How to get started with filming

The Outside World Filmmaking & Screenwriting
1

My friends and I are about to start filming a movie soon. I am still currently in the process of writing the screenplay and have tons of questions about filming. I would hate to film with just a ordinary video camera and would love to use real film. If there is another page to answer my questions, you can just drop the link. So my questions:


  1. What’s a great way to make to make a movie look professional?


  2. Is there any way to manipulate a video camera’s picture to look like a movie camera’s picture?


  3. Where can I find an inexpensive movie camera?


  4. How do you operate a movie camera? (example: loading film)


  5. How do you edit film?


  6. How do you convert a movie that on film to a DVD?


  7. How does a boom mic work? (example: where does it take the sound to?)


  8. What types of film are there? (etc. 9mm…32mm?) Is there a specific use for each type?


  9. Are there any other devices that should be used when filming?



    If any of these questions are out of order, I apologize. I’m really not sure what to ask, because I’ve never filmed a movie before. I just know I want to have a good looking picture without the piss poor quality.



    I appreciate ANY help what-so-ever! And hopefully I’m posting in the right place!
2

I also live In florence where are you gonna film at?

3

We will be filming probably everywhere in the Shoals area. Specific locations to be determined.

4

Thats cool man, Did you go to filming school I believe they have one at UNA but Im not sure

5

[quote=“ThaDuke”]
My friends and I are about to start filming a movie soon. I am still currently in the process of writing the screenplay and have tons of questions about filming. I would hate to film with just a ordinary video camera and would love to use real film. If there is another page to answer my questions, you can just drop the link. So my questions:


  1. What’s a great way to make to make a movie look professional?

[/quote]

This may depend on how much roll of film you got. But shoot alot of coverage is the best I can offer. (I.E. Shoot one scene from as many angles as possible) This makes your movie more visually pleasing.

6

this isnt a go at you or anything but if you’ve never done a movie before maybe you should do it on normal cameras (mini dv etc)? because i’d imagine that shooting on film could become really expensive.

Do you have a decent budget or is it a no budget shoot?

7

I guess you could say that we have somewhat of a budget. We may not have very much to spend, but we will not hesitate on spending on what makes the movie come out better-looking.

8

sounds like your really determined to do this! thats cool, keep me posted

9

I can deal with a digital camcorder, but audio is going to be my biggest issue with the movie.



Does anyone have any clue how a boom mic works? When recording the audio, is saved onto a tape and then used when editing the movie? Like an additional layer onto the video? Are they expensive?

10

ive only used a shotgun mic that plugs directly into my camera.when i used it a sound level bar came onto my lcd screen and showed me how much sound was actually going in. im not sure about the tape because i havn’t copyed it to my pc yet but im guesiing that it should go onto the tape.

11

That actually sounds more efficent if the sound went directly into the camera. That way both the audio and video are recorded together. But is there a one size fits all?..?



What exactly is a shotgun mic?

12

A shotgun mic records the audio of whatever your pointing it at.

And yes it does just record to the tape.

13

yea shotgun mics are very handy when theres only one pesron speaking at a time because it usually doesnt pick up things off to the side

14

Wow…that sounds like what I may need then.

15

hows the production coming along, have u made any progress?

16

I have to finish the script first. It’s coming along very well, and hope to be done next week. Right now I’m on page 108 scene 24.

17

[quote=“ThaDuke”]
I have to finish the script first. It’s coming along very well, and hope to be done next week. Right now I’m on page 108 scene 24.
[/quote]
Awesome man hope It works out.

18

Wicked so are you planning on making the whole story? or just doing some key scenes and compiling them together?

19

Most definitely the whole story. Why waste my time with just a few scenes. I want to go all out if I’m going to do this. 8)

20

nice thats awesome! it’ll be alot of hard work but u sound really determined to get this done hopefully it all turns out really good :slight_smile: you should keep us up too date when you start filming with clips on youtube.