Welcome to film riot, and if you haven't heard my road real, is back which, if you don't know what my road real is, what have you been doing? It'S been going on for six years every year.
It is the biggest short film competition that there is online and now they're in their sixth year and this year, they're giving away over 1 million dollars in prizes to be won across 28 categories.
Of course, anyone can enter you just download the starter pack and get shooting, and I'm gon na put a link for that starter pack below, but also this year, I'm one of the judges.
So with that in mind, I thought I would give some of my tips for making a short film, which of course we're gon na start in the most logical place, which is writing and more often than not, I'm really trying to write what I can pull off.
I know what resources we have, what budget we have at our disposal so before I go into the writing process at all.
On keeping that in mind, so I'm not writing for a 20-person cast.
When I know I only have three people that I can grab, I'm not writing for this big action piece with explosions and guns.
When I know I can't get my hands on all that, if all you have is a coffee shop and two friends well, then get creative and write something around that then.
While writing, I'm always trying to think in terms of setups and payoffs.
I'M not just talking about you know, showing the close-up of a gun and then later the hero uses that gun.
I do, of course, do things like that, like in ballistic, there is the setup of the gun and her not understanding how to use it in the payoff of her ultimately figuring that out and we get to go along with that journey.
So we have a setup and payoff of that kind there, but you also have story setups and payoffs and emotional setup and payoffs, which I tried to pay off the two main ones in ballistic at the exact same time.
So we have this setup of this main villain, that's coming after our character through most of the piece, and we have this setup of the emotion between the mother and daughter, that's evolving over the piece and then in the end.
In this one moment, we get that full emotional payoff when we realize what the mothers been trying to tell her all along, which gives her the strength to carry out the climactic payoff between her and the villain.
Moving on to the next writing, tip is, if first, you want to go left, go right instead, meaning your first instinct is probably something the audience is anticipating, so do the opposite.
A good example for this is, from my short film, tell there's a part where the actor bends down to splash some water on his face when he comes back up - and I was gon na - have something behind him for a jump-scare.
But I quickly realized that my audience was probably going to see that coming.
So, instead of doing that, I did the opposite.
I did nothing so, instead of having a payoff jump-scare there that would deflate tension.
I just let that build and hit them later, where they wouldn't be expecting it and for my last writing tip, which is something I always try to do and that's let theme guide your story figure out what your theme is and that's gon na dictate.
What, then, we move into gear, which is one of the least important things when it comes to telling a story to your audience, but still important? And if you're lucky enough to have a choice in what kind of gear you're going to use? Think about what you want your audience to feel what you're trying to convey and pick everything around that don't just do a crane shot just because you have access to a crane.
If you don't have your choice in resources and your resources are very limited.
This is an aspect that you're gon na want to be thinking about when you're thinking about the story that you want to tell keep in mind, if all you have as an iPhone gear everything around that I mean our phones take incredible video now, but they do Have a lot of limitations so keep those in mind when you're crafting your story moving into production, the key is preparation.
Prepare then, once you think, you're prepared prepare some more.
You should know the script forwards and backwards better than anyone else do shot lists.
Do storyboards animatics, if you want to I've, done animatics for things like ghost house, for sequences that really didn't need it, and I never showed my DP.
It was just for me to test the pacing and tone to really hone in on what I wanted.
My audience to experience in that moment, but just because you prepare all of these things, if you storyboard the entire film shot list, the entire film do all these animatics.
That doesn't mean you're gon na stick to it or you even have to.
In fact, it's very unlikely that you will, with limited sources like we have you're, never going to really hit that thing.
That was in your head, but it's going to educate you on all the ideas that you know that you want for the story.
So you can come up with alternate very quickly instead of creating from nothing you're just tweaking what you already prepared, then we have tone before you roll a single frame.
You need to understand your tone and lock into that completely.
Every camera angle lens choice, lighting choice, your location, wardrobe, should all feed into that tone.
If you don't and your tone is jumping around where it shouldn't be, it's going to ruin your film and if you've ever heard anybody talk about confident filmmaking.
This is a place that will really land there or not.
