The horrors of student filmmaking

[Klownzilla]

Just tomorrow I'll begin to shoot my 7-minute horror/comedy for class and my biggest horror is having to find replacements for actors who dropped out. I'm not the only one who this has happened to. The only thing that's looking good is my wolf suit. But apparently I'm not the only one with this problem. A bunch of other people have had people drop out on them as of late. So anyone else here ever get this problem? More important, has anyone here ever made a horror film for class?

[Servo]

I directed a 30 second mock trailer for a horror film I wrote called "Freakin' Vampires." It's a horror/comedy. I edited a longer version of the trailer over the summer. I wish I could post it but I have no idea where to begin...what with the compressing and the...well...shit...everything.

Next semester I'm taking "Advanced Film Production" and my teacher will be giving us a roll of film to shoot on 16mm. I intend to shoot a scene out of my latest script about a private investigator who takes on a Necromancer and his undead posse.

[Kanadian_kev]

Hey Klownzilla, it happens to everybody. Even an actor getting paid $$$ will sometimes back out. One thing that helps is making the film 'a big deal.' Send them the script, send them revisions of the script, send them revisions of the revisions, keep sending them things and keeping in contact. Learnt that from my professor.

[Klownzilla]

Servo, I'm using 16mm right now in my "Production 2" class. Boy is my movie gonna suck! I suppose I have a chance at saving it in editing, but it looks bleak. Maybe some cool music or clever sound design will help. I'm glad I had this as a horror/comedy. If I had set out to make a serious film, I'd be ready to kill myself at this point. The story was so promising, too, even the teacher liked it, but I butchered the shit out of it. I'll probably have to take the class over again, but at least I learned from my mistakes...I think.

Kev, that definitely does help to have the scripts, proposal, etc. I should've been more prepared with that. And me personally approaching the theater majors was a bad idea because I've learned that theater students hate film students. I just got my friends to do it since I could rely on them.

I always tell myself that if I despise the movie I make, then it will never go beyond the classroom. Maybe I'll make an exception with this. If I find out how to put it online I'll upload it. It'll have the title "How Not to Make a Movie". BTW, that werewolf suit that I posted pics of in the Halloween 2005 thread is the one used in the film.

[Servo]

All I know man is if actors dropped out of my project after committing I would make sure they wouldn't work on another film at my school. I can't even begin to describe how pissed I would be. That's just not right. Incredibly unprofessional. Worse comes to worse, if your final cut looks like shit, I'd probably take a dive and make a mock trailer out of the footage I shot.

[adamjohnson]

Do 2 things.

1) Get them to sign a contract. Itdoesnt have to be legal or anything. Its more of a mental attack than a sealing of their fate. They'll think, "Oh, shit, he's making me sign something. This is a big deal. I better not back out."

2) Get them to do it in RETURN of something. This helps alot in film school. Ill act in yours if you act in mine. Etc etc.

Those 2 usually make life alot easier. Tho people will still flake out alot. It happens.

[mary lou 102]

Yes! No one here is alone at all. I was in 5th grade when I made my first film. After the 3rd or fourth time of filming, many people began to back out. The movie ended up being trash, which is usually expected from such a young person, but I thought it would be great(go figure). It also did not help that some of the parents were less than excited for their little darlings to be sliced up on film and curse. It was all fake looking anyway.

My most recent film was plaged with many production problems. We were in a rush to get something out, so we thought up a plot over dinner one night. A script was never entirely written and we just improved many things. In fairness, we did have outlines of scnes we knew we wanted, just usually not excat dialouge. Even that can slow things down. We made the film quickly, one of our cameras broke before the shoot was over, so we had to use a borrowed camera. We edited it together and found out we had a strange, surreal mess. Sometimes surreal is good. This time it wasn't. We would have about 5 to 6 more re-shooots and two more screenings before we finally got to the point we liked. Now, it's a pretty good little movie. We are not done with editing at all. Right now it's still an editor's nightmare, but structure wise it's a tight and sometimes tense little horror movie.

[Pestilence]

I directed a 10-minute horror short for the second year of the Film Production class during my Degree, and boy did it turn out waaay different than I had planned.

I wrote the screenplay, did some really shitty storyboards and then on the behest of the tutor, changed the script to add some "explanation" as to why the main character was murdering people. He couldn't just be a nutcase, apparently.

Anyway, out of about 20 screenplays written by the class members, 3 were chosen for production...mine being one of them. It was downhill from there. People in the class decided they "didn't want to work on a horror film" (sigh....film students), and quite possibly the most unapproachable, inattentive person in the class was chosen to be editor and on-set continuity guy for me.

Casting was a blast, I'll admit. Seeing all the different takes to something I had written was a great feeling, watching it come alive, and we got the obligatory psycho who began to basically stalk my producer when he didnt get the part.

