Hey guys and welcome to a special episode on the HitFilm channel - you may remember
a while ago we did a guest episode on the Film Riot channel for the Heads Up HitFilm
4 Express extravaganza.
Ryan is here to return the favour.
We're really lucky, when we went over to VidCon earlier this year we stopped by Dallas on
the way back and we saw Ryan Connolly, Josh Connolly, Tim - all the Connolly's.
We had a lovely dinner and I'm quite the fanboy when it comes to Ryan so I tried to ask him
what his motivation was behind Film Riot and the kind of thing he does and he stopped me
right there and he said 'We're having dinner Josh, just shut up.
I'll answer some questions, I'll send you a video'.
And here it is.
How did you guys get started?
I've been chasing filmmaking since I was about 8 years old, although I didn't know that I
was pursuing filmmaking until I was more like 11 or 12.
But since that age I was always making short films and trying to figure out how I would
become a filmmaker.
My dream was to become the first filmmaker to make a big feature at 18 which obviously
didn't happen.
I went to Film School around 20/21 years old and then after that I was able to get a job
at Alien where I was running their video studio.
Which was really great because they hired me as a Jack of all Trades type filmmaker
so I did everything from all the pre-production work through post-production including music
so I just did everything all on my own.
So I had my own studio where I was able to try whatever I wanted and learn things so
if I wasn't on something specific that they had, if there was any lull, I was always trying
new ideas - new lighting ideas - new techniques - and that was a really great training ground
for me.
Then after that I got the idea to start a filmmaking show which would kind of show how-to
with zero budget and hopefully progress with my career which is what Film Riot has finally
become.
It took about a year and a half of doing Film Riot full time before I went full time for
my company and I've been doing that ever since.
Who influenced you the most?
I think it's the collection of influence that makes up who you are as an artist, an entertainer,
whatever.
For me, obviously I have that number one main influence of Steven Spielberg.
He's definitely my biggest idol, hero, person that I've looked up to and it's definitely
informed the way I approach filmmaking the most but also Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino,
Tony Scott, Ridley Scott, David Fincher for sure - there's a whole plethora of filmmakers
that I love and look up to that have informed what I've become over time.
It's not just one.
But even outside of that into composers, writers - it's the collection of all these things
that I've loved and have connected to in some way that has made up what I am.
Even on Film Riot, MythBusters was a huge influence.
I mean, I don't know how much you can see it within Film Riot but the way that they
approach that show, their methodology really informed what I wanted to do with Film Riot
in a lot of ways.
So I really think it's a collection of everything that you connect with that influence you to
become what you're ultimately going to become.
Why do you do what you do?
From a filmmaking standpoint it's just because I couldn't not do it.
There's no way that I could do anything else.
I have to pursue filmmaking or I would just be incredibly depressed.
It's why I say that filmmaking is such a hard career to get into, that if you're not so
passionate that you wouldn't rather live under a bridge or out of your car, you should just
do this as a hobby and get something else as your career.
Because it really is a difficult thing to break into, but that really is how passionate
I am about it.
There really isn't a choice.
I would be very very depressed if I wasn't pursuing filmmaking.
From the Film Riot standpoint, I just really like helping people.
Turns out I love educating and just helping to get info out there but also the community.
It's been able to build where we put stuff out for our community, they give us feedback.
It's just been a really great experience so at first it was the 'wouldn't it be great
to have a show like this, there really isn't anything at the time that put info out all
the time' but also followed someone's career from backyard, zero budget filmmaking to hopefully,
eventually, big budget feature filmmaking.
And we're definitely on that track, somewhere in the middle for sure but it's been a great
experience and the thing that I learned was just how much I loved educating my community.
That was something that I found over time so now - why we keep doing it is for that
reason.
When we get kids coming back saying 'hey we're doing this film' or 'I got this job' or now
I'm at this position and it's all thanks to Film Riot.
That stuff is why we keep doing it.
It's pretty amazing and it's built an incredible community.
What's your favourite part of filmmaking?
That's really hard to pick.
I love filmmaking just as a whole.
There isn't really a section I don't like, I mean, other than the stress that it brings
sometimes obviously.
But other than that, I really like every aspect of filmmaking.
I love storytelling and you know, giving that experience to an audience and I love finding
that.
Getting that big block of wood that is your idea and starting to chip away from that until
you get this refined sculpture that is that story or experience that you know that you
now want to give to your audience.
And it's just in your mind and now you have to pull it out and you have to explain it
to the people that you're collaborating with to ultimately have on screen that thing that
you've whittled in your brain for other people to then experience the way you were hoping
they would.
So it's just that process as a whole which really encompasses all of it, from pre- to
post- production.
It's just that idea that I love so much.
How do you come up with ideas?
That's a really hard thing to answer.
People ask that all the time and I don't really know how exactly to answer it because more
often than not it's just 'I'm thinking, and then an idea hits me' and it just feels like
it sometimes comes out of nowhere.
I think that it comes from your experiences.
What you put in constantly, what you're reading and listening to, what you're watching.
Just experiencing life, paying attention to your experience of life, sitting in a coffee
shop and just hearing people talk and never taking it for granted.
Never let any piece of dialogue that someone lets fly out their mouth, or moment that happens
fly past you and just not be collected by your filmmaker net.
