Plz Help
Plz Help- special effects and filmmaking
well ppl, its my first post so, be merciful.
i am an aspiring movie maker, so far all that i have is an idea, a whole giant toolshed and materials to spare, my idea is somewhat poor but what i really need is to know HOW DO I START if u can help, please do.
thanks in advance 
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"I am Mars, the god of War, and i'll cut you down".
well since you posted in here i assume you want to start doing some makeup type effects.
get some books, i'm sure if you look through this forum you will come across most of the highly recommended texts. also FXmans page and some of the others have lots of info.
if you're looking to get started making a movie of some sort in general, well get a camera, a story, and some people and start filming
check out te "indie" section of my links page for some sites
later
TOm
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What everyone seems to forget is that once we look past race, religion, gender, and all that, everyone on this planet is first and foremost...
...a PERSON
Yup. Read a lot, invest in some of the materials mentioned in the book, and set out to actually DO something. it doesn't matter what you try, as long as you realize that your first efforts will probably not be outstanding. That's the way it goes. Bet you fell down a lot when you were learning to walk, too.
The most valuable people on set are those who can DO, not just those who have read.
Sarge
Sarge is right. You can learn all that there is to know about a technique or process but until you actually do it, you only know half the story. No amount of reading can prepare you for the troubles you will experience when running foam latex or making a good mold. There are many people who follow the procedures step by step, the way that someone else taught them and they do a good job but those are the people who have a hard time "thinking on their feet". When you learn through experience you will learn so much more than what you set out to learn. You will learn to solve problems and come up with new ways to deal with problems. Artists who don't tie themselves down to the current established practices are the ones who come up with tomorrows discoveries. Dick Smith is the king of discovery.
Dive in and try some projects, just start very small so you don't become overwhelmed and get discouraged. Hands-on work is a fantastic teacher.
Don't neglect gathering information, though. I tried to plunge into prosthetics without a solid enough knowledge of basic make up and had to back up and learn the basics to make my prosthetics look any good. Plunging forward with only a small amount of information wastes time and materials in the best cases, and creates major problems or even risks injury in the worst cases. Even a brilliant trail blazer like Dick Smith built on the work of forerunners, some of his most useful innovations are techniques to make previous procedures (like molding & casting) work better than his predecessors.
All things considered equal, I think that continually reinventing the wheel takes up a lot of valuable time. Learning how to do things from more experienced folks shortens your learning curve and is the basis of all education. You can avoid the trap of low creativity simply by choosing to experiment with and try alternatives to what you have learned. Many of your experiments will lead nowhere useful, but if you use them to extend and expand on a solid base of capability and technique, you haven't lost anything. If you use excessive experimentation to blunder towards your initial learning, you're likely to get discouraged or develop bad habits.
Experiment as you are learning, but for crying out loud follow the paths others have blazed so you make some headway while learning.
Get some books, materials, roll up your sleeves and start trying things out. Take pictures of your work so you have a record of your progress. You'll likely never want to show anyone the pictures of your early work, but they'll let you see that you have progressed when you hit those stumbling blocks along the way.
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Jeff F - Moderator
Magic and FX
Amazing the Masses
[This message has been edited by Jeff F (edited 02-17-2001).]
Just thought I'd add a little to to help inspire. As said, you will mess up a lot at first. However when you are learning, mistakes are GOOD. When I am doing a practice make-up or just a fun make-up at my leisure, I like to make mistakes because I learn so much from them. The more mistakes I make the more I have learned. This is what tells whether you can do the stuff. When you make mistakes you learn from them and ultimatly improve greatly. It also developes your skill. The greenlight is, you improve, it is not too much hassle to you, and you enjoy it. Those will tell you whether to pursue this field or not. Then again if it's just a hobby you have even less to worry about.
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