What are /r/Filmmakers' favorite Products & Services?

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Michael Madsen liked the movie and signed on as Executive Producer. It directly helped get a limited theatrical run in LA and distribution through BayView Entertainment. It was a wild ride and definitely motivation to keep going further. The movie is available here - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07R6YGSR6

Consider moving to Davinci Resolve 17 (the free version) if you're really considering sticking with filmmaking and editing. Filmora is okay, but really slow, bulky, and buggy. It might feel like a pain in the butt to move over to a new app, but it's going to give you a leg up when you need to move to a more complex piece of software in the future.

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve/

Made my freaking laugh out loud. I'm so glad we can inspire such visceral emotion with our film! It really gives me the drive to keep making movies, and keep giving the people content to enjoy.

The movie can be found here if you wanna be dissapointed https://www.amazon.com/Snowed-Robert-Francis/dp/B07L37JH4N

Here you go:

https://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B071J4VCN4/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Absolutely! My origin story is long and twisted but basically, my best advice is: - buy “the Steadicam operator’s handbook” The Steadicam® Operator's Handbook https://smile.amazon.com/dp/024082380X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_TjKxFbAMWE1ZY - take a workshop: https://steadicam-ops.com/workshop - save up for a good quality Steadicam rig. Prefer a good brand used one vs a new cheap knockoff. - [edit: also, don’t rush to buy a Steadicam rig, take your time. Reach out to local operators, we’re (mostly) nice people and happy to help. Take the workshop before buying a rig. Yes the workshop is expensive but it’s 100% worth it and still cheaper than a $30K rig. A Steadicam operator is primarily a camera operator, learn that first, learn how to frame and compose an image. Steadicam is only one tool amongst many to make that image happen]

Every Frame a Painting is my favorite of all of those.

https://www.youtube.com/user/everyframeapainting/videos

EDIT: Since this comment blew up. If you want to support his videos here is his patreon: https://www.patreon.com/everyframeapainting?ty=h It has an educational cut that is suitable for classrooms.

https://mubi.com/films/the-red-balloon

Could have been inspired by this. I'm pretty sure there are other similar videos, the concept doesn't seem to be that unique..

Punch Drunk is one of my favorite movies! My movie is available to stream on itunes, vudu, amazon video, etc starting november 12th (itunes preorder is live now) and the blu-ray is on Amazon, target, and best buy :)

Not sure if you've seen this: storyboarding software for people who can't draw. You can basically tell it you want a medium shot of a man and it roughly generates the shot for you. https://wonderunit.com/storyboarder/

This was a while ago. I'm not entirely sure, but it was something similar to this.

Instagram source: @championsofthecosmos

This is from the feature length space fantasy B-movie Galaxy Lords which I directed with the help of amazing friends. We shot on the tiniest budget, and it took us way longer than I care to admit, but I'm very proud of it! I'm excited to take what I learned making this ridiculous thing to my next projects and keep making ridiculous stuff.

I started an instagram channel for our little production club a week ago to highlight some of the videos we've done, pretty much all Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Fantastical. Figured the DIY-ness of this would be appreciated here.

Cheers

I like Celtx for screenwriting. But they also have a bunch of production tools that I've been told are good (I focus on the writing, so I can't vouch for them). They have both online and offline versions.

DSLR Controller (Paid app, 7.99, sorry). Allows for full control of your Canon DSLR through a USB OTG cable. Helps me out because I use it to make a cheap viewfinder out of my original Kindle Fire.

My ghetto setup

I don't think you did anything wrong, but as with all things, no matter how good, there are areas that can be improved.

This is only my opinion and isn't really worth much so take it for what it is worth.

Over all I think you did a great job. However, in some of the outdoor scenes the lighting was a little flat; this is due to time of day, overcast skies and light source. There are plugins and settings that can up the contrast just a bit to give it a little more dramatic feel. But this is an artistic choice and dependent on what you are trying to convey to the audience it is your decision.

Also the camera may have been on auto focus as in several scenes it looked like the camera was searching for a focal target. Generally it is best to do a manual focus and change it manually to pull in your depth of field or.... apply a blur effect in post. In this way you have more control over the scene. A free program that can help with color, lighting & depth of field focus in post https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve

But still over all you did a good job.

