My experiences as a film maker

[jambi]

Hi!

First the plug! The indie film company (UK) I contribute to is:
http://www.ilfproductions.co.uk

Please do check it out, and tell us what you think or give advice on the guest book where you can also share your links there.

OK, I'm new here I just thought I'd inform you fellow film makers about the highs and lows of my experience in film making.

For a start we have NO budget, all equipment is bought and funded by the members of I.L.F and we simply ask for permission to use locations, and ask for actors etc. of coarse for free - you'd be suprised what you can get for nothing, we've found some real dedicated talent!
Of coarse no price, comes at a price. You wouldn't believe the fuss when looking for new actors / actresses. We posted on a forum dedicated to this, and got messed around extreemly.
We'd ask strictly on the forum for 16-18 teenagers living close to us and we get bombarded with emails from 25 yr old adults saying "I can pass as a teenager and I live 10 miles away"!
One person seemed very dedicated until the first day of production when they didn't turn up. Later she said she was sick, another email from her said she wasn't interested any more.

Our early films were so **** ! they were meant to be serious, but now we just look back and laugh.
We'd have so many gaffs. eg. seeing the camera in the reflection of a mirror, actors not knowing lines and keeping the mistakes in the final cuts!
But we see that as the transition that got us to the professional-like status we're at today. We didn't even have scripts back then, we made it up as we went along.

Our latest film is Seeing Is Believing. Still in production. It's a milestone for us because for the first time we're using;
Mini-DV cameras
Steadicam JR equipment
Apple Mac Editing software
Blue Screen Technology
DVD burning.

Without a doubt it will be the best film of ours yet.

Thanks for reading.

[Mods]

Nice website.

We too (Anarchy Pictures) run on a pretty much no-budget strategy, which you're right, can pay of just as well as "low" budget.

What did make me laugh was
"Tom Doyle and Zak Hamza meet at one of the movies stunning locations." - which happens to be a small bridge over a stream [img]tongue.gif[/img]

But still, good stuff - glad to see you've got the motivation etc.

Good luck,
m0ds

[Generic Skinhead]

That's a nice setup ya got there. Like m0ds said your definatly not lacking in ethusiasm, right now. But give it time. [img]wink.gif[/img]

I can't beleive you guys have an FAQ already!

[machead]

That's very impressive. I always like hearing of youngsters blagging.

[emjen]

yay. I want to have my own production studio too. I've got friends and some cameras. What next?

But seriously, how do you 'make' or 'start' your own production company? And how does it work?

[Vlad the Impaler]

which... as u appear to be a 2 dimensional character, might be difficult :|

[Mods]

It's his avatar.

[img]smile.gif[/img]
m0ds

[Mods]

I don't think they're a professional production company, emjen. They look to me like a group of friends who all enjoy making movies together.

So, all you need to do is find a load of friends. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

m0ds

[emjen]

no thats me i really look like that.

Yeah I know they're friends. I've got friends too (yay). But if I want to do it perhaps a bit more proffesional, then how would i do that?

We'd have a writer, two directors, three cameras and about 8 actors.

What if I'd call it Emjen Studios. Some one comes to me with a script or something, then we film it. Hmm. And if we're really good we'll sell it to some huge company and make millions.

[Vlad the Impaler]

u could hire me as a composer mwhaha [img]smile.gif[/img]