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Major New Versions of Adobe's Creative Apps Now Available, 40% Discount for Upgraders Until July 31
The new versions of Adobe’s creative apps are now live on Creative Cloud, including video-relevant apps like Premiere Pro CC, After Effects CC, Photoshop CC, SpeedGrade CC, Audition CC, and more. If you haven’t yet taken the plunge and switched to Adobe’s new subscription-based service, they’re adding a 40% discount to entice you (which brings the $50/month subscription for the entire suite down to $30/month). Here are videos spotlighting new features for every updated video program: More »
Perhaps the biggest story at NAB this year was Freefly Systems’ steadicam-esque gyro gimbal MōVI, which we’ve covered several times. The Vincent Laforet-directed debut film was DP’d by nofilmschool friend Timur Civan, and at NAB I had a chance to sit down with Timur briefly to chat about how they shot the debut video, how the Canon 1D C behaved, how the MōVI might affect the steadicam market, and what impact it might have on filmmaking in general. More »
Last week I posted AMATEUR, the prequel to my forthcoming feature MANCHILD, and the response to the short has been downright amazing. Thank you to everyone who has watched it! If you haven’t seen it yet, it is embedded below, and if you have seen it, here’s how two seconds of your time can make a big difference for the project: More »
AMATEUR is a short prequel demonstrating my vision for MANCHILD, the feature film we’re making next. I’ve never been so excited to release something, so I hope you like it! If you like the short and want to see the feature, please head over to our just-launched website for MANCHILD and share it. I’m releasing this directly online, and that’s how this short will spread — every tweet, facebook like, and share makes a BIG difference. Thank you! More »
Reading through the comments on our post about the innovative new camera stabilizer MōVi, I was reminded of something I saw recently at LACMA’s amazing Stanley Kubrick exhibit. It is a 1976 letter from producer Jan Harlan to Kubrick himself, in which Harlan talks about a new device he’d just discovered: the Steadicam. More »
The Phantom Flex4K is the upgraded version of Vision Research’s Flex high-speed monster, designed to be production-ready with form factor improvements, audio options, and the ability to record to compressed formats. Check out the pyromaniac-friendly debut short and our interview, co-presented with FreshDV: More »
Behold our new logo! While our complete site redesign is still a ways off, we’re premiering this new logo, very cleanly designed by David Ceraso, right away on our present site. We are also no longer “NoFilmSchool” or “No Film School” — henceforth we are simply “nofilmschool,” which is how I wrote it when I originally launched the site anyway. We will thus save ourselves (and you) the trouble of hitting the space or shift keys. We hope you like the new logo (and if you’re lazy how could you not like the new capitalization, or lack thereof?). Read on for some further pontification, as well as some news on our coverage of this year’s installment of the world’s largest film/video tradeshow, NAB. More »
UPDATE: the application form is now closed for this round, thanks!
We’re working hard on my feature MANCHILD and the associated short, and we’re looking for some extra hands on deck. I’d like to think this is a good opportunity; you’d be working directly with myself and other folks like Gotham Award-winning, Spirit Award-nominated producer Chip Hourihan, as well as some of the best post houses and web startups around. Read on if you’re interested in interning and you’re in New York City: More »
Here on this site we have previously posted about the promising FilmConvert film stock emulator, and when my photographer friend Mario Torres asked me join him in filming the beautiful Nayara Bandeira in lingerie on the nighttime beach, I thought it would be a good skin tone test, fitting for the almost agonizingly male audience here at NFS (this may be borderline NSFW, depending on what kind of W you do). We got kicked off the beach after only a few minutes, but here’s what I shot and edited: More »
Why Make a Short? Why Run a Kickstarter Campaign So Early? The MANCHILD Q&A
In the comments section of my more-contentious-than-I-expected post about making a short that ties into my forthcoming feature MANCHILD, there were a lot of questions about my project, as well as the overall wisdom of making a short in order to fundraise for a feature. Reading through the comments, I realized I could’ve delved deeper into the timeline of what’s happened since my Kickstarter campaign. So, to answer some of the questions posed in the comments — as well as to generally shoot the shit about filmmaking — I sat down (virtually) with NFS editor Joe Marine for an wide-ranging video chat. More »
Every year I make sure to post about this, as New York-based IFP’s Labs are designed for first-time feature directors at the rough cut stage — a stage at which filmmakers can often use help, but especially first-time feature directors (as you can imagine, if the timing is right I’m definitely going to apply once MANCHILD is in the can). It takes a village to make an independent feature, and IFP can bolster the support structure around your project, as well as give you valuable feedback and mentorship. If you’re a first time feature director and you’ve got a rough cut, think about applying to the Documentary Lab or Narrative Lab — you have until March 8 and April 5, respectively. More »
UPDATE: In response to some of the (heated! opinionated!) questions and comments on this post, we did a long video Q&A as well.
