The short film cliches that drive people crazy

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Short film cliches can ruin your film! Write a more original short film by avoiding these all too common filmmaking tropes.
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I've been making short films for 20 years, starting at age 11. I directed my first feature film, Bad is Bad, in 2010. Made for only $6,000, the film went on to reach over 7 million views and garner critical acclaim. More recently, my short film, Will "The Machine", screened and won awards at film festivals around the world. Released online in 2019, it reached over 1 million views in just a month. I also work as a video editor, cutting ads for clients such as Apple, Netflix, and Beats by Dre.
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19 июн 2024

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Комментарии : 925

@StandardStoryCo 3 года назад

Are you guilty of any of these clichés or am I the only one?

@yannberte8291 3 года назад

Standard Story Company. In conclusion, in my opinion, the whole point of clichés is to be transgressed - for example the beginning of "To Live and Die in LA" by Friedkin. It is about a cliché investigation which one finds in all the television detective films of the time like "Miami Vice" - the treatment is ellyptic and lasts 3 min which implies that an episode of this series can be shortened and the rest is just filler without narrative interest ... The viewer got what he usually sees on TV, but we are at the movies and after this brief TV joke Friedkin moves on to his movie : a strategy that pays off. In the Starsky and Hutch series the characters still make it alive (at the same time you will tell me that it's normal it's a series) - in "To Live and Die in LA" the "Hutch" of the film is assassinated within the first 15 minutes; a new team member intervenes. Question: how will the collaboration work ??? The clichés of the genre are undermined from the start and thus the viewer is involved. A great lesson in cinema !!! Friedkin then had a problem with Michael Mann (the creator and producer of Miami Vice), but if I remember correctly, justice ruled in favor of Friedkin. A good approach is not to avoid clichés, but to use them to serve the story. I think it's better. And you ???

@schwartzbrothersmedia 2 года назад

Lol, I do these cliches for comedic purposes in my ads. 😄

@lastyrsman 2 года назад

What I loved about this video is immediately recognizing great filmmakers that subvert all of these things (Edgar Wright being one who loves subverting a trope).

@slipoch6635 2 года назад

Great video

@stagelinedpro 2 года назад

I have done, none of them.

@dyuan 2 года назад

I'm gonna make a short film with every cliche I can find

@lex-hj4lt 2 года назад

Yeaaaa

@adamsobolevski 2 года назад

a true legend.

@quietkid9791 2 года назад

DO IT

@quietkid9791 2 года назад

When are you going to?

@dyuan 2 года назад

@@quietkid9791 probably in 23 years when I have time

@purplealchemistofficial Год назад

In college when I took a film class, our professor banned us from having a film beginning with a character turning their alarm clock off because she had seen it so often.

@loicpetit199 Год назад

What would have been funny would have been this. Fade in: INT. Bedroom - Morning. We hear the ringing of the alarm. The alarm is on the night stand, ringing. In the back, hidden in the zone of blur we can see the sheets moving, but the person isn't shutting it. A loud thud resounds. The man (in the bed) stands up, scared. The alarm is shattered all around the room. Next to the door is a man, standing, pointing a gun in the direction of the bed. The Man: " You're going to follow me now. " Or something like that. It'd have been funny to play with the interdiction to propose something she hadn't seen before.

@BazukinBelyugovich Год назад

Or, don't switch off the alarm or drowsily smack the top. The alarm rings, and then a hand appears out of the bed sheets with a gun and shoots it multiple times, and then the hand retreats back into the sheets. Then the person gets up, to reveal that it is somebody else entirely, and then hand with the gun doesn't actually belong to the person who got up. The, perhaps the hand can appear one or two more times in the film (presumably in bed scenes), and there is absolutely no explanation for what it's doing there. Perhaps the hand can change skin colors and genders randomly, sort of like how "A Heist With Markiplier" does that with the unseen protagonist, to show that it an be anyone doing it.

@BrohemianLifestyle Год назад

Lol. My first film begins this way.

@playversetv3877 9 месяцев назад

i would love to do this so i can see the teachers disgusted face lol

@philm0graphy 8 месяцев назад

bruh i’m literally making a film rn with this in it but sort of ironically

@OrangeHand 3 года назад

A cliche shot I see often is the camera in the cupboard or fridge when the character opens it.

@StandardStoryCo 3 года назад

Definitely done this one a couple times

@alexman378 2 года назад

Gets a lot of praise from film school professors.

@southlondon86 2 года назад

But it’s interesting

@TokyoXtreme 2 года назад

My favorite instance of the refrigerator POV is the Kids in the Hall sketch entitled “Food”. Scott Thompson delivers a fair bit of his monologue directly to the camera inside the refrigerator.

@patrickgamble9014 2 года назад

I'm guilty of this but I still think its cool

@MosesMatsepane 2 года назад

The biggest cliche in American movies is when the family has a massive breakfast spread and they just grab an Apple and some OJ then kiss the family good bye because they are late for school/work. Eat something dammnit! 😁

@hassancamara9175 Год назад

THIS

@WatchThatFirstStep Год назад

If I spend hours cooking enough breakfast foods to satisfy a variety of very particular tastes, and someone attempts to run out without eating, there WILL be consequences. Robert: Sorry, I can't stay to eat. [grabs banana] Gotta jet off to the lacrosse field. Me: Robert, I know this game is important to you. You trained hard for it all year, and I need to you to understand you're not going. Robert: But... but the guys are all counting on me. Me: [takes deep breath; speaks calmly yet pointedly] If you don't sit down - right now - and have a high stack of Belgin waffles topped with whipped cream and fresh fruit, four perfectly cooked sunny-side-up eggs, a side of crisp bacon and/or sausage, a tall glass of orange juice, a short glass of milk, and then eat until you're right at the edge of vomiting [lengthy pause] I will take everything you have and burn it in the backyard. Robert: You can't be serious! Mom...! Me: Your mother's out back digging the pit. You pull this shit a lot, Robbie. Not today.

