Starving Film Student

New Teaser for "Switch" the multiple Personality Doc & FAQ's

2011-05-16T15:39:00.000-07:00

So it's been a while since I have had a major update for people about switch, so here is a new teaser that my editor has put together for you. Also, a completion date has been set.

As you can see, this is a little more upbeat and lighthearted approach to things. I hope I can answer a lot of the questions I have been getting and to give everyone an idea of what the film itself will include.

FAQ's

What's taking so long?

One thing I want everyone to understand is
that I am not a big studio with large resources and a large budget. I am simply a film student who is doing this as my side project while I go to class, work, and assist on other projects. Currently I am in Jamaica shooting for another doc that I will update about later. On the flip side, I don't want people to think that I do not care about Switch, because, in fact, this summer it is my main priority. I am hoping to complete it by September and have it running through festivals shortly thereafter.

How will it be released?

As far as release goes, I cannot say for sure what I will be doing. I know that first thing will be a festival run. If it gets picked up by a distributor in the process, great, but other than that I have no solid plans for what to do with it when the project is completed. A large possibility is that I may have an online only release. This is something that is still developing and I will hopefully be able to update everyone on ASAP.

What's it going to be about? Is it real?

Many people have asked about the content in the film. Basically it will follow Brittany as she tells her story and brings us into her amazing and unique life. The focus is on Brittany and what she has been through with her struggle with the disorder. Watching this film, you will dive into the mind of someone who is vastly different than what you are used to seeing, and it is most peoples gut reaction to blow it off as fake or acting. I am NOT attempting to convince anyone of the legitimacy of the disorder or whether any of the footage is real or not. All I can say is that I can guarantee that as far as me - the filmmaker - is concerned, everything is 100% real. As far as I am aware, Brittany is not acting, this is real life. Whether you chose to believe that or not is not a concern of mine or the documentary. I will, however, be featuring opinions from professionals on both sides of the issue, discussing the disorder from a medical standpoint.

Hopefully everyone can now have a better understanding of what is going on with Switch. If you have any further questions or comments, please feel free to contact me and I can update the FAQ's. As always, I can be reached on the facebook fan page, my Twitter, or in the comments below. I try to respond to everyone so don't be afraid to say what's on your mind! :)

P.S. Here is a link to the original trailer if you haven't see it yet:

http://vimeo.com/14376724

5D mk II sets the bar again with "Flawless"

2011-04-19T10:56:00.000-07:00

So today I am going to show you a trailer that was just released this morning. It is for a film called "Flawless." It is an action romance that was filmed entirely on 5D mk II and what I would consider the best example of the capabilities of DSLR's to date.

This comes from the people who brought you "City of Lakes" which was another amazing breakthrough showing the capabilities of DSLR's about a year ago. I would encourage everyone to keep an eye on these guys because I am sure they will be doing amazing things in the future.

Final Cut Pro X video of NAB announcement

2011-04-13T09:19:00.000-07:00

Edit:
This is a better version of part 4:

Supermeet Apple Final Cut Studio X presentation 2eme partie from Emmanuel Pampuri on Vimeo.

It looks like someone snuck a camera into NAB for the announcement of Final Cut Pro X. The framing isn't the best, but I assume he was trying to hide it, but it's the only video I've seen so far, so I'm not complaining.

Typical Film Major

2011-04-12T20:02:00.000-07:00

There is now apparently a meme that pokes fun at film students - "Typical Film Student" is probably the most applicable meme to me I've ever seen. I feel like this would have a pretty small audience because everyone isn't going to get half of these. But I lol'd a few times. Here's some of my favorites.

Click here to see more

Thanks Geoff Simons for bestowing this upon me!

Translating the script to the screen

2011-04-09T10:06:00.000-07:00

So when I used to think about making movies, I thought hey, you have a script, actors, camera, what's the big deal? You just shoot it right? What's so hard about that? Well, I think this may be something many people think until they are put in the position of actually having to translate words on a page into visual images on a screen.

