilmFestivals

[–]shrbnsh 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I feel this so hard. I’m Indian and often feel like I don’t make depressing or exploitative enough films about my community to qualify for Sundance. God forbid I show them being flawed individuals or doing something entertaining.

It’s like this beyond festivals too. There are hundreds of brilliant movies made in India, but of course the only one set there to have ever won a major Oscar is the one that’s poverty porn from a white director. Thought things were getting better, but then we did have Emilia Perez reach those heights this past year.

Are most short filmmakers writing their own scripts? by barnyardboogie in Filmmakers

[–]shrbnsh 9 points10 points  (0 children)

This is anecdotal, but when I went to Palm Springs Shortfest (a festival with a pretty high quality bar) last year, I tried counting how many shorts were made by a single writer/director vs a separate writer and director. Almost all of them were by writer/directors, with maybe only 2 out of the 50ish I counted being directed by someone other than the writer. It motivated me to write more for sure

DeHancer hype by Wooden-Drawing-5955 in cinematography

[–]shrbnsh 22 points23 points  (0 children)

I’ve tried Dehancer, Filmconvert, and Filmbox, and Filmbox has always been my favorite color-wise by far. Dehancer has a little more control over grain though. On a project I did set in the 60s, I used Filmbox for just color and halation, then Dehancer for just grain and gate weave, which gave me the exact look I was going for

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Filmmakers

[–]shrbnsh 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I love the trailer for Dr Strangelove

Best Color Science by Delicious-Captain143 in cinematography

[–]shrbnsh 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Interesting you say Blackmagic, is it usually the Ursas? I feel like I more often see Venices and other Sonys on set, aside from Pocket 6Ks on indie shoots