u/Beetle_Box

If she did this as a guest at my home, I’d be frustrated, but I don’t think she would.

She’s there (probably contractually obligated) to promote a movie and been cajoled into this silly gameshow. She shouldn’t be expected to lie and do a song and dance so Elle can get clicks. Any celeb that plays along is a saint and I don’t blame anyone who doesn’t want to surrender their autonomy in this situation.

No hate to the people at Elle either. They’re just trying to make content.

Bold of you to dox yourself given your posting history.

I'll add that the perspective favors Walt's POV, which makes sense for the show. Aside from the first shot, which exists to show us Walt when he's talking, you can basically draw the 180 line between Walt and everyone else at the table.

Yeah, this AI slop sounds like trash. But to take it seriously for a sec: OP, if this is your story, why on earth do you need to depict the plane crash anyway? That's way outside your lived POV. You weren't on the plane. At most, you'd want to establish the execs needing to catch a flight, then show the dramatic moment where you learn about the crash later on.

Maybe you’re confusing “kind” with “pushover” or something? Sounds like you’re advocating for being a jerk, and I know that ain’t it.

Good note. Save the post mortem for another day. Focus on productive conversation and moving the ball forward.

I’ll stress that last bit - speak with grace about everyone you work with. Don’t be petty. Don’t gossip about people.

I appreciate your self awareness here - if you’re not getting the performance you want out of your actors, you have to share in the blame.

Besides the obvious - getting better at directing and possibly working harder in casting - you need to work on your cognitive dissonance. It’s critical that you care about your work, but only up to the point where it’s healthy for you and those around you. You need to recognize the moment you’re approaching negativity; you recognize you’re about to lash out or are experiencing unhealthy levels of stress/anxiety/frustration that you should not be holding. At that point, you need to be able to flip the switch and realize you’re just playing with cameras and none of this matters.

Ideally, you become able to ease from passionate to chill to passionate again as many times as you need to get through the day. Learn to accept the small losses and stay focused on winning the war.

Remember, you’re all learning and growing together! Pulling through stressful moments with camaraderie and grace will net you lots of love and support in the long run!

Study is good, but there’s no substitute for experience.

Brutal. Sorry to hear. I'd love to move back home some day, but that feels near impossible with the existing job market.

Good luck! Don't let the tough parts diminish your enjoyment of it.

I’m just learning of her and it makes me upset. All her vids are like this. 😭

Feels like a very specific niche to fill in the Mitten. Do you work other roles as well, or are you able to make a living off of script supe work?

Still a good idea to line the script on the shoot as well! Never know when an angle's going shift or a director decide "we actually only need this shot for the first half the scene."

Lining in prepro ensures you've planned good coverage. Lining in production ensures you've actually captured good coverage.

Agreed. OP, it's great to have that clarity of vision while you're writing it, but you need to understand that anyone who reads your script is going to have their own vision as they read it. Hopefully, their vision is so exciting to them that they want to be a part of making it a reality. But what gets made is ultimately not your vision of it, or any other singular person's. Filmmaking is collaborative.

Just to fill in the blank...

When the line is squiggly over the dialogue, it means that person is not in that lined shot. For example, with the cu of the girl the squiggly line goes over the boy's dialogue-- telling you that he is not on screen. Why do this? I really don't know.

This is tracking coverage - what lines of dialogue have been said on camera in each angle. In the moment, this helps guarantee every line's been captured on camera at least once, or to the director's satisfaction.

In post, the director and editor may reference the lined script when they're looking for a specific shot. Perhaps the director wants to use the CU of the girl when she says a particular line - they can reference the lined script and confirm the girl did indeed say that line in the CU shot before digging through the footage for it.

YouTube producer here, with a lot of experience in explainer videos and nonfiction work featuring scientific concepts. My advice is going to sound a bit like "just follow your passion" but I promise it's more pragmatic than that.

I'll say up front that film and video is not a stable business. Prepare for that. And understand that the percentage of people working in creative fields that also get to work on the type of subject matter they're interested in is a very, very small number. Finding a gratifying creative job on working on scientific-adjacent content is harder than finding a needle in x10 haystacks.

So my advice is to build your portfolio while you hone in on the work you truly want to do. And by that, I mean pick portfolio projects that you really feel passionate about and not the projects that you think you need to do to get a job. Out of the broad range of work you described, what are the ideas you most want to make happen?

