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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Technology and story-telling

Rohclem said:
when i was a boy, i dreamed of becoming a film director. perhaps my dream has been conceptualized because of my active participation on our school drama. i would have wanted to go to a film school or take broadcasting/ communication or theater arts to fulfill my dream. but my parents wouldn't let me. i was from a poor family from a third world country. when you are poor, being artistic is not an option. during my time and where i came from, it's only the rich parents who have the priviledge to waste money in sending their children to this kind of school. i said waste because filmmaking is not being considered as serious career that would pay the bill. so i became an xray technologist instead. yeah, it doesn't pay much but at least i'm sure that i'm gonna receive a pay check at the end of the month. my dream still lingers in my whole being. it always haunt me in my sleep. then, few years ago, i was fortunate to come to the UK to work in the NHS. the brits pay good money for medical jobs. now that i'm a bit settled in life, i am now having a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel. but i don't have time to queue to beg a film production to hear my pitch. i rather work overtime to buy/rent things needed to do my own film at my own pace. with digital film equipments becoming really affordable these days, i think i'm gonna fulfill my dream sooner than i thought. right now, i am just shooting with a cheap gs500. i did 2 shorts with it just to practice the process of making film. i am now working on a script for my feature film. i'm not in a hurry and i will definitely wait for SCARLET.

and with regards to this thread, technology gave me hope to fulfill my dream in story-telling. THANK YOU, JIM. you are GOD's sent, indeed.
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That is really great.

Best of luck to you sir.
 
Not yet. Soon Hopefully -- having some technical difficulties. It's a feature btw... I will have a new short up soon though. Editing at the mo'.

Thanks for your interest Muroshi.
 
What if you have never owned a camera, and want to start experimenting with film after many years of photography?

You have to decide what camera to buy, and after lots of research and renting camera's, a company who has totally redifined digital cinema (RED) releases a sub $3k camera with the capabilites of a professional camera at a high pro-sumer camera cost.

What would you do? What piece of equipment removes the obstacles and reduces the limitations better than SCARLET will? Should I bother with the HV20/30 when for some more money, I can get a SCARLET and have a camera to start learning RAW editing now and not years down the road?

I agree, there are definitely people who will obsess over things that will never improve their artistic talent. The photography world is plagued with this problem, but ultimately, as an enthusiast and amateur photographer, I have to make the decision to get the equipment that will allow me to reach my best work with as little learning curve as possible.
 
Rohclem said:
when i was a boy, i dreamed of becoming a film director. perhaps my dream has been conceptualized because of my active participation on our school drama. i would have wanted to go to a film school or take broadcasting/ communication or theater arts to fulfill my dream. but my parents wouldn't let me. i was from a poor family from a third world country. when you are poor, being artistic is not an option. during my time and where i came from, it's only the rich parents who have the priviledge to waste money in sending their children to this kind of school. i said waste because filmmaking is not being considered as serious career that would pay the bill. so i became an xray technologist instead. yeah, it doesn't pay much but at least i'm sure that i'm gonna receive a pay check at the end of the month. my dream still lingers in my whole being. it always haunt me in my sleep. then, few years ago, i was fortunate to come to the UK to work in the NHS. the brits pay good money for medical jobs. now that i'm a bit settled in life, i am now having a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel. but i don't have time to queue to beg a film production to hear my pitch. i rather work overtime to buy/rent things needed to do my own film at my own pace. with digital film equipments becoming really affordable these days, i think i'm gonna fulfill my dream sooner than i thought. right now, i am just shooting with a cheap gs500. i did 2 shorts with it just to practice the process of making film. i am now working on a script for my feature film. i'm not in a hurry and i will definitely wait for SCARLET.

and with regards to this thread, technology gave me hope to fulfill my dream in story-telling. THANK YOU, JIM. you are GOD's sent, indeed.
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awesome, as a teenager during the summers I used to work at the hospital in the plastic surgery photo department. we did before and after pictures, and sometimes i had to shoot during surgery. I would look at all the gear the hospital owned and dream up stuff that I wanted to film and photograph.

I have had a great ride and it propelled me from a small town in europe to living in NY and doing what I love - the dream is still evolving - but it was a great post to read as it brought me back to hot summer days when I stood in the darkroom and dunked hundreds of rolls of tri x into the developer

have courage, and please post your short on some download site or on blip.tv or vimeo so we can all be a part of your audience

what a great first post
 
I'm sorry, I do have to disagree with the theme of this thread. No, better equipment does NOT make better filmmakers, we can all agree on that.

But for those of us, who have our craft down (for the most part), and know exactly what we want to display to the audience, flexible, high quality tools help a great deal. Better tools, and comprehensive knowledge about those tools gives the filmmaker greater options.

In a traditional setting, say in hollywood, where the director is truly just a director, and not playing cinematographer, sound man etc. then, maybe so much attention to the tools may distract from the story he or she wishes to tell. But this is a different world now for low budget films. The director largely has to do nearly everything, especially for zero budget films. And there's a lot of zero budget films out there. And I've seen zero budget work from filmmakers who are great storytellers that didn't bother to learn the ins and outs of DV. And I for one feel that their movies suffered as a result.