@willoverdoseonmusic Год назад

@@WatchThatFirstStep LMAO

@ml.frossard Год назад

That is not a script problem, it’s an acting problem. The actors can’t eat the food because they need to shoot the scene more than once, so if they ate the food but have to film it again, what are they gonna do? Waste time and effort making more food? Also, when they shoot the scene too many times, the actors get tired of eating food or pretending to eat (sometime they just put in their mouths and spit in a bucket after the scene)

@bigdawginthecut4076 Год назад

This the one😭

@TwinOpinion Год назад

Characters explaining their relationships in their first scene with contrived dialogue. "David. You're my brother. We've always gotten along. We started a company together. I even made you the COO. I've always trusted you. But..." (I scream on the inside.)

@eco-eta 9 месяцев назад

Yes! Drives me crazy when I see this. Just lazy writing.

@kittycat1887 8 месяцев назад

bad exposition

@TravisMcInroy 8 месяцев назад

Yeah, the exposition parts could definitely be removed or replaced. And if you want to imply the relationship between two characters, there are heaps of ways to do it. "David, Dad told me..." implies that they're brothers without one of the characters explicitly spelling it out for the audience.

@weetuscren 8 месяцев назад

Yes! Dialog exposition is probably the worst thing as far as writing. It makes it feel as though no one bothered to write more than a first draft. I read a lot of first-draft exposition while auditioning… always painful.

@JohnBradford14 2 года назад

>record scratch >freeze frame >"Yup. That's me. You're probably wondering how I got into this situation. Well, let's wind things back a bit." >Teenage Wasteland starts playing

@watcher271 2 года назад

Great point, though not as many movies use this trope as memes imply. Also the song is called Baba O Riley by The Who.

@JohnBradford14 2 года назад

@@watcher271 Lol that's part of the meme, too. Kinda like how in Vietnam movies, "It Ain't Me" starts playing in the background.

@watcher271 2 года назад

@@JohnBradford14 true... also sorry to do this again but "Fortunate Son" is actually the name of the song.

@JohnBradford14 Год назад

@@watcher271 That's the joke, lol.

@jonathancook1096 Год назад

@@watcher271 You beat me to it. Also, Seth McFarlane had a field day with this troupe on Family Guy..also gets in a jab regarding the overuse of Jimmy Hendrix's "Watchtower". ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-98k2DlQ9PMY.html

@arthurw8054 Год назад

The detective who's really good at catching criminals, but is something of a maverick who doesn't always play by the rules. This drives his or her supervisor crazy!

@jdee8407 Год назад

You should have a detective who kisses his supervisors ass, that will really make the audience like him.

@thisiskappa7721 Год назад

Dirty Harry movies anyone?

@arthurw8054 Год назад

@@thisiskappa7721 Which began a whole sub-genre trope about the lone wolf cop who is "forced" to go outside the law because The System lets the heinous killer go free on a technicality...

@chrisfor Год назад

Their fatal flaw is they just care too much about justice.

@tillerman7272 Год назад

basically Brooklyn 99 in a nutshell

@ziibinini 3 года назад

Finally a RU-vidr who cuts to the f*cking chase. Haven't seen an honest, concise filmmaking presenter like this since Ryan Connolly.

@um...angelo Год назад

I'm here to say that, to quote Marshall Eriksen, clichés are cliché for a reason. They're classics, they work. Just don't overdo them or have too many clichés.

@sha4nvi 8 месяцев назад

creepy. i just watched himym

@SteveElOtaku Год назад

The best take on pretentious arthouse narration was Mr. Bean's Holiday, in which Bean swaps the footage of the arthouse film at Cannes with his own home movie from his trip, which leads to the pretentious audio becoming hilarious, as the narration now actually fits each scene ironically.

@GavinMichaels Год назад

LOVE that scene. Especially with Wilem Dafoe mouthing the words to his own film hahaha

@nowherels64 9 месяцев назад

That is unironically one of my favourite films, that scene is incredible!

@TheMelonbros123 8 месяцев назад

That movie was wayyyy better than it needed to be

@ethanhamm3823 Год назад

very interesting that young filmmakers are constantly told to have a unique point of view but then so many young people go to film schools that teach the same things. Get out. Experience strange, specific things. Gain multiple perspectives. If you take in the same stuff that everyone else does, you will put out the same shit.

@Lacolasproductions Год назад

Yeah, i think for film atleast you need to know the basics so you can break them, some people just don't choose to deviate from what they're taught

@noah.blackwood Год назад

THIS IS SO TRUE!!!!!!!!!

@lemonstrangler Год назад

its pretty simple, all you need to do is make more films about depression and suicide

@tatehildyard5332 10 месяцев назад

Or do both and start with documentaries. You learn the reality of shooting and the storytelling principles of filmmaking and you’re out and about learning and collaborating with people in ways you never expected. That and you’re able to work a lot faster and make a lot more in doc because the scale is generally smaller and you don’t need to pull as much together in terms or resources. Also doc is a lot more forgiving of less than astounding production value

@youssefzeineddine2488 9 месяцев назад

I would also say watch international movies. Hollywood movie scripts mostly follow a very similar formula

@kazpaapzak8637 Год назад

- The villain explaining their backstory before killing the protagonist. Phineas and Ferb already do it every episode. - The plot twist at the end of a heist movie that's literally impossible to foresee. - Drinking a glass of whiskey alone at a bar. - Having a depressing job in one of those bleak office cubicles.

@woahthere6020 Год назад

@Lostcutie i don't know if this is exactly what they mean, but this is my understanding (it annoys me just as much): For example, throughout the whole movie there are clues being revealed about characters motivations and such (Or if its a murder mystery, there are clues being revealed about the crime) and then right at the climax, we find out that one of the characters betrays everyone else for a reason that is explained in the moment (impossible to foresee). when there are NO clues throughout the movie about it, even though there's clues about other things, it's like the writer betrayed the audience too. the best type of mysteries/suspense is when the clues are right there in front of you the whole time like agatha crisite novels.

