Have you ever made a short film?

Get real good at editing, use multiple angles and camera positions (including close-ups).

Stay focused. Don’t try to fit too much in your time limit. That doesn’t mean you can’t say a lot, but just don’t go a lot of directions to make your point.
My daughter did a short about teen loneliness. It was very good.
Her team focused on their subject, and went over all the details thoroughly before starting work. Be open to making changes.

Be open and spontaneous. I acted in a friend’s short film production and one of the best moments in the film was something funny we came up with on the spot, so don’t be afraid to play around and experiment with different ideas. Good luck and have fun!

The only film I ever made was a stop-action with me digging a hole and planting a lilac bush. I used a old Super 8 Bell & Howell that could shoot one frame at a time.

Make a story board first, with all the shots (scenes), and camera angles (including different camera angles for the same scene), with the dialogue, any extra equipment such as lighting, costume changes etc.

In other words, have it all drawn out in a linear fashion, with all the details and notes with the scenes where the information goes.

Prepare to take many shots of the same scene so that you will have lots of choices to pick from.

Edit well.

Think about what music will go with your film, and make sure that the music is timed correctly.

The dialogue is likely to be overdubbed in (because of the multiple shots of the same scene, and the multiple camera angles). Have a good professional studio to record the dialogue, and the “extraneous” sounds (like footsteps, rain, phones ringing, things being set down onto different surfaces, doors being knocked on, cars going by etc.) Make sure all of the dialogue and sounds are edited in flawlessly, and seamlessly.

Make sure your graphics (credits and title) are easy to read for the format for which the finished product will be seen (phone screen, tablet or computer screen, TV screen, movie theater screen). Make sure the graphics are on the screen long enough to read them, but not so long that it “seems like a long time” to the viewer. The graphics should be readable, pleasant or interesting, but not distracting. Don’t cover someone’s face, or a sign (because of the distraction of the lettering) with graphics.

Have your actors rehearse. Sometimes you will want to change some dialogue, camera angles, setting, costume, or scene order by what you see in the rehearsal.

You don’t have to shoot the scenes in order, but mark them on the film/video so that you can find them when it comes time to edit. That is what those snapping things are that you see in old movies right before the director yells, “Action!” But your film/video can be marked, and time stamped within the camera these days too. Your story board should reflect these same scene numbers, even if you shoot out of sequence.

Watch out for minor distracting things in the background of your scenes such as someone walking through in the background, or objects that don’t fit in with the scenes, such as an object, or piece of filming equipment that shouldn’t be seen (like the cameraman’s Starbuck’s cup left on a table). Watch out for microphones, booms, and lights, so that you can’t see them in the edited version of the film.

Check the pacing. Make sure your pacing is correct for your particular film, so that it feels natural, rather than forced, or awkward. Lulls are OK, as long as they fit in with you pacing.

This sounds like a fun project. Please let us take a look at it when you are finished : )

I’m currently directing a short film with friends right now, it’s been an extremely interesting experience to say the least.

So far, we’ve gone through a lot of rewrites to the script, storyboarded the film, made the shot list, figured out shooting locations, gathered all the props and hired the actors. Rehearsal is next week.

I’m nervous as hell.

Do another short experimental film first.
One problem I had while fooling around with a camera was I didn’t stay on one shot long enough and the film was full of quick shots bouncing around back and forth. A viewer would/could almost get motion sickness!
Slow down. Take your time. Don’t get in a hurry.

Thanks ALL for your fun and truly helpful answers! We just finished our second day shooting which went on for 5 hours. Considerably less compared to our first shooting session which took 8.

We still have several shots to do but all the scenes with our two actors are totally done. We’re all amateurs, not one pro so I guess that’s why it took some time.

But it was FUN times without a doubt. I didn’t feel my 52 year old joints ache until few hours after we finished. Lol

@gorillapaws True. Real funny moments get created on the spot unplanned. Our character was suppose to say something sexy to the raw piece of steak she was sensually prepping by massaging it so we told her to say “Yeah, you like that don’t yah baby?” or something like that. She improvised by slapping the steak on the side saying “Who’s your mama now huh? Who’s your mama?” lol

@Kardamom After we edit, we’ll see if it’s not too embrassing to show it to jellies here. I’ll be reading your post again for sure for future reference.

@kritiper Wish I could shoot in Super 8 film! Maybe. One day I could afford it. : )

I haven’t but I’d suggest that it’s very imprtant not to include ANYTHING that doesn’t advance the story.
It seems obvious but it was something I learned while learning the finer points of writing.
Don’t have a phone ringing in the background, or something, unless its important to the story.