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A Complete Guide to Setting Up a Home Color Grading Suite
This is a guest post by Cinematographer Ryan E. Walters.
As Moore’s Law continues to make technology more accessible to the masses, it is time to start exploring what it takes to build your own grading suite at home or in your office. Before reading the rest of this post, I recommend that you check out How To Get The Most Out Of CS6, DaVinci, & Your Mac Pro, as this article continues to build on what I’ve outlined. So let’s get started shall we? More »
This is a guest post by Brian Newman.
Freddie Wong (FreddieW). Ryan Higa (NigaHiga). Jenna Marbles. Kevin Wu (KevJumba). These are four names that I can mention in conversation with almost everyone I know in the independent film business and get blank stares. They aren’t the only four names that I could mention, but to me, they are arguably the four most important names that every indie should know about, but somehow no one does (hyperbole, I know). More »
Three Steps For 21st-Century Independent Filmmaking Success
This is a guest post by Jason Brubaker, author of the new book Filmmaking Stuff: How to make, market and sell your movie without the middle-man.
Independent filmmaking has changed a lot in the decade since I started my career. It sounds silly now, but back when I started, there was this collective belief that if you made your movie, you would sell it at Sundance and live happily ever after. Perpetuated by sensational headlines touting the successes of Ed Burns, Kevin Smith and Robert Rodriguez, Sundance Fever became a full-blown epidemic resulting in maxed out credit cards, angry investors and film festival rejection.
Even if you were one of the few filmmakers fortunate enough to make a movie and have an amazing festival run, it soon became apparent that you were nobody unless you could reach the marketplace. And because there were thousands of poorly produced titles flooding the festival circuit, distribution became discriminatory, abusive and monopolistic. As a consequence, many filmmakers settled for crappy distribution deals. At least getting something felt better than nothing.
Or so we thought… More »
This is a guest post by filmmaker Robin Schmidt a.k.a. El Skid.
It’s been a while since I wrote part 1 and part 2 of this series and much has happened in between. For the indie filmmaker the camera buffet suddenly grew a few extra tables and it’s interesting to see which, if any, of the new cameras we’d have chosen to shoot on back in November in preference to the RED Epic. More »
This is a guest post by Ryan E. Hoffman. Note: it contains NSFW content.
“If you build it, they will come.”
-Field of Dreams
Has a friend ever sent you a comedy clip on the web, and you thought something like, “I want to do stuff just like that!” or “That’s not that great. I could do better.” or EVEN “How do I do something like that?” The truth is simple: just get out and do it. Bust a move! My goal with this post is to give you a few tips, in layman’s terms, on how to create dynamic comedy web content and skip over a few of the mistakes that my fellow comedian Nick Ruggia and I made. That way, you can do it better and shoot your own hilarious web series or sketch. More »
The KineRAW is a Chinese digital cinema camera that I called (perhaps too harshly) a “knockoff” of the ARRI ALEXA and RED cameras. This is a guest post by Wentao Marvin.
As China is celebrating the Lunar New Year (the Year of Dragon), Kinefinity KineRAW development has entered the final stage of internal user testing, and public testing is scheduled to roll out in February. This update focuses on the S35 (Super35-sized sensor) and S8 (Super8mm-sized sensor) model as they are being developed back-to-back. More »
This is a guest post by DP and filmmaker Randolph Sellars.
I’ve read several interviews with Hollywood directors who, when asked about directing actors, responded with something like “casting is 90% of the job.” While I agree that casting is extremely important and certainly makes the director’s job easier, I must quibble with their percentage estimate. This 90% claim is either a cop-out answer or these directors aren’t fully doing their jobs. Even the best actors still need skillful guidance with their roles. We’ve all seen great actors deliver bad performances occasionally. In most of these cases, it’s not entirely the actor’s fault. Much of the blame can be assigned to bad writing, sub par directing – or both. More »
This is a guest post by indie filmmaker Jason Sokoloff.
