Making Films in Less than a week - The benefits

want to have an excuse to finish a film in a very short amount of time don't care if it's amazing but just want to have fun then I encourage you guys to try making films in under a week and here is why hey guys it's Tanika Ponte and today I kind of want to talk about why you guys should try making a short film in a couple of days - less than a week back at CalArts at around fall we had this event called the 48 hour film lockdown event which we all gathered around to hear the current year's theme and therefore we had to produce a short film in 48 hours now the event itself isn't led by the school itself but rather the students so during the weekend we'd all produce a short film of our own revolving around a current theme and by the next weekend we had our film screening when I was a freshman back in 2011 I had teachers who were totally against with the 48 hour film event they found it a waste of time and energy and also the work that comes from the 48 hour films is not really work safe or isn't something you'd want to put in your demo reel due to content or skill showcase wise but really that's not the best reason to stop anyone from doing the 48 hour film event or doing anything similar sure you may not come out with work that's talked to your presentation or quality wise it's off the roofs but there's a lot of benefits to it and these benefits would later make teachers give assignments to students where they'd have to make a film in under a week 48 hour films a couple of days to a week let me tell you why making a short film in a very short time frame is so beneficial to you as a filmmaker number one you're kind of forced to come up with a product in a very tight deadline actually at CalArts the 42 hour film event was optional but once the events started we all just rushed back to our computers and worked on a film you want to try actually finishing a short film for the very first time this event is great for that there's almost no time to just procrastinate or think hard about your film sometimes it's better to have finish something casually than to overcast me and not finish anything and this will sort of test how you can improvise when actually making a film number two it makes you decide how much time you want to spend on it some people just want to spend a few hours to a day on the film and not just submitting it after that day is done and then there are people who will use the weekend to spend all-nighters to spend full hours making a short film events like these do encourage people to kind of be wise and how much time they want to spend on a film there's still kind of test you and how you want to dedicate your time you can spend a few hours just working on a film and a few hours actually enjoying life but if you want to hear my honest opinion I say go for the crunch I don't encourage anyone to turn crunch until a lifestyle but because the timeframe is so short and if you have the energy go for it the 48 hour film is great and actually experiencing the crunch just experiencing it and what it's like and how you can work around it or prevent it from happening because crunching may happen in bigger productions and your experience in an event like this is very similar to that also is to see how much you can do in all your power when you're putting extreme pressure how you manage your willpower and kind of understanding what you're capable of during these pressures some people work best during pressure and others just can't so I say just try it for an event like this number three it makes you decisive and moving forward because you have so little time you can't just sit down and think too long you only have 48 hours or you only have a week to come up with a film when I was working on a short fretted our film with Mike Piazza a friend of mine we were just saying yes and yes to everything we came up with the goofiest ideas and just said yes and let's just go right at it we didn't care at the story made sense over the character design was awesome the rule for us was that if it just sounded fun just to do we're gonna do it if it ends up not working well we'll just take it out or just leave it as is fitting too hard about making something that's top-tier quality is just def stall us and we're not gonna go anywhere number four it forces you to be very creative in a very small time window now there's two parts to this one first is because you just have a very small time window you kind of have to come up with ideas that are non-conventional you can't think too hard about having structure to your movie and you'll come up with ideas that can work with that schedule the second part is having to make decisions such as ending the film sooner than you imagined all the 48-hour films that I've done I've had these big ideas that I've always wanted to do but I never had time to actually manage it and therefore I had to make tough decisions such as cutting the film down and as a challenge you kind of want to end it in a way that can make sense to your schedule as much as you don't like you you have to be creative and how you want to wrap up your project as soon as possible it's gonna make you work smarter and if optional it might make you work harder at the same time so you might get the best of both worlds there's no way you're gonna come up with a fully finished looking film there's no way the production quality of that film will be off the roofs you don't have time for that in most cases you don't have time to fully animate your films but if you want to retain some fun animation well you're gonna have to work smarter maybe reuse assets and drawings and just manipulate the movements for those instead of having to redraw each new print maybe