» Posts Tagged ‘behindthescenes’
This is a guest post by director/DP Alex Mallis.
Coming from a primarily documentary background, my style and approach are often dictated by what’s happening in front of me. I like to work handheld and shoot on the fly -– following the action as it happens (or doesn’t). I’ve long assumed this antithetical to the more controlled approach of narrative filmmaking. You tell the actors where to go; they go there. You call action and the action starts. You repeat scenes dozens of times until you get that one golden take. And yet, I felt right at home working as a cinematographer on WELCOME TO PINE HILL. 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…
Peter Jackson and the crew on the The Hobbit have been sharing periodic video blog updates on the film’s production via their Facebook page, and they recently released the fifth episode. It’s easy to assume with the advent of CGI that anything in the background of a fantasy blockbuster is added in post, but that’s often not the case, as evidenced by the construction of a real “Hobbiton” this time around. This latest episode covers the logistics and physical scope of a 250-day, $500 million movie production (well, two movies really):
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.
A $160 million movie that grossed $825 million worldwide isn’t exactly DIY filmmaking, but because I wrote about the film when it came out — and because this is just really cool — here’s a behind-the-scenes look at Inception’s “horizontal rotating corridor” sequence: More »
Disney has released a 25-minute documentary following Pixar chief/director John Lasseter over the course of a day of work. I know, I know, this isn’t DIY/indie film at all, but come on… everyone loves Pixar. Except maybe the Cars movies, for which this is being released as a promo — the Cars films are, for me at least, a tad crass with their commercialism. And while the first part of the doc is mostly focused on Lasseter’s personal life, it does get into the group movie making/creative process at Pixar — which includes reviewing shots on an iPad on the way to work in what looks to be a custom Pixar app (note: driver required). I found it to be an interesting look behind-the-scenes, but if you only interested DIY filmmaking, feel free to skip this free 25-minute documentary: More »
French filmmaker Eric Bernaud has posted a short video on how he turned his garage into a prison set. When I see these kinds of DIY construction projects I always regret how little space is available in New York City, but you take the bad with the good I suppose. The walls Eric constructs could even be put to use as wild walls, in order to pull the camera back further and obviate the need for such wide-angle lenses as seen in the video (though with DSLRs and RED cameras nowadays, the depth of the camera is less of an issue than it used to be). Here’s his BTS: More »
Since we’re on the subject of games this weekend, it occurred to me how much like a movie production is this behind-the-scenes video of Uncharted 3 — it’s especially akin to a CGI-based film like Avatar
I was recently hired to be the A Camera operator on a fashion shoot for a company that will go unnamed. I’m not trying to be mysterious — they had me sign a Non Disclosure Agreement, so I’m erring on the side of caution. Actually, posting nothing at all would probably be erring on the side of caution, but there were too many expensive tools and newfangled gadgets being put to use on the shoot for me not to share. As an indie used to low-budget DSLR shoots, getting my hands on a $200k camera was quite the departure. More »
Regardless of whether you think Po Chang’s The Last 3 Minutes is a rip-off of Chris Milk’s Last Day Dream, the DP of the former film, Shane Hurlbut, has posted a series of very interesting behind-the-scenes videos from the making of the short. Despite the use of low-cost DSLRs, the video had a sizable budget, apparent in the amount of equipment and size of the crew employed on the shoot. Shane’s done a very helpful voiceover, illustrating several clever shooting and lighting techniques: More »
.gif)
David: The no AA filter is on the D800E only. The D800 has an AA filter. I have a… 'Joy Ride,' the First Nikon D800 Test Film
Will: Welcome! and can't wait to enjoy more posts from this excellent site! I… Please Give a Warm Welcome to NoFilmSchool's New Writers, Joe Marine and E…
Joe Marine: It could, but it's more likely that the old version will hover around its … Canon Raises the Bar with New 24-70mm F/2.8L and Overhauls Two Other Lense…
Joe Marine: Thanks everyone! I'm excited to now be a part of such a terrific and suppo… Please Give a Warm Welcome to NoFilmSchool's New Writers, Joe Marine and E…
LinuxDanish: ^sorry about the double negative.*I really should proof read more. Are You Ready to Make Adobe a Utility? Creative Cloud to Launch Alongside …