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There has never, ever been a better time to be an amateur film director. And the best way to learn the skills is by making films. I was a professional filmmake
by thenomad 10y ago
There has never, ever been a better time to be an amateur film director. And the best way to learn the skills is by making films.
I was a professional filmmaker for almost 20 years before my move into VR, and I can assure you I didn't have a lot of cinematic skill when I started :)
You can cheerfully shoot a festival-worthy film on a modern smartphone. If you want to go a bit higher-end you can rent all the kit needed to outfit a professional two-week shoot for a few grand. You'll still need to find people to cast and crew, but that's a solvable problem.
It's a terrible time to be a professional filmmaker, because of distribution woes, but if you want to make films and you have another job (and you're not terribly worried if they don't get distribution beyond some festival showings), there has never been a better time in the history of the medium to do it.
- smprk 10y agoVery helpful words from someone who has been there and done it. I am not sure if distribution woes are as bad as I hear they are. With transparent platforms like https://studios.amazon.com/ https://studios.amazon.com/ it seems to me (from far) that ease of distribution is at its best too. I don't think it is still easy, but is it not easier than it was say 10-20 years ago?
- thenomad 10y agoIt's trivial to make your content available to purchase. It's very, very, VERY hard to get anyone to purchase it. One of the main issues is simple: there are over 10,000 feature films made a year. How many feature films do you watch a year? Generally it is considered a remarkable achievement - considerably beyond "noteworthy" - in the indie world (and I get this from various communities of indie filmmakers) if your independent films manage to make you minimum wage, never mind any more.