On to the shoot, and on the first day my tutor and his assistant were on set doing the "studio" thing....you know...

"I think you should shoot it over here."

"Don't shoot too close, it will be distorted."

"That tracking shot isn't going to work."

Mind you, I was shooting in my house at the time...an absolutely condemnible dump....a husk of a building basically. This really added production value to the project, it was the kind of location we could never get otherwise.

Anyway, during shooting the "continuity guy" would simply sit around filming things on his own DV camera, while I tried to take care of the continuity, actors, blocking, camera placement, and think about the editing which he had obviously no interest in discussing on set. Thankfully one of the actors in the film was a guy a friend had introduced to me at the pub the week before. He had an agent and acted in many things including 2004's TV movie, "Omagh". He worked for free on the movie and did a phenomenal, professional job. Needless to say I worked with him again on the next years project, to MUCH better results.

The other lead actor had a tendency to ham things up, and pretty soon during the shoot (which was extremely rushed....we had 3 days to shoot) I realised that the film was turning into a comedy. Due to the "studio's" demand that EVERY shot be done professionally with 3-point lighting and gels (causing a lot of overexposure in shots and general nuisance when blocking in a house) I had little to no creative room for the camera. I know they had the best intentions of "teaching" us how to make film, but it was severely detrimental to the one I wanted to make. Almost every shot became static so I could not use this to horrific effect and as a result the film became stale. The "editor" decided that he didnt have time during normal days to come in to the office and sit with me to edit, but would do it at home. Fair enough, I thought, and gave him a sheet of directions as to how I wanted things to pan out. I EXPRESSLY told him that one shot, in which a character gets a knife plunged into the back of their neck, should NOT be in slow motion. I wanted a shock. I wanted a jump. I wanted a "holy fuck" moment.

You see, with his schedule and mine, it was not going to be possible for me to view a finished cut of the film until it was screened at the mini film festival that the University was holding for each of the year's films.

So on to the day, and I'm praying for a decent result. The film starts...I hadnt actually heard the music score, which was done in 2 days by the guy who did it, and it was a phenomenal job. Then came the opening scene. I had asked for small titles to appear in alternating corners, fading in and out so as not to intrude on the shots. I got garish red and white words plastered all over the screen by the editor. I'd almost already given up at this point.

On it went, and I was pleased to get a crowd-wide "eeuurrghh" as the main character vomits a mouthful of vegetable soup into the toilet. I shot the bathroom scene with extremely cold, blue lighting and contrast so the vomit really sticks out a sickly yellow.

All going relatively ok...a few unintentional laughs (you see, none of the other movies had swearing...I think there was a level of "uh huh huh....he just said 'fuck'...huh huh" going on) and then comes the neck stabbing. IN FUCKING SLOW MOTION. Entire effect gone. Climax of the film gone. The WRONG FUCKING TAKES used in certain shots that I had SPECIFIED which ones were to be used. (In fact one shot couldnt be used because, ironically, the continuity guy's leg could be seen sticking into frame as he shifted around in his seat mid-take). The audience laughed at the neck stabbing. They however did not laugh at the sound effect when the knife was removed (that part seemed to work ok). Anyway, on to the end of the film, and it does end on a rather cheesy note including an in-joke using a mis-spelled version of the head of Film Studies' name which went down a storm. The credits rolled, and the film got quite possibly the biggest reaction of any at the "festival". People clapped, a few whooped and cheered....and I sat there thinking "what the fuck did I make?".

Afterwards, people were asking me how I pulled off the knife in the neck effect, that it looked really good...and I simply told them it sucked. Others in my class dismissed it as a "generic student film" (when to be honest theirs was a cure for insomnia), and at the after party the secretary for the office asked if I had directed "the one with all the blood and knives". I said yes, and having seemingly had a few drinks to herself, she told me quite coyly that I could hand my work in any time I wanted :D

In the end, I tried to salvage the film by re-editing it myself, using After-Effects to fix a few effects problems, and used Magic Bullet to film-look and try to tone down some of the over-exposure in the forced lighting, but I lost interest. It is still sitting on my hard drive taking up 20Gb worth of space, unfinished, and I really should get round to making those DVD copies promised to the actors and crew. The thing is the "editor" decided to lose all of the master tapes, so the version I'm attempting to edit into a Director's Cut so to speak, is his already butchered version missing the alternate takes that I KNOW were better, and with a soundtrack already imposed so it makes speeding things up and cutting things short all the more imposing and depressing.

The audience seem very divided. Clearly some saw an upsetting horror (probably due to the amount of blood...that shit was everywhere), some saw a silly piece of shit, and others saw an enjoyable campy horror farce. Every time I watch it I just see a film that I did not intend to make. Funny how things turn out.

