Johnnie oddballs tricks n tips for 28 days later challenge

  1. Pre plan - key to making a movie is planning once you have your theme and title and story set out how your going to script it ? just improvise some scene's
  2. Logistics - like planing a military operation , keep your cast n crew small have a diary of everyone so you can plan shoots around them ? or have other people just incase
  3. Locations - Sour se any locations before you get your theme and title & story think B movie think easy to get to and ok to shoot ? or just shoot and run
  4. Guerrilla tactics - Don't ask to film at a location film it first then ask after you have your shot act like college students ? or just have a student in your team
  5. Casting - DO NOT USE YOUR MUM - 1st get all cast n crew members to sign release forms before you shoot anything (download from shootingpeople.org), try to get actors & extras you've worked with before and ones who are reliable & will not let you down last min and ones who wanna be in a feature ? remember to bring a pack lunch
  6. Equipment - ALL THE GEAR NO IDEA - You don't need a RED XD-HI-DEF camera you just need a camera you can capture to your computer which doesn't take up all your hard drive like xdcam or hdv cameras unless your using a work computer which can hold all your footage , or use an ex- hard drive use what you can get hold of ?

 

  1. WEEK ONE ( planning is so important to a good movie so make sure you get it right , people you only have 4 weeks to pull this off , so 1st set up a production meeting with everyone in your team one evening somewhere quiet not a local pub , make sure everyone is there who will be in your movie , make a list of equipmet and props you can get hold of without spending loads of money (try to get a joke/costume shop as a sponsor) go over your theme and title and story with everyone and work as a team on how to shoot it everyones input is key so they feel its their flm as well as yours , people love to be part of a team who make them feel welcome and take their input however crazy it may just work !! plan out your movie with everyone's avalabillity , make your movie very simple and it ill work your find this out later when you start shooting and you have no idea what the next scene is ? use a story board as your shooting script for the movie make it as simple no cartoon stick images work so use it , you MUST explain the whole movie to everyone in detail so everyone's gets it and then give people roll's on the movie mulit task to reduce large crew this is really important to multi task people director can also double up as tea maker his not a god !! boom op and clapperboard same person and camera and focus puller etc etc is the same person keep your team small and your keep control of your film as well as costs and logistics when you need people on set find people with cars saves time and effort ask everyone to try to collect everyone else on the way to filming saves money time and people feel part of the team being picked up plus when your working into the night you dont want females in your crew to go home on their own so watch out for your team they become more like a family to you when you make a movie .....
  1. WEEK TWO (filming filming filming) this is the week you must have all the schedule sorted for shooting your movie , logistics is key for this make sure you shoot everything you need and some , shoot cut always so the editor has something to use , don't take loads of equipment on your shoot take what you need and make a things to do list and things to shoot list (it helped me on my movie) , shooting in sequence really saves time with contunity so if the weather changes you can use it in your film without re shooting when its the same again , wet one min sunny blue sky's in the next scene will look like day and night shots from plan 9 from outer space scenes ? use call sheets and maps of locations and contact details of everyone , catering , i asked all my cast n crew to bring a pack lunch and a flask so they could have lunch or drinks whenever they had free time , saves you stop shooting and losing the night , remember if people have worked all day don't expect them to work all night , a good team is a happy fed awake crew accidents always happen late when people are not with it so beware and take car of your cast n crew you need them !! once you have shoot your stuff upload it to your computer and start to edit it together to save the editor time later , this helps you see what the movie looks like and what you missed or need to re shoot . remember sound is more important than anything with bad sound and shaky camera work your audience will hate you and hate your film so test the sound all the way through your shoot , you don't want to adr it after or fix it in post !!
  2. WEEK THREE ( Editing your movie & adding un copyrighted music sound effects or ask some friends in a band to do your music or download some from free un copyrighted music music is really as important as your sound as it is not just background music but used well it can move your movie along with dialogue all the time pictures and music used to move the movie along like in the silent film years , remember to shoot in camera style to get your shots if you can get a sound person they are amazing so get one , this is a good time to get the credits done for your film and the opening sequence editied so maybe have two teams of editors if you can to help out , remember to putt and blag as many friends as you can to make your film and above all have fun making the movie b movies are fun to watch so go for it and make it fun to watch as well .
  3. WEEK FOUR (Editing &re shoots editional missed shots adding music sound effects) last week before you hand in your completed movie so this is a good time to tweek your movie and make it look and sound amazing for the judges to see , the movie must be 70mins and have your opening title and your movie logo and end credits ,
  4. PLEASE REMEBER TO UPLOAD YOUR VIDEO DIARYS FOOTAGE TO US VIA EMAILING US YOUR VIDEO LINK OR UPLOAD THEM TO :

UPDATE 3/3/2010

Films from the 1st 28 days later feature film challenge 2010

Films 70min In Competition:
1/ Killer Zombies from Another Planet
2/ The Horror of the Dolls
3/ The Invisable Atomic Monsters from Mars
4/ The Enemy Above
5/ Night the Creatures Came Alive
6/ Killer Gloves

Films under 70mins
1/ Attack of the Invisible People
2/ It came from Beyond the Stars

We will be screening all the movies at selected cinemas around the UK
So teams can get their movies on IMDB
We will also be uploading them to dailymotions website next week for the judges to view the completed films

also so teams can forward the URL's link to their films to festivals plus have a link to their film on their website of their feature film
Teams are more than welcome to find festivals to screen their films
Any funds made from people Viewing your feature films on dailymotion will go towards you the films maker
Teams are more than welcome to after coffee drinks at the ICA on the 13th March from 12:00 noon
After the screenings of everyones Trailers and the winning feature film

for more info please email me direct oddballtv@yahoo.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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