you're gonna have to choose a more crude and simple style or some people just have a film that's just one shot set parameters for yourself part of working smarter is kind of being both creative and innovative at the same time how creative are you to make solutions that work well for you how creative are you to come up with a solution that will help you finish a film within that time period number six it's going to help you discover future filmmaking problems and hiccups that may occur later in the future listen when I was working on fighting our films or films in less than a week I found video compression issues technical filmmaking issues the sound was off sync so is the animation some of my files got corrupt but I also got to learn how the programs worked how to use a software and how these experiences using these tools can later be applied to bigger and more important projects because events like these aren't supposed to be taken seriously the risk is super minimal encountering and solving the problems that I face during these 48 hour filaments will definitely help while working on much bigger projects number seven it shows the full raw uncensored type of artist and filmmaker you are the problem I have when working on more top tier or prestigious projects is that there's always a high standard for me to hit and sometimes I do things that don't best represent me however two four eight an hour to less than a week film projects I'll come up with gags and jokes are so unconventional so weird maybe inappropriate but in the end it makes for a more unique fun film with that time pressure you're gonna make decisions that only you can make without thinking too hard if it's gonna impress the mainstream audience some people made super gross or super violent films yes people did come up with a lot of inappropriate films but some people made more safer films some people made really weird film but events like the East will really test you to make decisions that only you and no one else would make I would make decisions that kind of make you excited or make you giggle a bit who knows number eight try to have fun and not take it too seriously unless your life and career really depends on this one film and I pray to God that's not the case I would just say just have fun and I'll take it seriously you're not trying to come up with a magnum opus with this event and if you feel that working very hard and being very ambitious with your film is part of the fun then by all means go for it also the point of these fellow vents like before you to our film event or a film made in a week event you should kind of let go of your ego one thing I like to think about is that the film I'm gonna make is gonna be stupid it's gonna be shitty it's gonna be bad therefore it's gonna lift all the pressure on my back it's gonna lift all that burden away when I work on short films I think too hard about the story structure and I want to make sure the quality is great but with super short film events all I'm thinking is this films gonna suck but you know what let's have fun with it even if I set a lot of work for myself might as well make it a great experience no point in trying to impress people we're all making stupid stuff together let go of that ego that right last but not least you finish a short I remember when I was thought at school some students couldn't graduate because they've never finished the film but you know what just turning that film you did during the weekend there's not a lot of people who can say they finished a short film I think finishing a short is a huge accomplishment because you already know how to come up with a film from beginning to end even if it's not the most perfect thing it stands on its own by its own right it's a film that you can watch and it's a film that anyone else can watch and sometimes you won't know those short films might actually take you somewhere actually a few of my 48-hour films have gotten me job offers from major studios sure it's not anything I add to my portfolio but there's a lot to be desired from actually having a short even if it's not the most prestigious looking thing now when all that said and done and if this is something that you guys are interested in organizing an event where you guys can select a theme and get started on films if you're a student at a filmmaking school or an enemy in school you guys should do this with your fellow classmates organize and meet up and a group if you're still student maybe you can encourage the school to kind of promote it but again it's not optional last but not least organize a screening have a party in screening for all of your hard work and when you guys watch the screen together laugh together get grossed out together and knowing that these films were just made for fun and not having to impress a studio or past school makes the entire event a whole good time anyways thanks for hearing me out and if you guys want to see films that I've made in 48 hours to a week I'll upload them other than that I'll see you guys around interested in learning hand-drawn animation or learning how to finish an animated shot from beginning to end have a look at the store where you'll find the complete introduction to 2d animation video course tutorials and other resources learn classical animation approaches drawing lectures techniques and other process videos visit the store through the link in the description below

Channel: Toniko Pantoja

Views: 58,994

Keywords: Toniko Pantoja, Youtube, Animation, Tutorial, Advice, Lesson, Vlog, Adobe, Photoshop, Animate, Flash, After Effetcts, Premiere, Video, Film, 48 hour film, one week film

Id: ZUWXN_V25Jo

Length: 9min 44sec (584 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 10 2019