If your tone is solid throughout and you really sell it, that's gon na be a very confident and it's gon na give your audience the confidence to just sink into your film.
If you're unsure how to strike the tone that you're wanting to strike go watch a film that has a similar tone and analyze how they pulled it off, then you have casting, and I don't know who said it, but the majority of directing is casting casting really Is key if you cast people who can't go to the depths that you're wanting to go? That'S gon na be a major issue for your film you're not going to be able to sell the moment and again, you're gon na lose the confidence of your audience, and this is another part that you need to be thinking about when writing think about the people That you know you can get in your film and write to their strengths and weaknesses.
A good, for instance, for this is between one of my first short, films losses and one of my most recent ballistic look at the bad guys in losses.
You have people looking like they work at American Eagle with their polo shirts and very young two guys who look like they actually could kill you.
So the intensity is not there and losses, but it is there in ballistic because it was casted appropriately.
Then you have to commit 100 % you and your cast if anyone holds back we're gon na, feel it and that's another thing that loses confidence for an example of what I mean.
The best thing to look at is action.
Take my short film proximity.
At the end of the film there's, this fight scene in the mud and at first we had a few takes going and it was looking okay, but eventually my actors looked up at me and asked me if I was getting what I wanted and I honestly said: No they're giving me 90 % and I needed 100 on the next.
Take.
They really went to 100 %, of course, keeping safety in mind and always staying safe, that being more important than anything else, but they gave me 100 %, and that is what ended up in the short film and if they didn't it, just wouldn't have worked.
And I've seen so many short films where even the hero is just supposed to be running but they're clearly just jogging and it doesn't work and of course this goes across comedy drama and ever other genre and scene.
If you don't commit 100 %, we're gon na know, then in production just sound, sound, sound and more sound.
I say it all the time on the show and I'm still shocked at how many short films that I come across, where the sound was clearly neglected.
If you don't have the right gear to capture really good sound, don't write something! That'S really dialogue heavy again going back to writing to what you have resources to.
If you don't have great audio gear, write something that is very minimal and dialogue or has no dialogue at all.
But if you do have the gear be sure that that dialogue is being captured in the best possible way in the quietest possible atmosphere and get as much wild sound, which is sound from onset as you possibly can to use later.
It'S the easiest to make feel organic when you're layering up sounds and post, then the last tip I have production is to feed your crew and as well as you possibly can have snacks on set have drinks on set.
Most of us aren't paying the crew we're doing this as a passion project, so make sure you're feeding them as well as you can it's one of the best ways to keep morale up and everybody on your side.
But now Before we jump into post-production, we're gon na take a quick break to thank daddy.
Let'S listen, let's, let's say the obvious: we talk about debate, calm a lot.
You probably know what I'm about to say to ative website builders place to go to create your identity online.
You could brand yourself.
They got 300 domain name extensions from dock Club to not space.
But I'm not you know, I'm not just a spokesperson, I'm a client! I use it, I really do I I don't know how many domain names I have at this point.
I kind of got addicted to it like gambling and I just kept buying them thinking.
Maybe one day I would use it.
It'S not really gambling.
That was a terrible example of what I meant, and I mean we all know the best domain extensions to tell you start online.
com and dotnet.
I have a lot of them anyway.
If you want to buy a ridiculous number of domain names, you could use a coupon code film right at domain.
Comms check out to get 15 % off those domain names web hosting or email whatever.
You want just throw all kinds of money at it and get great stuff that you can use to brand yourself online, as previously stated, when you think domain names, think domain.
com, okay wasting no time and moving right into post-production.
If you were doing post by yourself thing that really helped me in the past, when I was doing posts completely alone, is having time to step away from it after you've been working on it for a while, you really aren't seeing it clearly anymore, so giving it A day or two before going back to, it is extremely helpful to see it more clearly and even more helpful if you bring somebody who hasn't seen it yet, you see it in a whole new way that you don't see when you're on your own, then there's Pacing, which, admittedly, is one of the hardest things to really get right, but it's also one of the biggest issues that I see in short, films that get sent to me watching it with someone else is definitely gon na help.
