Making Low-Budget Movies? 55
strider3700 asks: "One of my favorite shows was cancelled today and it's left me feeling rather bitter towards the mainstream. I tend to like shows more intelligent then 'Survivor' but I'm in the minority so shows won't be made to pick up that small percentage. However now and again I find great video clips on the net. They appear to be homemade and are in some cases very well done. Is it possible to do something like this for a continuing series and place it on the net to share? how would someone go about doing something like this? And I know not to quit my day job."
I sympathize (Score:1, Funny)
Re:I sympathize (Score:1)
copyright? (Score:1)
Re:copyright? (Score:2)
That is true, but where did it say he was going to "continue" that show? It sounded more like he wanted to make his own original short movie(s).
Always consult Google first (Score:2)
Duality (Score:3, Informative)
If you visit the site you will find out what they did, what software to use, and general tips to make a movie.
Anyway, the important thing is not the technology, but the history you are trying to tell.
(I'm glad you didn't ask how to get profit, though)
Re:low budget (Score:2, Informative)
The Last Broadcast cost less than that, I think like $1000 and it looks pretty decent. It looks like video, but if you are showing it on Atomfilms or something, that's fine.
Re:low budget (Score:2, Informative)
ISBN: 0452271878
He spent a month having medical research done on him while he wrote his script to raise money for the movie. It was beyond no frills but he made a good film.
Public TV (Score:3, Interesting)
A few suggestions: buy a nice video camera if you plan to produce a show outside their studio. If you want something with your own homebrew FX, buy a nice video card with TV-in/out functions.
Re:Public TV (Score:2)
Re:Public TV (Score:1)
Re:Public TV (Score:2)
Re:Public TV (Score:1)
1% doesn't sound like too big a cost to me.
Re:Public TV (Score:3, Informative)
Public television gives us things like Sesame Street. Public access television gives us shows that some kid created with his two friends and a sock puppet.
It is true that public access stations will usually let you use their studio and equipment for free or little charge. I doubt the same can be said for public television stations.
don't leave me hanging (Score:1)
Which was...? Hell, I don't even know what day you refer to by "today".
Why Not? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Why Not? (Score:2)
Hmmm... (Score:1, Funny)
Are you sure? --AC
Remember that MIT thing? (Score:1)
What the hell is your question? (Score:3, Insightful)
I really couldn't understand what you are asking. We understand your motivation but little else. Are you asking how to distribute large video files on the internet? Are you asking about how to deal with the legal issues of using copyrighted characters? Are you asking for advice on video equipment? Are you asking how to make a movie?
I'm not sure any of us are going to be able to help you since it's not clear what skills you have, how much money you're willing to spend and what, specifically, you are having a problem with. And it's not at all clear to me what that sentence about Survivor has to do with anything. Why did you throw that in?
Editors: why are you accepting submissions like this? This Ask Slashdot question isn't even well posed!
GMD
Re:What the hell is your question? (Score:4, Informative)
I thought the intent of his question was pretty obvious. He's noticed that readily-available media offerings aren't generally high-quality, but that there is a fair amount of good stuff floating around that's relatively freely available, and though he isn't sure what's involved yet, he'd like to put his metaphorical money where his proverbial mouth is and try to contribute to this pool of good watchable material.
In other words, "While there seem to be fewer and fewer worthwhile shows in the mainstream media (such as the unnamed show that has been canceled, and I think most slashdotters can guess what the likely quality of its replacement show will be) there seems to be a growing pool of good free material online, and I'd like to contribute. Has anyone here been involved in this? What do I need to know to participate?"
Yes, it IS a very general question, which contains a lot of smaller questions within it, but this is Slashdot, not rec.arts.video.online.bandwidth-questions or some similarly specific tech support forum. I think what the poster was hoping for is some discussion of all of the aspects so that he'll be able to formulate more specific questions and take them to more focussed forums. Besides - general or not, someone interested in improving the quality of available entertainment ought to be encouraged regardless of how much they already know about the subject, not told to go away until they already know most of what they need to do...
(I didn't at all get any sense that he wanted to continue the cancelled show, just that the cancelling of what he considered to be a good show was an indicator of the decline of "mainstream media" quality, which I think most of us can sympathise with.)
So, yes, all of the above, and more. Seems a perfectly valid and potentially informative topic for discussion here. A few of us occasionally read the more general "ask slashdot" discussions for general education ourselves...
So...to contribute what little I can:
Firstly, decent writing and acting (even for animation - hey, somebody has to do the voices) is the key to watchable material. This is probably already obvious to the person asking the question (as well as everyone else here) but it should be said.
As to the "internet distribution" portion of the question, one might contact the The Internet Archive [archive.org] and the folks at Creative Commons [creativecommons.org] about hosting and licensing, if one's willing to release the material freely.