Unless you're a professional colorist, you don't need powerful coloring hardware. If you can run After Effects, you can certainly run the standard version of Resolve 12, which is free.

Whilst I'm still at the early part of my journey, I have managed to avoid the mistakes that many film makers make.

Group of friends:

I initially had no one around me who shared my passion for movies, so I started to go to MeetUp.com events about film and get advice from experienced film makers. Learning about how the industry operates and the roles of each pending team member (e.g. director, producer, scriptwriter, etc.) was my first point of call. I also started to learn about the legal side of film making which is helping me a lot.

Starting off small:

I'm in the middle of building my first team and have already been able to secure some good cameras by selecting members who already have their own kit from doing various jobs.

How to find connections:

Networking, networking and networking. Did I say networking? Just be careful when discussing any scripts you have in mind due to plagiarism.

I hope this helps.

Two things:

1. Watch this documentary series. It touches on most of the greatest films and gives you some historical and artistic context to them. I have watched this several times (it's that densely packed with info) and each time it peaks my curiosity about a couple of movies and then I end up seeking them out to watch them.

2. Clerks... It was the movie that taught me what a creative person could do with a few friends, no money, and a camera. Taught me to not be overwhelmed by the process.

Came here to say the same thing. I'll add a little more info.

You have your key light and your fill light in a traditional lighting set up.

When you're outside or when there is a lot of ambient light and your lamps aren't enough to overpower them sometimes your best option is to take away light to create contrast.

Contrast is important especially on faces. It adds depth to people and helps to put life into your actors. Ever hear people say something is "flat"... it is almost always the lighting.

The most common way to get negative fill is to pop a floppy up on 1 side of the actor and get it as close in to the shot as possible. You can also chuck a piece of cheap black cloth up onto a C-stand arm as well if you don't have any floppies.

here is a little video

https://vimeo.com/52236132

Negative fill is awesome and is super cheap and easy. Perfect when you don't have power and you're outside on a cloudy day.

Hey everybody. The type of license I release my music under is a creative commons attribution license. Here's a link to the license itself:

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Feel free to use my music for any projects you think might fit. The only thing I ask is that you link back to my soundcloud. I'm also up for composing music specifically for your project, so shoot me a message if you have any questions. I'd like to write music for films and video games some day. I write my music like it's for a film or a video game. Thanks for giving it a listen!

Edit: I was NOT expecting this post to blow up like it did! Thank you all so much for the kind words!

Resolve 12 announced and it seems it's aiming to be a full featured editor at this point.

Nice 3D perspective tracker update for all the other colorists out there.

Own your limitations. When I was a kid all I had was me, a video camera and I could pull in my brothers or a friend as actors. Even today at 39, I am wearing multiple hats. I just made this… https://vimeo.com/50881570

…and i was the writer, director, cinematographer, fight choreographer, prop maker, did the actors' make-up, VFX artist, sound effects editor, colorist, and more. But more important than how to make this one short is to do a volume of work. Do as much as you can as often as you can to gain the sort of experience that will enable you to close that gap between the movie you envision in your head and what you're able to execute in the real world. Ira Glass has this advice for beginners and says it better than I could. https://vimeo.com/24715531

op please dont break your phone to save $10

I know Cinema 4k and Cinema FV-5 are pretty good apps to look into for filming.

Basically, just drawing on each frame. You could do this with an After Effects stroke filter. Just draw what you want on top of a layer over each frame and then apply the filter to outline the paths.

I'm sorry I'm not doing a great job describing this process. I guess that's why I do motion graphics instead of writing.

Like this video shows sort of. https://vimeo.com/32478431

I think that's a stylistic choice...not a "technique".

Sorta in the same vein: you may be referring to using "Diegetic Sound" vs "Non Diegetic Sound". These are more terms than techniques: https://www.masterclass.com/articles/diegetic-sound-and-non-diegetic-sound-whats-the-difference#how-is-diegetic-sound-made

(See Ma! Film School paid off!)

Check out DaVinci Resolve 12.5. Its editing tools are pretty good and are being added upon. The free version allows you to edit up to UHD video.

I don't think it's a good idea to compare yourself to other people, ever. It's certainly fine to consider people your family, but I don't think they would want you to compare yourself to them negatively and have that cause you sadness.