@kazpaapzak8637 Год назад

@Lostcutie Yeah what @WOAH THERE said...

@starsinger5935 11 месяцев назад

That last one is reality and it’s getting worse. Soon every movie is gonna have segment where the main character narrates how they survived their houseslessness phase. Again reality.

@revoltpuppy 8 месяцев назад

“Don't do this because it was done on Phineas and Ferb” is a new one for me.

@weetuscren 8 месяцев назад

Yes! Monologuing Baddies are the worst.

@bighuge1060 2 года назад

The cliche that drives me up the wall are from short horror films where the evil person/demon/etc. rushes at the camera followed by a black out and then end credits. It's pretty much a staple in found footage movies today and each time I run across this cliche (or trope (I'm not too sure of the difference)), I swear at the screen.

@HikingWithCooper 2 года назад

OMG that drives me crazy. Don’t forget that the demon has to have blacked out eyes and creaky bones. Head should probably spin to be safe.

@huntercasey1995 Год назад

I love what Sam Raimi did in Evil Dead where it was just a perspective switch. Now its the camera rushing at Bruce Campbell which was even more unnerving. What a legend.

@Selrisitai Год назад

Tropes are known elements of storytelling. Cliches are overused, hackneyed elements of storytelling.

@revoltpuppy 8 месяцев назад

Similarly, a dramatic movie that ends where the main character suddenly breaks the fourth wall by looking directly into the camera before quickly cutting to the credits.

@SomaKitsune Год назад

The "news at just the right time" cliche actually makes me crazy. It's so unbelievable that it just hurts to watch. And it's most definitely not limited to short films. So many good films use this cliche and I'm always just like "why..?".

@juju10683 Год назад

Steven Spielberg said "leave the news out of it." Or something like that. It is impersonal.

@michaelmcdonald8452 Год назад

Other related annoying conveniences: - A character turns off the tv now that they've gotten the relevant information - They only turn on the news because someone else urgently called and told them to but the story is clearly JUST beginning - Anything the news has to say, they probably already know or at least doesn't help them much and is the whole bit was done purely for the benefit of the audience

@milk3n858 Год назад

Ikr(!)

@julietamargenet530 Год назад

Shaun of the Dead perfectly breaks this cliché, and it's amazing.

@aspitube2515 Год назад

It doesn't means it's bad, many people use it cause it's actually good. But yeah it can become repetitive

@thedchen 3 года назад

Two characters meet cute on a park bench

@BigSmella 7 месяцев назад

Yep. And so fake. Never, ever never happens - ever! *Stuff like this only adds to our disappointment in life as we grow up. Like the feelings once evoked from love songs. Neil Peart (RIP) said something about them like, 'they're dangerous, as create unrealistic expectations'

@peanutgallery4 Месяц назад

It happened in previous generations when there was alot more social trust and sociability

@jkapp374 2 года назад

I always thought the high number of student films starting with the character waking up in bed, turning off their alarm clock etc were funny- it just seemed to me that these hardworking college students are always sleep deprived and seem to be preoccupied with getting sleep... so it ends up in all their student films LOL

@matman000000 Год назад

A couple more I see often: 1. Casting obvious college students into adult roles. No one's gonna believe that your 20-year-old roommate is a practicing lawyer with 2 kids just because you put him in a suit. 2. Sad poetic love triangle between 20-year-olds. We get it, you went through your first breakup, but chances are you find that way more interesting than the viewers. 3. Guns. It's the most boring way to kill a character or heighten tension. Try something more relatable, look through your garage and you'll be surprised how many things could be used as a murder weapon. 4. Trying to look cool. Sometimes the coolest thing is to make your characters fail, be insecure or pathetic is some way. It's what makes them human.

@scept3r.studios Год назад

Or be like Matt Post and have a stack of ice cream as a murder weapon lol

@santiagomartinezcinema4667 Год назад

That third advice can be very misinterpreted

@EyeMCreative Год назад

It's hard to blame anyone for the first one though. I mean yeah don't stretch it too far and maybe revolve the characters to play to the actors strengths and age better, but also when you're a student just getting started, your only actors are your 20yo roommates. For the gun thing, this depends. Guns are simple and quick. Most people with the intent to murder someone, or defend themselves, are going to choose a gun because it's the practical solution. You have to think about what makes sense for the character, and also what matters for the story. It shouldn't matter how the person was (or attempted to be) killed, it should matter why. And is the killer a creative psychopath who uses obscure weapons? Or do they just want to be quick and get it over with? Or is it someone killing an attacker in self defense, grabbing the closest object they can find. So yeah, guns are cliche but sometimes that's for a good reason. You should think about the characters motivation and why they would choose something other than a gun, because guns are efficient and easy.

@CrazyMazapan Год назад

@@EyeMCreative I see what you mean about the actors' age but... Rope your uncle/mother/long lost cousin in if you roommates are too young, or write a story where characters ARE 20 yo.

@dalegreer3095 Год назад

#3 is why I love Jackie Chan, he and his opponents are always using found objects for striking and blocking.

@emmagrove6491 Год назад

"It was all a dream!" is the absolute worst film cliche. My most hated: Giving the audience info via shots of newspaper headlines. Is it 1937? ! Worse: A character in voice-over explaining absolutely everything at the start of the film. "My name is John. I live here in New York. That's my best friend Steve, a bit of a slacker..." Grrgh.

@nikowilliams9583 Год назад

is there a way to make "it was all a dream" narrative piece to work for the story?

@aliensoup2420 Год назад

Or fool the audience in thinking its all a dream, when really it isn't... or is it? Total Recall excluded.

@nochannelmusician769 8 месяцев назад

I’ll take a narrator filled with personality over a breaking news expo any day

@jxomxo Год назад

Honestly the only one of these I will almost always love are the “random shots of nature,” especially if nature plays a central idea of the film. Tarkovsky and Malick are obviously big examples but others are appreciated too when done well.

