Where can I learn online about how to make a small film?

How do I learn to make a short film?

• I am interested in movie direction. I am planning to start with making short films. I do not have any idea of how to take shots, cut them etc.. I have theory and confident knowledge on script writing, story boarding. Where do I start. How do I learn to take shots, editing, sound mixing etc.. It should be kind of like a beginner course for me.

• Answer:

  Full disclosure: I haven't touched anything outside of digital.  So if you want to learn how to splice 16mm film together, you might want to read elsewhere. That said, I can't recommend this book enough: http://www.taylorandfrancis.com/cw/hurbis-9780240811581/ ...it does go over both digital and film.  Film's a pain in the ass though, and expensive, so don't bother!  If you really want film, shoot it in 4k and transfer it onto film later. Anyway, the book takes you through every stage of film production, from the planning to the wrap party and beyond.  I don't mean to pass the buck and send you to another resource, but it'll be much more useful than a Quora.com answer. One concern, to me, is your confidence in storyboarding but not planning shots.  I wouldn't want to put the effort into a storyboard until I've thought through all the shots I wanted. Just to give a quick overview... you break your screenplay into scenes, usually based on location and breaks in continuity of time.  You plan out each camera angle that you want to see throughout your scene, and that defines the shots.  You generally want to lean on master shots (long shots that capture everything) and then plan additional angles around that to cut to.  The master is important, because it gives you a safety net.  If you have a workable master shot, then you can fall back to that if one of your other angles don't work out.  The worst scenario is that you end up with no usable footage of a particular line, and you have to figure out how to work around it, somehow. You organize your shots according to various factors, but usually you want to move the camera as little as possible.  So if your film starts and ends in the same location, likely you'll film that all at once, unless actor availability becomes a factor or something else.  There's no cookie-cutter rule. Your sound will be recorded most likely separately, so you'll want to use a clapboard to sync the video with the audio later (the crack lines up with when you see the clapboard shut).  You can also use "reference audio" from the camera's built in mic to auto-synchronize separately recorded audio with the video.  Final Cut Pro X has a "synchronize" feature that does just this.  There's also a software called "PluralEyes" that does it, including for older versions of Final Cut Pro. You put your shots together using video-editing software, which could be as low-end as something like iMovie.  You could even use an open-source software called "Blender" to do it, but the most popular options for serious amateurs/students include Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere.  There are plenty of others.  You may even want to consider AVISynth if you're very technical.  It's basically taking the video clips, syncing up the audio manually or however, and then ordering them how you want.  It's very easy to split video clips up, trim off parts, etc.  Audio goes on separate tracks and may be connected to corresponding video clips, or be placed independently.  Import your musical score onto a separate audio track.  Then you export your whole timeline to a big ol' video clip that you can write to DVD or upload as a film festival submission on http://withoutabox.com.  Or even Youtube.  Apple's Compressor helps you export your movie into a format suitable for how it will be used. I think that's enough to get you going.  But if you don't skip any pages of the book I suggested, you'll be very well educated by the end of it (expect 550 pages or so).  It also goes over the terminology a lot, which is important when you're interacting with industry pros and equipment rental houses that assume you know what, for instance, an autopole or a prime lens is.  Experience is just as important as learning though, so don't be shy about just trying out new things you learn with your handheld camera and a couple of friends.  And don't be lazy.  Be extremely reliable.  Otherwise you'll probably not succeed in creating even a short film that anyone wants to watch. If you’re interested in my other filmmaking related answers, check out my blog, https://directorsnotes.quora.com