I wrote recently about finishing the screenplay for my feature MANCHILD (for now… ), but it’s been a while since I talked about what else is going on in the trenches of first-time feature filmmaking. The title of the post gives it away: we’re making a short. Why are we doing this? And why do I think this strategy makes a lot of sense for other first-time feature directors? Because there are millions of people with a screenplay, all trying to figure out how to get from here (words on a page) to there (actual finished movie). If your goal seems impossibly far off, that’s when it’s time to bite off a smaller chunk and show what you’re capable of. More »
A few months ago I finished the screenplay for my feature MANCHILD (for now, at least, until we move to the next stage and start making changes for talent/locations/budget/etc). I’ll have more updates on the project soon, but suffice to say there’s been a long rewriting process since I ran my Kickstarter campaign over a year ago. And while this wasn’t the first screenplay I’ve written, it’s certainly the best, and the one on which I’ve worked the longest and hardest. Over the past two years, here are the things that have helped my screenwriting process. More »
UPDATE: applications are now closed. We’ll be responding this month (in January February), but give us some time to review them all. Thanks for your interest!
Want to write about something you love, and help build one of the fastest-growing filmmaking sites at the same time? We’ve got a few part-time jobs (with a lot of room to grow) available. We’re looking for General Film/Video writers, a Distribution/Marketing/Industry writer, and a Social Media/Traffic specialist. You can do any of these things from anywhere in the world. You can do them in your underwear. You don’t have to deal with the expense or hassle of commuting. You don’t have to stare at cubicle walls that are probably (and depressingly) beige. And you’ll hopefully learn a lot along the way, while building up your own abilities (as well as garnering name recognition for yourself). Read on if you’re interested! More »
A Guide to Building a RED Camera Package: An Accessory List for Every Budget Level
Despite the recently reduced price of RED cameras, each model still requires a lot of (pricey) accessories. We’ve pointed this out from the very beginning, but now we’ve gone further and compiled some realistic shooting packages at three different levels: a “cheapest possible ONE MX” list by Aaron Rich, an “owner/operator SCARLET” package by myself, and a “full professional EPIC” package by Timur Civan. Our overall goal with this post is not just to introduce (potential) RED shooters to some accessory options and needs for the RED ONE MX, SCARLET, and EPIC, but to hopefully create a post wherein users can share what has worked best for them. Let’s get started, this is going to be a long one! More »
Hot of the presses, RED has just announced — as they said they would — their REDRAY 4K playback system, a 6-pound, DVD Player-sized playback device for $1,450. It has built-in 3D capabilities, offers 802.11N wireless connectivity/playback, is DCI-compliant, and debuts with it new security and file formats to make 4K distribution a reality — along with a brand new delivery network to debut at Sundance in January. The player itself is scheduled to ship in December ”early 2013.” More »
Watch the World's Fastest Animal in Super Slow Motion in the World's Fastest Dolly Shot
Cheetahs are the world’s fastest (land) animal, and as part of a cover story about Cheetahs in the November issue of National Geographic, cinematographer Greg Wilson paired them with a Phantom Flex camera running on the world’s fastest dolly. During the shoot, one of the cheetahs actually broke the animal land speed record, running the 100-meter dash in 5.95 seconds (take that Usain Bolt!) with a peak speed of 61 miles per hour. My first car could barely go that fast. The result is a beautifully rendered tracking shot demonstrating the cheetah’s fluidity like never before: More »
What does a grocery store do with food deemed to be “unsellable” — when a bag is torn or a can damaged, or when items are past their sell-by date? In many cases charities can’t accept such food. So this otherwise perfectly good — or at least partially good — food ends up in the dumpster out back. What kind of people show up to dig through these discards? Filmmaker Alex Mallis shows they’re sometimes not who you think with his doc Spoils: Extraordinary Harvest. As many of us sit down to (over)consume Thanksgiving dinner in the U.S., watch what happens to some of the food you didn’t — or couldn’t — buy (in this case, here in Brooklyn, NY). Don’t click play if you’re expecting a quick-hit viral video with visual effects; this is a 20-minute documentary starring very real characters. More »
When one of my roommates moved to LA to pursue a full-time screenwriting career, I used the following criteria to choose a new roommate: “which among our applicants is the most talented filmmaker?” Instead of shooting stills of my Brooklyn apartment I had shot a walkthrough video on my RED (it was sitting on my desk so it was actually easier than taking a bunch of photos, but… most overkill apartment video ever!) and so there were a lot of people to choose from. Paul Trillo, it turned out, had seen me speak at the Vimeo festival and I had backed his Kickstarter campaign, even though we’d never met, so the choice was easy. Paul moved in and promptly shot this lovely music video on his Canon 7D: More »
Three years ago I shared a quote about the independent film world that I found telling: “Europeans know how to fill out forms. Americans know how to sell.” As indie superproducer (and now head of the San Francisco Film Society) Ted Hope shares below, this is because “[America] is one of two countries in the industrialized world that doesn’t see fit to fund film art as part of its job stimulus, as part of its cultural exchange.” While indie filmmakers can always apply for grants, the fact is to have an actual life-sustaining career in today’s industry, each and every one of us must know as much as possible about producing, marketing, distribution and in general The Business. Let’s check in on the state of independent film producing, circa 2012. More »
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