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Author Topic: Movie Making is not that fun, yet I wouldn't do anything else. Dave Williams Wet nipple scene Posts: 1836 From: Salt Lake City, UT, USA Registered: Jan 2000 posted 07-02-2007 04:19 AM                        I recently had the opportunity to shoot and edit a short film. I have been working on a couple of different projects, and actually shot two training videos for my former employer. Pre-production on the film takes nearly as much time as editing, but is much more fun. The filming part is incredibly tedious, and working with tired and exhausted crew and talent is frustrating. When your star is throwing a tantrum because shes tired can really set your shooting schedule out of whack as your lighting window goes out the actual window. It was editing that killed me. We had three hours of shot footage for six minutes of movie time. It took nearly three hundred man hours of editing and I personally watched every single frame of every single captured shot at least ten times, with the final footage about fifty times. By the time it was done, I didn't care and hoped that everyone would just die and leave me alone! I let my producer take it from there. It was shown to six different audiences and all six apparently loved it! I didn't go for the single reason that I just couldn't watch it again. I hated it. I instead took a new job for some sound design work and some mixing jobs to get my mind off of it. Now I have my producer wanting me to put together a reel for a behind the scenes look to attach to the film itself. I want to oblige, but I would rather get to our next project. We have most of our actors on board, and it will be all of 15 minutes long this time, but we are waiting for one hold out who wants money but we don't have any. She is an established actress that we offered to make her the absolute centerpiece and pay her expenses, but that just never works!!! I love film making, but I hate it just as much. Oh I really hate it!!! But I cannot wait to get back to filming. Anyone else here ever direct or thought of directing before?? Ciao.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 07-02-2007 04:59 AM                        I don't mind any of that, so long as I have the final say. What I really hate is editing for someone else. You get something so extremely perfect and show it to the person who has the final say and they respond with something like "Oh I love it! It's perfect and just how I imagined it. Fantastic job!! I just want to change one little itty bitty thing." I dread that, because usually it's not itty bitty in reality (though in the mind of the person requesting the change it is), it makes the whole thing worse as a result and that leads to other changes as well. I have a hard time keeping my mouth shut sometimes, but I have to. I always offer suggestions and reasoning as to why it is the way it is, but it never stands. Sometimes I don't make the change and say I did, and then they tell me that the change made it so much better.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 07-02-2007 08:31 AM                     quote: Dave Williams I have been working on a couple of different projects, and actually shot two training videos for my former employer. If you're referring to the now Red Carpet Theaters I hope you get paid . Mark  |  IP: Logged Jim Bedford Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 597 From: Telluride, CO, USA (733 mi. WNW of Rockwall, TX but it seems much, much longer) Registered: Jun 99 posted 07-02-2007 10:47 AM                        I show movies. I can often book the right movie, make sure it's shown well on the screen and make people happy to have seen it. But I'm pretty much in awe of people who can take an idea and put it on the screen in a coherent manner that holds my interest or blows my mind. Thanks and keep up the good work!  |  IP: Logged Paul Mayer Oh get out of it Melvin, before it pulls you under! Posts: 3836 From: Albuquerque, NM Registered: Feb 2000 posted 07-02-2007 06:22 PM                        It is fun isn't it. But like Joe says, only when one has the final say. It's kinda like how I feel about flying these days - lots of fun when I do it for myself; not nearly so much fun when I have to do it for someone else. Yet if it gets into your blood you'll keep coming back for more. Editing and post was the favorite part for me. Shooting just gives you stuff to edit. The last project I did, a wedding video for my cousin, was a blast - assembling about six hours of footage and another three hours of wild sound down to about 40 minutes running time. The shoot took a couple of days. The post took about a month. One of my old sig lines: quote: "Roll 'em! Speed! Marker! Action! Cut! Print that! Next set up!" Repeat until dead.  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 07-02-2007 06:49 PM                        Wedding videos are my LEAST favorite! I have a hard time not dying from boredom at weddings as it is, but to have to come home and sift though it all again and again... from several different angles... Aaaaahhh!! Granted, the final video is always more entertaining than the actual event, but it's still completely dull. I made a wedding video for one of my friends a few years back, and when I took the discs over to him he popped one in and immediately started to watch it right when I was there. Not again! Nooooo!!!!!  |  IP: Logged Phil Hill I love my cootie bug Posts: 7595 From: Hollywood, CA USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 07-02-2007 07:19 PM                  I agree with the "final say" bit. I certainly have filmed and produced tons of films in the last 30+ years...commercial theatrical, adverts, travelogs, and yes boys and girls, even porno! The MOST fun I've had is when I get to write, produce, direct, film, and edit it. If ya get a good reception, it's great! If ya get poo-poo'd, it's depressing! Either way, it's a speculation of many $$$.  |  IP: Logged Tim Reed Better Projection Pays Posts: 5246 From: Northampton, PA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 07-03-2007 10:14 PM                       Yep, I've done a bunch of trailers, shorts, and promos in 35mm. My favorite part is sitting in the audience and hearing the crowd react properly at the right times. What a payoff! It's an incredible feeling. Strangely, people will sometimes find a meaning in something that you never even comprehended, much less planned for. And the things that are thrown together quickly often turn out to be real audience pleasers, while those shots you worked weeks on get yawns. I also find that you can never really finish a project. If you keep looking, you will always find something you can change or make better. At some point, you just have to declare it finished and move on. One of the greatest moments of my life came at the Digital Cinema demonstration, held for exhibitors in New York last year at the Transit Drive-In. I'd been asked to supply digital content of some of my work, so I took the opportunity to produce a special presentation just for this show. It contained, among other things, a fake "server failure" leading into a blue screen of death. After allowing sufficient screen time for the anti-digital-cinema catcalls and gasps of astonishment, I followed through with an animation revealing that the joke was all on them. The timing was perfect. The crowd roared with laughter and applause, and the show then transitioned into demos of my work. To top everything off, my director's credit received applause at the end. I was on top of the world! So, what show did you do, Dave?  |  IP: Logged Jack Ondracek Film God Posts: 2348 From: Port Orchard, WA, USA Registered: Oct 2002 posted 07-03-2007 10:39 PM                        quote: like how I feel about flying these days - lots of fun when I do it for myself; Agreed... much fun!  |  IP: Logged Joe Redifer You need a beating today Posts: 12859 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: May 99 posted 07-04-2007 05:25 AM                        quote: Timmy If you keep looking, you will always find something you can change or make better. Ah yes, the dreaded George Lucas Syndrome. But it's true. I sometimes do this with REEEAALLLY old stuff I shot over 10 years ago just for fun, but I don't announce it as "new and improved". Basically what I'll do with the old footage is, say, change a poster that is hanging on the wall in a camera pan to something much more current or place a framed picture of an old high school friend above someone's sink to see if anyone notices. I hope to get comments like "Waitaminute... how did an Xbox poster end up on my wall back in 1993?" It's pretty convincing... and fun. I had this old camcorder footage of a videogame store which went out of business over 10 years ago that the manager made which he wanted me to put on DVD for him (we're still good friends) and added current Xbox360 games on the shelves and whatnot. He was confused when he watched it. Fun times. Of course I also included the original version in mono.  |  IP: Logged Tim Reed Better Projection Pays Posts: 5246 From: Northampton, PA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 07-04-2007 02:58 PM                       quote: Joe Redifer the dreaded George Lucas Syndrome ROFL! Actually, I was referring to post-production in general, but I am guilty of revisiting earlier productions, too. The Digital Cinema version of my Showbiz Intermission Clock has changes/improvements, made using newer technology; stuff I didn't have when I did the first version, back in 2001.  |  IP: Logged Phil Hill I love my cootie bug Posts: 7595 From: Hollywood, CA USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 07-04-2007 03:05 PM                  I look back on the films I've done (especially those I did when in my teens and 20s) and thought "What a dumbass! I should have done this or that." Whatever... rather than what I did. It's real hard not to go back and re-cut to "make it better".  |  IP: Logged Joshua Waaland Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 800 From: Cleveland, Ohio Registered: Dec 1999 posted 07-04-2007 05:18 PM                     I did my first editing work last year when I made a video for my wife's 30th birthday. I used Studio 8 and I had a lot of problems with it crashing. Last week my boss took me to help him pick out a new camcorder for us to shoot videos of our equipment at work. We are in Cleveland and our engineers are at the headquarters in Toronto so when we have a problem we have to video document it and send it to them. Not being a real connoisseur of editing software I urged him to buy Studio 11 since I was familiar with it. I figured my old version had problems because of Windows XP and thought version 11 should be better. I spent most of last Friday editing footage and had the same problems with Studio crashing. Eventually I got it fixed and finished the video. Those were my only two experiences but it gave me great appreciation for the people who edit film. What a painstaking process that is! After watching the same footage over and over you grow bored very easily. I definitely like the shooting part better.  |  IP: Logged Jennifer Pan THE JEN! Posts: 1219 From: Denver, Colorado Registered: Nov 2003 posted 07-04-2007 05:20 PM                        Not really movies but they are short silly videos I've made... http://youtube.com/profile?user=fl21girl Through out the years I've used Avid, Pinnacle, Adobe Premiere, Power Director, Video Studio, Final Cut Pro Studio Suite, and Magix Movie Edit just to name a few. I would have to agree that shooting the video is definitely more fun... I'd like to make a full length movie some day soon.  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 07-04-2007 05:49 PM                        I'm working on a short documentary right now. Shot on 16mm, sound recorded on DAT, and edited on a Steenbeck. My member photo is a production still of me standing behind a camera. Release prints will be both 16mm and 35mm. Unfortunately, I've been busy and a half-edited version has been (literally) sitting on the shelf for about a year and a half, but I'm hoping to finish it soon. It is theatre-related and I'm hoping that Brad will post it when it is complete, which I hope will be sometime this fall. Agreed that editing is tedious, but the results can be worth it. Shooting was fun. This is a low-budget doc ("sponsored by Master Card"), so it was just me (director and DP) and a soundman (who was working for free). For this sort of film, there would have been no point to having a full complement of gaffers, gofers, grips, PAs, script-girls, and best boys, anyway, even if funds had permitted it.  |  IP: Logged

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