film school/video production programs

[PhillyB]

so i have like two dozen awesome things that i want to jump into once i finish grad school next year and finally have some spare time for the first time in my life. i have to finish that goddamn book before i do anything else, but after that i have every intention of shooting some films that i've been bursting at the seams to produce for a couple of years now.

the problem is i have no actual training. i am an artist, and i can write dialogue and develop a plot structure and (i think) execute it all on a screen pretty well. but outside of a high school martial arts series i shot and want to bury in the ocean forever, i don't have any actual experience with the important technical aspects of all of it. i don't know poo about equipment, i don't know how to run sound, i don't know actual filming techniques, or how to edit videos, or even what program(s) to use. i'm not planning on doing anything big with my films, but i'd like to produce something i can slap my name on and be proud of.

what's a good start, without investing assloads of time in an actual college program? are their introductory courses or any kind of couple-week seminars or anything that you can jump into?

some of you are into film so i would appreciate your lengthy responses. tia

[Dex]

Will do a writeup soon. What kind of film are you interested in? Living in NYC area is fun and there's always people looking to collaborate on projects. Its awesome.

Also if you're looking to buy your own equipment expect to spend a few thousand.

[Jeremy Igo]

You are a creative dude. I would say forget about all the equipment crap. 

 

Partner with someone that knows how to shoot video and you write/direct. 

[PhillyB]

Will do a writeup soon. What kind of film are you interested in? Living in NYC area is fun and there's always people looking to collaborate on projects. Its awesome.

Also if you're looking to buy your own equipment expect to spend a few thousand.

​

You are a creative dude. I would say forget about all the equipment crap. 

Partner with someone that knows how to shoot video and you write/direct. 

​

without going into details, i want to shoot a story about a cambodian kid returning to southeast asia in the mid-90s to hunt down the khmer rouge cadre that murdered his entire family. i'll need to film 90% of it in cambodia and laos. all the pertinent dialogue will be in in khmer. i have a massive pool of resources in cambodia for various reasons, including english-fluent cambodians (who may or may not be decent actors.) my budget will include equipment, transportation costs, and pay for actors as well as living expenses there (probably about a month) and indirect costs.

this being the case, the thing that'll cause my expenses to skyrocket disproportionately will be film crew, since i'll be paying peoples' way to cambodia, and that poo's not cheap. because of this it'd be to my advantage to have a competent knowledge of sounds and video operation; saving even one tech from having to make the trip would be another $1000 slashed off the budget, which is huge.

[PhillyB]

hey fiz i need a white guy for a leading role wanna go to cambodia?

[Captroop]

If you want a good introduction to cinematography and editing from an academic standpoint without getting bogged down in technical minutia, I'd say watch all of Tony Zhou's videos on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/user/everyframeapainting

Here's a good quick video essay to get you started:

[yt]5V-k-p4wzxg[/yt]

[Captroop]

Erm... How do you attach youtube videos now?

[t96]

I'm a top-notch actor, for relatively low pay.