@-Rens01 7 месяцев назад

I'm making an animation and Tarkovsky's Stalker is a huge inspiration

@ludwigvonn9889 7 месяцев назад

Yeah i didnt really understand how a nature shot is cliche.. Might as well said every rain shot is cliche.. I dont think nature can be over-used, and people like Kurosawa for example always uses/used rain in his movies..

@ronaldrrusti4846 2 года назад

The jump cut at 4:49. Right after you said ambiguity. You thought I wouldnt notice but i noticed. I fucking noticed.

@emilenightshade7246 2 года назад

I'm guilty of one. I made a short film years ago that was just a series of small scenes where a character wakes up in a different room. It had no real point to it.

@hehhehdummy 2 года назад

In my head it looks cool

@emilenightshade7246 2 года назад

@@hehhehdummy On paper, the idea and concept was a cool, but it was the very first short film I made so it was horrendously executed.

@paimei2339 Год назад

@@emilenightshade7246 I love watching first films. The more horrendous the better.

@juju10683 Год назад

@@emilenightshade7246 you learned something. That was the point.

@andeleon6838 10 месяцев назад

wheres the link? i want to watch it @@emilenightshade7246

@chasegibson9020 2 года назад

I am glad you liked "Caroline"! That was a fun one to help create! Shoutout to the wonderful Crew that asked me to join their production. It was a crazy shoot during the Hottest day of Summer in Houston.

@annabelleroma2336 Год назад

That was an awesome film!

@goldwasp7222 Год назад

This cliche is kind of specific, but I see it everywhere. When the main character sees their love interest across the room, then leaves and the love interest looks back at where the main character just was, barely missing them.

@peanutgallery4 Месяц назад

Lol

@jach2513 Год назад

When people break the 4th wall for half a second, or have one self aware line, and then never again. Like in a horror movie when someone says "Don't split up, that's how people die in horror movies!" and then someone says "What a nerd, this is real life" and then they split up like that didn't happen.

@paintcoach 3 года назад

The hero shower lean. I actually saw a movie do this in an original way. The Way Back had Ben Affleck leaning in the shower hungover but they spiced it up by having him take a pull from a shower beer sitting in the soap rack lol first shower beer i have ever seen in a movie.

@juniorjames7076 Год назад

How about.....record scratch sound....then..."I suppose you're wondering how I got into this situation?" That seemed to be in every low budget film in the 1990s.

@coffeefox9842 2 года назад

One cliche that drives me nuts is when someone is shown as dangerous and ruthless, only then to be used as a pawn for an even more threatening character to be introduced. Or, that vicious character then becoming a softy, sensitive and harmless.

@cj1149 2 года назад

Literally Madara

@martianmilktvofficial 2 года назад

Darth Vader has entered the chat

@ebinrock 2 года назад

@@martianmilktvofficial Reva too

@dictionaryofwords1108 2 года назад

"character development"

@bendikstene9090 Год назад

prison break in one comment haha

@randomknowledgeperson2872 9 месяцев назад

i love how most of your examples are from your own movies. this shows that if you’ve done these things or if you are planning to, it’s not going to ruin your film. it might make a few stuck-ups roll their eyes but it won’t ruin it. it would just be in your best interest to find a more creative direction

@WrongThemeSong 3 года назад

My biggest peeve isn't so much a cliche, it's talking head youtube videos with super loud, thumping songs playing at twice the volume of the person speaking. It makes it not only difficult, but painfully annoying to try to hear anything they say.

@chiragjampala1929 3 года назад

Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed

@paulwfranklin1323 3 года назад

@@chiragjampala1929 He might even be talking about this video, e.g. weird saxophone music...

@ebinrock 2 года назад

Exactly. It isn't rocket science to normalize your audio, RU-vidrs!

@milk3n858 Год назад

"HEY, what's up, RU-vid -insert name- here, welcome to another video" would be RU-vid intro cliché.

@dakat5131 Год назад

Any kind of music in the background can be so distracting. The whole time you're trying to decipher if there's someone else talking, or having the clashing sounds drown out what the narrator is saying.

@DyenamicFilms 2 года назад

Films about a film student/filmmaker trying to make a film and everything goes wrong. I didn't like it 30 years ago when two different filmmakers on two different coasts who didn't know each other pitched it to me as an idea and I especially don't like it now because I'm seeing actual films with that 'cliche' everywhere. I usually don't like any films about 'film students' or 'filmmakers'. There are exceptions. Living in Oblivion is one.

@penguinYT1 2 года назад

Love the film within a film trope--especially Living in Oblivion.

@ml.frossard Год назад

Wait i’ve never watched any movie about film students trying to make a movie but everything goes wrong, i don’t think that’s cliche, i actually think that’s a good idea. I would watch a movie about that

@altonkatz2041 Год назад

In the soup is another fun one Seymour Caselle and buscemi have a great dynamic in if

@CrazyMazapan Год назад

State and Main comes to mind. I love that film.

@Laissez-faire402 9 месяцев назад

Pin-worthy comment. Only Bowfinger has done this well, or actual documentaries about disastrous productions like Apocalypse Now.

@samueltriplett 2 года назад

Shaun of the dead did the TV thing in such a brilliant way.

@Fendeguard Год назад

Makes me want to go back to film school and make a short called Cleesh and just INDULLLLLGEEEE. lol

@KRG30001 Год назад

Crime is definitely a contender but I’d argue horror is even more cliche driven. One that comes to mind is the “jump scare that’s actually something harmless distracting the protag from the real danger behind them”

@peanutgallery4 Месяц назад

You gotta love the "protagonist runs and hides around a corner, then slowly looks back to see the monster is gone, but then turn around and see the monster coming from the opposite side "

@pablopereyra7126 5 дней назад

@@peanutgallery4 *taps on shoulder* "Who are we hiding from?"

@BeeDub57 Год назад

Every aspiring filmmaker who wants to avoid clichés should read Ebert's Little Movie Glossary. It's both informative and hilarious.

