I think one of the single biggest things holding back many independent filmmakers is “big fish in a little pond” syndrome.

This is particularly common in areas far removed from the major centres of commercial film production. Its symptoms are easy to recognise: enormous amounts of emotional energy wasted on provincial cliques, local Facebook groups, tribal politics, petty hierarchies and endless arguments about who is morally permitted to do what.

It is provincial puritanism at its worst.

Anyone who thinks internationally, reaches beyond the local scene or refuses to submit to its unwritten rules is often treated as disruptive. Not because they are doing anything wrong, but because ambition threatens the comfortable hierarchy these essentially hobbyist groupings are trying to preserve.

You must never allow yourself to be constrained, either operationally or spiritually, by people whose ambitions end at the borders of their own social circle.

Look beyond your town. Look beyond your county. Look beyond your country.

The people who build sustainable careers in film, who run businesses and work professionally every day, do not succeed by prioritising the favour they can curry in a local Facebook group.

They succeed by making work, finding audiences, building international relationships and refusing to confuse local approval with professional progress.

Are there any subs anyone is aware of I could post a script and concept and go "hey, anyone wanna help fund this and get some EP credits?" Have a film I really want to make in the next month or so, script ready to go, but no idea how to get the rest of the funds ill need to make it work.

We're currently in post-production on our crime drama demo film. What are the next steps to pitch the film to producers, release it digitally, and submit it to film festivals?

I’m making a short film. for sound, I have a Roland R05 field recorder on loan. A friend recommended I get a DJI mic 2 kit to mic up my actors.

my question is: can I use the Roland R05 and the DJI mic 2 kit in tandem to get better sound? could the Roland function as our boom mic?

and: if I do use both, would I just sync up the audio captured by the Roland and the audio captured by the DJI kit in post? or can I get them all to record together?

thanks. this is my first time doing sound.

I’ve been facing this ever since I started writing and filmmaking. My process is to let a scene evolve in my head, and then one day I write it down. After a few days, when I read it again, I almost always come up with a more logical or simply better version of the same scene.

The problem is that I can never decide what to keep, how much to change, or when to stop revising. I know that better ideas are a good thing, but if I keep updating the script every time I think of something new, I’ll never be able to finalize it and start shooting.

What would you do in this situation?

Hi! I am a writer/ director. I would love some advice from professional filmmakers.

My goals per month during the writing phase are-

1. Writing 65 hours a month (average of 2 hours per day)
2. Watching 15 movies per month.
3. Reading one novel + 2 scripts per month.
4. Exercising 20 times a month
5. Remaining time for freelance work to earn money.

Do you think this is a good enough routine for me to really reach my goals of making a feature film in 2 years from now?

So in my short found footage film, the protagonist starts to suffer from severe hallucinations after inhaling toxic spores. The problem is that the viewer follows the story through the camera's perspective, not the character's, so he can't really witness his hallucinations. How to translate this situation to the viewer if he's looking at a recording ?

The story is heavily focused on the character having a huge hallucination.

Any idea on how to make this work in a found footage format ? If you have any found footage films that contains hallucinations scenes I would be happy to watch them to have an idea on how approaching this situation.

Thank you!

I recently watched the movie: Sleeping Beauty.

The camera work is almost deadpan

Many of the shots were like if someone just set a camera on a cabinet somewhere in the room.
And let the shot be still.
There’s very little panning in this movie as well.
But, theres some zooming and movement.

But, for the most part, consecutively, every shot is like this, it’s unrelenting.

Almost like it’s saying this is happening. This happens.

I was wondering if there’s any anything else that does this type of camera work or similar to it?

I have a feeling that it’s not the only one, but it’s the first one that I’ve seen.

It’s funny, I was actually trying to watch sleeping beauty the fantasy film. But the website I was watching it on uploaded this sleeping beauty under the other title and year of the fantasy movie.