At this point I'll also throw in a nod to one of my "pet causes" - Ogg Theora [theora.org] which, if they get a bit more visible on the development of it (likely to happen in March, when the format freeze is supposedly scheduled, though the second Alpha release is due Real Soon Now. At the moment, though, development appears to be a "Monty Only" project that shows up as infrequent "chunks" of updates in CVS when official releases come out. At least news is starting to show up on the mailing list...) will supply a very nice no-license-hassle format for distribution.
Transforming the recordings to a wide variety of internet-ready formats can be done with MPlayer/MEncoder [mplayerhq.hu] in combination with a few other tools (ffmpeg, mjpegtools, the aforementioned Ogg Theora), not to mention using mjpegtools' encoders to convert video dumped from MPlayer to VCD or SVCD format for viewing on standalone players.
Someone else will have to comment on technical issues of camera and recording media types most suitable for generating internet-ready material. In MY opinion, if one handles the rest of the matter well, it's probably possible to produce perfectly adequate "good amateur quality" internet videos with ordinary off-the-shelf video cameras and a halfway-decent digitizing card. Last time I attempted video capture it was from a VHS tape, with a BT878-based card and "streamer" from Xawtv [bytesex.org] to store as a relatively high quality mjpeg/pcm quicktime file [to allow > 2GB files] then dumped to mjpegtools to generate SVCDs.
Any other topics in this broad discussion I've missed?...
Undergrads (Score:2)
Then you get crap like Bachelor which will be going into its third season.
Enlist talent from community theatre (Score:2)
However, it occurs to me that you need people to put in front of the camera and stories for them to tell. Check out your city's local theatre community and you'll probably find people to collaborate with.
Making Low Budget "Programs" ? (Score:3, Informative)
I tend to like programs that run from the command line but I'm in the minority so programs won't be made to pick up that small percentage. However now and again I find great programs on the net. They appear to be homemade and are in some cases very well done. Is it possible to do something like this for several version releases and place it on the net to share? how would someone go about doing something like this? And I know not to quit my day job."
I hope my point has been made. You have a lot of research ahead of you. 20 years ago you would be making S-8 films and be limited to 1950's special effects technology. Fortunatly, today with DV cams and computer editing and efx, the tech end of it isn't the main problem. Now, your main problem in creating a show is dealing with people, unless you're making a silent puppet show. Basically, don't be and don't work with assholes, and supply good food during a shoot.
As for distribution, you'll need to hook up with companies who can afford the bandwith if your show catches on. Which can happen in just a few days. You wouldn't want to be the next Mahir or 401The Movie just to have new viewers get a "bandwith limit exceeded" message when they try to view it..
Of course the next step is ????? then Profit!
401 The Movie (Score:2)
Just be careful where you host your movie, or it will become 404 - The Movie.
So you wanna make a low-budget movie? (Score:4, Informative)
Check out So you wanna make a low-budget movie [soyouwanna.com] on SoYouWanna.com.
This is probably a good starting point. You should be able to find some good tips and some additonal references to check out.
Paraphrased (Score:2)
"I want to reenact "Wayne's World", a al geek style. How do I do it? What programming should I have? Will you guys watch my show?
Well, will ya?
Cheap, even really cheap can be ok (Score:2, Informative)
Having been to quite a number of amateur film making festivals at sf cons, I can tell you it doesn't necessarily take money to make an enjoyable movie, but it does take time, patience, and some talent. With nearly identical budgets the films vary substantially. About 33% are unwatchable due to technical issues (sound, lighting, editing), 33% are unwatchable due to artistic issues (acting, story, pacing), and 33% are better than any SCI-FI Channel Original production ever aired. (Don't ask about the final 1%, really!)
A friend of mine did this (in the UK) (Score:1)
The main ingredients are ingenuity, time and dedication. Oh, and you have to find actors who'll work for nothing. Naturally, under these circumstances acting quality can vary. Nevertheless, the film turned out OK.
One big problem he stumbled across was the cost of getting your film rated. Here (UK), you have to submit it to the British Board of Film Censors (oops, "Classification" :) who then watch it and decide on its rating. They charge about 100 UKP a minute for this "service" :)
note: Mainly posting to undo a bad moderation, but I thought I ought to contribute something relevant.
Rebel without a crew (Score:1)
Free tools (Score:1)
Recipe for low budget: (Score:1)
Motel room $50
Cheap hooker $100
Enough beer to overlook the ugly (her's or yours) $50
Bail money $500
For everything else, there's Mastercard(tm)
Thoguht about this a lot (Score:1)
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/12/18/189
What a day.
Video equipment (Score:2, Informative)
MiniDV is a great format if you can't afford anything better.
Adobe Premiere, combined with The Gimp or Film Gimp, and POV-Ray can handle most of your editing and special FX needs.
Use 1394(Firewire) to transfer video! No Analog/Digital/Analog conversion crap allowed!
