5 Mistakes We Made on Our First Short Film (And How You Can Avoid Them)

Hey! Welcome to The Toolkit, our little corner of the internet where we (the five friends behind Pink Moose) get to share what we’ve learned about making movies. And honestly, most of what we’ve learned came from messing up.

My name is Joshua Triezenberg. I am founder of Pink Moose Productions and a director by trade.

For our very first post, I want to take it back and talk about the daunting first film.

You know the one. It’s that chaotic, beautiful disaster you shoot on two hours of sleep with a borrowed camera and a case of cheap beer for crew payment.

When we look back at our first real project, it’s... something. We’re super proud we finished it. But we also want to travel back in time and shake our past selves. We made so many avoidable mistakes.

The good news?...You get to learn from our pain!

Here are the 5 biggest blunders we made, so you can walk onto your first set looking like you've actually done this before.

1. We Worshiped the Camera and Ignored the Audio

This is the classic, #1 rookie mistake, and we walked right into it. A Short Film is an immediate loss (we will come back to what this means in another post) but we had no idea what we were doing!

The Mistake: We spent all our time and a huge chunk of our tiny budget getting a "real" cinema camera. We felt so professional. Then, for audio, we just plugged a basic mic into the camera and hit record. When we got to the edit, our masterpiece looked crisp, but it sounded like it was recorded inside a tin can during a hurricane. Every jacket rustle was a gunshot, and every line of dialogue was drowned out by an air conditioner we didn't even know was on.

The Lesson: Audiences will forgive a soft, grainy, or "indie" looking image. They will not forgive bad audio. If they can't understand what people are saying, they are gone. In our film "Flowers Grow Out Of My Grave" we didn't even have a microphone on set...we recorded directly into the Iphones microphone. In a bind it is surprisingly better than you would expect but its a big risk.

Your Toolkit Fix:

• Get the mic off the camera. Please. Even a $60 shotgun mic on a boom pole (or a broomstick, we've been there) held just out of frame is a million times better.

• Get a decent pair of headphones. Someone on set must be listening to what the mic is actually hearing. Your camera's little green audio bars are lying to you.

• Record 30 seconds of "room tone." That's just the sound of the empty room. It's boring, but it's pure gold for your editor. Trust us.

  
  

2. Our "5-Page" Short Film Had 10 Locations

The Mistake: Our script was short! Only five pages. But in those five pages, we had a scene in a moving car, a scene at a diner, a scene in an apartment, and a scene in a dark alley. We figured, "We'll just... go to those places. Easy."

The Lesson: It was not easy. Every time you change locations, you kill your day. "Company moves" are momentum-assassins. You have to pack every single piece of gear, drive across town, find parking (good luck), unload it all, and set it all up again. We spent more time packing and unpacking than we did filming.

Your Toolkit Fix:

• Write for your budget. Your first film should live in its constraints. Embrace the "indie film trinity": one location, a small cast, and a killer concept.

• Look at our short "Flowers Grow Out Of My Grave." It's almost all in one spot. That's not laziness, that's production strategy. It let us focus on what mattered: the goofy monster effects and the performances.

  
  

3. We Had a Script, But No Plan

The Mistake: We showed up on set with the script, a camera, and vibes. Just vibes. We thought we'd "discover" the film in the moment, like artsy geniuses. Instead, we stood around for two hours staring at the room, asking, "So... where should we put the camera first?" We were burning daylight, frustrating our actors, and missing shots we desperately needed later.

The Lesson: "Winging it" is a terrible strategy. Your movie is made in pre-production. The shoot is just executing the plan.

Your Toolkit Fix:

• Make a shot list. It's just a simple checklist of every single shot you need. (e.g., "1. WIDE - Sarah enters." "2. CLOSE UP - Sarah grabs the knife.") This is your map for the day.

• Draw storyboards. Stick figures are fine! We're not Picasso. A visual plan gets everyone on the same page and makes you look like a total pro.

  
  

4. We Thought "Available Light" Meant "Good Light"

The Mistake: We had a key emotional scene set in a living room. We decided to use the "beautiful, natural light" from the window. The problem? The sun moves. In our first shot, the actor was perfectly lit. By the time we did the reverse shot 45 minutes later, he was a silhouette. It was a continuity disaster.

The Lesson: "Available light" is usually code for "bad light." Lighting creates the mood, tells the audience where to look, and makes your film look like a film.

Your Toolkit Fix:

• Learn basic 3-point lighting (Key, Fill, Backlight). You can do it with cheap gear.

• DIY Hack: A $5 white foam board from a craft store is the best "fill light" you'll ever own (just use it to bounce light). A $20 work light from a hardware store with some baking parchment paper clipped to it (carefully!) makes a decent soft light. Seriously.

  
  

5. We Called "Wrap" and Thought We Were Done

The Mistake: We yelled "That's a wrap!" on our last day, high-fived, and figured we were 90% done. We'd just "edit it in a weekend." A month later, we were miserable, staring at a mountain of disorganized files. We hadn't planned for sound design, color grading, or finding music that wasn't terrible.

The Lesson: Post-production isn't just a final step; it's half the entire process. It's where you actually find your story.

Your Toolkit Fix:

• Organize your files on set. As you dump footage, label your folders. Your future self, at 2 AM and fueled by energy drinks, will thank you.

• Budget 2-3x more time for the edit than you think you need. We're not kidding.

• Don't just add music. Add sound. The subtle sounds of footsteps, wind, a clock ticking... that's what makes your world feel real.

  
  

You're Going to Mess Up. It's the Point.

Your first film probably won't be perfect. It might not even be good. But you will finish it. And you'll have learned more than you can imagine.

We built Pink Moose on a foundation of all the things we did wrong. The goal is just to make new mistakes next time.

We're stoked to build this Toolkit with you.

So, what's the biggest lesson you learned on your first project? Or what are you most scared of messing up?

Drop it in the comments. Let's talk. P.S.

Here is a link to the film in question: https://youtu.be/ki4x1ovRNDY?si=IDVEggejNtmFdxfl

- The Pink Moose Team