"Drive to become bigger and better than everyone else I had grown up with" I think this is very dangerous. A healthier approach to life is first loving and accepting yourself exactly as you are, even with your failures. And then, doing things that you love for yourself, not for anyone else. Not to impress anyone else.

Debt is hard, but there are resources to help you (Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey comes to mind) and options if you want to take them.

It's not available in Australia yet unless you steal it and I would never advise you do something like that, even IF you had access to a risk free 30 day trial of ExpressVPN. Their simple installation and ease of use is despicable!!!!

You could use this app on your phone. It's pretty good seeing how your not going for super high quality. It let's you adjust the amount of static lines and add time stamps. This is Android but I'm sure it's available on iPhone as well.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rarevision.vhscamcorder

Before you spend your money on anything else go buy these two books:

Growing a Business by Paul Hawken

http://www.amazon.com/Growing-Business-Paul-Hawken/dp/0671671642/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344566035&sr=8-1&keywords=growing+a+business+hawken

Guerrilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson

http://www.amazon.com/Guerrilla-Marketing-4th-Inexpensive-Strategies/dp/0618785914/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344566128&sr=8-1&keywords=jay+conrad+levinson+guerilla

There are a lot of variables that need to be considered. $25,000 is nothing. Seriously, it is nothing. You could easily blow that in a day on equipment. If you are really smart and frugal you could also shoot a very low budget feature.

• How many partners do you have? What is the legal form of the business to be?
• What is your customer base? How will you attract more customers.
• What is yours and your partner's expertise and experience. How about reputation in the film community?
• What sort of productions do you intend to make.
• What is your five year plan?

All of the above is just scratching the surface. Know that 95% of all new businesses fail in the first five years. It is not realistic to answer your quesry as there are too many pieces of information missing. That being said, the best advice I can give you is this:

• Write a business plan, a real, professional business plan, the kind you can show to investors or a bank. Even if you are going to be self funded, this is an important exercise. You will learn so much by doing this.
• Start small
• Grow slowly. New businesses make a lot of mistakes. If you are on a small budget then the cost of your mistakes will be smaller.
• Too much money can kill a business faster that not enough. New businesses with too much funding tend to get into expansion way before they are ready.
• Marketing, Marketing, Marketing.
• Don't quit your day job, at least not until you have so much business that you have to.

I hope that helps.

I think one has to view this quote in the filter of knowing that it came from Stanley Kubrick, who is probably the most meticulous planner of all directors. There's a great documentary called 'Kubrick's Boxes' that illustrates this well. You can watch it online here.

As a previs supervisor who helps directors plan action and vfx sequences for major motion pictures, it makes sense. Once the actors are on set, everyone is in their places, the lighting is ready and the camera rolls, that's when the magic happens, and sometimes, things change based on the electricity of that magic moment. It's fantastic.

That said, you're not going to get there without planning, and you're more informed about what to do and what to try after exhausting every conceivable option in pre-pro.

You can use the music however you like, just include attribution and you're good to go. I used a CCBY 3.0 license, here's a summary of it:

> You are free to:

> * Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format

> * Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.

> Under the following terms:

> * Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.

> * No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

I'm 33, spent $1000 to make my first short film, it played at a Toronto Film Festival (not TIFF) and is now on Amazon (Shameless plug: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077H66Q2P/ref=cm_sw_r_fa_dp_t2_g2peAb8DKPRKP )

My point is similar to everyone else, it's never too late, I still have my day job and am writing my next short to film next year, I look at Ang Lee, and even Dennis Villeneuve who didn't make his first feature length film until he was around 30 (he made some shorts a few years leading up to that) and we all know how great he's doing.

Give it your all, and keep at it, if you're good and you make something of yourself, we'll all be talking about you 10 years from now, if not you won't feel any shame or disappointment for having tried because you still succeeded in making something you felt passionate about.

It's discussed in <em>Conversations with Gus Van Sant</em>. He talks about shooting a silent take after they've done one with dialogue, and he can use it in the edit to get a character from A to B if he needs the move independent of the line.

A little bit about the project: four university students decided to create a feature on homelessness, something we had seen a lot of in our community. We spent 3 months in pre-production, 7 days filming, and 6 months editing. It premiered in June, and went on to be screened internationally before being distributed just a few weeks back. This doc explains our process and what went into it, and I'm here to answer any questions!