Start picking projects that you want to work on now, not four years from now after you've gotten another degree. Write the script, shoot the documentary, make the art installation, write the album or whatever it is you most want to do. You may find that thing isn't what you want to do long term, or it may narrow your focus in a way that clarifies your career path completely.

What you've described is a broad range of possibility. Don't make a full career pivot before you have a real sense of where you want that pivot to take you. Good luck!

Unsure what’s exactly at play here, but a shocking amount of car ads use CGI. Every piece of the car is digitized, including all the optional trims, etc., so they’re able to swap out features in post. I would be surprised if it’s not also used to beautify a vehicle too.

If you need to show something for story purposes, the stakes should feel as real to the audience as it does to the characters. Doesn’t matter if we know the twist is coming.

We know in 99.9% of stories, the hero doesn’t die, but the story’s still told as if the hero could die. We’re gullible like that - we still feel the tension and the drama. We’re there to enjoy the ride.

This is the way. Don’t let them ghost you. If they want to bail on you make them say so.

But absolutely start looking for new representation.

Not a specific answer, but think about the characters when they're not speaking. What are they thinking or feeling? One way to start thinking about this is to watch your actors when they're not speaking - some really great acting happens between lines of dialogue. Did they give you anything obvious to consider? Was there a twinge as they realized something or were stung by the other guy's words? Did they give an expectant look after they dropped a bomb, or a seething look after delivering a harsh line?

Filming a tense conversation is like filming a boxing match - sometimes you want to focus on the person throwing the punch, sometimes you want to focus on the person taking it. Watch your favorite fight scenes and pay attention to what each shot is showing. What shots tell you the hero's struggling, or that their opponent is holding something back? What shots tell you the tables are turning? The same visual rules can be applied to dialogue scenes.

Speaking of action - your actors feel nailed to the floor. I get that it's a stand off, and you're always going to be limited by time and resources, but a little movement goes a long way. My suggestion: let the actors do the scene before you set up the camera. Give them a few parameters to start with ("I'd like this to be a showdown, centered about here.") but let them show you what they'd do naturally. Then hone their blocking and your camera placement down from there; maybe you want to stay wider to catch a particular hand movement, or plan a quick close-up insert to catch that guy looking over his glasses, or a reverse shot when he turns his back for a moment to process the implications of what's been said.

Or maybe you let them move in and out of frame without compensating for it at all. Up to you. But it's hard to get actors to stand stock-still and make it feel natural.

That said, you got a lot right in this scene! It looks good and seems like an interesting script. Keep it up!

Been working in the business over 15 years and I can trace all my jobs back to two specific connections I made early on. Getting out there and making a good impression is everything.

Hey OP, I feel for you. I think you're in a moment that often divides film pros from film fans. That is, it sounds like you're facing the reality of the career vs the fantasy of it.

The way you've framed it, you're longing for the art of filmmaking; the feeling of your dream, your creative vision, coming to life. The recognition of being a director. Which, sure, is aspirational.

But the majority of working professionals are not fulfilling those dreams day-to-day. We're working on other people's sets as cam ops, grips, glam, production design, PAs and runners. We're shooting commercials for mayo or local car dealerships, or boring-as-heck interviews. And you know what? We're loving it. Because every day we get to hone our craft, try new things, meet cool people, and stay in the game.

Making your own film is something you keep striving for, of course. But if you can't picture yourself somewhere in the crew, or in the production office, or somewhere film-adjacent for a living, you should probably stop dreaming about pursuing this full time. Work your 9-to-5 job, save money, and enjoy shooting your short films when you can (or sending your scripts out, or making YouTube content, or whatever your passion is.) Truly, you could strike gold either way. But if you can't get comfortable below the line at this early stage of your career, you're not likely to make a living in film.

https://giphy.com/gifs/1412QM7NaCZMyc

The other half the audience are redditors who will become obsessed over the meaning of the blue sweater.

For real though, it’s about intentionality. A large portion of the audience won’t notice a change if it’s subtle enough. Those that do notice will forgive it if they can see the logic (even if the logic is “it just looks better this way.”)

I wish more directors understood this. I’ve seen so much good work hindered by fealty to continuity, when a little cheat would make it something great.

Adjust that light. Shift that blocking. Skip that technical beat no one actually cares about.

It’s about knowing when to break the rules.