With the second film we did, I was working with a good group of friends and a couple of great actors. We only shot a 3 minute film this time, which I edited at home (directing duties were handed to a friend but as with any good collaboration we worked on shots together with editing in mind), and due to again a wonderful location, and the *ahem* "magic" of Magic Bullet, it came out as a piece of work we were all truly proud of. It was shot in one day, edited the next, and screened the next, and I honestly believe that it was simply due to the freedom, the relationships, and the on-and-off-set collaboration that it turned out as well as it did.

If anyone is interested I can post the screenplay for my horror film(should still be stored on my hard disk), and possibly convert both of the mentioned movies into a small format if you want to watch them. Just give me a shout.

[adamjohnson]

Originally posted by Pestilence
I directed a 10-minute horror short for the second year of the Film Production class during my Degree, and boy did it turn out waaay different than I had planned.

I wrote the screenplay, did some really shitty storyboards and then on the behest of the tutor, changed the script to add some "explanation" as to why the main character was murdering people. He couldn't just be a nutcase, apparently.

Anyway, out of about 20 screenplays written by the class members, 3 were chosen for production...mine being one of them. It was downhill from there. People in the class decided they "didn't want to work on a horror film" (sigh....film students), and quite possibly the most unapproachable, inattentive person in the class was chosen to be editor and on-set continuity guy for me.

Casting was a blast, I'll admit. Seeing all the different takes to something I had written was a great feeling, watching it come alive, and we got the obligatory psycho who began to basically stalk my producer when he didnt get the part.

On to the shoot, and on the first day my tutor and his assistant were on set doing the "studio" thing....you know...

"I think you should shoot it over here."

"Don't shoot too close, it will be distorted."

"That tracking shot isn't going to work."

Mind you, I was shooting in my house at the time...an absolutely condemnible dump....a husk of a building basically. This really added production value to the project, it was the kind of location we could never get otherwise.

Anyway, during shooting the "continuity guy" would simply sit around filming things on his own DV camera, while I tried to take care of the continuity, actors, blocking, camera placement, and think about the editing which he had obviously no interest in discussing on set. Thankfully one of the actors in the film was a guy a friend had introduced to me at the pub the week before. He had an agent and acted in many things including 2004's TV movie, "Omagh". He worked for free on the movie and did a phenomenal, professional job. Needless to say I worked with him again on the next years project, to MUCH better results.

The other lead actor had a tendency to ham things up, and pretty soon during the shoot (which was extremely rushed....we had 3 days to shoot) I realised that the film was turning into a comedy. Due to the "studio's" demand that EVERY shot be done professionally with 3-point lighting and gels (causing a lot of overexposure in shots and general nuisance when blocking in a house) I had little to no creative room for the camera. I know they had the best intentions of "teaching" us how to make film, but it was severely detrimental to the one I wanted to make. Almost every shot became static so I could not use this to horrific effect and as a result the film became stale. The "editor" decided that he didnt have time during normal days to come in to the office and sit with me to edit, but would do it at home. Fair enough, I thought, and gave him a sheet of directions as to how I wanted things to pan out. I EXPRESSLY told him that one shot, in which a character gets a knife plunged into the back of their neck, should NOT be in slow motion. I wanted a shock. I wanted a jump. I wanted a "holy fuck" moment.

You see, with his schedule and mine, it was not going to be possible for me to view a finished cut of the film until it was screened at the mini film festival that the University was holding for each of the year's films.

So on to the day, and I'm praying for a decent result. The film starts...I hadnt actually heard the music score, which was done in 2 days by the guy who did it, and it was a phenomenal job. Then came the opening scene. I had asked for small titles to appear in alternating corners, fading in and out so as not to intrude on the shots. I got garish red and white words plastered all over the screen by the editor. I'd almost already given up at this point.

On it went, and I was pleased to get a crowd-wide "eeuurrghh" as the main character vomits a mouthful of vegetable soup into the toilet. I shot the bathroom scene with extremely cold, blue lighting and contrast so the vomit really sticks out a sickly yellow.

All going relatively ok...a few unintentional laughs (you see, none of the other movies had swearing...I think there was a level of "uh huh huh....he just said 'fuck'...huh huh" going on) and then comes the neck stabbing. IN FUCKING SLOW MOTION. Entire effect gone. Climax of the film gone. The WRONG FUCKING TAKES used in certain shots that I had SPECIFIED which ones were to be used. (In fact one shot couldnt be used because, ironically, the continuity guy's leg could be seen sticking into frame as he shifted around in his seat mid-take). The audience laughed at the neck stabbing. They however did not laugh at the sound effect when the knife was removed (that part seemed to work ok). Anyway, on to the end of the film, and it does end on a rather cheesy note including an in-joke using a mis-spelled version of the head of Film Studies' name which went down a storm. The credits rolled, and the film got quite possibly the biggest reaction of any at the "festival". People clapped, a few whooped and cheered....and I sat there thinking "what the fuck did I make?".

