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I have a "short film" idea...how do I get it made?
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So basically I have an idea for what I suppose you could call a "short film". I picture it being about 1-3 minutes long; maybe a little big of dialogue but not a lot.
I know a decent bit about video production, but what I'm envisioning is a notch above what I think I'm capable of. I need a person or team that really really knows their stuff about filmmaking, as well as a small set of actors, that can help turn this idea into something great. I'm picturing this as something that could possibly be a Vimeo Staff Pick if executed properly.
My question is, how do I go about making this idea/concept a reality? The best idea I've thought of is contacting filmmakers in the closest big city (New York City - about 3 hours away), and telling them about my idea.
My only issue is that I don't want to just send a long message with the whole idea, because...
A) it probably won't get read
or
B) they could just take the idea and not reply.
Anyone have any thoughts on this? Maybe different ideas on how to approach this? Or am I thinking in the right direction?
(Also, I'd rather not share everything regarding the content of the video idea in here. If you want to know something along the lines of what I'm thinking, I can send you a video via PM.)
Thanks!
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You are definitely thinking in the right direction, if you want to get more involved with video there are people on the exact same level as you that would be willing to collaborate without getting payed anything, you just need to find the right people. If it comes out as well produced as you imagine, it could be a good video for everyone involved's portfolio. I'm sure you could find willing participants on newschoolers or maybe other forums. If you're in college ask around?
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Sounds like you need some baller student film makers. Most students suck but some of them are really good, find some kids that have down good work before and try to pitch them on your idea, they are more likely to do something smaller scale with you than a big name, and a lot of established "filmmakers" kind of suck, make a personal connection with someone who makes good stuff, regardless of their level of "leggitness" and pitch it to them, Good luck, it probably will need to be a pretty incredible idea to gain traction, the number of good scripts and good ideas just floating around never getting made is insane.
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I can't really help with connections but I'd probably be willing to help out during shooting. I'm on long island and studied tv/video production at NYIT.
I always see students posting on craigslist for unpaid help for their student films, but I don't know how successful that is. Feel free to PM me if you get things going and need an extra set of hands
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if you want it to be good, make sure that each component is done well. Making a film that doesn't seem amateur requires a lot of moving parts to come together. getting good actors is tough though.
#1 advice. DON'T SKIMP ON SOUND! many new filmmakers think of sound as an afterthought behind image. First of all bad sound will ruin you movie no matter how good the images are. A blown out image can be forgiven by viewers, but people won't forgive awful sound. Sound is just as important/maybe more important than image. this is because sound gives images greater life and draws the viewer into the world you have constructed. having well recorded, mixed, and designed sound will boost the perceived quality of your film by a lot.
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Write a script and if you get past that stage and still think it's a really good idea go from there. You will be surprised at how many ideas you think are good are actually bad (not saying yours is) just by trying to flesh out the story.
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