When you are directing a film, it is your job to make the audience understand what is said in the script by showing them visually. People watch movies, they don't listen to them. The more you can show the better. As a personal challenge to myself in cinematography class, I chose to take a script that I was given and without changing the dialogue at all, convey an entirely different message from the original. Here is how the project turned out.

I mentioned earlier that was a scene from a movie that you all have seen. But it might not have been apparent because it looks completely different then the original. I had not seen this movie in some time and did not even remember it. So I was free to be
completely creative. Take a look at the original clip.

If you haven't figured it out by now, this is a scene from Jurassic Park. Obviously, my story was nothing like the one in Jurassic Park and I didn't even realize thats what it was at the time when I was shooting it. Mine was actually word for word from the script, it seems as though Spielberg probably changed it or gave his actors liberties of their own.

Whatever the case may be, the stories are different. And what it comes down to is not what the actors are saying, but what they are doing. Through showing suspicious glances, the girl hiding her phone while she typed on it, and careful camera placement, you can begin to show your audience what is going on without actually telling them.

Photo by Drew Forsey

This may seem obvious to some, but the most common temptation when writing/shooting a scene to simply have a character speak his concerns and emotions. This is something that took me some time to figure out. Make it your goal for all your films to be silent films. If you can show it rather than say it, then do it! Give your audience the respect of letting them put the pieces together. It is more engaging and keeps them interested. Your film will be stronger and they will love you for it.

For example, I could have had the character at the computer look over to the other character and say "Hey, she looks suspicious, do you think she is behind this?" But if you look at the film, all he did was glance in her direction as soon as the alarms went off. This combined with the suspicious manner in which she was acting, gives the audience a small puzzle, which they can easily put together. Audiences like to figure things out, it makes them feel special and a part of the story. Do this as much as you can, and you will keep the audience on the tip of their seats.

Now I am by NO means claiming to be a grand authority on directing, cause trust me, I'm not. I am very new to this too. But this is just something that I have personally noticed. I have seen the mistake made by countless people, and it's something that is hard to grasp at first. But by having this mindset while shooting your film, I can guarantee it will come out much stronger in the end.

Now go out and shoot you're own scene while keeping this one thing in mind. Show it, don't say it.

A peek in the life of a street artist - "Ignore me"

2011-04-05T16:43:00.000-07:00

Here is a short 6 minute documentary my very talented friends, Keith Turner (Director of Photography) and Jill Schaeffer (Director) created. I wish I could have my name on this one somewhere, but all the glory goes to them! :)

Shot at a Million Dollars. We Missed

2011-03-31T17:46:00.000-07:00

Last year, a group of us got together and decided to make a commercial. This commercial was to be entered into the "Crash the Super bowl" contest held by Doritos and Pepsi. Nick Livanos was the Director, and I was the Director of Photography.

Crew:

Director: Nick Livanos

Producer: David Tilstra

Director of Photography: Tim Banks

Gaffer: Geoff Simons

Grip: Garrison Hayes

These are what I used to shoot this:

Cool website with some awesome tools for filmmakers

2010-10-05T14:49:00.000-07:00

I was surfing around the web and came across this site. It has some really useful tools for anyone interested filmmaking. They have everything from talent releases and location scouting templates to storyboarding.

Independent Films Tools and Utilities

Upcoming documentary I shot about multiple personalities

2010-08-31T20:24:00.000-07:00

I recently shot a documentary about someone I know who has Dissassociative Identity Disorder, or Multiple Personality Disorder as people commonly refer to it as. It was definitely the most interesting documentary I have ever made or been a part of. When you watch this you might think that it is fake. I can assure you that this is 100% real. When the entire doc is released, hopefully you will be able to draw your own conclusions.

Preview - Switch from Tim Banks on Vimeo.

To keep updated, join the Facebook fan page

And follow my Twitter

New Music Video - Prolifiq "When Daddy Left"

2010-08-31T14:37:00.000-07:00

Here is a music video I shot for my good friend Prolifiq. He is an up and coming rapper from the Maryland Metropolitan Area. In this song, he talks about an intense situation he was put through. This was the first thing I shot on my brand new Canon EOS Rebel T2i. I have a feeling this will be used quite a lot!