@slorbas 3 года назад

I think it's more annoying when a character walks away from the tv/phone/place just as the important thing they needed to know happens there. Same when a character looks for another character and just misses them (for instance a character looks through a restaurant window searching for the other one and it just happened to have gone to the bathroom that exact moment and right as the looking character goes away the other one returns)

@Ra-Hul-K 2 года назад

Shaun of the Dead comes to mind

@aligulli123 2 года назад

@@Ra-Hul-K It is played for laughs there tho.

@Ra-Hul-K 2 года назад

@@aligulli123 actually the other day i was watching a series and a character wasn't paying attention to an important news on TV and turned it off while looking for something in the living room

@dakat5131 Год назад

It's kind of agonizing for the audience because then we're just going "Noooo!" and the character won't find out for another 20-40 minutes, if ever. If the audience knowing doesn't change how they view what is happening, then it probably should be cut. otherwise it's just something hanging around waiting for resolution or acknowledgement that's distracting from what's happening in the present. (I know that's a bit different from short films specifcally)

@woahthere6020 Год назад

UGHHH I HATE THAT, or the ones where the entire plot is a big misunderstanding

@Epoch11 9 месяцев назад

The short film cliche that drives me the most crazy are short films without an actual story

@uptown3636 2 года назад

Very helpful, cogent video on cliches to avoid and better alternatives. That being said, at 2:33, you say your dream was about a unicorn shaped like Shaquille O'Neal, but I'm afraid that picture is technically of a Shaquille O'Neal in the shape of a unicorn. Not complaining, I just really wanted to type that absurd sentence.

@jmalmsten Год назад

"a movie about the misery of miseries. Where we find out that the miserable misery of misery is indeed miserable." It is how I tend to describe most arthouse films. Don't get me wrong. I greatly enjoy some films and shows that are thinly veiled metaphors of getting through a depression. Some are even done by filmmakers with first hand experience. But when it feels like it's just treading water endlessly or just a therapy session, I get very frustrated. I mean. Say what you will about Lars von Trier and Hideaki Anno.. but at least they find new and exciting ways to portray mental instability.

@CameronHoskins 2 года назад

“Bad Is Bad” was excellent! I didn’t realize you directed it til the very end of the video lol I saw it a few years back and still remember it as a great example for low budget filmmaking

@clarabrierre8776 Год назад

this video and your channel are way too underrated. no one makes good tutorials like this - i feel like i learned more watching this than what i learned at a film masterclass i went to last week. great stuff

@-Rens01 7 месяцев назад

Really? cause I can find thousands of channels of some dude telling other people how to make their art

@nicolacornolti7796 2 года назад

Without watching I’m gonna bet some of the cliches: - starting the movie with the main character waking up - endless and useless walking/driving shots - dialogues with two characters standing one in front of the other I hope to see all of them, I’ll update the comment once finished the video Edit: okay! Most of them I didn’t think of but they are definitely real. The “it was all a dream” is the worst because it breaks the whole narrative

@hehhehdummy 2 года назад

I get frustrated at useless walking. Some shorts I've seen have minute+ long sequences of just walking through woods and no dialogue.

@oscarjimenezgarrido7591 Год назад

The "it was all a dream" stupid trope has several variations, including the "everything you just saw during the last hour and a half was a lie told by one character to con others", which absolutely leaves you feeling like you shouldn't give a $#!t about the movie you just saw - i.e. HUGE SPOILER FOR A 27 YEAR OLD FILM The Usual Suspects

@SeidCivic Год назад

@@oscarjimenezgarrido7591 Okay, I genuinely thought I was the only one who was a liiittle bit frustrated about that movie, like... what the heck was the point, then? Why is it considered one of the greatest "twists" in cinematic history? It literally admits to being a time-waster, why should I be impressed by something that isn't even based on a true story, cuz at least it would've been impressive to know that someone actually managed to fool the police like that, but writing an entire story only to end up revealing how it's mostly based on clues we barely even knew existed, just seems like lazy writing to me. Even worse is how the actual story is not even that interesting, so the "twist" only makes it worse.

@woahthere6020 Год назад

i was at a student film fest the other day and this girl (i think a freshman in HS, possibly 8th grade) made the ENTIRE 5 minute short about her waking up, brushing her teeth, cooking eggs, walking to school, and walking back home from school. I'm not even exaggerating. I was trying so hard not to burst out laughing. the only reason she won anything was because she made the ending about suicide prevention (which is a very serious topic obviously) but she made it SO flat and shallow that it was just bad and disrespectful in my opinion. also she showed up wearing jeans and a sweatshirt and ended up winning a cash prize (i cant remember the exact amount)

@shambolicrhetoric6143 11 месяцев назад

I’m surprised he missed my biggest peeve: running away from someone and then they happen upon an unlocked car, they look around for a bit for the keys and then check the sunvisor and the keys drop out of the sunvisor and on the floor - then either they are relieved for a moment until they realise it’s a manual car which they don’t know how to drive or they crank the ignition panicked and say COME ON START! 😂 Extra pts - the person chasing them slams both hands up against the driver window and stares at them menacingly or they pop up from behind them in the rear passenger seat.

@FixFilmsLtd 3 года назад

Great post - I have done some of these cliches in my short films and will probably do them again in the future.

@Jurassicparkatmospheres 2 года назад

Me, who gave up interest in filmmaking 7 years ago: "Cheers, thanks for the advice"

@kinhamid9665 Год назад

Pretty depressing.

@BrynDonovanWriter Год назад

In book publishing, we aren't too into the alarm clock opening, either. :D

@CrazyMazapan Год назад

Yeah, and the mirror thing is another one

@Maros_Mari 3 года назад

I loved the "FIN" part - great point there. overall great video. I am working on my short for the film school so wanted to make sure I know what to avoid. Thanks and great job, it was fun to wach. PS. great book on the topic by Sundance people: HOW NOT TO MAKE A SHORT FILM.

@StandardStoryCo 3 года назад

Thanks! I’ve heard good things about that book, will have to check out.

@milankarangiya5788 2 года назад

just finished that book, truly helpful!

@jamestwymanmedia6684 Год назад

Someone tied to a chair whilst a villain monologues.

