i think a lot of us in this industry originally wanted to make movies...but we end up just doing the next best thing and then it feels like we don't have time to spend making "movies"
I think a lot of people start out wanting to make movies because they're ignorant to all of their options within the umbrella of "Filmmaking". I started wanting to make movies and now I make video game cinematics because that's what I actually wanted but didn't know I could. The truth is that we all end up where we put ourselves.
Is it just me? The end result lighting and color grade looks amazing. Somewhere between a sitcom and a movie … perfect balance for a comedy short film, in my opinion.
Letting go of being perfect and just creating is the thing I constantly need to be reminded of! You learn so much by doing and you can’t go and do the next one if you didn’t do this one.
The tone of this video just hits differently. Well done. Appreciate your candor and vulnerability. Way to be brave and make something that we all know is worth doing. Excited to see you develop as a director and producer. Thanks for adding value to the craft and to the lives of all those involved. You're demonstrating great leadership and humility.
It's SO great to see another video from this channel! Your videos have greatly helped me as a videographer, and every new video is a pleasure to watch.
This is a great overview and coincidentally tomorrow I am about to shoot my first short film in almost 4 years. Your point about headspace as a director is very relatable and is something I struggle with on set. Overall great video and I am really glad you are getting out there and challenging yourself!
Great video. I went from two short films and a bunch of commercials to shooting a feature length film. The learning curve was very steep, and we made so many mistakes along the way, but learned many many lessons.
Cool to see we use the same workflow with animatics/previs - saves alot of time on set and everyone on the time can see what vision you have for the film! 👍 And yes, each shortfilm is a steppingstone to the next one, it’s all a learning process 😊💪 Good job, keep them coming!
Spot on Thomas! Make shit. Period. Make 1,000 things, and you'll eventually be super good at making things! Like you, we've filmed a TON of client work, but have only filmed one short film (72hr competition) recently - and it exposed so many holes in our pre-production process. Stuff that I think we can definitely apply for our corporate work as well moving forward. Solid video. Excited to watch the piece (next).
Dude, I love your content and being able to watch your journey. Not only have I learned so much from your channel since changing careers, you guys are entertaining and continue to be an inspiration!
I have been looking forward to this from you folks at ELM for a while now! Thanks for delivering and I am so looking forward to unsubscribing and not watching your next short film! You have been and continue to be very inspirational and put out some of the best and most entertaining tutorials I’ve seen out here! I actually subscribe to many of those other channels because they are not as good! Thanks for sharing!
Awesome to see you broadening your scopes! All first times bring so many unexpected lessons, such as differences between commercial and filmic lighting. Welcome to filmmaking!
When he said “I don’t think it looks good” From the start of the film I was like wow this looks amazing! Loved the colors, the lighting, the framing. It was so good it competed with the story for me lol
Making short films is hard.... making good short films is even harder. In some ways it's harder than making a longer film... (some ways... a few... a couple... I know features are hard AF!)... it's also nice to see someone I see as a successful UA-camr deal with the same issues I (and many others) have dealt with over the last 15 years..
Absolutely love the creative take on these videos. So much better than the traditional X-step process video tutorials (although those have a place as well). Keep up the beautiful art you post to UA-cam.
Wow. I could easily see this on being on TV. I thought the lighting was great. This was not only done well but inspiring. Thanks, for letting us see this.
I don't think you're giving yourself enough credit. This was a great short film and it looked really really good. Just remember your audience doesn't know what was missing or the shots you wanted. We just see a great body of work and this was really well done. Especially the lighting it fit perfectly
Thank you and Yes! please do make more films and show the process just like you did in this one - I love Elevenlabs - in my case I do animated shorts and use IClone by Reallusion - it has a lot of features like what you used to do your pre-vis and storyboard even lets you chose your camera back so you will see accurately what view you will see with your camera and lens choices - keep up the great work - God Bless
1:54 I’m a long time machine learning engineer with an amateur passion for video. I always get ask “but you are a nerd, you don’t come across like an artistic type”. Boy, if they would know the nerds in this videography space…..
