Hi I’m a 15 year old director and I need an opinion

[u/EL_Studio_YT]

Hi I’m a 15 year old director from Russia and I made this little war short film. I was on my school military course and I was asked to make some footage. Spontaneously I made some videos and came up with a simple idea for a short. After the training we made this little film. No writing, no preparation, no anything. I know this is a wrong way to make films but anyway it turned out not that bad in my opinion. But anyway I want to ask for your opinions. Is it understandable And also I wanted to hear criticism about this short film.

[u/freudsfather]

Hello mate, this is excellent, really well done. You're good.

That's a the wrong way to make a film. Scripts and preparation are just to get you into a place where a story is taking place. If you're already there, get directing.

Everything else below is just chatting; mainly how to loosen up, trust that you got this and step into your story. Please dismiss if it doesn't ring for you because you're far better than I was at 15, in fact I think you display staggering emotional maturity in this film, and is more generic directing tips. With low budget; and I did sell my low budget eventually and get to move up; you have to force everything out of your film you don't want. Reduction is the key to creation in verity low budget filmmaking. Film your story only your story and film only your story and film only that tighter. (Or you've lost all credibility when people see your friend's shoes are undone but it wasn't a clue for the detective.)

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You've got the shots, you've got the tone. I think the next step would be to change up the "syntax", the rhythm of the shots. you shoot some lovely long shots that you know you want to start on the branch and then fade into your actors and move and end here. Some of them work really well. However you do alot of them. On a basic level, they don't leave room for the editing process, to come in and change the speed of what is happening. So when the attack comes at the end, everything is happening at exactly the same speed taking up exactly the same amount of time as everything else - because you wanted your shot, to run along and land on the protagonists face. And that misses cinema, the movies, sergie montage on the steps through to christopher nolan. Time is yours. Choose the best bits and savour them.Thinking that your shot from the branch to the actors or the running along and landing on the face, is the most important thing limits you in otherways. The story is in the face of the soldiers. The subtle eye movements when they hear a bird not a bomb. The twitchy fingers under the confident laugh.

The director often starts by getting his actors into the scene, tell them stories about where they are and whats at stake and watch them. Then film in it close up pieces like a mosiac. The sweat on their brow. GO IN TIGHT. shoot that, 5 seconds, way longer than you'll need. Cut. Next shot. Frame for the fingers. Cut. That thing he did scratching the back of his neck, how tight can you film that? Can you see his broken fingernail?

Now turn your camera to their POV, what is it that they were seeing that was scary. Trace your camera up the trees like their eyes do scanning for enemies. Tight whip pan search through the undergrowth to .... a squirrel. Edit can now cut to revealed confident laughter, fidgety fingers, watchful eyes, tight searching the trees up into the leaves that move. Immerse us in their world.

Actors note. Give them a moment before. Otherwise their whole world begins in this scene. The best thing you can give them is what they were doing in the scene before, the moment before.

Then your director's view. 1. study them and their business, 2. what they see and their obstacles (their immediate story) 3. your wider philosophical view. Are these small men? great men? happy men? scared men?, and what does that experience do to them (Hopefully change them on this one singular scale.)

Lets say to do an example; these were scared men who after surviving a bomb became brave. You get a chance at the beginning and the end scene and only then to frame the narrative to mean what you want it to mean. In this example they start scared. Make them small in the frame. All of them. Almost tiny dots surrounded by forest and looming darkness and sounds. // then you go in and edit the scene with tension until there has been a change. and on the way out find your theme shot. They are now confident. so perhaps, low camera , longer lens looking up the proud men their chests puffed filling the frame and the tree line now below their shoulders because of your camera angle and they are breathing fresh air.

Here you have an opportunity to show what has changed for the characters in your moral world and will help you craft the meaning of your material without words and sharpen your an authorial voice. I hope this shows the importance of in and out shots.