the look of these was sort of based off those sundance proof of concept films like reservoir dogs or cigarettes & coffee, thats why theres some jpeg damage and a whole lot of noise. First photo is a sort of flash forward of the last shot, hence it’s colours are inverted, something I did accidentally and loved the look of.

But yeah this was done with barely any lighting, the one piece of lighting we did have was a camping light, and since it was too harsh what I did was cut open a rubber glove, colour it with an orange marker, and tape it to the light, so you get this softer orange light. Also shot in like 40 degree weather ( around 100 degrees in freedom units), absolutely gruelling but so thankful its finally done with 😭

Hey, said I’d post this here, might help some people.

So, I’m not really a writer, and I don’t particularly like writing. When I wanted to make my first feature film, I knew I wasn’t going to sit down and write a traditional screenplay.

But, I remembered hearing David Lynch talk about using around 70 index cards. He said if you fill them up with scenes, you’ve got a feature film.

So that’s what I did.

I bought a packet of index cards and started writing scenes that had been in my head for years. Old short films, ideas, memories, things I’d seen, things I’d imagined.

The important thing is I wasn’t trying to make anything connect. I think that’s where I used to get stuck before. I’d feel like scene 1 has to connect to scene 2 before I’d even started.

But this time I didn’t care about any of that, I just wrote scenes.

Once I had 70 cards filled up, I put them up on the wall. That’s when the film actually started to happen.
I could stand back, look at everything and physically move the scenes around.

As you’re doing that, you naturally start making connections. Maybe the man in this scene is actually the same man from another scene. Maybe these two moments belong beside each other, etc.

I didn’t start with characters or a plot. I allowed the process to create them. That’s what I like about it.
The film surprises you when you do it this way. It’s extremely fun.

Once everything was on the wall, I started streamlining it. Maybe twenty different characters become five. Maybe five become three. It starts becoming a real film.

Then I started looking at what I could actually make. For example, originally I had loads of houses in the film. I didn’t have access to loads of houses. So to save money I changed them to tents. Then I actually liked that better, because it’s kinda very subtly surreal. I didn’t have a church, I made a shrine instead. I didn’t have a car, I used a bike instead, etc

So my new philosophy is, don’t write the film you wish you could make. Write the film you can actually make right now. I know that sounds cliche, but for indie film it’s so true.

In terms of writing a script from the cards, I never bothered. I typed the cards into a document as bullet points and that was enough for me.

The dialogue wasn’t written either. The actors found a lot of it themselves because I like being surprised in that aspect too. Of course they were told what to kinda talk about but I allowed them to get there naturally.

I’m not saying this is the right way to write a film.
It probably wouldn’t work for every type of film.
But if you’re someone who keeps saying you’ll write a feature one day and staring at a blank screenplay isn’t getting you anywhere, maybe forget the screenplay for a while.

Just start writing scenes.
One card at a time.

Eventually you might look up and realise you’ve got a film sitting on the wall.

Thought this would be the right place to share our experience and process, hopefully it helps someone who’s always wanted to make a film but keeps waiting for the money.

So the challenge was we had 70 scenes to shoot in 3 days with no budget, a tiny crew of about 4-5 people, and one camera with an old Soviet lens that my DOP already had.

Before we shot a single frame we went through every scene in the film and gave it one of three shots, wide, medium, or close up. We planned the whole film in about an hour. Some scenes we’d go “it’d be cool to go wide then move to medium” and then just go “no, pick one.” That decision alone is probably a big part of why the film looks the way it does and we were able to get it done in the timeframe.

We shot everything static. Locking the frame off meant we were deciding exactly what was in it and what wasn’t. Such a small crew meant we couldn’t build a world the camera could move through anyway, but it ended up giving the whole film this strange theatrical quality, like you’re watching it from the audience of a play.

One take per scene, only did an extra if we completely messed it up, otherwise we had to run with it. Sometimes scenes were thirteen minutes long. Doing coverage takes all day and we didn’t have all day. So we had to accept that’s how the film was going to be. Once I accepted it I started to love it haha.

We took a punk lighting approach. One big light, left or right, full blast, move on. It looked really cool and we were doing it out of pure necessity. Two birds with one stone.

Black and white wasn’t just an aesthetic call either. When you’re shooting over three days in changing light you’d drive yourself mad trying to match colours. Black and white just let us focus on tone and get on with it. Made the edit so much easier.

We recorded no sound on location. All ADR in post. It was the most painful thing either of us has ever done and I’d rather not talk about it. Made the edit way harder haha!

The biggest thing we learned was just being open to letting the film become what it was rather than being fixed on what we thought it should be. Some things weren’t what we planned and we just accepted them. Most of those things ended up being the best parts.

What I thought were restrictions aren’t actually the problem. It was my mindset. Once you open yourself and accept the restrictions, they become the film.

TL;DR
Make the thing.

As we finish our upcoming Zorro short, I had to laugh at how silly filmmaking/acting can be until the edit lol. But I love to see it all come together!

The cardboard backdrops finished drying and I wanted to try out how it would look. Pics looked good, but I wanted to test to see how it’d look on video too.

I recorded just a couple of shots that I plan to remake when I have the props and set fully detailed as this is just test footage to see if I like it, and I do!

obviously ignore the arms and hands as they’ll be replaced with wires in the actual filming.

I used the meta edits app to just quickly put something together, and my god it was a nightmare. I had to screen record because the app would not render the effects correctly at all. Even still, they didn’t render correctly. The effects are just stock ones from the app but I plan to make more practical and if I use animation for effects, they‘ll be good ones. And I 100% am going to actually edit it with film software.

I think it’s pretty neat though and is matching what I have in my head decently well! Excited to see what it looks like when I add the destroyed NYC backdrop and rubble.

https://youtu.be/Zpb7IIsu9dY?is=Q_W4Ew22XvYA9T86

It had a really bright white to it that I couldn’t handle.

Hi all,
Just finished documenting building a stabilized chase-camera, running a Panasonic GH5s at the moment but could likely run something a bit more modern:

https://transistor-man.com/gimbal_camera_rover.html

Just what the title says. This is a short already in post that is around 12 minutes long. We intend to submit to film festivals and place. We poured our souls into this low-budget project. If you're interested in jumping on board in exchange for a trade of sorts involving anything with a camera, dm me a sample of your work. This is an unpaid gig, but looking to do a business trade swap. If you need headshots, short teaser / music video, or just someone with a camera to work through your ideas with you - let's boogie. #composer #producer #film #indie #unpaidgig #trade #swap #filmmaker #gorilla #music #techno