Even if it's not perfect you say! 😮 I'll tell you for me it looks and sounds better than a lot of the stuff coming out of Hollywood studios. The Arri looks fantastic the way you have it set up, the lighting is lovely and the audio natural but gives you that comfortable feeling. The boom looks like a Schoeps??? Anyway congratulations. I reckon they should snap you guys up. Tim in Dublin Ireland
Hey, bro! Absolutely useful material here. I like the way you present with symplicity the crafty preparation and execution of a project. I can relate to a lot of what you presented here. I have some experience shooting movies, but I come from the actors world. I write and act, and just from the past year a strated directing. Thanks for your insightful vídeo.
Those dirty shots combined with cutting on continuity really does the trick for the edit. I specifically played the shortfilm back a couple of times to see what elements are making your cut so seamless. Great job!
Really enjoyed the walkthrough, thank you for opening up and showing us your process. If you don't mind me asking, where does the money come from in making short films? Is it a labour of love or can you actually pay for everything you've spent in the production?
All great take backs and advice! For me, preparation is incredibly important (it isn't for everyone) and the one thing I've learnt the most is to let the actors be actors and not just faces for hire. Preparing your gear, shots, lighting and plan in advance should all be aimed at giving yourself the time and confidence to change it up, improvise, let the actors bring what they have to bring, and even throw it all out and do it differently. Love this channel and really makes me want to make a new film. Cheers
Brilliant! So proud of you, it is a hard task, I directed my first short film last summer and it was not great. I have it on my channel. I learned so much, but ding the camera, directing, writing, editing etc. it is impossible to get it all perfect, you devide yourself so it is never 100 percent perfection in any part, it is like the shots are 80 percent, directing is 60, etc. So a good team is essencial, and it looks like you had that, and congratulations on your directing debut 🙂 I am used to "direct" as I make videos for clients, but that is a whole different thing as you know. Film directing is so hard, but so rewarding. I am planning on making another this summer that will hopefully be 10x better than my first.
And the sound design of the floor creaking, like when he leaned forward, is brilliant, I did not notice it at first, but it makes you pay attention to the moment, and it is a comedic beat too. Great job!
Normally I don't see the need for story boards..unusual shots are the exception..there are countless films out there with countless scenes..find a scene that fits your needs thats already been produced and copy it..nothing wrong with it..big budget films with well known actors/directors do it every day..
When actors acquire their chops through theater productions their mannerisms and expressions are exaggerated so they can be understood by the audience sitting several meters or more away. The result is bombastic eye rolling and cartoonish, distracting blocking and expressions. The cure? SO much of getting good performances as a director is saying DO LESS. Focus on “micro expressions”… if a character has to wink, try to make it almost invisible rather than winding the head back, thrusting your head sideways and opening your mouth when you do it. Instead, do it fast and almost try to hide it/sneak it in. This approach will yield 1000 x more believable acting ever time. We did “safety takes” on a feature length where we had the actors give almost unnaturally subtle takes and in the final edit those takes won every single time… even almost whispering lines. Anything BUT projecting. The golden rule is NEVER project your voice OR mannerisms/blocking. Use only small head nods, subtle biting of the lip, tiny wincing when doing something physical etc. It’s the equivalent to “over cooking” or “over salting” a dish. As you go back and watch this short film you might feel beguiled as to why the acting is rather “hammy” and over the top, almost distractingly “high school theater”… and wonder why even smart UA-camrs get these cheesy results. This is why. I call it stage-acting-itis and it’s the most universal problem with performances in smaller productions including this one. The actors need to act for the camera. It’s intimate and all about fine details… even in big screaming/crying scenes. If you combine this advice with everything in this video you’ll kill it with your productions. I hope this helps someone! 🫡
Getting all of the same equipment like you had and paying all of the professionals to help with the filming and paying all of those actors to make a short film...maybe one day I'll....oh...forget it!!!
Microphone matters of course! But! Sound person actually matters a lot more. Because even with good mic your sound can be trash without knowledge and skill how to operate properly and vise versa
Honest truth: It looks like a medium budget commercial, not a movie. The lighting just wasn't naturalistic or dramatic as we've come to expect from modern narrative work. (Not to say I didn't enjoy it, `cause I did. Performances were quite good and the concept was funny.)