And I was just watching fantasy movies like The Hobbit and the Narnia movies. Which has such different camera work. The camera is constantly following the characters and doing crazy sweeping pans and following the character’s gaze.
So the contrast was sort of shocking.

The opening scene is just a still shot in a medical testing laboratory.

And all of the acting and everything that happens, all happens in that one shot in the scene.
Then every scene is like a new set up still shot.

It’s almost like it’s saying this is ordinary mundane reality.

And I thought they were going for a:

OK this is ordinary reality but at some point the Netherland is going to pop up, but it never did. And I was more than halfway through the movie and I was like this has to be a different movie. Lol

But I just couldn’t look away. It was captivating. It was almost like a test to my endurance too. Like how much of this can I take and how much can I grow and expand my empathy.

Anyway, I won’t get into all of the specifics and ramblings on the film itself, but maybe everything after this point will be more specific. I’m just wondering if there’s any other films directors other mediums that do a similar thing. Maybe even some opposites or antithesis of this.

The rest I’ll put in the comments.

I'm Archilicious btw

Or do you do a film festival run before you upload it for the public to see? I’m curious! What do others do?

I want my short film public, and I want to submit to film festivals that don’t mind that the short film is online for the public. I want to get as many eyes on it as possible because you never know who will see it.

I don’t see it getting it Sundance and Tribeca and film festivals like that. I just want to submit to festivals to travel and network.

What do you do as a filmmaker?

I'm making a low budget independent film and it's set in the countryside, but I live in the city.

I've put forward a number of locations that are a short distance away from each other which should be easy enough to film, but l need to tell actors in advance, and on an email, it looks like too many locations.

I've put a series of dates and I need to respond promptly because the main actor wants to book a holiday, but I'm concerned that it looks too long because I wanted to allow for leeway for different takes and for younger performers who can't spend so much time on set, and a lot of them are pulled out of thin air because they can theoretically be accessed at any point but in reality require actors and crew whose schedules won't be revealed in time for me to get back to the main star.

On top of that, I have a number of "nice to have" locations which will take ages to arrange and probably won't happen due to cost and logistics, but I'm reluctant to leave them off the list in case we're about to go to them and the actors suddenly bail because they didn't see them on the list, and also because getting them might remove the necessity of visiting so many different places.

My main lead lives in the countryside, but myself and my crew don't, and my cast are spread around the nearby parts of the country and not nearby everyone.

I've considered filming near where they live to make is less complicated for myself and easier for my lead, but I don't know the area at all or how to ask to film near their own home without coming across as creepy.

Any advice?

Hi I am in high school and thinking about doing a career in film. I have been on set of 2 short films, done a week long camp where we made a short film, and I’m about to be in a commercial as an extra. I haven’t made a short film myself yet but I want to. I have other interest like how I have done Theater since I was 7 and I have been in FIRST robotics. I really like film I don’t know if it is my total passion but I still really enjoy it. I was wondering if I should go to a film school or if I should go to a normal college and also get a backup degree. I live in Michigan if that changes things.

So, I have a very short script that I plan on trying to film, that takes place in the woods, and in an abandoned factory/steel yard type setting. I have a local place in mind if the property owners say yes, but its a company and not privately owned. Since I'd be using all non firing props, and no pyrotechnics, there would be minimal possibility of damage to the property. Being a respectful person, I would absolutely ensure and make sure that nothing was disturbed too much, left behind ect. How would a location scout go about getting the yay or nay? Just ask? Offer money if we have any for a day or three of shooting?

My question also relates to how to find people for my short. It would have to be a grassroots project, cause I'm broke but I want to make this. I have props, weapons, and I figure if I lay out exactly what types of outfits I'd want and need, for the characters the actors may have them on hand. Would I just go on local FB groups for filmmakers and see who's willing to help out? Go to local colleges and talk to theater people?

I have some ideas on how to do this, but I wanted to reach out and ask others for advice for a very green but has ideas film maker.

