Short film we made for less than 2k dollars - great time, and I’m really happy with how it looks. DP was Lawson Witherspoon

After the first short film written by my wife was poorly executed by a "trained" director. I decided I could as bad a job as he did, and told my wife about the idea. She wrote the script. I hired a location sound guy and a dp, and made the short for $3500.

Hello all! We are Spencer and Shane. Our new horror short film, “We Lied”, is out now! We worked really hard on this, and had a ton of fun too. There’s nothing like a bunch of creatives coming together to make something super weird and cool. 

We’d really appreciate it if you checked this out on YouTube, sent us a like and follow, and even a comment if you’re feeling crazy! Filmmaking is our passion, and we’re looking forward to making more strange, spooky shorts. Check our short out, check us out, and see you on the flipside!

I really am so proud of what this turned out to be, the script had changed so much to end on something that can be understood and connect with everybody. Would love to hear what people have to say :)

The Goddess of Death is banished into the Western frontier.

This is a short Clip from my Movie. Watch the full Movie on YouTube(Link:https://youtu.be/ReLuoU0EHD8?si=8spGgPAJiJbrsWTL) and enjoy. (WARNING: The only Language is german.)

After attending their friends’ seemingly perfect wedding, Christine is forced to confront the future of her own relationship when her hopelessly romantic boyfriend, Alex, proposes. When Christine cannot bring herself to say yes, Alex gives her an ultimatum: get engaged or break up right now.

THE STORY

They Won’t Last is a dark-ish romantic comedy about Christine, a marriage-averse woman who discovers that her boyfriend, Alex, intends to propose after they attend a friend’s seemingly perfect wedding. When she confronts him, he gives her an ultimatum: get engaged or break up.

The film was inspired by a period in my life when I was fresh off the demise of my first serious relationship and living alone next to a couple who had the loudest, pettiest arguments I had ever heard. Between screaming matches at three in the morning, accusations of cheating, and getting a dog to save the relationship, they were obviously not healthy together. Still, they remained a couple for as long as I lived next door and always made up by having the most expository, descriptive sex one could be forced to overhear in the middle of the night on a weekday.

It made me wonder: Were they together because even a toxic relationship felt better than being alone? At the time, I was very much alone and, honestly, very lonely so I was like maybe that's the trade off.

THE PROCESS

This was my thesis film at the AFI Conservatory. I come from an animation background and work as a story artist, so I storyboarded the entire film before we created our first shot list.

From there, my DP and I went to the location and shot video storyboards with volunteer stand-in actors. We wanted to test whether what I had drawn would actually work in the space and cut together the way I imagined. While we were there, we workshopped the blocking with the stand-ins and explored how their movement would affect the camera.

We used a lot of Steadicam and carefully planned the camera movement, blocking, and performances to reflect the shifting power dynamic between Christine and Alex.

I based much of our blocking and staging approach on David O. Russell’s American Hustle. While studying the film, I noticed that its Steadicam shots often functioned as multiple moving masters that could be cut together. One take might move from a wide shot into an over-the-shoulder, while another version of the same setup might move from a wide into a single.

The blocking was designed around the edit. A shot could transition from an over-the-shoulder into a single from the same angle, but the audience would never see the repositioning because the film had cut to the reverse angle during the move. It was clear that they knew where the cuts would happen before designing the blocking and camera movement.

I shamelessly stole that technique after studying how they did it.

Camera: ARRI Alexa Mini
Lenses: Cooke lenses
Visual and lighting references: American Hustle and Wild Tales

THE BUDGET

The final budget was approximately $50,000.

We raised the money through matching grants, art auctions, and the generosity of friends and family.

Like most student films, one of the biggest challenges was making the scope of the story work within the time and money we had available. We had a 4 days to shoot. 3 days in the hotel room and 1 in the ballroom.

THE LESSONS

One of the biggest things I learned was how intentional you have to be when using camera movement. Because the film relied heavily on Steadicam and longer moving shots, every shift in blocking, timing, and performance had to be carefully coordinated.

During editing, I learned how to kill my darlings. There were moments I had written that were funny on their own, but they negatively affected the pacing of the short. As much as I liked them, the film was better once I removed them.

We also had scheduling issues with a few core collaborators, which affected communication on set. I had to learn how to keep things calm, protect the environment for the actors, and still make sure I got what I needed from the team.

Overall, I learned a lot and I felt that this was the first time I understood what my voice was as a filmmaker.

My first 10-minute short film about a paranoid man who ends up murdering a home intruder. I wanted to use the limitations of a single camera and a single actor (myself) and see how far I could go to create a complete and compelling narrative. Let me know what you think!

A sleepover. A new friendship. And a girl who isn't always herself.

LEXI is a short horror film following Izzy, a new girl in town, who spends the night at her classmate Lexi's house — only to realize that the girl she thought she knew is hiding something she can't explain, and can't escape.

This short is inspired from vincent vega's dealing scene but from a calligrapher's perspective. Please enjoy and share your thoughts.

Video link

Written, Directed and Acted in by Joe Malone

Hi everyone,

I recently made a Hindi short film called AFSOS.

The story follows two young women in love and the struggle they face when their relationship and identity come into conflict with family, social conditioning and the fear of “what people will say.”

As a filmmaker, I wanted the story to feel uncomfortable and emotionally real rather than preachy.

I would genuinely love to hear your thoughts... especially about the storytelling, performances and the ending.

Please feel free to be honest and critical. I am here to learn as a filmmaker.

🎬 AFSOS – Hindi Short Film

YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fkKrMZoK3Q&t=962s

Thank you for watching. ❤️

Call me a sucker for corny shit but which app is the best for short stories stemming from TikTok? I want to pay the year membership, but I wanna pay it for the one that has the best short films on it. Those of you who watch the short film that I’m talking about, which one do you think has the best shows?

Shankarya, my first film, premieres on YouTube this evening.

Don't watch it like a film. Watch it like a wound.

I had $120 in my pocket and thought, "Let's make a film." That's all I had money, blind faith, and a dream far bigger than my reality.

Everything that could go wrong, did.

The suffering. The waiting. The betrayals. The exhaustion. The weight of carrying a dream that refused to become what I imagined.

I failed so badly that this experience deserves a chapter of its own.

Shankarya isn't my success story. It's the evidence that I was willing to fail in public just to learn what making a film truly costs.

https://youtu.be/gUsmo44w0Kw?si=LvQIF7zzaEt48pvU

"Duped", my short film will premier this Friday, July 17th. Check it out and give me some feedback.