@councilmadethesequel1818 2 года назад

I'm just about to make my first short film and I've got to sat, this was interesting and very entertaining. I love the sarcasm, but it's all true haha. Thanks for this video, it made me laugh and I got some valuable info from it.

@vivix3795 Год назад

If I never see someone walking through tall grass in the sunshine ever again as a way of showing how happy and innocent they are, it won't be soon enough.

@piperflatline7129 Год назад

With their hand out skimming the tops of the grass.

@CrazyMazapan Год назад

Shut up! I love Gladiator! LOL

@JuanTheBone 2 года назад

STOP starting your 15min short film with a 2-5min credit sequence of close up shots. *Unless you actually have a known actor. These days people have the attention of lemmings, see tik tok, snap chat etc. First seconds should make someone want to continue watching your film instead of continue swiping to their next dopamine shot. And yes these also applies to festivals. Again, unless you have a known actor. Fact of the matter is that even for a small festival judges have to go through HUNDREADS of submissions, they literally don't have the physical time to watch your 2min mood setting credits. Your first seconds should be a hook. Look at breaking bad, a often really slow and moody show. Rewatch the opening scene of episode 1.

@CrazyMazapan Год назад

"These days people have the attention of lemmings" HAHAHA Loved that. I'm quoting you forever more

@jonryanisdead 2 года назад

character sees something strange - they look around - they look back at the strange thing BUT... its gone... woah

@hawksoob 2 года назад

Character POV of gun barrel. Cut to black. *BANG!*

@beatnik50s 10 месяцев назад

The best waking up introduction to a character gotta be the first shot of Stalker.

@pauljakeman Год назад

This was such a great video, thanks for the advice! Deffo want to get into film making so knowing the types of thing to avoid is invaluable.

@burritosforlater Год назад

for years I've had an idea for a short film based on a nightmare I had but no way to pull it off with my lack of visual skills in grotesque body horror

@Nueztoy 2 года назад

Introduce villain by showing his foot as he steps out of a car and then tilt up

@samba9349 9 месяцев назад

I can't lie the dog being scared is one of my favourite cliche's

@milugardiy2110 2 года назад

Please do more of these, there are so many cliches in the movies.

@Jonnynnoj Год назад

-Character wakes up to an urgent phone call in the middle of the night while their partner rolls over in frustration. -Breakfast, closeup of coffee pouring into mug/jelly or butter scraped on toast.

@oscarjimenezgarrido7591 Год назад

Those aren't clichés per se. The breakfast thing maybe, although not really, but the phone call in the night? That happens in real life. A lot. If you need that to happen in your movie, you are not going to avoid showing it and create an unnecessary ellipsis that might lead to confusion in the audience's part just to avoid using a cliché that isn't really a cliché.

@RedCastleCrew 9 месяцев назад

Thank you for this video, helps out a lot! Btw your cat is adorable!!! :D

@ejrosenthal 8 месяцев назад

in 1994 the great Roger Ebert published a very entertaining book on this subject (all films, not shorts specifically): "Ebert's Little Movie Glossary: A Compendium of Movie Cliches, Stereotypes, Obligatory Scenes, Hackneyed Formulas, Shopworn Conventions, and Outdated Archetypes" Frequent laughs!

@romantra1311 Год назад

2:20 Just wrote a first draft for a short with a dream twist then thought note…rearranged and reword a few scenes in the ending to make it all real now and I think it works better.

@brown2840 Год назад

Taking a sip of drink from an empty cup. I see it all the time in big budget movies and it's so obvious. Someone just put something, anything in those cups!

@jasonwhytemedia 8 месяцев назад

Great video. I have worked on some screening committees and have screened for a few film festivals. The biggest one for me is do NOT have long end credits (or opening credits, for that matter). I have seen submitted shorts where the credits are longer than the short itself, or way too many opening logos, or they do a curtain call by showing still shots of EVERY SINGLE PERSON who was in it, right down to extras in the background. Credits should always be short and sweet (and slates instead of a scroll, if you want to be claassy).

@dovim157 2 года назад

Damn! best video ever watched on film making! thanks man, any tips on how to think "out of the box" like a three-step process or something? I would really appreciate it

@beefpattyboi2003 Год назад

I'm in Week 7 of film school and I've only made one short film thus far. I'm beyond happy to report that out of all the cliched you just listed, my short film only falls victim to the first one. There are other issues with it, but it was my first film. I think I'll be fine 😂

@paulwfranklin1323 3 года назад

People with automatic weapons (often trained army/police) who can't shoot someone from 10m away.

@ebinrock 2 года назад

And it's always the bad guys who are bad shots. These cliches aren't just in low-budget filmmaking, they're in multimillion-dollar blockbusters too.

@peanutgallery4 Месяц назад

@@ebinrockor faceless good guys in a horror setting

@JBscripts 3 года назад

Number 2 was the first thing I thought of when I saw the video title. Good list 👌

@TheOmmW 8 месяцев назад

Damn I got the first three down 😂 but I’m also happy that I was able to work around the “waking up” cliche before watching this video! So I’m in good tracks, this was definitely helpful haha thanks!

@THEDONTTELLSHOW 3 года назад

These things seem so obvious, yet everybody falls into them haha great vid.

@tarzan1774 2 года назад

How do they always randomly turn on the tv and get the information they need? Or get told by someone else to listen to the news and right in the moment they listen to the radio or tv the presenter is giving them all they want to know?

@ebinrock 2 года назад

I loved how on Gilligan's Island (dating myself!) the radio would announce something, a character on the island would ask something, and the radio would answer back! Corny!

@juju10683 Год назад

this happened in Final Destination. But people were more forgiving of campiness back then.

@tarzan1774 Год назад

@@ebinrock haha. definitely going to look at this one.

@astro3623 Год назад

Thanks for the concise list, I'm using all of them.

@michaeldean9338 10 месяцев назад

Great video. I was checking out the credits. Everything listed but the music used, (esp. like to know the first 2 tracks.) Enjoying the series. Thank you.

