Forming a group to film things...

Hi
There's a select few sketches I have that I'm proud of and think would look great filmed. The problem is, they wouldn't fit into any show I know about it and they're very 'one-off'. I've been toying with the idea of opening a YouTube account for this stuff for years but I have a couple of problems.

I've tried to film one of them a couple of times. The first time went wrong because we filmed it badly (on an iPhone) and it was difficult to edit for that reason. I then tried to get a friend of a friend to film it, but he insisted it was a 'short film' rather than a sketch (I can't emphasise enough how far away it was from a short film), they friends I have that can act were really flaky, we struggled to find a location because this sketch included spraying sparkling water and no one was prepared to have that in their house (my boyfriend wouldn't let me do it at ours either, which is fair enough!) and conversation with the director made me feel nervous as his ideas for the shoot were far too 'short film' and not sketch. His eye for comedy wasn't great. I just called it off to avoid the stress in the end.

Basically, I'd really like to find a local director who has experience in comedy and a couple of amateur actors (I can't act to save my life) who really enjoy comedy and want to be involved. I'm not so precious that I would take total control of the ideas. Sometimes other people have great ideas that change the sketch for the better. But I would want to find someone who had a similar sense of humour so that our ideas complement each other rather than clash entirely! I have no idea where to find these people, though! If you've got a group together to film sketches before, where did you find your cast and crew? Any tips?

Ditch the boyfriend.

Quote: Marc P @ August 18 2013, 9:42 PM BST

Ditch the boyfriend.

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Haha. He was not unreasonably quite worried about the sofa...He does care more for these things than I do.

Have you tried meet up?

http://www.meetup.com/find/

What part of the world are you in?

Boyfriends are easier to replace than sofas. If he loves you enough or is desperate for a bonk he will get a disposable sofa from a charity shop. It's how modern relationships and not short film but sketch making works.

Quote: Jennie @ August 18 2013, 9:46 PM BST

Have you tried meet up?

http://www.meetup.com/find/

What part of the world are you in?

View original

Cheers! I'd never heard about that. I'm in Manchester, so this really shouldn't be so difficult, but I move in crowds of musos and prose writers so I never seem to meet someone who knows how to use a camera...

Looks like there's a media and TV production group near me. Could be quite useful....

Quote: Marc P @ August 18 2013, 9:48 PM BST

Boyfriends are easier to replace than sofas. If he loves you enough or is desperate for a bonk he will get a disposable sofa from a charity shop. It's how modern relationships and not short film but sketch making works.

View original

Quite right. So difficult to find a good sofa these days

Quote: sglen @ August 18 2013, 9:55 PM BST

Cheers! I'd never heard about that. I'm in Manchester, so this really shouldn't be so difficult, but I move in crowds of musos and prose writers so I never seem to meet someone who knows how to use a camera...

Looks like there's a media and TV production group near me. Could be quite useful....

View original

Glad it was useful

Getting hold of actors isn't that difficult as long as you're willing to pay expenses. I think a website such as Shooting People might be useful for you. As long as you're willing to stump up some cash you should be able to get something filmed fairly well. Plus its all experience.

Quote: sglen @ August 18 2013, 8:27 PM BST

Hi
There's a select few sketches I have that I'm proud of and think would look great filmed. The problem is, they wouldn't fit into any show I know about it and they're very 'one-off'. I've been toying with the idea of opening a YouTube account for this stuff for years but I have a couple of problems.

I've tried to film one of them a couple of times. The first time went wrong because we filmed it badly (on an iPhone) and it was difficult to edit for that reason. I then tried to get a friend of a friend to film it, but he insisted it was a 'short film' rather than a sketch (I can't emphasise enough how far away it was from a short film), they friends I have that can act were really flaky, we struggled to find a location because this sketch included spraying sparkling water and no one was prepared to have that in their house (my boyfriend wouldn't let me do it at ours either, which is fair enough!) and conversation with the director made me feel nervous as his ideas for the shoot were far too 'short film' and not sketch. His eye for comedy wasn't great. I just called it off to avoid the stress in the end.

Basically, I'd really like to find a local director who has experience in comedy and a couple of amateur actors (I can't act to save my life) who really enjoy comedy and want to be involved. I'm not so precious that I would take total control of the ideas. Sometimes other people have great ideas that change the sketch for the better. But I would want to find someone who had a similar sense of humour so that our ideas complement each other rather than clash entirely! I have no idea where to find these people, though! If you've got a group together to film sketches before, where did you find your cast and crew? Any tips?

View original

I had the same problem a few months ago with a comedy horror film that I was going to make, but in a bizzar twist to this story I ended up selling the script that I was going to make myself and three others of the back of that, and now I'm in talks with a production company about a feature. What I am trying to say is, when you put the feelers out for production equipment etc, you never know what might come your way.

Realistically though, even the smallest sketches done with/by the pros or with rented pro equipment will cost a pretty penny. Try down at your local amature dramatics group for actors.
Good luck, mate.

Quote: Nigel Ball @ August 18 2013, 10:57 PM BST

Realistically though, even the smallest sketches done with/by the pros or with rented pro equipment will cost a pretty penny.

View original

As Ben says, you can often find people with access to equipment, and even willing to work for free (though generally sound recordists want paying something) on the right project, on places like Shooting People.

Try Mandy.com as well.

You could always post sketch here.. and get someone to film it for you!

Thanks all! Sounds like I might need to prioritise saving if I want this done well. And I am going to make some changes following some notes the filmmaker-I-am-quite-obviously-annoyed-with-above made that were actually good. Then I might just post it up here and save me some legwork....

I would still set up a YouTube account because it is free, and maybe find the easiest of your sketches to film and have another go at it, I think it would probably be difficult to find what you want and all the organising of it would be hassle.

It would be a shame to let a sketch sit on paper because you can't find people who are willing to do it, especcially if the sketch is relatively easy to film.

I have a YouTube channel with lots of videos on that I have filmed myself, and I am terrible at acting and my camera skills are not great either, but I think what the hell I really like to see something I have written in a video so I can move on then to the next one.

Though if you want it done well, don't go down my route, my videos are not low budget, they are NO budget.

Hope that helps, grab the camera and get back out there.

And you can try Casting Call Pro for actors maybe.

http://m.castingcallpro.com/uk/