@@EpicLightMedia Well, we'd have to know what you were going for before calling anything "wrong". 😉But assuming you want to look something more like "Game Night" or just the general modern Hollywood look, then I think the primary place to start next time is to do less, and to try to make the light look motivated by the practicals in the room. The light doesn't look "real." It looks like you lit the location.
@@EpicLightMedia Also, consider how neutral your color temp is and then look at how rarely grey is grey in a movie. It's another small example of how the visuals are just too clean, too perfect, too synthetic. It's a look a commercial client would love, but it doesn't feel like a living room at night. (Selling night interiors that aren't intended to be super moody is pretty tough, actually.)
Honestly sound design is 80% of the success of a narrative piece. Story could fall flat, but good sound design and lighting and it will be an amazingly boring piece. Bad sound design and people still stop watching. Bad lighting and it just looks bad. Bad story and it just gets forgotten.
I will never suscribe to this channel, because I do not like to comment on videos where I do not learn any thing and therefore I do not enjoy , particularly when they talk about previous videos that I did not watched and was not surprised by the funny ending.
Sound is your video. Video can be terrible quality, and the sound can be amazing, and it can be amazing. This video was so helpful, I will be unsubscribing.
@@EpicLightMedia I think it looks too bright. Looks more like a commercial. Perhaps with darker shadows would feel and look more natural, like you're inside a real house.
@@EpicLightMediaI think folks expect these types of comedy scenes to be more like arrested development and The Office… where they didn’t really plan the lighting and just run around with a camera.
Thanks for not being quitter and making another thoroughly unentertaining, uninformative bland video, I went ahead and subscribed just so I could unsubscribe.
14 minutes and 17 seconds of my life, waiting to see something get thrown off of a roof, and all I get for my time is excellent content... geez... time to unsubscribe, I guess. 😢
Wish you good luck with your next short film! Maybe sometime we well see some great full length comedy movie with you as a director, who knows.. thank you for your videos (if you found some mistakes, sorry, i'm not a native english speaker)
i think a lot of us in this industry originally wanted to make movies...but we end up just doing the next best thing and then it feels like we don't have time to spend making "movies"
The truth behind this is not only heartbreaking, but it scares the shit out of me 😅
Very true. And ironically, before we cared about gear and had the crappiest camera, we had all the time in the world and made things.
I think a lot of people start out wanting to make movies because they're ignorant to all of their options within the umbrella of "Filmmaking". I started wanting to make movies and now I make video game cinematics because that's what I actually wanted but didn't know I could. The truth is that we all end up where we put ourselves.
Please don't stop making videos. My career is dependent on your videos.
Is it just me? The end result lighting and color grade looks amazing. Somewhere between a sitcom and a movie … perfect balance for a comedy short film, in my opinion.
Letting go of being perfect and just creating is the thing I constantly need to be reminded of! You learn so much by doing and you can’t go and do the next one if you didn’t do this one.
The tone of this video just hits differently. Well done. Appreciate your candor and vulnerability. Way to be brave and make something that we all know is worth doing. Excited to see you develop as a director and producer. Thanks for adding value to the craft and to the lives of all those involved. You're demonstrating great leadership and humility.
It's SO great to see another video from this channel! Your videos have greatly helped me as a videographer, and every new video is a pleasure to watch.
This is a great overview and coincidentally tomorrow I am about to shoot my first short film in almost 4 years. Your point about headspace as a director is very relatable and is something I struggle with on set. Overall great video and I am really glad you are getting out there and challenging yourself!
Great video. I went from two short films and a bunch of commercials to shooting a feature length film. The learning curve was very steep, and we made so many mistakes along the way, but learned many many lessons.
Man! I've been waiting for you guys to drop another video. This was a treat.
Cool to see we use the same workflow with animatics/previs - saves alot of time on set and everyone on the time can see what vision you have for the film! 👍 And yes, each shortfilm is a steppingstone to the next one, it’s all a learning process 😊💪 Good job, keep them coming!
Spot on Thomas! Make shit. Period. Make 1,000 things, and you'll eventually be super good at making things! Like you, we've filmed a TON of client work, but have only filmed one short film (72hr competition) recently - and it exposed so many holes in our pre-production process. Stuff that I think we can definitely apply for our corporate work as well moving forward.
