Action Films with 14-15 Year old People...

Hey everyone,
I would like to do films with a lot of action, nice story, dialogues...
I know the techniques and I have the ideas, even the script...
But I'm 15 years old and the movies talk about drugs, cruelty and so on.

The Problem is, I will do the movies with my friends, for the dialogues I'll try to get the most out of their performance, but I'm pretty sure it will be unwatchable if you see "kids" do all this stuff...
Have you any recommendation, alternative or opinion for this?
Thanks a lot,
Luke

Welcome to the forum, Luke!

My advice would be to get some friends together and shoot one of the key scenes from your movie. A scene with the type of action and dialogue that you think people might find "unwatchable." Wink

Then show this scene to some other friends, or people at school, and ask them what they think. If they think its cool then you're on your way (you may even recruit some more people to your production Smile

)! If not then maybe you can find out what doesn't work, and tweak your story from there.

There was a movie that came out a few years ago called BRICK. It plays out a film noir style, detective story in the context of a high school. Not an action movie, but worth watching for how they balance mature themes and juvenile behavior. Another one to watch would be ALPHA DOG. Young suburban kids mixed up in violence & crime.

Ultimately you should make a movie that you would enjoy watching!
Good LucK!

Luke,

This is Carl. My wife and I go to many youth film festivals with our son Ben (14-years old). We've seen some great action films created by teens. Two that come to mind:

* "The Lincoln Project" by Jeff Prahl (then age 16) - http://www.bing.com/search?q=prahl+%22the+lincoln+project%22&form=QBRE&qs=n
* "Now Hiring" by Andrew Finch and Kurtus Kahle - http://www.youtube.com/user/FinchProductions

My observations:

* Youth film festivals are great - mature themes are fine in most of them
- Ben's favorite festival (and, I think, the largest) is NFFTY in Seattle in late April - http://nffty.com
* Nontraditional casting (for example, teens as adults) is a small negative with film festival judges, but not huge. Ben's strategy is to make *his* films now and just grow out of it.
- Youth audiences seem to like youth in important roles on and off screen
- Of course, having better actors is better.
- Ben hasn't done it, but around here (Seattle) there is an email casting call list. We get the idea that it might be possible to get adult actors once a teen director has a bit of a track record.

- Carl

Ben's films have an action elements. You can see them at http://slugco.com

if it is too juvenile and looks weird with the young people, put the script on the shelf for now until you can hire actors or your friends get older...

and then write a script about kids THINKING and solving things rather then fighting 42 year old drug lords.

look, if you want to make movies the best way to do it is to make movies, so even if it looks dumb or silly then you still have the experience under your belt and still have something to show for it.

so now, i take back what i said before. make this movie, screw what people think. work hard, never think "oh its just practice". the first day on set a million things are gonna hit you that you should have thought of before. write em down so you dont forget them again. once you've completed it then you'll have learnt much more then anything you ever read.
once its done, then write the more age appropriate script and shoot that. it will be much better then your first one.

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wow!
Thanks a lot! That motivated me Smile

I'll start shooting as soon as possible!

I live in germany and there are about 4 festivals or so in the year where I can get in, so I don't see a lot of them, I often just see little kids playing in the backyard, and when it comes to more serious things, it's 17 to 19 year old people... (btw, I won the first place with a stop motion movie, but I still find that actors are better^^)
Luke

Hey Luke --

First: you're a screenwriter and a filmmaker. Okay, you're 15. All artists have a point of view, and you have yours. There is *nothing* invalid or funny or trivial about being a 15 year old artist.

Do not exclude the possibility of having people over 18 -- or 28, 38, 58, etc. -- in your film. Put out the opportunity and actors will show up. You're the director, don't feel the slightest hesitation to "direct."

In directing people your own age, do what every director does and ask yourself: is this performance honest? Does it communicate what you want communicated? Don't be satisfied with second-best. Be serious about your work and the cast members your age will be, too. Just find out before you start shooting, so you don't get a horrible surprise. When your friends see that you're truly dedicated to getting a great movie, they'll be inspired to help.

I wouldn't recommend using real drugs on the set. Bad legal shit if you do is always possible. Your movie, your responsibility. Fake this.
Consider how you're going to portray cruelty. It's easy to fake a fist fight, not so easy to show the personality of the cruel people. Know what you want and be open to what your actors bring to the scene.

Just remember: it wouldn't be as much fun to make movies if it were too easy. Don't let anything stop you -- and get all the footage you want from every single scene in the hard drive, no matter what.

Best of luck --

-- Paul

My guess is that the biggest concern for our OP is how to get convincing performances out of very self-conscious teenagers. Especially if he himself is also a teen without any experience in coaching actors.