In three days time I will be having a spur of the moment sit down with my grandparents to interview them about their lives.

The goal is to create something for my family that is little video time capsule that captures some of their stories.

What I’m concerned most about is that, “Tell me the story of your life,” isn’t narrow enough focus, and that, for the sake of time, etc., we’d only ever skim the surface, or it would be difficult to really lead them through it.

I’ll have a good long sit down with them, and maybe the right thing to do is to just follow the moment with them.

But I’d like to have a bit more planned questions.

I’ve reached out to family members, specifically my parents and aunt’s and uncles for any specific things they’d love to know about.

Any thoughts or recommendations on this would be greatly appreciated!

I’m starting college soon and I will get access to materials I need for film making, I still want to invest in my own materials, but I’m not a pro at cameras yet and I don’t know what to buy (+ I don’t want to spend 7k on a camera I don’t know how to use) can someone please give me recommendations for beginner cameras and other beginner materials I should invest in if I want to start building my film portfolio?

Please tell me how aswell.

Let's talk about why you don't like AI Filmmaking. What if the filmmaker made 85 to 90 percent of the artistic choices ..what if they wrote the script , what if they picked out the best acting performances , what if they designed the sets , picked out the costumes , picked the music , edited the footage ..would you still think it's slop then ? What if they designed pacing , tone atmosphere

Have you ever asked yourself why your okay with things like Kane Parsons using blender a computer program to make his YT backrooms short films, the now accepted use of green screen. The 3d virtual sets that were used by John Farveu on The Mandolorian seasons, the use of cgi to create countless VFX shots in thousands of movies you love and enjoy ..you do realize without a computer that none of these new innovations would be possible.

Now I know that there are those in the industry who will take the laziest route possible when it comes to AI filmmaking , have even heard some YT talking about hey won't be great when the next version of seedance you can give it a page long prompt and have an entire feature made. But I am too agaisnt the very idea of that , when I hear a so called fimmaker had the AI write the script for him I too stop considering that person a filmmaker. But just crypto should you blame the technology or should blame the bad actors that come with all new feature innovations and will try their damn'est to take advantage of it for the sin of pure greed?

I will leave you with the words of a man who has I am sure brought countless joy to all of our lives giving us some of the greatest and most entertianing films ever made.

"Artificial intelligence means it's much easier for us to make movies," Lucas said. "It's very much like sitting here saying, ‘Well, I believe the horse and the buggy is really where it's at. These cars, they break down, they need gas, there's all kinds of problems with them and pretty soon they'll be making them into tanks, and then they'll be killing people. It's terrible.' There's nothing you can do about it. That's progress, it's the future." ....

George Lucas

As an indie filmmaker, have you ever received negative feedback or had someone criticize your work? If so, what was (or were) the feedback, and how did you handle it? How did you react to it, and did it affect you at the time?

I'm looking for some perspective from people who work in production.

A few weeks ago I emailed a production manager asking about work. She replied saying they were filling their full-time positions first and that she'd get back to me.

Not knowing they were working on the same production, I also emailed the production supervisor. The supervisor organized an interview with the same production manager, but it was cancelled and rescheduled for the following week.

When that week came around, I followed up by email. The production manager apologized, thanked me for my patience, and said she'd reach out to me in another week.

It's now been another week and I haven't heard anything.

My question is: would it be considered bad form to follow up again, or would that be seen as annoying?

I don't want to come across as pushy, but at the same time I don't want to miss out if they're just flat out busy. For those of you who hire crew or have been in similar situations, what would you do? Would you send one more short follow-up, or leave the ball in their court?

I’m a highly specialized screenwriter, I’ve only ever really done fast paced thrillers (heist, crime, murder mystery, in feature screenplays I have some shorts in this area though.)
before. But, I’m writing a more emotional, dialogue lead drama film. (Logline: a man finds a mysterious key on the ground, and he’s a bit bored in life so he decides to see where it leads him. It has, “the Blackwood estate, 1861” on it) I’m really just struggling trying to incorporate action lines alongside the dialogue and my pacing just seems a bit off in general. If you’re a screenwriter in this particular genre bubble, please comment. Thanks!