The film can be watched free on Amazon Prime: https://www.amazon.com/Chance-Tristan-Heil/dp/B078GHSFNK/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

My "other account" for the exact reasons you mention.

I spent years in the music business before spending years in the film business.

Read The Art of War. Essentially you're in a highly creative and competitive market. You could go off and create things..."be an artist" but obviously that's not what you're interested in. Otherwise, move to a small town, have a regular job and do this stuff on the side for friends and such.

What you're interested in is the rewards and the freedom that come with success. Unfortunately this success IS a game. There are winners and losers, cheaters, people who play by the rules, etc. You have to know how to do a little of everything. I promise you there's no special trophy for those who are just "good people." You don't have to be a complete asshole, but you have to know to play the game and get to the next level. You cannot change the game from the bottom, only the top. The guy at the top makes the rules.

You have to think of your family and your CLOSEST friends as your team. There are only probably 3 people (aside from my immediate family) that I'd bet everything in my life they'd take a bullet for me. If I killed someone, the immediate question would be "How can we help hide the body?" and not "What did you do!?" Those are the people you can trust. Everyone else? Collateral damage. I "know" a lot of people and they "know" me. However, this is all part of the game. You just have to take it for what it's worth, have fun, and know that everything you're doing is for your home team and yourself. That's it.

IDK about student films, but here's two short films that seem to be heavily influenced by Wes:

https://vimeo.com/81512787 (Slightly NSFW)

https://vimeo.com/90480436

These shorts are actually really good. They way I've seen it crop up most in student films is students latching onto his camera movement/framing troupes.

Okay based on my experience I would recommend transcoding your YouTube version to an H.264 Quicktime with a 4:2:0 color profile before uploading to retain as much accurate color information as possible.

If you are unable to do that because of the tools at your disposal then I would recommend Mpeg Streamclip

Typically I use COMPRESSOR, but that's because I'm on a Mac based / Final Cut Studio workflow.

Also it appears there have been several informative posts since I requested the MediaInfo report.

/u/johnwilkesbandwidth comment has useful links / info.

Good luck!

Video Copilot is one of the best sites around for After Effects tutorials. The guy is charismatic and very knowledgeable. You can learn a ton if you follow his direction and then apply that stuff to your own work. Follow along with him and you will learn the interface very quickly.

I learned all of what i know in After Effects from that site. I did this for a friend in about a week into learning AE.

Galaxy Lords

An earnestly made, yet undeniably ridiculous tale of cunning space wizards, gallant cosmic heroes, and vile intergalactic villains set in an overtly melodramatic space realm. Our goal was to capture the spirit of the colorful and other-worldly B-Movies produced en-masse once Star Wars had become a phenomenon in the late 70s. Such gems as Starcrash and Battle Beyond the Stars set the template for the low-budget yet sincere manner in which we produced Galaxy Lords.

Setting out not quite knowing exactly where our filmmaking journey would take us, we were fortunate enough to be doing so at a time when purchasing a large piece of green fabric and creating light casings with aluminum foil and cardboard yielded acceptable results. Gallons of hot glue and unfathomable amounts of cardboard were used to create our cast of characters such as Wranthelon of the Evermore, Quazar Pignataro, the mighty Hagglehawk the WAFE Lord, and Galactic Commander Helios himself, to name a few.

Though there were very few moments I can say we were going about the process “properly”, I am unbelievably grateful for the experience I’ve had creating Galaxy Lords. The film is not for everybody, but those who love to pop on a B-movie and laugh with (and at) it will absolutely love this film.

Available now on Amazon

Philip Bloom does some really great stuff. By far one of my favorite films of his is From Chicago to the Moon. He has an excellent write up on it as well in the comments. Totally worth a watch.

Dude, I agree completely about the "poor man's Alexa". The 4KtoHD stuff is absolutely stunning, really sharp.

Here in the US (not running in PAL mode), 2K RAW goes up to 240fps, and 4K RAW goes up to 60fps. Of course, there is some aliasing/moire in 2K mode.

I've almost come to prefer the 10-bit ProRes over the 4K RAW workflow. Now I just want 60fps in 1080p ProRes. Hopefully soon... then compressed 4K update after that...