Afterwards, people were asking me how I pulled off the knife in the neck effect, that it looked really good...and I simply told them it sucked. Others in my class dismissed it as a "generic student film" (when to be honest theirs was a cure for insomnia), and at the after party the secretary for the office asked if I had directed "the one with all the blood and knives". I said yes, and having seemingly had a few drinks to herself, she told me quite coyly that I could hand my work in any time I wanted :D

In the end, I tried to salvage the film by re-editing it myself, using After-Effects to fix a few effects problems, and used Magic Bullet to film-look and try to tone down some of the over-exposure in the forced lighting, but I lost interest. It is still sitting on my hard drive taking up 20Gb worth of space, unfinished, and I really should get round to making those DVD copies promised to the actors and crew. The thing is the "editor" decided to lose all of the master tapes, so the version I'm attempting to edit into a Director's Cut so to speak, is his already butchered version missing the alternate takes that I KNOW were better, and with a soundtrack already imposed so it makes speeding things up and cutting things short all the more imposing and depressing.

The audience seem very divided. Clearly some saw an upsetting horror (probably due to the amount of blood...that shit was everywhere), some saw a silly piece of shit, and others saw an enjoyable campy horror farce. Every time I watch it I just see a film that I did not intend to make. Funny how things turn out.

With the second film we did, I was working with a good group of friends and a couple of great actors. We only shot a 3 minute film this time, which I edited at home (directing duties were handed to a friend but as with any good collaboration we worked on shots together with editing in mind), and due to again a wonderful location, and the *ahem* "magic" of Magic Bullet, it came out as a piece of work we were all truly proud of. It was shot in one day, edited the next, and screened the next, and I honestly believe that it was simply due to the freedom, the relationships, and the on-and-off-set collaboration that it turned out as well as it did.

If anyone is interested I can post the screenplay for my horror film(should still be stored on my hard disk), and possibly convert both of the mentioned movies into a small format if you want to watch them. Just give me a shout.

Congratulations.

Now you know whats it like to work in Hollywood.

[Cronos]

Originally posted by Pestilence
If anyone is interested I can post the screenplay for my horror film(should still be stored on my hard disk), and possibly convert both of the mentioned movies into a small format if you want to watch them. Just give me a shout.

after reading that i wouldnt mind seeing how it ended up if its not too much trouble :)

[the dead one]

Originally posted by Pestilence
I directed a 10-minute horror short for the second year of the Film Production class during my Degree, and boy did it turn out waaay different than I had planned.

I wrote the screenplay, did some really shitty storyboards and then on the behest of the tutor, changed the script to add some "explanation" as to why the main character was murdering people. He couldn't just be a nutcase, apparently.



Point blank, the tutor obviously wanted to follow the genre standards of having the explaination factor. This is not the way to go imho, check out 'Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer', it is never totally clear as to what motivates the main character Henry.

He claims he killed his mama, but we don't know what really makes him tick.

Ambiguity makes the difference...

Henry is just an avearge looking guy, another face in the crowd but beneath the surface lies something totally indifferent and ugly. The fact that he is indeed the average is what makes him that much more terrifying!

Just something to consider, as in life there are many questions that we dont have all the answers to---the unknown is more horrific and viseral because it does challange our perceptions.

All the best to you Pestilence!

Oh yeah, I would love to see a cut of your work on disc too!:)

[Pestilence]

Well, i've managed to compress the film to around 9Mb (wmv format for Windows Media Player). I'm just trying to find some webspace to upload it for you guys. According to my ISP I should have 55Mb of space, but the ftp server wont accept my password. Go figure.

In the meantime, if you want me to send it directly to you, I can do so via MSN Messenger. Feel free to add me - pestilence_gj@hotmail.com

[LAguy]

The worst was for my 15 minute killer clown short.

About 75% of the movie was shot in one night on this camera that I rented from a studio in my town. Apparantly, there was a cord plugged into the microphone jack on the camera causing all the footage that I shot to have no sound.

You should have seen my face when I played my footage back for editing. Holy Shiza!!

The film was due the next day so I stayed up all night and recovered from the disaster fairly well. I edited in a narration from the main character telling his story about the night his friends were butchard by a killer clown. Along with some scary music, the movie turned out better than It would have with sound.

God saved me on that one!

Just remember, always check your footage constantly while shooting, cause ya never know what could happen.

(Backs away. His image fades in the darkness.)