Fighting and horror were definitely two of the modules on my film course. Didn't really have much of a choice there... the comedy module was fun though. We did a mockumentary but it was part of a larger piece - we made a load of comedy commercials and halfway through, the "viewer" changes the channel and watches something else for a bit. (We also copied Brass Eye rather than the Office as well.)
I still remember when my teacher was mad at me for using colour because the end credits were in black and white and he preferred that. There was no reason to do the film in black and white tbh. Not gonna lie, I feel like there's a lot of people who aren't really talented filmmakers who end up as teachers and bring those stereotypes to life with their students.
I’ve used guns, black and white, waking up and getting ready for the day, and I think I’ve avoided the rest so far. Next time I make a movie every character will be constantly chain smoking
Most students using black and white who aren’t into Eastern European cinema usually do it because that’s what Nolan did with his first film. For clarification to anyone planning on copying him, Nolan did it because he didn’t have the money to go through the coloring process and he also made it work for him due to the type of genre his film fell in.
Im looking to make my first film and I plan on it being in black and white however it's a noir crime type movie and I think stylistically given that subject matter filming in black and white makes sense. The only caveat would be if I had the money to shoot color film and have it look like a gritty seventies type crime thriller id opt for that but given financial limitations digital will likely be my only option and therefore I think black and white is the best option I might have in regards to making the whole thing work
@@Owen-ub3fv Make a coherent debut feature film on your own for $6K, and you’re allowed to get away with some cliches if you want. Following was also made in 1998 and completed in 1999, have you considered that many of those clichés weren’t clichés at the time and that it may very well have actually created some? No, because you just had to inject your opinion so you can act superior, despite having nothing to show for it.
I'm less inclined to have an issue with the black and white thing, but only if it isn't being done specifically to match the "noir" dramatic feel. At the end of the day doing black and white doesn't take away from the film if the rest of the technique is right. It does help, for those with no budget, to do black and white because it cuts way back on the amount of color work you have to do to get an acceptable look. At the lowest level, if you're avoiding the cliche reasons for using b+w, it can actually boost the level of professionalism for new film makers. I'm all for that.
I splash my face to calm myself down when I'm stressed or I splash my face when I cant focus so I can feel fresh, so does a lot of people I know, but I guess if it's something that isn't commonly done by people around you or yourself I see why you'd think no one does it ever.
Starts with someone waking up to look at their phone or alarm clock. Then later they'll be staring depressed or anxious into a mirror washing their face with water or throwing back pills which is sometimes proceeded by them sitting in their bathtub because they're too effing lazy to film something outside their accommodation.
I've worked with student filmmakers in California, Hawaii and Louisiana. My biggest issue was casting their classmates that couldn't act. For example a role meant for a 50 year old man played by an 18 year old.
omg... Because the splashing the face trope is always in movies, I actually thought people do that in real life growing up. So... I splash my face sometimes when I get stress, thinking it would help me clear my mind lmao. Well, now I know!
student films are often always interior, no one wants to gamble outside or try things comically enough in high school, we always did things outside because naturally there's more fun things outside... but i guess the film students are taught only "safe methods"
@@terrortower666 have some circles appear above their head one after the other along with a rising xylophone chord progression that lead upwards to a big, cartoon thought bubble above their head and add a sound effect as it appears that sounds like *hmm*. also don’t forget to have them scratch their chin. when theyre done thinking you can also replace the thought bubble with a lightbulb and have a *ding!* play. i have been a film teacher for over 15 years now this is the ONLY way to do it without being a no-good, very bad, hack director who would better contribute their skills cleaning portable toilets on the set of the film rather than any kind of artistic input.
In college/film school, I unintentislly did the age and waking up cliches, although they were flipped. With the age thing, I had 20 somethings play teenagers (although I never specified what age they were, so I think I was able to get away with that), and with the waking up thing, I actually had the main character doing it near the end rather than the beginning of the film.