Prolifiq - When Daddy Left from Tim Banks on Vimeo.

Want to make videos like this?

Here is what I used:

Summer Feature

2010-08-11T00:53:00.000-07:00

So I have not posted anything in a while, but I have a good excuse. I was lazy. Ok, not such a great excuse, but at least I was doing other productive things. Like shooting a feature film!

Right before summer started, I was asked by a classmate of mine, Nathan DeWild, if I would be interested in helping him out for the summer shooting a feature film. Apparently another one of my classmates who was originally going to have that position had to drop out. I agreed, having no real commitments and no real jobs for the summer lined up.

Saying that we had a bare bones crew is an overstatement. We had FIVE people. Nathan the director, Dawson the DP, Matt the camera op, Tim(me:) the grip/gaffer, and Chris the always full of energy production sound mixer. Now this was the first time anyone at our school had even attempted to make an all student feature for their senior project. But Nathan and Dawson believed they had what it takes to set the bar for the future generations of eager pupils.

So a couple weeks after school let out, I headed up to the camp to meet up with the rest of the crew and start production on our first feature film. This is the first time any of us had worked on a feature, so it took us all a while to get into the groove of things and really start working effectively. But after some time, and many mistakes, I think we started to make a pretty awesome crew. I worked with lighting a lot, which is something that I am very passionate about. I was put in a lot of situations that I had never had to deal with before, and no one to really look to for advice or help other than my fellow crew members. I learned a lot, mostly by trial and error.

Needless to say, we had a very tight schedule, and countless things working against us, but somehow we pulled through, beat the clock, and when it was all over we felt amazing. So if there is something that you can glean from reading this little post, I would tell you to never pass up an opportunity to work on something with your friends. Experience is your friend. And your friends are your friends. I'm so poetic. Take a look at the teaser trailer down below.

Also, check out the Facebook Fan Page!

Camp Joy Teaser from Nathan DeWIld on Vimeo.

First couple months

2010-04-30T18:24:00.000-07:00

Here is a little vidblog I made the first couple months of this semester. Most of it takes place on the set of "Dangerous Conviction" Directed by Andrew Aldridge and Produced by Crystal Case.

My First VidBlog about Jan-Feb in Film School from Tim Banks on Vimeo.

Vidblog 2 coming soon!

I filmed this on my little Sony HDR-CX 100

Why Film School?

2010-04-26T14:42:00.000-07:00

Something I didn't decide for while was whether or not to go to film school. I had heard people say so many times that film school doesn't matter in the business. No one cares what kind of degree you have it's only about what you have done. Which is absolutely true. NOBODY in the film business, unless you are trying to be a teacher, cares if you have any kind of degree to be a filmmaker. And for a good reason: A degree does not make you a good filmmaker. But I can tell you that my decision to go to film school and get this "worthless degree" is probably the best choice I have ever made.

This may not be true for you, but where I come from, I did not have any other friends who were truly into film making as much as I was. The people I did know that wanted to make movies were flaky and didn't really want to commit any time or money into it. This can be depressing because I do best with a partner to bounce ideas off of and collaborate with. So needless to say, after I graduated from High School, I didn't really do anything that involved film for a couple years. First, I started out going to community college and taking some generals. I absolutely hated it and dropped out before the first semester ended. I ended up moving out to Breckenridge, Colorado with some friends and just
bummed around, snowboarded, and partied for a year and a half. It was a great life experience, but I started to feel like I was not doing anything with my life. I knew I wanted to do film, so I figured I would go back home, start taking classes at community college again, and in my spare time try to get involved in any local film projects.

I got home and found work at my local best buy. Between that and school, I found it very hard to really do anything film related. I still had no friends interested in it, so I got on craigslist and answered a few calls for extras in indie films being shot in the area. This helped me meet a few local people, but I felt like I wasn't really learning as much as I wanted to. Needless to say, after about a year of that, I finally decided it was time to go to a real university. Community college was wearing on me and I needed to move on. So I came to my current school. I first arrived for a summer class and intended in majoring in business and still trying to work on film on the side. But after I got here, and saw all the amazing equipment and facilities the school had, I promptly changed my major and decided that I wanted to do Film, so I'm not going to half-ass it, I will fully commit to it.