I have about 2 hours of footage and 4 hours of audio that I recorded using two dji wireless lavs internally and straight into camera (as stereo) at the same time. Now im trying to sync the footage and the lavs to make sure I have the audio for the times that the LAVs were out of range to record audio cleanly into camera. Even though both audio sources were recorded using literally the same microphones both davinci resolve and premiere pro seem to refuse to auto sync them in batches. First I added all of one of the LAVs audio to one sequence and tried to sync the individual video clips to the sequence clip, then I tried auto syncing all of the clips in Davinci resolve media pool, and I even tried using the "Cut" page in davinci resolve, which seemed to sync everything, but when I imported it into a timeline it created 100 tracks for each clip. However, when I went clip by clip, syncing the first audio file with the first clip that seemed to work, before I go through the tedious process of doing this with every single clip, I'd love to know if there's a more efficient way to match sync audio and video.

Thank you in advance, this has been like 4 hours of headache.

I'm coming up on my last semester of film school, so I'm redoing my reel for my internship/post-grad work search, but I have a question on what my reel should look like - the one I show on the front page of my website and when someone asks if I have a reel. I have a lot of portfolio work as a narrative/doc director, which is what I plan on pursuing, but most of my best looking/most recent work comes from narrative shorts I've DP'd. There's also a lot of projects that I both directed and DP'd.

Long story short, I want to combine my work from both roles into a combined director/DP reel so that I'm making the best possible reel - but I know that standard practice would be to divide these into two separate reels. I understand that anyone considering me for work won't be looking at my reel for long, so combining my work would give me the best first impression - but I also don't want to not be taken seriously because I'm combining work from two different roles. I'm just looking to get my foot in the door for local production company internships and for local PA/grips gigs - I'm not actually seeking director or DP work - so does this separation matter? Can anyone offer any guidance into combining vs. separating reels for entry-level work/when networking?

Hello everyone,

With the sky rocketing cost of digital storage I've been looking for more ways to save on storage. After my last shoot the idea occurred to me that I could save on storage if I edited out all of the parts of my footage/audio that I know I won't use and replace my original media with high quality leaner versions.

Has anyone tried something like this or have any other advice to save storage?

I know the best method is to just be more selective/decisive when filming, but sometimes you gotta over compensate a little to catch a moment (I mostly film doc-type stuff).

Any advice or insight would be greatly appreciated!

I am a firm believer that generative AI is bad for filmmaking and there is no place for it. I feel like I can regularly identify slop and dislike it. But recently I have been trying to improve my VFX ability and have come across a lot of well liked people and channels using it in their VFX pipeline. And the results usually end up great. Because they aren't just relying on AI to generate the whole thing, but rather using it as a tool in the rest of their pipeline to make things more accurate.

I am making a fan film and have been trying to stay away from using generative AI, but I would be lying if I said it wouldn't help my budget and the film's realism tremendously. I'm feeling conflicted. On one hand I see creators I feel like we all love using it as a tool, but I also see it getting shit on, and rightfully so.

So my question is, should I be open to using some generational AI in my VFX pipeline? I still plan on using regular softwares like Resolve, Blender, After Effects, etc. But what is the ethical thing to do?

Just for some extra reference, here are some of the well known creators who I have been noticing using AI techniques. To good result I might add; MeatCanyon / Papa Meat, Jalex Rosa, Corridor Crew, etc.

I have a zoomH6. I want to put wireless lavelier mics on 3 of my actors and then connect the receivers to the H6. I’m feeling lost looking through the options. A lot of wired lavs with XLR but few wireless.
Should I go with this one? https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1821733-REG/behringer_ulm300lav_2_4ghz_digital_wireless_system.html/overview

Any advice is appreciated!