DISS

The first steps of a wannabe film maker in the world of film are, like all first steps, pretty scary. You've seen some films, you have an idea of what you'd like to make, but you have no idea where to begin. You can take a big step to a film school, which at least will mean that afterwards, people will take you seriously. But if you lack both time and money for that, you need to think of other ways to start your new career. You can do courses, that teach you how to use a camera, how to hold a microphone and how to edit. But in the end, the moment will come when you just need to start filming.

That's the moment where you have to start making choices. It takes time to make a film, even a little one. Luckily, you can enter as many film competitions as you want, for which you can practice all the things you've learned, for that one big goal: your Own FIlm. What's good about those competitions is that they set some rules, that are mostly restrictive, that simplify the process.
I'm trying to translate a film into a new version of just sixty seconds: Done In Sixty Seconds. For me, it is a perfect concept to try fiction for once. Because it's taking us a lot of time already, for just sixty seconds, and we haven't even shot a single scene.
I love it though, to chose scenes together, to brainstorm about locations, actors and camera angles. If I could only do this every day! In the end, of course, it comes down to a lot of emailing to people and places that we had in mind, so again, I'm producing. But next sunday, everything we've arranged will come together so we can film our version of The Social Network.

In our search for good films to remake (in sixty seconds of course), I found some websites that are probably already very known by everyone, but are still worth mentioning. Apart from DISS - see the internationale site for the better films - there is a site where well known films are being reenacted in thirty seconds. By bunnies.




And How it should have ended shows different possible endings of films that, according to the makers here, ended in a bad way. Of course, my personal favorite here is The Social Network.

My previous competition where I participated with a friend of mine, was Nachtshots, that took place during the Museum night in Amsterdam. We tried to film all the museums that were involved in that night, and cycled the city of Amsterdam three times in two days, filmed the sign of the hidden church museum Ons Lieve Heer op Solder in the red light district, in the middle of the night, and took it hours to edit everything on the right beat. We didn't win, but we made a lovely little film!




So, be inspired, use every chance you get to film and enjoy the process!