quote:

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Originally posted by Mr.John

Hello, my name is John, and I am a, slightly intermediate film maker and writer, and currenty possess a canon GL1.

I have a slight delima though. I am making a war film, well, it is actually about 3 kids caught in the middle of war and forced to defend themselves and survive.

Anyway, I am completely clueless as to how to proceed on shooting the video. First of all, how much space do you think I need for a 15-16 minute video, if I don't want the same space/ scene more than a few times?

Also, I have watched a few short films on war movies. But I want to be able to capture the action, and fear/ anger very well, do you have any ideas for specific shots/ angles to capture any of these moods?

Also, we are having to purchase a lot of these props with a very low budget. Do you have any ideas for raising the money? If your idea is a fund raiser please be more specific!

Thanks.

-John

Hah, I'm too cool for a signature.

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Hi, John.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "space" so I'll assume you're wondering about various "sets" you should have your characters in.

The simple answer is "as many sets as your story requires." Nobody can determine that but you, the Screenwriter. Some scripts are written to take place in a single room while others have the characters traipsing across the globe. What your characters DO and where they GO (if anywhere) is determined by what your story is ABOUT and what you choose to focus on.

If this is a "personal drama," you could easily have the characters hunkered down inside a bombed out chalet for the duration of the movie and the audience would be captivated by their interpersonal relationships as they contend with the impending dangers threatening from outside the walls they are within.

Or, you go all out for an action movie and show the characters engaged in everything from hand-to-hand combat to chase sequences. Such a story would likely take place in numerous exterior locations as well as some interiors along the way.

But it isn't for anyone else to tell you how many locations you need or "should" have. It's up to you to conceive and write a compelling story first...and then find a way to effectively shoot that story within the parameters of budget and resources that are available to you.

Welcome to filmmaking! 🙂

If you haven't seen them already, I recommend the following EXCELLENT resources to help you along the way:

http://www.wordplayer.com

http://www.amazon.com/Film-Scriptwriting-Practical-Manual-Second/dp/0240511905/ref=cm_srch_res_rpsy_1

and many more here: http://realfilmcareer.com/forum/index.php?topic=12.0

and here: http://realfilmcareer.com/forum/index.php?topic=9.0

and here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/community-content-search/results/ref=cm_srch_q_rpsy?ie=UTF8&search-alias=rp-sylt&idx.cid=A1JYLF7ABULKH&query=real%20career%20in%20hollywood&fo=c

Brian Dzyak
Cameraman/Author
IATSE Local 600, SOC
http://www.whatireallywanttodo.com
http://www.realfilmcareer.com

Yeah, the only good thing is I am not a complete novice to Film-making.

You can see some of my stuff here if you don't believe me.

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheHighSchoolProject

But anyway, thanks for the tips! Any ideas for a fundraiser? Quick Money?

-John

Hah, I'm too cool for a signature.

quote:

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Originally posted by Mr.John

Yeah, the only good thing is I am not a complete novice to Film-making.

You can see some of my stuff here if you don't believe me.

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheHighSchoolProject

But anyway, thanks for the tips! Any ideas for a fundraiser? Quick Money?

-John

Hah, I'm too cool for a signature.

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Whenever asking for money from others to fund a project of any kind, it's helpful if the donor has a very good idea what his/her money is going toward. Just saying that you're making a "war movie" could conjure up all sorts of questions from scale to the "message" your movie will impart. It's entirely within reason that, say, if your movie has a pro or con message of some kind, some potential donors will shy away from YOUR intent as they may not agree.

And, if your story requires a very large amount of money, potential donors may not feel that their small donations are worth the trouble as what you "promise" won't come to fruition.

So, again, it comes back to the script and story. You need to lock that down FIRST and then work on your script breakdown to determine a realistic schedule and budget. Once you have those things in place, THEN you can confidently approach potential financiers to "sell them" on why they should SPEND their money on you. Keep in mind, this is NOT an investment for them because it is nearly impossible to sell a short film. So, you need to come up with a compelling reason why someone with money should feel the desire/need to give some of it to you for your "hobby."

As mentioned, the first thing to do is to have a budget/plan in place so that you can confidently answer any and all questions potential donors will throw at you. If you ever have to answer, "I don't know" to anything, you'll likely lose their support. You're marketing the movie itself AND in a way, YOURSELF as a filmmaker worth spending money on.

You could have a carwash or a bake sale, but it's not exactly a charity or cause, so convincing people to volunteer their time and money to you may earn a few bucks, but not likely enough to truly fund your epic movie.

Brian Dzyak
Cameraman/Author
IATSE Local 600, SOC
http://www.whatireallywanttodo.com
http://www.realfilmcareer.com

If you want to make a war film, you should study war films--and not just shorts--get feature length films too. You want to study the cream of the crop. Go to you video store and rent as many as possible. Take note of camera angles, locations, pace. You don't want to copy them shot for shot, but you want to get great ideas.

I definitely agree with Brian. Lock down the script before shooting. You will save time and money, and if you're asking other people to invest, you need to be able to tell them exactly what your doing and how their money will be used.

Much Success.

Force Yourself

Regarding locations, find a decent location first, make sure you can use it. Then write the screenplay around that location. If you can do that you can avoid a lot of hassle trying to adapt and adjust things as you go when the location you eventually get doesn't match what you were expecting.

You might also contact a reenacting group and see if they'll let you film them for a day or so. You might be able to make things look "bigger" that way. Some groups, at least in the states, may even have a tank or two.

RJSchwarz

Hi john,
I have read your post. If you want to make a war film so I think you need to study about war films or you can get some guidance from any screenwriting consultant. They can help you to find right location for war film.

Brendon,

Would a screenplay consultant really be the right person to
find locations for a movie? I wonder if a location manager
would be the better person for locations.

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The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress.
Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)

Honestly one of the best ways to find locations is just asking around. Determine some broad features that your setting should have, and see if anyone has any ideas. That simple. A war film could take place virtually anywhere, narrow it down. Then just ask. "Hey friend, do you know anywhere nearby with a cliff next to a beach? Oh, oh what about a secluded forest?"

More often than not, you'll find what you're looking for. Or at the very least, help determine what you SHOULD be looking for (ie. looking for a "war torn battlefield" isn't working out, so that gets refined by someone's thoughts to you looking for "an abondoned construction site," etc).

My last personally big film I did was set in a server room. One like that I've never seen before in real life. We scrounged everywhere, asked lots of people (and full producers, actually), but found nothing accessible even close to what we were looking for. But then this other opportunity cropped up, and we realized what we should have done all along.

So we built the entire set in our school theatre.

Some of that set was worse than I had imagined, some of it completely enhanced the movie. But in any case, you do what you have to do. 🙂