3 Mistakes New filmmakers Make
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Let's talk about 3 mistakes I made starting out as a a filmmaker.
I want to focus on your crew, the length of your film and what to do after the film is completed.
With this advice you're going to be able to apply it not only to your short films, but also to feature films and bigger projects. This is something that I have learn along the way making some short films and also with the latest feature film I made.
Mistake 1: Trying alone.
My first mistake was trying to do everything alone. Making movies is already super hard, but you don't have to do it alone. I'm a producer-director, but at the beginning I was shooting, editing, doing everything on my own. The films I made at the beginning of my career are not as good as the ones I did as I progressed.
There is a little pice inside of us taht feels good about the fact that we can go and do everything myself. We are bragging a little bit every time we can say that we shot it, we wrote it, we found the actors, we produced it. We were the DP, the art director, we edited the film. And that might be really cool when you are starting out. You feel really good that you are able to do all of these things, but trust me if you want to make better movies you are going to need to collaborate with other people.
There are so many talented people out there that could make the movie so much better and you are missing out.
Your job as a director or producer is not to be the best at everything, but to work with the best.
And you might say "I agree with that, but I don't have anyone. Noone wants to help me"
Honestly I don't care. Your job is to go out there and convince people to help you make your movie.
There is a lot of videos out there saying go out there and make your movie. Just grab a camera and figure it out. We don't realize that if we take 2 steps back there is 50 other people around us who can help us.
That is something that I have learn working on bigger projects and studio films and tv series. Even with all the money and resources is almost impossible to pull out the miracles that need to happen to make a film.
You need to reach out to everyone around you. Specially those people who you are jealous of because they are a little better than you. If you feel that tension that means they are talented and they are going to make your movie a lot better. Get over yourself and think how can I convince more people to help me make my film.
Mistake 2: My film was too long.
This happens to all of us. People say that you need to know how to kill your baby. It is really hard to make a 5 minute film, let alone 20 minutes.
When you send your film to film festivals they can only program so many shorts in their block. If you have 1h block and you have four fifteen minutes film that is all you can show. If you pick four 10 minutes shorts and 4 five minute shorts that brings the count up to 8. That is double the amount of filmmakers that will come to the festivals and it shows a lot more variety in genre and style.
For a festival is a lot better to pick really solid 5 to 10 minutes shorts. Just keep that in mind next time you are upset when the festival didn't take your 23 and a half minute master piece.
Mistake 3: What to do after the film is made?
I wasn't promoting enough. You make a film and it takes you months to complete. You are a little bit tired of it. You start showing it to everybody, and you are posting it on Facebook and Instagram. After a couple weeks you are going to feel like you have saturated your friends and family and everyone is tired of it. That might be true, but you need to keep promoting your film. Even a year or two later, you need to keep promoting your movie. You can always find new audiences and new people to promote to.
As filmmakers we feel like that is in the past, and we want to make a new movie, but for people who see it for the first time.
This is an honest mistake we all make. We always feel that people are tired to hear us talk about our short. We loose the momentum waiting for all these festivals and now our movie is “too old”, not relevant enough, or we see all the mistakes because now we are better filmmakers after the experience.
More info about filmmaking:
https://wolfcrow.com/filmmaking-for-b...
https://www.nyfa.edu/student-resource...
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