Solid video. Excited to watch the piece (next).
Dude, I love your content and being able to watch your journey. Not only have I learned so much from your channel since changing careers, you guys are entertaining and continue to be an inspiration!
I have been looking forward to this from you folks at ELM for a while now! Thanks for delivering and I am so looking forward to unsubscribing and not watching your next short film! You have been and continue to be very inspirational and put out some of the best and most entertaining tutorials I’ve seen out here! I actually subscribe to many of those other channels because they are not as good! Thanks for sharing!
Lots of great insights. You have developed a great foundation to build upon.
This is so awesome. Thank you for all of the amazing videos you have made and I look forward to seeing more films!
So inspiring. Great video (as always)!
Awesome to see you broadening your scopes!
All first times bring so many unexpected lessons, such as differences between commercial and filmic lighting. Welcome to filmmaking!
I was wondering if you were exhausted like fellow UA-camr’s. Nice to have you back.
When he said “I don’t think it looks good”
From the start of the film I was like wow this looks amazing! Loved the colors, the lighting, the framing. It was so good it competed with the story for me lol
Nice too see you back.. Your channel is such a wealth of information..
Thank you for sharing your work and the experience.
I’m super honored to have been a part of your first short film! It’s so cool to see the making of it from this perspective.
Man, i missed you guys. love the in-depth videos
Glad to see you posting again. Good job on the short!
Making short films is hard.... making good short films is even harder. In some ways it's harder than making a longer film... (some ways... a few... a couple... I know features are hard AF!)... it's also nice to see someone I see as a successful UA-camr deal with the same issues I (and many others) have dealt with over the last 15 years..
Absolutely love the creative take on these videos. So much better than the traditional X-step process video tutorials (although those have a place as well). Keep up the beautiful art you post to UA-cam.
Really amazing video guys! presenting you thought process in that authentic and honest manner! Great!
Wow. I could easily see this on being on TV. I thought the lighting was great. This was not only done well but inspiring. Thanks, for letting us see this.
I don't think you're giving yourself enough credit. This was a great short film and it looked really really good. Just remember your audience doesn't know what was missing or the shots you wanted. We just see a great body of work and this was really well done. Especially the lighting it fit perfectly
Thanks so much…. I struggle with low self esteem
Fantastic, so much info. Thanks for sharing.
Love this. Please keep making videos like this! Thank you.
Thank you and Yes! please do make more films and show the process just like you did in this one - I love Elevenlabs - in my case I do animated shorts and use IClone by Reallusion - it has a lot of features like what you used to do your pre-vis and storyboard even lets you chose your camera back so you will see accurately what view you will see with your camera and lens choices - keep up the great work - God Bless
Great job! Amazing to see your own skills growing! I’m curious to see your first blockbuster 😅
I've missed seeing you upload... I'm glad to see you've started up again 🥳
Good luck with your work. You did a good job. The next one will be even better and so each one the main thing is not to stop
So glad you guys are back.
1:54 I’m a long time machine learning engineer with an amateur passion for video. I always get ask “but you are a nerd, you don’t come across like an artistic type”. Boy, if they would know the nerds in this videography space…..
I really enjoyed this video from beginning to end. Really educative and enjoyable to watch. Thanks for sharing all these tips
Always interestingn, high quality content. Thanks for sharing your insights :) absolutely agree with how important it is to just *DO*.
As always we love you brother♥♥
Even if it's not perfect you say! 😮 I'll tell you for me it looks and sounds better than a lot of the stuff coming out of Hollywood studios.
The Arri looks fantastic the way you have it set up, the lighting is lovely and the audio natural but gives you that comfortable feeling. The boom looks like a Schoeps??? Anyway congratulations. I reckon they should snap you guys up.
Tim in Dublin Ireland
Hey thanks! A guy named Mal used to work with us he was from Ireland
This was awesome and really helpful to watch. I’d love to see your through process behind lighting a two shot.
Love this channel
Thanks for the video! Always love the honesty and vulnerability. Where can we watch the final project?
Great job to u and the crew😊
Nice video guys. I really enjoyed the short.
