How to make short film

Do you tell stories to people? Do you like to tell stories sitting among friends? Do you enjoy turning an old incident into something spicy by adding chili and spices? If yes, then you can become a film-maker. You just have to create a desire in yourself that I want to make a film. Professional film- making= This is a bit big job. There is a lot of effort in this. There is a lot of overhead. Budget is high. But can a person like you do so much work? Without any professional film making training? Without any education? This question is very important. And while thinking of making a film, it will come to your mind that I do not know how to make a film, I do not have any training. Then how can I make a film? James Cameron, the man from Titanic, never went to any film school. Christopher Nolan, Batman Wale, started his career by making small films in his college. Madhur Bhandarkar, owner of Chandni Bar, used to run a video library. Film making is an art. If you have his training then your technical side can be very strong. But no one can teach you how to tell a story, tell it in a funny way.

If you want to make a film professionally, then you will need a higher budget. When the word budget is used, then understand that at present we are talking about a small film of 10-15 minutes only. For this film as well, you will need a camera (often less than one camera), actors (if not a documentary), editor, and editing software. For this you have to gather a whole team. For a film you will need story, script, shooting, direction, acting, editing and music. Now see how many of these things you can do yourself. For everything else you will need companions. What do you want to make? Now you have made up your mind to make a film. So here ask yourself what you want to build. It is not easy to categorize cinema. Still, if you think roughly in terms of production, then you can make two types of films. Documentary and feature film. Both are ways of telling a story. In documentary film you tell true story based on documents and in feature film you tell story from your mind. A documentary needs a topic, research is needed for it, people are needed to interview according to the topic. It depends on what story you want to tell. For example, if you want to tell the story of college kids who come from outside Delhi to study in your documentary film. So first of all you have to know and understand how their life is. Then you will choose some people who you will interview for your film. You will choose the places where you will shoot. In a feature film, you need a story, script and actors. The work after that is the same for both. How will the film be made? Decision making is done. Now the work of making the film should be started. The production of the film is divided into three phases. Whether you make a short film or a big one, you have to go through these three phases. Pre-production, shoot and post production. Pre-production- This is a period of preparation. Big filmmakers say the same thing, films are made on paper. Everything has to be done on paper. From planning to story, you should have everything in writing. Whatever you need to make a film, you have to get it down on paper. Story- Film is just a medium to tell a story. So you would have a story to tell, that's when you thought of making a film. But writing that story is very important. When you are putting it down on paper, then you will see its merits and demerits. Only then you will be able to make it better. And we are preparing story for short film so you have to take care of few things. 1- Create a short and concise story. We are making a 10-15 minute film. For this, you should avoid keeping more twists and turns in the story. The shorter the story, the tighter it is. The more tight the story is, the more interesting the film is. And remember, make the movie you want, never make a boring movie. Legendary filmmaker Frank Capra says there are no rules in filmmaking, only sins, and the biggest sin is making a boring film. 2- Keep the characters in your story as short as possible. Short film means you have to tell the whole story in less time. In the film, you have to introduce each and every character very well. If even one character doesn't make sense to the audience, the audience will skip over the rest of the characters and your purpose of telling the story will be defeated. So while writing a story you should keep minimum number of characters. Many of the short films that won awards at the international level were made up of only two-three characters. One advantage of this is that you have to cast at least one actor. 3- The story should be such that maximum parts of it can be shot at one place. Film is such a beautiful medium that you can show the story of the whole world in one room. And to show the incident that happened in just one room, the whole world would also become small. So when you're writing the story, think about your budget, the difficulties of shooting outside, the orientation of the subject. This is your first film. Your entire focus should be on making a good film. So avoid spreading the shooting work. Shooting as much as you can in the least amount of space will save you a lot of trouble. There are many short films which were shot in a single room and turned out very well.

Script After the story is ready, you have to write the screenplay. No, the story is not the script. Screenwriting means writing a scene-by-scene story. That is, when your film comes on the screen, how will it look. Which scene will happen first and which after? How-how, what-what will happen on the screen. It all happens in the script. Think like this:- Scene 1 - He is climbing the stairs. He has a bag and newspaper in one hand. From another he is looking for the key in his pocket. Scene 2 - He is standing in front of the door. He has put the bag on the ground. He is frantically searching his pockets with both hands. Scene 3 - He is looking at her holding the lock in his hand. Scene 4 - He is sitting dejectedly outside the door. The bag is kept with him. A newspaper is lying open nearby. The camera pans from his face to the headline of the newspaper, which reads - World Cup Football Final Tonight. This is a very rough sample of the script. In a good script, you write down all the nuances of the story. Everything from the clothes of the characters to the camera movements. Remember, the finer the script on paper, the better the camera will shoot the film. Team:- The story and script of your film has been written. Now you know how many actors you need. Let's team up to make a movie now. Since this is your movie, you want to direct it. So imagine what other work you have to do: acting, make-up, costumes, set design, lighting camera, editing, music. Apart from these, there are dozens of tasks involved in making a film. But these are the basic functions, without which the film is not complete. Now see which of these works you can do yourself and for which work you will need companions. Accordingly you will choose your team. Before shooting Now everything is ready. Can start shooting. But wait Don't be in a hurry to shoot. There is one task left. It does not seem very big to see, but its importance is not less than any other work . meeting. Sit down with your entire team before you start shooting. Discuss each aspect in detail. Get people's opinion. Understand everyone's point of view. Explain your point of view to them. Tell them what kind of film you want to make. It is extremely important that when the shooting starts, everyone has a clear idea of how the film will look after it is made, because only then will the continuity of work come in and the film will be the way you want it to be. Shooting now:- Have you seen the shooting of any film? This is very boring job. Everyone else has bit parts except the director and cameraman. You have to keep them all busy. It's easier in short films. Most of the people are doing more than one job. It's a small team. Everyone can be involved and work can be done. Camera work is very important in shooting. This is what determines how your story will look on screen. So it is better that you read about the camera before going for shooting. Know what he can do. And use that information in shooting. Some things to keep in mind while shooting: 1. It's good to shoot each scene more than once. 2. Shoot even the one you think won't work. When you sit down to edit, you'll have tons of shots that you didn't even think about when you shot them. 3. Shoot each scene from more than one angle. When editing, you'll find that each angle takes on a different significance when they add up to each other. So don't skimp while shooting. Shoot as many as you can. You must have written a lot in the script. If you think of something other than this, capture it on camera. For example, if you're shooting a documentary, shoot the entire location while you do the interviews. The more footage you have, the faster your editing will be. Just understand that a 5 minute film will require 3-4 hours of footage. Post-production:- completed. You have done a great job. But ... there is still a lot to do. Which takes more time, more effort and more hassle. After that last point-video editing. ................................................................................................ My short fillm-