Now, I am about to wrap my first of four years in film school, and regret nothing other than that I waited so long. I am surrounded with super-creative people that are extremely talented and want the same thing as me - to make films!

The University I attend now treats film the same way that they treat every other major. This means I still take general classes, and when I get out I will have a B.S. in Film Production. This can be good and bad, it depends on who you are. The good thing is, we are very hands on and get to use equipment simply by going into the lab and checking out what we need free of cost whenever we need it. I have immediate access to a ton of equipment including:
The RED ONE Camera, a bunch of HVX-200's, as well as lighting kits, Dollys, and a slew of other professional equipment. I can use all of this stuff for free as long as I am enrolled in school. Now I know a lot of other schools do not have quite as liberal equipment policies as we do, but that is one of the reasons I chose the school I did over one of the bigger schools.

Now another reason I chose to be in school was simply being around other people with the same interests. I have had the chance to work on a lot more film shoots in various positions because I am around and know my fellow classmates well. This is not true of most film schools, but at mine, we are currently in the process of possibly shooting a feature next semester. That is a HUGE opportunity!

Basically it comes down to who you are. Film school is not for everyone. If you already have a good base of people that you know and trust to work with you, then you may not need film school. But me personally, I didn't. Being here I get to meet tons of people that I can work with, collaborate with, and learn with. Take your own path, but don't forget why you got into filmmaking in the first place.

Keeping things light

2010-04-24T15:26:00.000-07:00

When you are in school, it's easy to get bogged down in everything that you are doing and can cause you to go crazy. I like to take a step back every once in a while and just do something for fun. This was what me and Ricky decided to do.

ORB from Tim Banks on Vimeo.

As you can see, this has pretty much no production value, really bad cuts(notice the disappearing arm when I stand up in the beginning), we crossed the line,
bad lighting, really bad sound, and well...really bad everything. But it was fun! I wrote up the script and
we shot it in 2 days in our spare time. And guess what...it won and AWARD! Believe it or not, this little film won the Audience Choice Award for the Klein Dawson Film festival, beating out 19 other films!

It goes to show that people can tell and really take notice when they know you are doing something purely for the fun of it. So who cares if it's not shot on Film or on the RED, its just for fun! And that's why you got into Filmmaking in the first place, right?

This short was shot on: Canon EOS Rebel T1i and a Panasonic Pro AG-HVX200A

Actor/Written by: Tim Banks
Director/DP/Special FX: Matt Hadley
Actor/Motion Design: Ricky Morgan
Alien played by: Garrison Hayes
Christopher Emerson played by: Himself
Chris' Assistant: Ben Norskov

Freshman Dreams

2010-04-24T02:29:00.000-07:00

I am about to come to the end of my first year in Film School. I have learned a lot this year. It is extremely safe to say that I came here thinking I knew a lot more than I actually did. Everyone talks about how we all had stars in our eyes, with those freshman dreams of making something amazing. Well the truth is, you probably won't, at least not right away. High quality film production is so hard, takes so much work, and can go wrong in so many ways. I'm not trying to sound like a negative nancy, I am just being real.

How things are done at my school is this: First year you takes some basic film classes and one of them is Film Business and Management. This is basically a producing class. When you start your second semester, you take your script idea from first semester and you

produce it. Since I don't have money to hire casting directors, location scouts, or any of those things that a real producer would have, you have to do all of this yourself. I personally liked the challenge, but I know that a number of my other classmates really hated producing.

I am about to wrap on my freshman producing project that I have spent almost 2 semesters on. It has been in post-production for quite some time now, and I feel like I just want it to be done with! I have realized that the film has not turned out like I had envisioned it in my head, even though I am still very proud of it.

So all you freshman, or soon to be freshman, remember what I said and don't be too surprised when things get hard. But let that push you forward rather than hold you back.