Also, remember, not everyone works in traditional narrative. I've seen great experimental films slanted mostly toward aesthetic. One could argue that a series of images, albeit abstract, can still tell a story, but the point remains the same.

Lastly, as I said, where I come from I notice that local filmmakers spend FAR TO LITTLE time on their equipment. People who film on HDV and wonder why the picture falls apart when they do their "shaky cam" scene.

I think some people do get too immersed in the technical scene. But we are ignoring that there is a large constituency who are not into it enough. We are just not exposed to them on the boards here, because if they WERE into the scene, they'd be here :)
 
agwah said:
awesome, as a teenager during the summers I used to work at the hospital in the plastic surgery photo department. we did before and after pictures, and sometimes i had to shoot during surgery. I would look at all the gear the hospital owned and dream up stuff that I wanted to film and photograph.

I have had a great ride and it propelled me from a small town in europe to living in NY and doing what I love - the dream is still evolving - but it was a great post to read as it brought me back to hot summer days when I stood in the darkroom and dunked hundreds of rolls of tri x into the developer

have courage, and please post your short on some download site or on blip.tv or vimeo so we can all be a part of your audience

what a great first post
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thanks, agwah.

everybody starts from somewhere, isn't it? and sometimes, the story behind the story is much more interesting to listen to. i'll try to post my not so good work but let me polish it a bit and add a subtitle :)

cheers
 
It is a marvelous time to work on your filmmaking dreams. Just listen to your heart and go at it.
 
John Caballero said:
It is a marvelous time to work on your filmmaking dreams. Just listen to your heart and go at it.
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I agree completely,

It is also a time when we don't really know how the future situation is going to be. The conventional model of both making and distributing content will probably exist in some form for a long time, but there are so many alternative ways sprouting up all over the place.

So this thing of listening to your heart becomes even more valid as perhaps new business models will evolve out of the same spirit.

You can make a completely personal project even for the salary of an x-ray technician working with a minimal crew at your own pace on weekends that tons of people could see.

With the cost of these new cameras and perhaps some form of internet delivery you may not have to succeed financially to the tune of millions to be able to go ahead and make your next piece.

Thus you can remain a productive film maker no matter what the big studios feel they need.
 
Yeah, technology is making us free and that's why we are so excited.

Our children and grandchildren will take a lot of things for granted, they won't be so impressed by the RED XIII, for example. They'll take what we call "miracles" for granted.

Today, we're just beginning. It's a great time - a new world of filmmaking that didn't exist before.

A new horizon.

Until recently, you only had your talent. :)

Now you also have a possibility to realize it.

We're lucky, living between the film world of yesterday and the digital world of tomorrow.

It's an exciting, turbulent time. :)

I'm very happy. :sorcerer:
 
I'm with you guys! It's a beautiful time. It's going to be amazing for the future filmmakers of the world. I can't wait to see the beautiful images in my head come to life!
 
dvazp said:
I'm a little bit concerned because it seems there are a lot people on this forum who do not make a living from film/tv production and yet are willing to spend thousands of hard-earned dollars on technology they think will make them into great filmmakers.

I find it very shocking and very sad. You have all heard this before, but technology is not the most important thing to making a great movie. The most important thing is having something to say. I recently saw an amazing film directed by 19-year old Ryo Nakajima which was made on a budget of about $10000 and which has been winning awards at film festivals around the world. That budget is for everything from actors to props to equipment. It's less than what most of us would spend on a camera/edit suite combination.

My advice would be: if you really want to make films don't spend thousands of dollars on equipment promising to make you the next Spielberg or Scorsese. Think about what you've got to say, develop a story and work around your limitations. You don't need an expensive camera or a professional editing suite. You need creativity and a story, and if you don't have that no technology can help you.

Btw, go to the film's webiste at http://peijafilm.nightfall.jp/ You can contact the director and he'll send you a copy of the film.
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All very true. However, I don't think anybody on these boards will truly believe that just by having a Red they will become a spielberg. Nobody is really suggesting that, despite the fact that the vibe on the boards sometimes seem to imply it.

However Red does change the industry in a different way. All of a sudden we have a middle class of filmmaking.

Suddenly, while the middle class of the rest of the planet is shrinking the middle class in filmmaking is growing as they realise they dont need to spend A LOT of money on film stock and development, or renting an f23... Red is a New Option.

Think of RED more as an additional TECHNIQUE or TOOL for storytellers to get their message across.
 
I think people should be concerned with their own stuff not worried about what other people spend money on. talent is talent. tools just help you expose whats already there. if quality didn't matter they wouldn't bother having high end gear. its not 10 years ago. DV films almost have no chance of getting bought now no matter how well they are shot
 
it's the script .. story ...
true ... and then not so true ...
i've seen films that i thought were excellent and were gone in a week = great story , great acting , great editing , great cinematography = zero box office ..
i've seen excellent films that never got released and having a great story didn't matter ...

we've all seen bad movies , bad scripts/stories with HUGE box office ...

so is it the story ? script? box office ? technology ? all ? any combination ?
seems it's much more then story, script etc ...

i haven't meant anybody yet that set out to make/produce a bad movie , write a bad script ..
pretty much all thought they had good-excellent stories ...
they all thought their projects would be the one to break thru BUT ...