Everyone wants to write and direct, but the reality is it doesn’t happen immediately. Coming out of NYU’s Graduate Film Program, I was surrounded by talented filmmakers, but, while you’re writing scripts and trying to do what you love, you have student loans to repay, rent that’s due, and health insurance would be nice. Quite simply put, you need a job – preferably with benefits. In order to pay my bills and still be active in the film community, I found my niche working as a production manager and line producer. I cannot express how important it is to work on a film set and what better way to continue growing as a filmmaker than by helping others produce and make their own films. More »
This is a guest post by DP and filmmaker Randolph Sellars.
In my last article, I discussed the reasons for directors to take an acting class. In this article, I’ll share practical directing tips and give you my second piece of directing advice. It sounds a bit like Buddhist Philosophy: You can become a much better director if you learn how to let go of your “illusion of control.” This is easier said than done. “Letting go” requires a conscious shift in perspective and lots of practice. It’s human nature (and especially a director’s nature) to want to be “in control.” It’s common for directors to desire and seek total control over their artistic vision. But having “control” is a myth. More »
This is a guest post by DP and filmmaker Randolph Sellars.
I’ll be talking about working with experienced actors and feeling a little uncomfortable or inadequate as a director. The lack of confidence when directing actors is an embarrassing secret many directors share that’s not often discussed. More »
This is a guest post by filmmaker Robin Schmidt a.k.a. El Skid.
The first part of this series brought out some strange, and unexpected reactions, mainly fuelled by the ‘on-set’ footage we put together. We didn’t shoot a behind the scenes doc because this is a short film, and, well, putting together a documentary that’s as long as the film itself seems like a bit of overkill. We will eventually shoot some interviews with the directors, the actors and the composer but these are purely for the festival packs and will be very very short. I spend a lot of time scouring makingof.com for ‘on-set’ footage of films because it gives me the best understanding of what’s actually going on. It’s nice to hear people talk about their choices but I like to see the set at work, observe the bodges and workarounds that crews come up with, and see how the director works. Some of you objected to the ‘on-set’ video. Cool. We look for different things! I’ll try and give you a bit more of what you want in this post…
This is a guest post by Evan Luzi, a camera assistant who runs The Black and Blue.
You step on set for the first time ever on day one of a shoot and you’re ready to impress everyone. You’ve worked hard to get to this point and it feels like now — finally — you’re where you want to be. From here on out, it should be easy.
Well, if that were the case, we’d have a lot more people working in the film industry. Instead, there’s no doubt about it: it’s tough to make a living in Hollywood.
Getting on set is just the first step in a long process. In the beginning, you need to “wow” those who gave you your opportunity in the first place.
Lucky for you, I’ve got a secret to help and it’s bound to make your first day a better one. But before I reveal it to you, let me tell you a story. More »
Explore the Underwater Realm is an in-progress series of films that are getting a lot of attention in the filmmaking community, and for good reason. Not only are they making a series of ambitious underwater shorts, they’ve been releasing extremely helpful video tutorials during their Kickstarter campaign as well. I backed their project, and after watching these tutorials and checking out these rewards, I suspect many of you will want to follow suit! Seriously — the tutorials here are incredibly helpful. This is a guest post by director David M Reynolds.
I don’t know about you guys – but I don’t spend a lot of time looking for ways to give my money away. That said, it’s not difficult to squeeze cash out of me – all you have to do is show me something that is going to make my filmmaking better. More »
This is a guest post by filmmaker Robin Schmidt a.k.a. El Skid.
A couple of weeks ago I shot what I hope will be my last short film. The shoot began on the 4th of November, which ought to be significant for this readership in landing the day after those double announcements from Canon and RED. While the blogotwitosphere was declaring war on itself over which camera was bestest, we were going to war producing a film about war, on the camera everyone is now keen to get close to: the Epic. Suffice it to say, our interest in what the Epic could offer us was more than a little spiced up by these announcements. These are great times for indie filmmakers, or maybe they’re not so good — I’d rather see filmmakers invest their cash in their productions than in the tools they make them with, but then I would say that, since that’s exactly what we’ve done.