Hey, bro! Absolutely useful material here. I like the way you present with symplicity the crafty preparation and execution of a project. I can relate to a lot of what you presented here. I have some experience shooting movies, but I come from the actors world. I write and act, and just from the past year a strated directing. Thanks for your insightful vídeo.
Those dirty shots combined with cutting on continuity really does the trick for the edit. I specifically played the shortfilm back a couple of times to see what elements are making your cut so seamless. Great job!
Most of your time limit was caused by one expensive camera...if you shot with 2 cameras you would have been fine. I always shoot two cameras now.
I really enjoyed it, would love to collaborate with you guys. Well done! 👏🏼
Thanks a lot, real videos like these means a lot🙏
The way you explained everything was so informative and immersive to watch.
Love from India❤
Thank you for this video!
Great bts, looking forward to more of your shorts.
That talking head shot looks SUPERB
8:19 I ran into this more often than I would like. Great produced video on not just short film but film-making in general.
OMG I see a glimpse of Lynne that saved the whole movie ;)
You did a damn good job. WAY harder than it looks.
Love it
ooaw Finaly u are Back ! thankx
Really enjoyed the walkthrough, thank you for opening up and showing us your process. If you don't mind me asking, where does the money come from in making short films? Is it a labour of love or can you actually pay for everything you've spent in the production?
We spent about 300 and no one got paid. We used the gear we already had from our production company. The money went toward food and props
Stellar video, from a Content perspective, from many perspectives. Do you have the link to that Software?? It was comprehensively helpful, I’m sure!!!
Nice one.
Can you recommend us a few mics that we should buy? Love this!
Sennheiser 416 or 50
Welcome back!
🎉🎉🎉🎉 He is Back!!!!!
the lighting is very good, mister light
HE’S BACK!!
missed you guys
All great take backs and advice! For me, preparation is incredibly important (it isn't for everyone) and the one thing I've learnt the most is to let the actors be actors and not just faces for hire. Preparing your gear, shots, lighting and plan in advance should all be aimed at giving yourself the time and confidence to change it up, improvise, let the actors bring what they have to bring, and even throw it all out and do it differently. Love this channel and really makes me want to make a new film. Cheers
I LOVE WORKING WITH BONNIE!
I can sooooooo relate!
What lenses was this shot on? I love the crispness of this look
Sigma cine zooms 18-35 and 50-100. Great image bad focus breathing
Brilliant! So proud of you, it is a hard task, I directed my first short film last summer and it was not great. I have it on my channel. I learned so much, but ding the camera, directing, writing, editing etc. it is impossible to get it all perfect, you devide yourself so it is never 100 percent perfection in any part, it is like the shots are 80 percent, directing is 60, etc. So a good team is essencial, and it looks like you had that, and congratulations on your directing debut 🙂
I am used to "direct" as I make videos for clients, but that is a whole different thing as you know. Film directing is so hard, but so rewarding. I am planning on making another this summer that will hopefully be 10x better than my first.
And the sound design of the floor creaking, like when he leaned forward, is brilliant, I did not notice it at first, but it makes you pay attention to the moment, and it is a comedic beat too. Great job!
Congrats
2nd rule of wim wenders 50 golden rules of filmmaking:
"If you have nothing to say, don’t feel obliged to pretend you do."
Normally I don't see the need for story boards..unusual shots are the exception..there are countless films out there with countless scenes..find a scene that fits your needs thats already been produced and copy it..nothing wrong with it..big budget films with well known actors/directors do it every day..
A Camera lasts for maybe 10 years, a good mic for 20+, also an argument to invest in a good mic :)
48HFP is the best way to learn! Highly recommend it since it forces you to commit.
When actors acquire their chops through theater productions their mannerisms and expressions are exaggerated so they can be understood by the audience sitting several meters or more away.
The result is bombastic eye rolling and cartoonish, distracting blocking and expressions.
The cure? SO much of getting good performances as a director is saying DO LESS. Focus on “micro expressions”… if a character has to wink, try to make it almost invisible rather than winding the head back, thrusting your head sideways and opening your mouth when you do it.
Instead, do it fast and almost try to hide it/sneak it in. This approach will yield 1000 x more believable acting ever time.