Two things come to mind when trying to find a solution for this problem. One alternative is to first get (and read thoroughly) a book on working with actors. A good one that comes to mind is "Directing Actors: Creating Memorable Performances for Film & Television" (by Judith Weston). There is plenty of good advice there about coaxing sincerity out of actors.

The other alternative is to get an experienced adult on the set. This can be tricky, as it can undermine the authority of the director, but someone with some acting experience could help the on-camera talent unlock their creative element and loosen that self-consciousness.

What might prove to be the best solution is to actually shoot some scenes. Get those guys (and girls) on camera and give them time to get used to that camera. Rehearse the scene, do many takes, multiple angles, set and re-set camera and lights, make it all look like a real movie set. When shoot is done, edit those scenes together (possibly even with some decent stock music) and show it to those actors. Then re-shoot the same scene (or a different one) after having it shown to them. Seeing themselves on screen, in a movie, just might take them over those performance obstacles.

vasic wrote:

My guess is that the biggest concern for our OP is how to get convincing performances out of very self-conscious teenagers. Especially if he himself is also a teen without any experience in coaching actors.

Two things come to mind when trying to find a solution for this problem. One alternative is to first get (and read thoroughly) a book on working with actors. A good one that comes to mind is "Directing Actors: Creating Memorable Performances for Film & Television" (by Judith Weston). There is plenty of good advice there about coaxing sincerity out of actors.

The other alternative is to get an experienced adult on the set. This can be tricky, as it can undermine the authority of the director, but someone with some acting experience could help the on-camera talent unlock their creative element and loosen that self-consciousness.

What might prove to be the best solution is to actually shoot some scenes. Get those guys (and girls) on camera and give them time to get used to that camera. Rehearse the scene, do many takes, multiple angles, set and re-set camera and lights, make it all look like a real movie set. When shoot is done, edit those scenes together (possibly even with some decent stock music) and show it to those actors. Then re-shoot the same scene (or a different one) after having it shown to them. Seeing themselves on screen, in a movie, just might take them over those performance obstacles.

while thats good advice, i dont think thats the OP's problem
i think it was that the audience might find it weird to have 15 year olds talking about murder and drugs and such.

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Luke, I was going to say something in the lines of what "Anthony" said (the first person who commented); so I won't repeat what he said other than, go ahead and do 1 scene, have fun, learn from that experience, show it to others and receive feedback. I'm sure by the time you do another scene, you will do it so much better; and seeing one's progress is a really cool part of this process.

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Hey everyone!
Thanks a lot!

I'll do what you said, I think these are good ideas Smile

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Last edited by headshotriddle7 on Sun Sep 18, 2011 10:40 am; edited 1 time in total

Hey Lucky

- I haven't read all the replies, so excuse me if the reply is reduntant.

My basic thought is - I'm thinking the exact same thing about my age, and I'm 34.

Seriously, I've seen way too many Star Wars fan films with 30-ish year old chubby jedis and their 30-ish year old chubby movie geeks playing Hollywood.

And you have to respect it, because - they're MAKING MOVIES, however non-Jedi-fit they are.

But still.....

Some movies just need the ballast of your elders. It's fine that they spawned from the imagination of 30-year olds, but they need to look like they take place in a larger universe. Like L.A. TAKEDOWN and HEAT. As has been discussed many times around here, HEAT is an unbelievable master piece of crime cinema, where the actors carry their parts. But LA TAKEDOWN, which is the same movie but with 30-year old unknowns instead of Al Pacino and Robert Deniro, just seams like a high school sommer project in comparison.

But I'm swaing off topic here. My bottomline is - to hell with your age. You can wait 20 years and "still not feel the right age to make an action movie".

Just find the right settings for your age rather than play 17-year old FBI agents.

And I guarantee you, if you post a finished short film here, you'll earn your respect.

If anywhere, everyone here knows that MAKING A MOVIE is better than talking about how great your movie would be if you made one. Wink

Good luck,
- Jonas

I'm not a kid myself, but my whole cast and crew were when we made the two "Agent 12" shorts. They were, quite frankly, the most fun I've ever had. As you can probably see in the end credits.

http://www.detonationfilms.com/movie_download_page.htm

And here's an article I wrote about the experience:

http://www.ampsvideo.com/film-talk/agent12.htm

Good luck!

_________________
There are two kinds of movies.
There are the kind with guns and explosions;
and there are the kind that suck.

Just do your thing Lucky. Go ahead man, do it!

_________________
-Pierre

WOW.
You guys are pretty motivating, seriously!
In 1 or 2 months, I'll post a movie on the forum.
Thanks a lot
Luke