Just grab everything, put it in little boxes so later you can pluck these things out and
say 'whoa, that's kind of an interesting idea'.
And I also just constantly come up with bad ideas.
So if I have a bad idea, I'm writing it down and I'm just pursuing that.
Like 'hey, here's a great feature idea' and then I'll write it out as much as I can, do
a terrible terrible outline in 20 minutes - but now I have that.
And then I come up with another one and another one and then by my fifth, I've come up with
a really solid story idea that I'm not able to pluck from all these other ideas I had
that were bad ideas on the whole, but had little gems inside of them to create this
greater whole.
I think a lot of my fleshed out ideas come from that.
From always pursuing an idea whether it's terrible or not.
If I'm saying 'Hey, this is kind of cool', just fleshing that out as much as I can and
then moving on until I have something that I know that this is going to stick, this is
something I want to work on.
And then I just have all that catalogue of bad ideas mixed with good ideas that I can
then pull from.
Who should we be subscribed to on YouTube?
Well, Film Riot (hopefully) but then we also have another show called Variant which is
a comic book show that I dig a lot.
Cinematography database, FilmmakerIQ, DIYperks is another good one, VideoCopilot is a great
channel, Red Giant has a great channel, Corridor Digital has a great channel - those guys are
incredibly talented.
There's just a ton of things online, YouTube specifically that is great for filmmakers.
Just really entertaining stuff too, it took a really long time to spit out all the ones
that I love, but those are some of my top picks for sure.
What video are you most proud of and why?
I would definitely say Proximity is the one I'm most proud of - beyond the fact that it's
just the short that I like the most out of all the ones that we've made, it was an example
of us practicing what we preached.
We had another, much larger short film set up - really big budget, it was almost 30 minutes
long but fell through last minute because of financing and instead of us being depressed
about it and letting that stop us, we decided to just make something else anyway so we came
up with a brand new idea, ran and shot it in a matter of 10 days and it did end up being
one of my favourite short films I've ever made.
So for all those things and even for just how we shot it, it was just a handful of us
in the middle of nowhere with no money - just this 300 acre plot of land in the middle of
nowhere, just going out and making this thing happen.
We had no craft services, we had nowhere to go to the bathroom, we just went out and did
it and it was just the collection of all those things that really make it one of my most
proud moments I think.
How do you keep good production value while working on a low budget.
I think a lot of production value is wrapped up within the experience you're giving your
audience.
Even if the production value isn't very high but I'm entirely engaged and you're giving
me this great experience, I'm going to forgive all of that.
As long as the sound isn't bad.
Sound being bad is really the one thing that can absolutely ruin a project, so I'm always
preaching that.
The sound has to be good, but everything else including visual effects can be a little less
if you can't get them there - if you are giving your audience that experience that you need
to give.
So, above all else, that's the value that needs to be had within your production, but
beyond that - it's about good locations that are going to boost that production value and
that can be something that you can get for free, just ask around and find a good location
that somebody might just be willing to let you use.
Stock footage is a really great way to boost production value if you just cut away to a
city shot that just makes it feel a lot bigger.
Even in the music, getting good music - that's going to boost the production value.
Getting music that sounds very indie, very made by someone who's not quite ready to make
that sort of music, definitely will hurt you.
So it's a matter of finding these little tricks that are going to make everything feel a lot
bigger than what it actually is.
What do new filmmakers tend to get wrong?
I would say, out of all the videos that are sent to me, the number one bit of feedback
I'm giving is the pacing is off.
I almost say that with every video that's shown to me.
Usually the pacing is very slow, it needs to be picked up a lot.
People think that maybe their audience aren't going to be able to keep up with what they're
trying to say or that they have shots that they really love how they look and they want
them to linger, or they just want a piece that is longer so it feels bigger.
None of that is helpful.
There have been shots that I loved the most out of every shot we got for a project but
then, threw it on the cutting room floor.
It didn't even make it into the final production because it slowed down the pacing.
You have to - as you say, kill your babies.
Don't be precious about anything, don't be married to anything.
It's all about giving your audience the experience that you're trying to give them and pacing
is one of the number one things for that - so if your pacing is slow, you're going to bore
your audience and that really is the cardinal sin in filmmaking.
What's coming up for Film Riot?
Well we have a Bloodtober event coming up with two small pieces that we're going to
be putting out which I'm very excited about.
We're going to have a lot of BTS, it's going to be very cool.
But we're also wrapping up to do much bigger things next year - something specific that
we can't talk about yet because there's nothing set in stone so it'd be pointless to talk
about, but it's all hopefully bigger and better.
We're working toward getting the show back consistent of how we want it to be on a weekly
basis and on top of that, just doing much bigger things.
Much bigger gear, much bigger productions so we can really bring this free online film
school to our audience.
If you could choose to work with anyone in the industry, who would it be?
Definitely Steven Spielberg.
That man is a genius and that would - I could die happy.
If that happened.
We really hope you enjoyed that guys.
Do go over to the Film Riot channel and subscribe if you haven't already - it's pretty much
the best resource on YouTube for learning about filmmaking.
Apart from us.
Yeah.
But other than that, it's the best.
I mean, you don't have to choose, you can subscribe to both.
Yes.
And make both of us happy.
And Ryan's a really nice guy.
You do want to make him happy, don't you?