Those aren’t actually issues then, most movies have adults play teenagers and if they’re as young as 20 you can definitely get away with that, and the cliche is having waking specifically be how the student film opens. You can have people wake up in your films just don’t open with it.
my first film i just finished last month had to be black and white (and silent) as part of the requirements and i used smoking and a film within a film ending. and i called it “A Student Film” which im sure is also a cliche. had cool music and main effect though. plenty of other first semester films were full of these. especially the dream endings, smoking, guns
Im an animator and I had to help on sets at my old college with student films like fetching coffee adjusting mics for extra credit. This made me laugh so hard thank you its so true XD Actors and actresses are like a different breed of human beings to me when it comes to preparing to do a thing too.
Nice list. Another one that I would add is when you add music that doesn't fit the scene. I've seen a lot of videos where the music was a lot more intense than the action that was taking place on screen.
My favorite is when highschool film students make a space or alien based movie that would require tons of special effects but they literally have just a digital camera and no costumes for their actors to wear. so its kids wearing like nortface fleece trying to pretend to be like a space commander.
4:30 wait... you guys dont do that? Idk in which situations they built it in but for example like I've broken a bone in my foot this year and while I was waiting to get someone to help me I was like trinking and splashing water in my face to cool of and concentrate also like washing away sweat an stuff
In defense of use the black and white (voy a continuar en español lo siento) asi se notan menos las texturas de ropa, escenario, objetos, piel y maquillaje, errores de luz y se nota menos la falta de presupuesto Segundo: el problema de adolescentes interpretando terapeutas de treinta años y el de solo hay protagonistas adolescentes son problemas ligados, normalmente los mismos estudiantes son los que hacen todo y no hay mas colaboracion asi que estas obligado a caer en un error o en otro
Recently graduated from Uni majoring in Film and TV. While most of what you said is true, I'd have to say that it's okay to do all of it. In the end, a student film is a film where you're most likely gonna fuck up than do a great film. So yeah, fuck up, it's the only way to learn
I splash water on my face. It was actually suggested by my therapist. Cooling yourself off quickly will activate your parasympathetic sustem and help you calmer within seconds.
I think you should add unless it is a deliberate choice. Having a kid play a doctor could be funny. I do splash water on my face. Am I weird? If you're trying to emulate old movies, black and white and smoking can look great. It's fun to list the tropes but also to embrace them. I think we have to get them out of our system. Great video
Pro directors used black and white as a cost saving measure - less money spent on color grading, lights and/or film stock. Nowadays, you may indeed call it being a "pretentious douchebag" most of the time 🤣
I use black & white cuz (1) I'm color blind so it makes things easier to color grade my film and (2) if the main character is someone who is really intense and sees the world in black and white in an ideological way. Also whenever student films use guns, usually the characters in those films are based around the idea that they need to have guns. At that point, the film becomes about shooting guns and not what the story or characters are about. But, I think a lot of these cliches happen cuz student films try to recreate their favorite scenes from their favorite films instead of coming up with interesting ways to tell their story in their own way.
I do the water thing in real life, so I've written that into a couple of my student films. I didn't realise it was something people don't do irl. I feel so called out.
Black and white is also a good way at making the movie not look unprofessional. Color grading and adjusting your clips in color can be difficult to make it look like it isn't shot on an iPhone or unprofessionally. It's also very easy to adjust the shots in blac and white to look good.
It's been three years since this was posted, say it again, louder. This was an enjoyable watch. Got it from feed, didn't check yet if you are still posting 3 years later, to see how you've grown since this one, but I'll check. subbed when you said "I used black and white because I was a pretentious douche bag" - nailed it. :)
Look… I’ve never made a movie, but… I would definitely make a movie in black and white. No, I’m not a pretentious douchebag, I just like how Black and White looks
I'm guilty of the sink part. I was acting in my film and my character had like a panic attack... and I just naturally turned on the sink and splashed my face with water... it wasn't even in the script
Black and white is not a cliche, I watched a video from another channel that described some very good reasons you should shoot black and white for your first film. If you need to enhance the lighting in your scene with artificial light, getting exactly the right color temperatures to match is not always feasible. If you shoot B&W you can place whatever lights you have in your scene without worrying about the effect it has on color. Also, you might not have someone on hand that is pro at color grading. Even just the colors of random objects/clothing in the scene make a big impact on the shot, if you don’t have the budget to control absolutely every object in the shot, B&W will mean that big red object behind your character doesn’t steal the viewers focus and distract from the story telling
This is actually makes a lot of sense. I will say though. If you are in film school and have access to a lot of lights it may be worth it to shoot in color that way you can practice balancing color temp and managing those colors with intention. I totally see where you’re coming from though, especially for the diy filmmaker perspective.
