Make a Silent Movie
Silent movies are movies that have no spoken dialogue, allowing the actors to communicate via actions and body language, usually supplemented by background music, subtitles, or both. This "How to" is aimed at teaching you how to make an awesome silent movie. Note that for the editing section of this article, Windows Movie Maker is used, but any movie making program can be used.
Steps
- Choose some music. Music can transform a silent movie. Typically, the best music will be instrumental (or use wordless vocals). The music can be energetic, sad, festive, or anything else, depending on the mood of your movie.
- Develop a story. What is going to happen in the movie? You don’t have to plan every single thing that is going to happen in the movie, but get an idea of the sorts of things that are going to happen. Keep in mind that the length of the story has to tie in with the length of musical piece. Also keep in mind that there will be no speaking in your movie and that you won’t be able to portray ideas and plot with words.
- Find a camera. This can be a digital camera that can also shoot video or proper video camera. The camera quality depends on what you plan to use for your movie. If you are just going to show it off to your friends, the camera quality doesn’t have to be as good, but if you are submitting into a competition or film festival, you might want to choose a higher quality camera. You might also want to use a tripod or a flat surface to steady the camera.
- Find a set. The set you choose would depend on what kind of movie you plan to make. If you are making a movie about mountain bikers, you will want to get into a forest. If you are making a movie about someone who has lost his glasses in his home, you are going to need a house. Use common sense!
- Find some actors. You will need a person to film with the camera. You could get your friends or acquaintances to act in the film for you, or you could hold auditions.
- Shoot the movie. Using your story, camera, set and actors, start filming the movie. Remember that you need to portray all ideas with actions and facial expressions as you won’t be able to hear any talking.
- Import your shots onto your computer. The methods of doing this can vary depending on what camera you are using and what outputs your computer has. You may need a cable, or simply a memory card. Save all of your clips and the music that you will be using for your movie in a folder on your computer.
- Start editing your movie. Open up Windows Movie Maker [or any other movie editing program].
- Import the music that you’ll be using and drag it into the audio/music section of the timeline at the bottom.
- Import the clips in your movie and put them onto the timeline in the order you want.
- Add any effects you may want. Trim any clips that have bits at the start or end of them that you don’t want to keep.
- Add the finishing touches. Add a title screen to the beginning of your movie and credits to the end.
- Save your movie. Go to File, Save Movie File, (assuming you're using Windows Movie Maker) and choose "Best Quality for Playback on my computer." Click the next button a few times and let the exporting begin, once it finishes you're good to go!
Tips
- Experiment with different camera angles, such as high shots (above eye level) and low shots (below eye level or from the ground), and zoom levels, such as close ups and long shots.
- Remember that no voices will be recorded. Use this to your advantage by freely communicating between cast and crew with voice, which will be ultimately edited out anyway.
- If you don’t use Windows XP OS, then you can still make a movie, but the editing process will be different.
Warnings
- Remember that you cannot make a profit from your movie if you are using someone else’s copyrighted music unless you have their permission (which can be granted for e.g. money)
Things You'll Need
- A camera
- Some music
- Computer(s)
- A movie editing program like Windows Movie Maker, iMovie, Adobe Premiere, Final Cut Pro, MediaSuite
- Some actors
- An active imagination
- A good story to make the movie
