What Makes A Good Student Film

The Right Location - Choosing the correct location for filming is key. You want your film to be the best it can be, given you are making do with what you have to offer, which is significantly less than a mainstream film or even independant film. For example, if you wanted to film a scene in a restaurant, you would need to go to a restaurant and not try and make a restaurant out of someone's dining room. Also if you wanted a scene in a hotel room, it needs to be a real hotel room and not someone's bedroom. Of course, in Film, sometimes if you want to go to another country, that can easily be faked with props and someone who can speak that language (an example being Rush (2013), where they used a runway in Hampshire to recreate the majority of start-finish straights for a majority of tracks around the world), which would be perfectly acceptable to do in a student film also.

Choosing a good actor/actors - This is something that isn't going to gain you any marks but it could make things easier for the examiner. This is because a bad actor and their poor acting skills will stick out like a sore thumb amongst what could otherwise be a near-perfect film. This might distract the examiner from something they may end up missing, potentially costing you marks you should have otherwise had got.

Good Sound Effects - A camera can only pick up so much sound and the sound it does pick up can often not sound the best, so film companies will often edit in new sounds that have been either recorded previously or added in to make things seem more dramatic and exciting. The US TV show Mythbusters tested this theory in the episode 'Blow Your Own Sail'. Some of the sound effects can be over-dramatized, but its the movies, not real life, so this is okay. These sound effects in question need to be well timed as if they are out of sync, it will be obvious.

Don't try to reinvent the wheel, but also don't play it safe - There is two extremes you can go to when creating your film. One is going to the extreme of reinventing the wheel and trying to do something that has never been done before and is nothing like anything anyone has ever come across before. This can work but only in very few circumstances. The other end of the spectrum is playing it too safe. This could be like making a horror where someone in a hood with a knife is following an innocent victim. This is a cliche and nothing original. Your best bet, to get a good balance of originality and using an existing idea. In the timeframe we have been given, we don't really have the idea to come up with a revolutionary film idea. So when it comes to coming up with an idea, you may have to resort to copying an existing idea. This isn't as in copying a film outright, but to take elements from a film, or films, you like and make them into an opening. You still need to consider the mise, sound, camera and edit, among other things, but with an idea in mind, you have the basic framework for a film, leaving you to fill in the pieces to make it your own. For example, you could take the opening of Lord Of War, where the intro is following a bullet through its life, but maybe follow something else. 

Mise and details - you need to be dressed for the occasion and the set needs to look right also. This links in a way back to my previous point about location, but more about props and actors. Your actors can't just be wearing a hoodie and jeans, especially if your piece is set in a certain time-frame. You need to be wearing the correct clothing. So if you are doing a film surrounding war, your actors need to be wearing a the correct war fatigues of the war being depicted. In terms of props, a hand is a hand and that is that. A hand can't be used as a gun or a phone or anything. The only time this is an exception is if you are recreating the fight scene from the TV series 'Spaced'. 

Music - Your film needs to have a good soundtrack, music that goes well with the film you are creating. It needs to fit well and be well chosen. The issue with student films is that they can't use music that is copyrighted, so need to look for copyright free music, or make their own (which isn't easy if you don't know anyone who can play an instrument or makes their own music. Software such as Garage Band can be used although this takes time and is another piece of software that needs to be learned and the time it takes to make a decent soundtrack outweighs the amount of additional marks you would get for this). There is plenty of sites out there to choose music off of but this can take time because you have no idea what something sounds like until you click on it. Something that would be particularly effective would be choosing a song before filming and working the film around that. For example, if you were to make an action film, you could work it so when the music really gets going, so to speak, an action sequence starts. Alternatively for an action sequence, a song that starts on a high would work also. Music also needs to fit with what is on the screen. For example, fast paced music for when there is fast paced action with short cuts, slow paced for slower clips with longer cuts, sad music for when there is some tragic news such as a death, someone leaving, or someone getting bad news.

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Editing - Editing is something that can't be rushed. You could take a really well thought out film and completely ruin it during the edit. Its something that should have a lot of time put into it, and there is no need to rush the editing process as it will seriously affect the viewing experience of the film. Any sound effects must be placed precisely and clips need to be edited accurately. Its better to spend 10 minutes swearing at iMovie as you try to get the clip the right size than just going "eh, good enough" and plonking the sound in roughly. 

Film plenty of footage - The last thing you want is to get halfway through editing and realise you don't have a good enough take. Even if you get a good take, film it again, just to be sure. That way, you can take elements from one take and elements of the other which you see as better. You also might want to experiment with different variations of a scene, such as comma placement in speech, emphasis on certain words or the tone of voice, since these could be better (or worse, but then at least you know what works and what doesn't). A general rule of thumb is to have an hours worth of footage for every minute of footage to be used.

Don't be ambitious, it will be rubbish - I, for one, had lots of crazy ideas for film openings before we were even considering the groups we were going to be in. Being a big car person, a lot of them revolved around the ideas of cars. One was to do a modern-day version of C'était un Rendez-vous, but instead of using the Ferrari 275 GTB they had in the film, use something more modern that I had available (most likely my dad's Toyota MR-S). However questions about the legality of what I would be creating means that this idea was scrapped at an early stage. Another was inspired by Lord Of War's idea of following an object throughout its life. Except rather than following a bullet, it would follow a car through its life. It would start with the car coming off the forecourt, and then the opening would show different moments in the car's life. First owner, second owner, father teaching his son to drive, getting pulled over, and so on like that. The idea came from a Reddit comment I saw a long time ago about this film idea. The only issue with this would be the amount of locations needed to make the opening. All this proves that an ambitious idea wouldn't end very well, so don't push your luck. 

Ask for an expert's opinion as often as you can - If you want your film to be good, it needs to appeal to not only yourself, but other people. For this, you need to ask an outsider's opinion. For this, you could ask a friend what they think, but they might be afraid to tell you the truth and not give any constructive feedback. Your best bet would be to ask your teacher, or if they aren't around, any Media teacher. The more opinions you ask, the better. Perhaps ask a Media student in the year above what they think.