This was true back when everyone shot on film and you needed to perfectly match the color temperature and all. But nowadays that isn't so much of a concern. I also don't buy the argument about the objects not matching perfectly every shot : if there's a "big red object" stealing the focus... move it?? If you can't move it, shoot elsewhere? I don't really get that. Many times I walked on location and simply asked to move personal items around for the shot. As long as you don't make a mess of it all and the bathroom stuff stays in the bathroom, etc it's not a big deal. Honestly you are waaaay overthinking this. If you look at films like Red Rocket and other great indie color films it's obvious that not every object was controlled and that's kind of the point, it feels more relatable and realistic this way. As Tarantino would have it : "There's always a motherf**** to complain about the kleenex 200 feet from the camera. Don't listen to that guy." Bottom line is, even with all the budget in the world you simply cannot control every single thing in frame, there are always some mistakes. Lots of talented people never make films because of this mentality and that's sad.
@@jas_bataille Youre making some big argument here, but I really dont think anything you said here takes away the validity of black and white. What you said at the end about it being sad if something holds people back from making films... I agree.... thats why I wrote my comment. I dont want anyone to feel like they cant shoot black and white if they find it simpler and thats how they want to solve problems they encounter so that their film looks more professional on their lower budget.. I can think of a lot of ultra specific problems that can be solved very easily by shooting black and white. Its a valid solution, if people want to do it. People can do whatever they want. Shoot color, shoot black and white, whatever works for their project.
I definitively have done the waking up thing. ASMR is a big one I see in student films which I also did. Seems like the kids who love Wes Anderson doing that tired detail of putting things in order, making a meal, etc. Lots of long empty scenes that are meant to look artistic and often do but contribute exactly nothing to the plot and if anything slow things down. Thanks for the video!
Good points! :) I personally don’t mind any of these as long as it makes sense! For me if you do anything set in the 90’s or prior, smoking just makes sense because a lot of people did it. XD
I've used the smoking and the black & white, since it's not an student film gimmick in my opinion, It's very hard to catch beautiful colors with bad equipment, so B&W is still the best choice sometimes
I do this water splash in face, but only in the morning, after waking up to get some more energy. But I haven’t seen anybody doing this while they’re stressed/shocked/I don’t know, something bad happened. It just doesn’t happen
*MasMash Films I just got a noti that someone replied to me with the username "EAB Films" and he was trying to advertise his discord server to me... ... I don't see the reply here but got a notification for it. Thought I'd let you know about this, it's possible the comment was autofiltered for spam but still.
I splash my face with water all the time. Not in that dramatic fashion, but just to rinse my eyes and mouth from any potential gunk (you never know!), and also to cool off my bald head at times.
I only splash water in my face when I'm feeling tired, but then my face feels all sticky and weird so I often regret doing it lol, it only stops me feeling tired in the short term.
I'm trying to work on more short films (I did one short one on my channel called "Something Bad Will Happen" that actually was at my college film festival) but man the process of creating them is SO difficult. Unless I'm with 1-2 people, in a controlled environment, its basically impossible. I'm actively working on a short film in pre, pre, pre-production titled "It Goes on All Fours" following 5 teenagers being stranded in the woods and being hunted by some sort of entity. However, the optics and technicalities of that is insane, not only to mention scheduling people who usually don't know their schedule. I think I might work on smaller short films before I attempt a bigger short film, but I'm definitely not going to give up.
I used to get a lot of headaches and migraines from overheating growing up so in an attempt to cool down I would splash water on my forehead. Even though most headaches have subsided that habit still remains for me. I also tend to splash water in my hair to make it more malleable.
To be fair on that last one, just about no one in real life has seen some of the things the people in films have when they do the sink take. Though I'm not sure I'd do it myself if something like what happens in those movies happened to me.