@NotPorn Год назад

My community college in Minneapolis had the worst film program. They kept switching up the format, and all the kids were just wanting to be the new Quentin Tarantinos BY GOING TO FILM SCHOOL. They made us eventually choose a direction in film to go into, cinematography, directing, producing, editing, or screenwriting. I eventually chose screenwriting, and that was the only thing I was learning from. I got kicked out because I wasn't a fan of Tarantino (everybody is entitled to their own opinion) but they were making use choose cliques and they would team up, so I got the z tier pick of the litter. The melancholy dude who wrote the pretentious short film was pissed that we had to cut out dialogue that he thought was major parts of the script. It was just a victim story. My "producer" was getting high on ecstacy all the time, and could only obtain areas like a parking garage and a dock in a public park in the middle of Minnesota winters. The only time people were shocked, was when I helped the editor with after effects. Luckily for newer generations, technology and finding teams to help work with you on passion projects is much easier. I've always disliked the pretentious people who think they're brand new and revolutionary, when it's just a victim based mindset drama film. blegh! Rant over! Make some comedy!

@JHallenbeck Год назад

Currently writing a short film in which a man rides on a unicorn shaped like Shaquille O'Neal. It's like you read my mind.

@annabelleroma2336 Год назад

Great video! I'm currently doing a screenplay where a TV is the portal that supplies a lot of info. I don't know as I can work around that, but I'll avoid the other things you mentioned..... at least I will try. Lol

@mitchelljaramillo 9 месяцев назад

love your vibe. no bullshit. unromantic. just insight. thanks for this

@SlugfestWizard 2 года назад

A character says “as you know…”

@StandardStoryCo 2 года назад

"So you're telling me..."

@SlugfestWizard 2 года назад

@@StandardStoryCo “who are you? I was you…the whole time.”

@alexman378 2 года назад

@@SlugfestWizard Ah, yes, from the people who watched Fight Club and they thought only 10 other people in the world saw it.

@kytowrld Год назад

I’ve made 5 short films so far and have 1 of these cliches, looking into the mirror, it was done to end a film tho and was the best way to tie the story together i call that a W, 1/5 isn’t bad stats

@brianparksdesign Год назад

I’d say looking into a mirror is the least offensive of these cliches. Many masters of cinema use this in their movies. Taxi driver and the matrix come to mind. It’s hard to get away from the power of reflections. I think it just depends on how you are using it. But personally I can think of 50 other things that are far more annoying in shorts.

@PhilipAJones 9 месяцев назад

"Lots and Lots of unrelenting grief." Well that's already a point against "Spider-Man Lotus".

@PalmettoGD 9 месяцев назад

Going in Style (2017) literally has a cat container thing to hold money in the end. Love that creativity you pointed out!

2 года назад

Something that still happens in a lot of movies is "guy passes out after a punch in the head" or something like that. It´s not that easy, guys (not that I have tried, haha).

@monkeyattackedmyass5435 2 года назад

Hollywood has been doing this a long time, and it's absurd. Takes me out of it the second it happens. People rarely, if ever, get knocked out cold with a punch to the face.

@dekumarademosater2762 Год назад

And if you do get knocked out, and come to, you're generally messed up for hours, or days. Sometimes weeks or months.

@alexiss5807 Год назад

@@dekumarademosater2762 It's not just an annoying cliche, it's straight up dangerous for filmmakers to keep perpetuating the idea that hitting someone in the head really hard just makes them unconscious for a while... If you actually hit someone in the head hard enough to knock them out they're probably going to die or at least suffer major brain damage.

@Kyle-zb7dm 6 месяцев назад

Know this was a year ago, but not true at all. UFC fighters get knocked out every weekend and come back in the next 3 months. If you hit someone hard in the head, they probably will get knocked out, if not dazed - which would then make it a lot easier to knock them out with a subsequent punch. I am a fighter myself and see it all the time. People only really die when their head hits the concrete and their skull is cracked and brain starts bleeding.@@alexiss5807

@rivermansky63 Год назад

Scenes of funerals and wakes that seem to drag on forever. We don't need 10 minutes of boring footage just to show someone is grieving. Give the audience a shot of the coffin, a few tears, rain hitting the ground then move on. It's not a documentary, but I guess it gives the audience the chance for a toilet break... Same goes for weddings

@CrazyMazapan Год назад

Does it ALWAYS have to rain? I hate that cliche

@klas-6 Год назад

Violin crescendo, possible jumpscare around the corner. Fake out. Turn around. Actual Jumpscare

@mtmccornack 8 месяцев назад

After 3 years of rockin' the Lenovo Pro duo, the only real-world use scenario I've ever been able to find for that dual screen is to watch the progress bar of my up/downloads.... still one of my favorites!

@NTWoo95 9 месяцев назад

"Inside somebody's head" made me laugh. Not technically relevant but in theatre classes I noticed a bunch of cliches for 'theatre students trying to be shocking', and one of them was "all of the characters are in somebody's head"

@weetuscren 8 месяцев назад

For theatre students I feel like ‘angry method chair breaker guy’ is a cliché

@patrickgamble9014 2 года назад

I love seeing something clever done in a film which inspires me to do something similar - of late I have seen where a character speaks to themselves in a mirror and the mirror version talks back - showing that the character has a split personality or the inner turmoil etc - it was used in The Boys as well as Moon Knight and probably a few other places now and is similar to the character staring in the mirror in disgust and often punching the mirror. I am unsure whether it could be called a cliche but it seems to be a popular tack that filmmakers are using of late

@Leprutz 2 года назад

I think the first time it was done was in some movie in the mute era of cinema. But I am not sure. And I have used the same idea in a rap music video. THe rapper was in front of the mirror and I made him repeat the shot doing it differently, once not rapping at all, just looking at the mirror as he is listenling, another take he is with the back to the mirror. A nice shot was he was with the back to the camera so he was rapping in the mirror, we see his face and his real him rapping looking at the camera. It really fit the message too. I know it's been done millions of times, but it is the little effort of work. And I had to animate it frame by frame cause sometimes his hand would tap parts of the mirror while he was gesticulating. But it turned out fine. I am proud of it.