This is a guest post by cinematographer Angelo Lorenzo.
So there we were: my production partner rented some of our gear for a music video and roped both of us in to camera operate. The crew was made up mostly of film students still in, or just recently out of, an expedited 6 month film program. The director had bailed the night before principal photography and had left our DP in charge. Throughout the course of the two day shoot we watched the production slowly implode; not because these guys lacked knowledge or enthusiasm, but because they hadn’t gained the experience to “turn the ship around” when a production starts sinking into turmoil. With this recent experience in mind, I wanted to share some advice to novice filmmakers to help their days on set go as smoothly as humanly possible. If you’re battle worn then let this serve as a gut check when shooting lean. More »
This is a guest post by Matthew Duclos of Duclos Lenses.
There’s no doubt that all of the new cameras announced in the past couple years are very capable in their own field and will prove to produce many, many beautiful images. Regardless of your camera choice, everyone is going to need to find a lens that fits their style and fulfills their needs for a range of productions. Whether you’re shooting a film school project or shooting a feature film, there is a balance to lensing your imagers. More »
This is a guest post by cinematographer Angelo Lorenzo.
I am torn between the Canon EOS C300 and RED SCARLET-X, I really am. In 2009 I felt like a pioneer on the Canon 5DmkII: before Redrock or any number of accessory companies were popping out rods and mounts, I had my camera with a custom machined PL adapter and iris rod bracket, and I was slapping it on everything from technocranes to steadicams. More recently I’ve been racking up hours with the Red One MX, including an AC position on a million dollar film. I’ve grown to love both the Canon and Red camps for different reasons. In the wake of both companies’ recent announcements though, the collective internet conscience has declared Red’s Scarlet as winner in some imaginary zero-sum game. More »
This is a guest post by cinematographer Angelo Lorenzo.
Maybe you’re an army-of-one indie director. Maybe you’re a cinematographer who has decided to step up your game or reinforce your fundamentals. Whatever the case may be, the cornerstone of video capture is the control of the light that hits your lens and knowing the limitations of your recording system: the camera. More »
This is a guest post by filmmaker/author Jon Reiss, whose brand new co-authored book Selling Your Film Without Selling Your Soul is 100% free (until the end of September) and 100% essential reading for filmmakers. Seriously: do not miss this book.
Two years ago I wrote a book Think Outside the Box Office which is a nuts and bolts guide to direct distribution and marketing for films that I wish I had when I released my feature Bomb It (about graffiti and street art all over the world). Last week marked the launch of Selling Your Film Without Selling Your Soul (SYFWSYS) a book that I wrote with Sheri Candler and The Film Collaborative – which is available for free digitally until October 1 and also available in paperback. SYFWSYS includes marketing and crowdfunding strategies, distribution spends, community building and detailed ancillary and digital distribution numbers for the following films: Ride The Divide, The Cosmonaut, The Best and The Brightest, Sita Sings the Blues, Note by Note, Bass Ackwards, Adventures of Power, American: The Bill Hicks Story, Undertow, For the Bible Tells Me So, and the webseries PioneerOne. What follows is an excerpt from one of my chapters in the book about the release of a film Ride the Divide. More »
This is a guest post by Zack Lieberman, a filmmaker in preproduction on his debut (3D) feature. He was also co-creator of The West Side with NoFilmSchool’s numero uno, Koo.
This post is fundamentally a review of the twin-lens, 3D JVC GS-TD1 camcorder and so I’ll get it out of the way up front and say that I really liked this camera. A lot. For a two lens system, it’s incredibly small and durable, it makes a beautiful image, and is about as good as I could reasonably expect for 2011. Done! Okay, fine, I’ll go a bit more in-depth, but this won’t be an extremely technical rundown. I will talk a lot about why I think 3D is the future, though. More »
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