Expect to spend at least $800 on your camera for a barely-good-enough-for-basic-film-making model.
Make sure your camera has a progressive scan mode; it brings the feel of the video slightly closer to film, and improves computer display quality.
If you can afford it, buy a 3-CCD camera. If you've the money, a 3-CCD camera is a must-have.
Ideally, for amateur no-budget films, you'll want to spend around $3000 on your equipment and software, but that stuff should last you a long time and serve you faithfully.
Oh, don't forget a good boom mic and tripod! Way back in high school (3 years ago
Folding up the tripod and using it to carry your camera around during moving camera scenes can go a long way to making the image a lot more stable, especially if you have jittery hands from drinking too much Mt. Dew.
Thus ends this disjointed rambling.
Adobe filmstrip reader (Score:1)
Well, here goes nothing... (Score:1)
That said, here's the equipment that we use to make it happen:
- 1 Canon GL2 [canondv.com] MiniDV camera
- a bunch of Sony digital video cameras [sonystyle.com] (that's not the exact model, but close to it)
- a boom mic (I have no idea what model, but it cost around $300, I think)
- a wireless clip-on mic (again, no idea what model, but it works well)
- a bunch of G4 Tower workstations with Final Cut Pro 3 (though this is mostly because we have a ton of people doing different things all at once, you don't really need more than 1)
- a dual 1Ghz G4 Tower with 1.5GB RAM on which we (I) assemble everyone's edited footage and export to video.
The Canon camera is our high-quality camera - we use it whenever possible, as the footage quality is much better than the Sonys. Also, what is probably its greatest advantage is the additional adapter module that attaches to the bottom of it and allows mic input from the boom mic and wireless mic (which have 3-pronged plugs instead of what most of us have on our computers). It comes with dials to adjust the mic input levels and such. This allows for an exponential leap in sound quality, as good mics cut out annoying background noise like humming, hissing and other general environmental noise. Don't use the cameras' built-in mics if at all possible, as these just can't get close enough to the speaker to cut out other noise and usually aren't very high-quality anyway.We use Final Cut Pro mostly because we have the luxury of a lab full of mid- to high-end Macs, but also because it is an extremely powerful software package for what you pay for it. The only thing that really compares in that price range is Avid XpressDV [avid.com], which is slightly more expensive, runs on Windows and has its own unique advantages. Some people will try to tell you to use Adobe Premiere to edit your footage, as it is less expensive than either of the two suites that I just mentioned, but I wouldn't recommend it. While I have not worked with it personally, my filmmaking/broadcasting teacher worked with it at the last school he taught at, and it gave him nothing but trouble.
Any serious video editing will require some serious hardware to handle everything smoothly. Tons of RAM (on the order of 768MB or more) is a must, and it is also desireable to get a dual processor machine (dual Athlon systems are fairly inexpensive if you're working on a tight budget and choose to go with a Windows solution). Also, make sure your machine supports FireWire. On any fairly new Mac, this is a given, and support for it is built right into OS X and has worked flawlessly for me. FireWire is pretty much the only way to do video capture well, as most, if not all, DV cameras support it and it is many times faster than USB.
The editing will take much longer than shooting any of your actual footage. Make sure to plan your time accordingly.
Also, if you want to get better image quality, see if you can find a digital video camera that uses BetaSP instead of MiniDV. They may be more expensive, but they produce a much higher image quality and consequently, look much better on NTSC monitors and TVs (I'm assuming you're in the US here).
As far as distributing your footage is concerned, I know that Final Cut Pro allows you to export the movie in several different formats suitable for online distribution, as well as printing back to tape and burning to DVD. Printing to tape is how we finalize our broadcasts, as we just hook up a camcorder, record our edited footage onto it, and then hook the camcorder up to the coax broadcasting hardware with component video cables. Beyond that, I don't have any experience. For DVD authoring, I know that Apple also sells DVD Studio Pro [apple.com], which I've heard is an excellent DVD authoring tool.
I've learned so much in this past year of working with digital video that I'm sure there's tons that I'm leaving out, but I hope this is enough to give you an idea of what is required. Please feel free to respond with any more questions, I'd be happy to answer them.
Re:Well, here goes nothing... (Score:2)
Also, while I'm on the subject of effects, I'd like to touch on a matter of personal taste. Don't use the canned transitions that come with editing programs, like wipes and dissolves. They are cheesy. Instead, go with an immediate cut between clips, a cross-dissolve or a fade out/fade in.
What he's really asking... (Score:1)
Quake Movies! (Score:2)
I was involved with the UK Quake Movie Project, unfortunately it was usurped by a goth with ulterious motives and it became a shoddy lovecraftian nightmare rather than a surreal comedy with cows.
Try Indiana University! (Score:2)
I don't know how (Score:1)
A good book about this (Score:2)