"DV films almost have no chance of getting bought now no matter how well they are shot"

InDigEnt produced 10 projects shot on hand size DV camera's and most got theatrical distribution plus played on cable ...basic budget was 150K per project ...
IMO bottom line is can a distributor make $$ off your movie ?
if they think they can make $$ they'll do whatever it takes to get it to whatever format to make $$ ..
if they can't make $$ off the movie they tell you they don't handle DV movies etc ...
 
Ok, so I read some of the posts to this thread, but not all, so don't blast me if someone has already made my point. I think that a lot of the people in this thread have missed the point of the original post. I think the original poster is concerned about what something like the RED will do to the quality of films overall.

The same thing is happening in the recording industry. Famous studios are closing left and right because people are no longer using them for recording purposes now that everything can be done at home (sort of). As a result, some of the best recording engineers/mixers are losing their jobs and being forced to work on other things. As more and more is happening in home "studios", the quality of music is dropping very fast. Yes, it's wonderful that now individuals can now do many of the same things at home, but unfortunately this floods the market with a lot of crap. There is this idea that free-market is a great solution and that good products will show themselves above the rest, but the truth is (and you would know this if you worked deep in the industry) that it makes it harder for those products to show because they're often thrown in the mix with a bunch of crap.

There is a lot of talk and a lot of worry in the industry right now. And what individuals who are very anti-corporate/down with the corporations fail to realize is that once these companies are gone, the entire industry is gone. These companies ARE the industry. Industry meaning big money here. Theaters will have to close down too. Good products take a lot of time and energy to make, and if there is no industry and no money left in it, you won't have people dedicating their lives to it, because they won't be able to afford to. Thus you will be left entirely with the aforementioned crap. At least, that's the worry and the reality that is happening.

Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of the RED Scarlett, but do understand the concern about it. Once the business loses its elite status, it will lose some of its greatest assets as well.
 
There are no concerns. Just shoot as you wish. That is all. If it makes you happy go for it. If it makes you money fabulous. Don't worry about other people, don't worry about the industry. Concentrate all your energy on you. Can you make it happen for YOURSELF? Spend ALL of your time thinking about that.
 
explosive said:
All very true. However, I don't think anybody on these boards will truly believe that just by having a Red they will become a spielberg.
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Yeah, but now you can try.

And we all know that if you haven't tried, you haven't lived.

That's why I gave up a promising career in international relations. :bleh:

Spielberg or not, it feels good.

:biggrin:
 
mralmostpopular said:
Ok, so I read some of the posts to this thread, but not all, so don't blast me if someone has already made my point. I think that a lot of the people in this thread have missed the point of the original post. I think the original poster is concerned about what something like the RED will do to the quality of films overall.

The same thing is happening in the recording industry. Famous studios are closing left and right because people are no longer using them for recording purposes now that everything can be done at home (sort of). As a result, some of the best recording engineers/mixers are losing their jobs and being forced to work on other things. As more and more is happening in home "studios", the quality of music is dropping very fast. Yes, it's wonderful that now individuals can now do many of the same things at home, but unfortunately this floods the market with a lot of crap. There is this idea that free-market is a great solution and that good products will show themselves above the rest, but the truth is (and you would know this if you worked deep in the industry) that it makes it harder for those products to show because they're often thrown in the mix with a bunch of crap.

There is a lot of talk and a lot of worry in the industry right now. And what individuals who are very anti-corporate/down with the corporations fail to realize is that once these companies are gone, the entire industry is gone. These companies ARE the industry. Industry meaning big money here. Theaters will have to close down too. Good products take a lot of time and energy to make, and if there is no industry and no money left in it, you won't have people dedicating their lives to it, because they won't be able to afford to. Thus you will be left entirely with the aforementioned crap. At least, that's the worry and the reality that is happening.

Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of the RED Scarlett, but do understand the concern about it. Once the business loses its elite status, it will lose some of its greatest assets as well.
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This is a very valid point as well. Let's hope we won't loose those great talents and have them drown in crap. Some of the best movie experiences for me is to go to a giant cinema with hundreds of people and watch a multi million dollar spectacle produced by a master of the craft. I wouldn't want to get stuck watching youtube videos made on Scarlet.

Probably there will be room for new models of distribution. If a good quality production can be done for less money, it doesn't need the million dollars of advertising to warrant making all the distribution prints, but instead can rely on a shipped hard drive or a copy distributed online - then smaller channels of distribution can arise where quality content can be seen by those who really can appreciate it.

As an example: Netflix was for me the first proof that internet distribution was great, I was then in a suburb far outside LA and the local Blockbuster had absolutely nothing I wanted to watch - Netflix would send me little packages of culture.
 
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