Film production as a hobby

Dont be at yourself

I've a keen interest in cinema and would love to learn more about the behind-the-camera aspect of it. I've thought of doing a course in film studies and so on, but I currently dont have the time. I'm heading off to Japan for a year or so in a few weeks, where I will hopefully have some time and cash to dedicate to my interests. I'm obviously not looking to produce something releasable, just simply for my own benefit.

Does anyone have any advice on where one should start? Are there essential books, websites, films one should look at? What kind of equipment should an amateur enthusiast be looking for?

MLM

You can check out Filmbase www.filmbase.ie for stuff like this. They also have links to other film centres around the country in cities like Cork and Galway. Also have a look at www.filmmakersnetwork.ie You could also check out the adult education/night course list in your local secondary school/post leaving college/University etc., as many of them might run night courses in this area. Hope this is of some help.

humanji

Make sure you really want to get into it before you start buying equipment. It's incredible expensive, so you don't want to buy a €3000 camera only to get bored with it after a week.

As for books, there are hundreds that you can choose from and they're all reasonably good, although you can get some turkeys. If I was to recommend some, I'd say these three were pretty enlightening:

I'd If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor by Bruce Campbell (of Evil Dead fame) - It's a fairly funny book, and although it's not about film making specifically (it's Bruce Campbells autobiography) it does talk about how he and Sam Raimi were starting off and how they made dirt cheap budget films. It'll help get it into your head that many, many corners can be cut

Make Your Own Damn Movie!: Secrets of a Renegade Director by Lloyd Kaufman. Lloyd Kaufman is the director behind Troma Films. To be blunt, they're terrible, but the guy loves filmmaking and this book talks about the various stages of creating a film and is incredibly honest about the whole process and the people involved. In my honest opinion, this book should be a bible to all wannabe producers. It's hilarious and brilliantly written and just writing this, I think I'll start reading it again when I get home

Next, there's The DV Rebel's Guide: An All-Digital Approach to Making Killer Action Movies on the Cheap by Stu Maschwitz. This book is more technical, but not over flowing with it. It's about how to create special effects for cheap. Although it says Action Movies, the techniques can be transfered to anything, and it's all easily do-able and as the title says, cheap.

Of course, these are just three books that I recommend. Others may hate them and tell you to avoid, and others will recommend more books. Just basically, get your hands on whatever you can. And watch films with incredible low budgets. The dodgier the better, and it'll give you ideas on how effects and camera angles and the like.