daveC
New member
Two years ago, I found myself at a very strange time in my life. I had just graduated film school, which was great (don't get me wrong). I got to walk across the stage, take a lot of pictures, wear a gown (the whole deal, right?). But after all the handshakes and after parties, it suddenly hit me: even though I'd been in a film college for two years, I hadn't really had "time" to make a film... I'd PA'ed, 1st AC'ed, and hung out on thesis film sets, but I hadn't really crafted anything I could call MINE. As far as anyone knew, I was only a "filmmaker" on paper, and, as I'm sure you guys know, a "paper" that doesn't really open a lot of doors for you in the professional world. I knew I had to make something. I didn't know what, but I knew I had to get to work on making some sort of portfolio so people could see I meant business.
Well, the reality I had to face was apparent as soon as I set the goal for myself. I didn't have money to MAKE a short film... and the only money I DID have was being used to pay off an awful amount of student loans. The only "gear" I had at the time was a CANON Rebel T3i, a Snowball microphone, a couple of desk lamps, and a tripod. This was because, back in high school, I had tried to kickstart a Lego YouTube channel where I would recreate famous movie scenes using stopmotion and lego (because I had kept so many legos from when I was a kid and didn't know what to do with them anymore. They were just sitting there collecting dust.) To make a long story short, the channel never really got off the ground, and even though I kept trying to make it a thing on my spare time in college, I pretty abandoned all hope around 2016. I kept the gear, though. I kept the legos too. I remember I would flirt with the idea of making more videos, but I didn't know what about. I thought it was kinda funny that I had spent a lot of time and money learning how to make a movie, and once I knew enough to get started, I didn't know what to make or had the money to make it.
One day someone hit me up on my yt channel's IG (yes, I'd made an IG for my yt channel like the dork I am). It was this brickfilmer who was looking for other stopmotion animators who'd wanna join this crazy project he'd concocted. He was trying to make a series of fan films about different DC superhero origins, all leading up to a JL video (very much the MCU approach). I thought it was kind of cool, and I felt flattered that he would invite me to be a part of it, so I said "yes." I figured it would give me an excuse to make something and a hard deadline to meet. After a couple of back-and-forths with him, I finally settled on the character I wanted to tackle. I picked "The Flash." I'd always loved The Flash and I thought it could make for a funny video. Now I had a clear goal and a clear set of tools to get to said goal. I said to myself, "this is gonna be the litmus test to see if I can actually tell a story, so that I know I'm not wasting my time on the wrong career path. If this turns out to be at all watchable, I'll keep pursuing this."
A year went by and finally, one late night, after many all-nighters, I finally uploaded it on YouTube.
The responses I've gotten since have been amazing and I'm extremely humbled to hear that so many people like the little video I shot in my room. One of my good friends works at a talent agency and he shared the video with one of the producers of of the Marvel Netflix shows after an offhand comment he made which piqued the guy's interest, and he really liked it!
It's not perfect by any means, but I think it's a start. I think I might just keep doing this, and I'm even thinking about making the leap to live-action soon.
Let me know what you think:
Well, the reality I had to face was apparent as soon as I set the goal for myself. I didn't have money to MAKE a short film... and the only money I DID have was being used to pay off an awful amount of student loans. The only "gear" I had at the time was a CANON Rebel T3i, a Snowball microphone, a couple of desk lamps, and a tripod. This was because, back in high school, I had tried to kickstart a Lego YouTube channel where I would recreate famous movie scenes using stopmotion and lego (because I had kept so many legos from when I was a kid and didn't know what to do with them anymore. They were just sitting there collecting dust.) To make a long story short, the channel never really got off the ground, and even though I kept trying to make it a thing on my spare time in college, I pretty abandoned all hope around 2016. I kept the gear, though. I kept the legos too. I remember I would flirt with the idea of making more videos, but I didn't know what about. I thought it was kinda funny that I had spent a lot of time and money learning how to make a movie, and once I knew enough to get started, I didn't know what to make or had the money to make it.
One day someone hit me up on my yt channel's IG (yes, I'd made an IG for my yt channel like the dork I am). It was this brickfilmer who was looking for other stopmotion animators who'd wanna join this crazy project he'd concocted. He was trying to make a series of fan films about different DC superhero origins, all leading up to a JL video (very much the MCU approach). I thought it was kind of cool, and I felt flattered that he would invite me to be a part of it, so I said "yes." I figured it would give me an excuse to make something and a hard deadline to meet. After a couple of back-and-forths with him, I finally settled on the character I wanted to tackle. I picked "The Flash." I'd always loved The Flash and I thought it could make for a funny video. Now I had a clear goal and a clear set of tools to get to said goal. I said to myself, "this is gonna be the litmus test to see if I can actually tell a story, so that I know I'm not wasting my time on the wrong career path. If this turns out to be at all watchable, I'll keep pursuing this."
A year went by and finally, one late night, after many all-nighters, I finally uploaded it on YouTube.
The responses I've gotten since have been amazing and I'm extremely humbled to hear that so many people like the little video I shot in my room. One of my good friends works at a talent agency and he shared the video with one of the producers of of the Marvel Netflix shows after an offhand comment he made which piqued the guy's interest, and he really liked it!
It's not perfect by any means, but I think it's a start. I think I might just keep doing this, and I'm even thinking about making the leap to live-action soon.
Let me know what you think:
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