You feel when your short film is short, but something that I've always tried to do is cut cut and when I think I've cut enough cut a little bit more until you can feel that it's too tight and then you can start letting it breathe a little Bit more, then, you have sound, which is all your sound effects and your music and nowadays there's a lot of things that are really gon na help you out with this one of the things that I've shown on the show before, which is instrumental for small budget Productions is something called soundly.
We did a whole video on that, so I'm not gon na get into it, but you could replace pretty much your entire production sound.
Just using this we'll put a link in the notes below for that, then, when it comes to music, the same thing, if you can't produce your own music and you don't know composure, you can either get licensed music from a litany of places or use.
Something like film stroke where you can still do: custom music, but from music.
That'S already pre-made again links for all of that for you below then there's notes getting and giving notes is extremely important.
If you're working with people and you're, the director you're gon na, be giving a lot of notes and if you're the editor or finishing it on your own, it's important to send it to trusted people to get notes, and I always use frame IO for this frame.
Io is incredible for working in this capacity.
Let people go and sit with it and then think on it and then leave notes inside a frame IO.
It'S a lot more constructive that way or use Google Docs and just slap timecode on your piece.
So people can leave a timestamp, so you know what part they're talking about.
Finally - and this goes for all the production and again goes back to what we were talking about before about don't write what you can't do, if you can't pull it off, don't do it if you can't pull off visual effects, just yet don't put them in your Film keep practicing, or until you find someone who can do it for you, when you put in things that are half done and don't really get all the way there, you would diss servicing the entire production.
So if you can't pull off a spaceship, don't put it in your short film.
If you need an explosion in your film and you can't show it you sound, you can always cut to the actors, throw some light on them.
Use sound and you have your explosion.
Don'T try to do more than you can actually pull off.
Thinking that it's gon na add value to your film.
It'S only going to reduce the value of your film and kill that confidence from your audience.
So that's it a bunch of things that helped me personally get better over the past 15 years of doing this professionally, so jump into the notes below check out my road reel and get involved now, while you have plenty of time because when it comes to filmmaking Time really is the most valuable resource, so don't rate go jump off.
It is the biggest short film competition that there is online and now they're in their sixth year and this year, they're giving away over 1 million dollars in prizes to be won across 28 categories.
Of course, anyone can enter you just download the starter pack and get shooting, and I'm gon na put a link for that starter pack below, but also this year, I'm one of the judges.
So with that in mind, I thought I would give some of my tips for making a short film, which of course we're gon na start in the most logical place, which is writing and more often than not, I'm really trying to write what I can pull off.
I know what resources we have, what budget we have at our disposal so before I go into the writing process at all.
On keeping that in mind, so I'm not writing for a 20-person cast.
When I know I only have three people that I can grab, I'm not writing for this big action piece with explosions and guns.
When I know I can't get my hands on all that, if all you have is a coffee shop and two friends well, then get creative and write something around that then.
While writing, I'm always trying to think in terms of setups and payoffs.
I'M not just talking about you know, showing the close-up of a gun and then later the hero uses that gun.
I do, of course, do things like that, like in ballistic, there is the setup of the gun and her not understanding how to use it in the payoff of her ultimately figuring that out and we get to go along with that journey.
So we have a setup and payoff of that kind there, but you also have story setups and payoffs and emotional setup and payoffs, which I tried to pay off the two main ones in ballistic at the exact same time.
So we have this setup of this main villain, that's coming after our character through most of the piece, and we have this setup of the emotion between the mother and daughter, that's evolving over the piece and then in the end.
In this one moment, we get that full emotional payoff when we realize what the mothers been trying to tell her all along, which gives her the strength to carry out the climactic payoff between her and the villain.
Moving on to the next writing, tip is, if first, you want to go left, go right instead, meaning your first instinct is probably something the audience is anticipating, so do the opposite.
A good example for this is, from my short film, tell there's a part where the actor bends down to splash some water on his face when he comes back up - and I was gon na - have something behind him for a jump-scare.
But I quickly realized that my audience was probably going to see that coming.
So, instead of doing that, I did the opposite.