We did “safety takes” on a feature length where we had the actors give almost unnaturally subtle takes and in the final edit those takes won every single time… even almost whispering lines. Anything BUT projecting. The golden rule is NEVER project your voice OR mannerisms/blocking. Use only small head nods, subtle biting of the lip, tiny wincing when doing something physical etc.
It’s the equivalent to “over cooking” or “over salting” a dish.
As you go back and watch this short film you might feel beguiled as to why the acting is rather “hammy” and over the top, almost distractingly “high school theater”… and wonder why even smart UA-camrs get these cheesy results. This is why.
I call it stage-acting-itis and it’s the most universal problem with performances in smaller productions including this one.
The actors need to act for the camera. It’s intimate and all about fine details… even in big screaming/crying scenes.
If you combine this advice with everything in this video you’ll kill it with your productions.
I hope this helps someone! 🫡
You do comedies?
Getting all of the same equipment like you had and paying all of the professionals to help with the filming and paying all of those actors to make a short film...maybe one day I'll....oh...forget it!!!
What software do you use for Previs?
Very interesting. Do you regret spending time on coverage that wasn't needed in the end?
No actually we used every set up in the edit
So you guys finally remembered your password
How long was this short?
Microphone matters of course! But! Sound person actually matters a lot more. Because even with good mic your sound can be trash without knowledge and skill how to operate properly and vise versa
Very good point
make more content as this, just advice head talk, less is more
No problem , your married ".
Blame your wife.
That's always a go to.
Lol!!!
Sorry I'm 4 hours late...
I've been sick... 😞
Which microphone did you use??
MKH50
Honest truth: It looks like a medium budget commercial, not a movie. The lighting just wasn't naturalistic or dramatic as we've come to expect from modern narrative work. (Not to say I didn't enjoy it, `cause I did. Performances were quite good and the concept was funny.)
Why? I want to improve? What did we do wrong here?
@@EpicLightMedia Well, we'd have to know what you were going for before calling anything "wrong". 😉But assuming you want to look something more like "Game Night" or just the general modern Hollywood look, then I think the primary place to start next time is to do less, and to try to make the light look motivated by the practicals in the room. The light doesn't look "real." It looks like you lit the location.
@@EpicLightMedia Also, consider how neutral your color temp is and then look at how rarely grey is grey in a movie. It's another small example of how the visuals are just too clean, too perfect, too synthetic. It's a look a commercial client would love, but it doesn't feel like a living room at night. (Selling night interiors that aren't intended to be super moody is pretty tough, actually.)
i thought i genuinely unsubscribed, but you popped up on my feed. disappointing....
But to Unsubscribe I need to subscribe first.
This channel is like the Bible.
Honestly sound design is 80% of the success of a narrative piece.
Story could fall flat, but good sound design and lighting and it will be an amazingly boring piece.
Bad sound design and people still stop watching.
Bad lighting and it just looks bad.
Bad story and it just gets forgotten.
I will never suscribe to this channel, because I do not like to comment on videos where I do not learn any thing and therefore I do not enjoy , particularly when they talk about previous videos that I did not watched and was not surprised by the funny ending.
Sound is your video. Video can be terrible quality, and the sound can be amazing, and it can be amazing. This video was so helpful, I will be unsubscribing.
I don't know lighting looks unnatural
Tell me how so I can improve
@@EpicLightMedia I think it looks too bright. Looks more like a commercial. Perhaps with darker shadows would feel and look more natural, like you're inside a real house.
@@EpicLightMediaI think folks expect these types of comedy scenes to be more like arrested development and The Office… where they didn’t really plan the lighting and just run around with a camera.
Thanks for not being quitter and making another thoroughly unentertaining, uninformative bland video, I went ahead and subscribed just so I could unsubscribe.
14 minutes and 17 seconds of my life, waiting to see something get thrown off of a roof, and all I get for my time is excellent content... geez... time to unsubscribe, I guess. 😢
Wish you good luck with your next short film! Maybe sometime we well see some great full length comedy movie with you as a director, who knows.. thank you for your videos
(if you found some mistakes, sorry, i'm not a native english speaker)