@CaedanMay 2 года назад

The best version I’ve seen was probably Tobey maguires spider man showing William dafoes character as a “mr hyde/dr jeckel”

@jordanfriedland3955 Год назад

@@Leprutz you might be thinking of the Groucho Marx mirror gag in Duck Soup

@Leprutz Год назад

@@jordanfriedland3955 ok... I will definitely look for this one. Thanks a lot man. You sure seem to know about movies.

@CharmingNewSociety Год назад

@@Leprutz I think this is the difference between tropes and cliches. A trope has been done many times before. But a cliche has been done too many times before, and in the same way.

@5stardave 8 месяцев назад

A number of my favorite movies start with the main character waking up to an alarm, usually a radio alarm playing the theme song.

@johnnysimes5082 2 года назад

The rack focus at the Moment of Truth. That being said, I'm dying to use a rack focus.

@ThomasTulak Год назад

One that drives me crazy is extra long intro credit sequences. If you’ve got a 5 or 6 minute short, with no reputable actors, you don’t need a 1 minute intro that shows me a bunch of names that no one knows yet. When you see this at a film festival it really slows things down, cause there’s a dozen other short films to get through in your block, alone… don’t be the reason things slow down.

@maxfieldstanton5411 7 месяцев назад

Years ago I briefly worked on a short where the director tried to do this. I had to tell him "Nobody knows who you people are to care that you worked on this".

@chrisfitch972 2 года назад

The last video I made…. I was so proud of the random closeups of flowers 😂😂😭😭

@Rahmansalleh1138 Год назад

Holy moly....I'd better rewrite the short I'm working on🤦‍♂️🤣 Great content, very insightful

@acadia5898 Год назад

communicating with the audience is also important. so many shortfilms i've seen doesn't really communicate with the audience and then say that "it's a subtle movie that requires rewatching" or "it's an arthouse type of film". subtlety for subtlety sake doesn't make your film interesting, it just feels lazy that you don't wanna show interesting ideas because you want the audience to interpret the shortfilm as wide as possible. have some sort of an anchor to what is important for the world and/or for the character(s) and then figure out how to tell those stories at your liking. the shortfilm or film won't stay in the audiences mind if they don't have something to crasp of what your point is. they will feel like you are an a**hole because it makes them feel like they "don't get it".

@bobunitone 2 года назад

Opening credits in your short film with no name actors.

@wirly- 2 года назад

When they reveal at the end that yhe whole thing is a time loop. Or they end it with a callback to the beginning. Sometimes a cyclical ending is good but i feel like sometimes it is just used to make it feel more meaningful without actually having much substance to it.

@PhpGtr 8 месяцев назад

Zippo lighters. Haven't seen one in the wild in probably 40 years. But they're in every character's jacket pocket, in every scene of every movie.

@TheNoogie 9 месяцев назад

I think the main commonality with these cliches is purpose. As a filmmaker, there are so many things you have to think about and keep track of, so many decisions to make, that sometimes you're not going to make a decision very thoughtfully. The cliches still get used precisely because we've seen them before. We search for a way to express an idea, and grab the first thing that comes to mind, which is almost always the thing we've seen before. Some if these were good ideas at one point that have become trite with overuse, but others suck because they weren't very thoughtful in the first place. The key to avoiding cliches imo is to really examine why you're making the choices you're making, and if they're actually the best ones. No one likes to hear that the key is basically just working harder, but at least with experience, some if this stuff becomes more of an unconscious process and you can get way more done for the same amount of work

@RadioJonophone Год назад

"It's all happening inside the head" trope works when the action is slowly revealed as being counter to everyone else's reality. The viewer begins to question the action on the screen, yet is drawn into the drama. By the end, when the main character has some sort of gibbering breakdown or mortal blow, there is no need for a twist, an ambiguous "did it really happen?" moment, or a dangle with no resolution. See "American Psycho" for such a non-cliché.

@yannberte8291 3 года назад

As for me in conclusion the whole point of the clichés is to be transgressed - for example the beginning of "To Live and Die in L.A." by Friedkin. It is about a cliché investigation which one finds in all the television detective films of the time like "Miami Vice" - the treatment is ellyptic and lasts 3 min which implies that an episode of this series can be shortened and the rest is just filler without narrative interest ... The viewer got what he usually sees on TV, but we are at the movies and after this brief TV joke Friedkin moves on to his movie : a strategy that pays off. In the Starsky and Hutch series the characters still make it alive (at the same time you will tell me that it's normal it's a series) - in "To Live and Die in LA" the "Hutch"or the “Sonny Crockett” of the film is assassinated within the first 15 minutes; a new team member intervenes. Question: how will the collaboration work ??? The cliches of the genre are undermined from the start and thus the viewer is involved. A great lesson in cinema !!! Friedkin then had a problem with Michael Mann creator and producer of “Miami Vice”, but if I remember correctly, justice ruled in favor of Friedkin. ;-)

@MsAngrybutterfly Год назад

Showing someone brushing their teeth, especially in a documentary.

@barclaymovingpictures3041 Год назад

Great video 💪 One of the first films I’ve worked on as a colorist was short film about depression starting with the closeup of an alarm clock, then closeup of feet getting into slippers, even a closeup of some toast & the closeup of a random banana on some countertop. Not to mention door handles, lots of door handle details. At the end the protagonist randomly screamed & killed herself while being chased by some low-budget demon. Words can’t express how great this film was.

@oscarjimenezgarrido7591 Год назад

Not sure if the last phrase was meant to be ironic, but otherwise it all sounds quite pedestrian - no offense meant. If you were serious, however, maybe it's one of these "you need to see it yourself to understand it" situations.

@barclaymovingpictures3041 Год назад

@@oscarjimenezgarrido7591 This is 100% Ironic. That project was a money pit making all of those first-time mistakes mentioned :D