I did nothing so, instead of having a payoff jump-scare there that would deflate tension.
I just let that build and hit them later, where they wouldn't be expecting it and for my last writing tip, which is something I always try to do and that's let theme guide your story figure out what your theme is and that's gon na dictate.
What, then, we move into gear, which is one of the least important things when it comes to telling a story to your audience, but still important? And if you're lucky enough to have a choice in what kind of gear you're going to use? Think about what you want your audience to feel what you're trying to convey and pick everything around that don't just do a crane shot just because you have access to a crane.
If you don't have your choice in resources and your resources are very limited.
This is an aspect that you're gon na want to be thinking about when you're thinking about the story that you want to tell keep in mind, if all you have as an iPhone gear everything around that I mean our phones take incredible video now, but they do Have a lot of limitations so keep those in mind when you're crafting your story moving into production, the key is preparation.
Prepare then, once you think, you're prepared prepare some more.
You should know the script forwards and backwards better than anyone else do shot lists.
Do storyboards animatics, if you want to I've, done animatics for things like ghost house, for sequences that really didn't need it, and I never showed my DP.
It was just for me to test the pacing and tone to really hone in on what I wanted.
My audience to experience in that moment, but just because you prepare all of these things, if you storyboard the entire film shot list, the entire film do all these animatics.
That doesn't mean you're gon na stick to it or you even have to.
In fact, it's very unlikely that you will, with limited sources like we have you're, never going to really hit that thing.
That was in your head, but it's going to educate you on all the ideas that you know that you want for the story.
So you can come up with alternate very quickly instead of creating from nothing you're just tweaking what you already prepared, then we have tone before you roll a single frame.
You need to understand your tone and lock into that completely.
Every camera angle lens choice, lighting choice, your location, wardrobe, should all feed into that tone.
If you don't and your tone is jumping around where it shouldn't be, it's going to ruin your film and if you've ever heard anybody talk about confident filmmaking.
This is a place that will really land there or not.
If your tone is solid throughout and you really sell it, that's gon na be a very confident and it's gon na give your audience the confidence to just sink into your film.
If you're unsure how to strike the tone that you're wanting to strike go watch a film that has a similar tone and analyze how they pulled it off, then you have casting, and I don't know who said it, but the majority of directing is casting casting really Is key if you cast people who can't go to the depths that you're wanting to go? That'S gon na be a major issue for your film you're not going to be able to sell the moment and again, you're gon na lose the confidence of your audience, and this is another part that you need to be thinking about when writing think about the people That you know you can get in your film and write to their strengths and weaknesses.
A good, for instance, for this is between one of my first short, films losses and one of my most recent ballistic look at the bad guys in losses.
You have people looking like they work at American Eagle with their polo shirts and very young two guys who look like they actually could kill you.
So the intensity is not there and losses, but it is there in ballistic because it was casted appropriately.
Then you have to commit 100 % you and your cast if anyone holds back we're gon na, feel it and that's another thing that loses confidence for an example of what I mean.
The best thing to look at is action.
Take my short film proximity.
At the end of the film there's, this fight scene in the mud and at first we had a few takes going and it was looking okay, but eventually my actors looked up at me and asked me if I was getting what I wanted and I honestly said: No they're giving me 90 % and I needed 100 on the next.
Take.
They really went to 100 %, of course, keeping safety in mind and always staying safe, that being more important than anything else, but they gave me 100 %, and that is what ended up in the short film and if they didn't it, just wouldn't have worked.
And I've seen so many short films where even the hero is just supposed to be running but they're clearly just jogging and it doesn't work and of course this goes across comedy drama and ever other genre and scene.
If you don't commit 100 %, we're gon na know, then in production just sound, sound, sound and more sound.
I say it all the time on the show and I'm still shocked at how many short films that I come across, where the sound was clearly neglected.
If you don't have the right gear to capture really good sound, don't write something! That'S really dialogue heavy again going back to writing to what you have resources to.
If you don't have great audio gear, write something that is very minimal and dialogue or has no dialogue at all.
