New Film Maker

[rodwack]

Hello everyone,

After many years of being on the fringes I've finally bought myself a camcorder and tripod to begin making short films. I'm at the very beginning so haven't gone silly on equipment - in fact I've bought an Argos special: A Panasonic (supposed) HD thing with a third off.

I'm going to use the simple Windows Movie Maker for now (bought Adobe Premiere and it's mammoth guide book years ago but that all faded away) and really just start experimenting and see what comes out. Obviously if things go well I will be wanting to upgrade to a better camera and editing software.

Just a quick post to ask for any advice in general. More specifically, I remember reading somewhere 'Shanes World' guide to film making is on the extras of one of the DVDs. Does anyone know?

Hope to hear any advice or tips or anything in general.

Thanks very much,

Rodwack

[Dave]

Do you have any plans for your first film-making adventures?

Main thing I would say, is don't worry about making something that ends up being crap. You will learn loads if an idea you have doesn't turn out like you hoped.
I'm not saying that whatever you make will inevitably be crap... haha, I just mean, if when you finish something, you stand back and look at it and it's really not as good as you were aiming for, don't see it as a failure, see it as learning opportunity!
I think the fear of being rubbish prevents a lot of people from trying.

Shane's World is on the two disc edition of Once Upon a TIme in the Midlands which I don't think is actually made any more... but there are usually plenty to buy second hand on Amazon or eBay.. just double-check with the seller that it is the two disc edition before buying.... some people seem to list things wrongly on such sites!

[rodwack]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for replying. Yes I think that's great advice about not worrying if the projects come out crap. As you say, I will be able to learn from it, and quickly I imagine.

Yes I have a few plans. Keep them short! That's a priority, but specifically I'm going to make spoof adverts along the lines of the Aldi ones where an interesting person compares two similar products.

Then I'm going to make a little bicycle film - I'm into biking and one of the best things about this is finding amazing scenery. So I can use the locations and have a focus i.e. following the ventures of a cyclist - sounds boring but I'll do it without dialogue and just add music, i.e. not worrying about sound continuity as I imagine this could be tricky to get right.

After that and any other ideas or just messing about with whatever footage I have, I'll be concentrating on making comedies, maybe along the lines of a mini 'Fast Show' with various sketches but I can't guarantee the humour!

I'll really just experiment initially, see how I get on and if I gravitate to anything specific.

Brilliant for info. on the DVD! I'll have a look. Just last Saturday my girlfriend had - without asking me - thrown out our old FreeView box as it 'had stopped working'. I was away with work and she had bought a new one. I was like: "WTF? Where's the box?"
"O, it's gone," real casual like as she applied mascara.

It only had a recording of Shanes World that I'd recorded off TV ages ago! FFS

Thanks again Dave

[Gareth]

I think the thing most filmmakers starting out forget is that these things we're making are supposed to be in some way entertaining to an audience, the more you bare that in mind the better, doesn't matter if everything's technically crap if there's something of genuine interest going on. Just aim from the beginning to make something that's actually going to be worth the viewers time.

[rodwack]

Dave,

Was about to buy Once Upon A Time... on Amazon for £14. Then noticed there was a second hand copy available for... £1.40, delivered! Got here today!

[Dave]

Well you can't say fairer than that! 2 discs all intact I hope!

That has the fun trip around Britain promotional tour with Shane and Rhys Ifans too. Top fun!

[rodwack]

Yep both discs fine! O nice one will look out for that part.

Dave, I need your help!!!

I've recently bought a very good spec laptop. I bought the camcorder (as you know) and put the raw footage on, put it into Windows Movie Maker and made a tiny little project. It was (working)fine.

I then upgraded to Windows 8. Now the videos take AGES to load up, and that includes just watching them on Media Player! It's infuriating. I'm not actually sure if Windows 8 has anything to do with it - i.e. it may have been very slow before.

I also changed the quality of the recording level on the camcorder.

Do you know if Movie Maker just candle handle much video?

Hope you can help mate. I'm gonna stab someone.