But if you do have the gear be sure that that dialogue is being captured in the best possible way in the quietest possible atmosphere and get as much wild sound, which is sound from onset as you possibly can to use later.
It'S the easiest to make feel organic when you're layering up sounds and post, then the last tip I have production is to feed your crew and as well as you possibly can have snacks on set have drinks on set.
Most of us aren't paying the crew we're doing this as a passion project, so make sure you're feeding them as well as you can it's one of the best ways to keep morale up and everybody on your side.
But now Before we jump into post-production, we're gon na take a quick break to thank daddy.
Let'S listen, let's, let's say the obvious: we talk about debate, calm a lot.
You probably know what I'm about to say to ative website builders place to go to create your identity online.
You could brand yourself.
They got 300 domain name extensions from dock Club to not space.
But I'm not you know, I'm not just a spokesperson, I'm a client! I use it, I really do I I don't know how many domain names I have at this point.
I kind of got addicted to it like gambling and I just kept buying them thinking.
Maybe one day I would use it.
It'S not really gambling.
That was a terrible example of what I meant, and I mean we all know the best domain extensions to tell you start online.
com and dotnet.
I have a lot of them anyway.
If you want to buy a ridiculous number of domain names, you could use a coupon code film right at domain.
Comms check out to get 15 % off those domain names web hosting or email whatever.
You want just throw all kinds of money at it and get great stuff that you can use to brand yourself online, as previously stated, when you think domain names, think domain.
com, okay wasting no time and moving right into post-production.
If you were doing post by yourself thing that really helped me in the past, when I was doing posts completely alone, is having time to step away from it after you've been working on it for a while, you really aren't seeing it clearly anymore, so giving it A day or two before going back to, it is extremely helpful to see it more clearly and even more helpful if you bring somebody who hasn't seen it yet, you see it in a whole new way that you don't see when you're on your own, then there's Pacing, which, admittedly, is one of the hardest things to really get right, but it's also one of the biggest issues that I see in short, films that get sent to me watching it with someone else is definitely gon na help.
You feel when your short film is short, but something that I've always tried to do is cut cut and when I think I've cut enough cut a little bit more until you can feel that it's too tight and then you can start letting it breathe a little Bit more, then, you have sound, which is all your sound effects and your music and nowadays there's a lot of things that are really gon na help you out with this one of the things that I've shown on the show before, which is instrumental for small budget Productions is something called soundly.
We did a whole video on that, so I'm not gon na get into it, but you could replace pretty much your entire production sound.
Just using this we'll put a link in the notes below for that, then, when it comes to music, the same thing, if you can't produce your own music and you don't know composure, you can either get licensed music from a litany of places or use.
Something like film stroke where you can still do: custom music, but from music.
That'S already pre-made again links for all of that for you below then there's notes getting and giving notes is extremely important.
If you're working with people and you're, the director you're gon na, be giving a lot of notes and if you're the editor or finishing it on your own, it's important to send it to trusted people to get notes, and I always use frame IO for this frame.
Io is incredible for working in this capacity.
Let people go and sit with it and then think on it and then leave notes inside a frame IO.
It'S a lot more constructive that way or use Google Docs and just slap timecode on your piece.
So people can leave a timestamp, so you know what part they're talking about.
Finally - and this goes for all the production and again goes back to what we were talking about before about don't write what you can't do, if you can't pull it off, don't do it if you can't pull off visual effects, just yet don't put them in your Film keep practicing, or until you find someone who can do it for you, when you put in things that are half done and don't really get all the way there, you would diss servicing the entire production.
So if you can't pull off a spaceship, don't put it in your short film.
If you need an explosion in your film and you can't show it you sound, you can always cut to the actors, throw some light on them.
Use sound and you have your explosion.
Don'T try to do more than you can actually pull off.
Thinking that it's gon na add value to your film.
It'S only going to reduce the value of your film and kill that confidence from your audience.
So that's it a bunch of things that helped me personally get better over the past 15 years of doing this professionally, so jump into the notes below check out my road reel and get involved now, while you have plenty of time because when it comes to filmmaking Time really is the most valuable resource, so don't rate go jump off.
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