Back to your shots, though, they look great. Your skin tones look really nice. Do you have any advice for skin tones in Resolve? I used to use Colorista in AE with its "skin tone grid" assisting tool, which helped quite a bit. Not sure why, but skin tones are always the thing I go back and look at later and go "oh shit, why did I think that looked good?!"

If you want to see out some stuff my buddy and I recently shot (all but a couple shots on the 7Q, 4K/2K RAW+ProRes) on a little island adventure, check out our video.

Thanks! I actually had no idea while I was working on it, but according to the press release, the budget was about €300,000.

Here is my DP Reel, I posted it here before but I didn't even get a downvote.

https://vimeo.com/68422537

P.S. I have more projects to add to this but I have been so busy I haven't had time to update it.

Thanks for any constructive criticism.

1. 1 hour internal battery.
2. can't see how full the SSD card is
3. no audio meters, can't run phantom powered xlr into the camera without a box. audio is synced in post with plural eyes.
4. black orb on footage when the sun clips (can be fixed in post with resolve)
5. Touchscreen gets bumped to slate screen. critical focus punch in is only at center of the image, you can't specify which area of the frame it magnifies (fixed if you have an external monitor)
6. Flat Log output image on SDI so colors look flat on external monitor.
7. 2.3x Crop factor

Black Orb can be seen very briefly at 0:13 on the top right of the frame in my reel where the sun is clipping. https://vimeo.com/84903666

that being said, image quality is AMAZING. I have been willing to find solutions to all these problems because shooting 12 bit raw makes for amazing images.

Get a good external battery system. Anton Bauer is great, though a little pricey, but you can use the batteries on other camera systems in the future.

Get a Metabones BMCC Speedbooster. It fixes the crop factor of the camera, and it feels like i'm shooting with a proper Super 35mm sensor. I recommend the MFT mount + Speedbooster over the EF mount camera.

Get a good EVF system or external monitor. Alphatron or Cineroid makes a good SDI Evf's, and SmallHD makes good monitors. TvLogic are also good.

also, a good shoulder mount system is needed to shoot good handheld. just holding the camera body is going to give you shaky footage.

Hey, I have a "Camera Assistant's Collection" of ~2 gb of documents, references, lens charts, hundreds of camera manuals, etc.

Dunno if that would be useful for you guys... It's all public domain content.

Dropbox Link

Set Lighting Technician's handbook Best book on lighting!

Pay attention to your set dressing. It's surprising how big a difference you can achieve by just adding something to the walls and shelves. Thrift shops and garage sales are your friend, or borrow from yourself/family. It can be as little as buying frames and printing stock images that match your theme/feel on a cheap printer (I like https://www.pexels.com/). None of it has to look good close up, but nothing looks more amateur to me then blank walls in a film, unless that is the specific aesthetic you are going for with the set.

I hope so too man! I make very little money doing this and have an editing day job so all my music video work is done after hours and on weekends... extremely tiring haha.

Unfortunately my videos have "heavily influenced" other videos for bigger artists before (ironically Joey is featured in the other video):

Mine (Blu/Flying Lotus): https://vimeo.com/31928186 Theirs (Mac Miller): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nZKwreCVtU

It's all good though.. this shit happens all the time in the video world. I've even kinda become friends with the dude who made the Mac Miller video. Everybody gets inspired from others work.. nothing is 100% original.

https://vimeo.com/44781484

Film at 24/25 FPS (US/UK) drop it down to 20 or 15 fps, to get the choppiness. Then print all the frames, and photograph the pages in the correct spot. Then play back at a matching FPS to that you photographed at.

I make videos with a fellow Filmmaker Turk Lees here is an entire music video shot this way. (No after effects used, the paint was really on the page)

We shot our new short film "Ellie Heart".

http://www.indiegogo.com/ellieheart

Here's our indiegogo campaign; if you watch the video there is a synopsis, so you can get a pretty decent idea of what the movie is about and how it will look.

Go bigger! This is a good start and you've got some detail in there but do yourself a favour and use a proper storyboard template with bigger and even frames.

Storyboards aren't just for getting ideas down, they are a communication tool to get accross your ideas to your crew, post production team and most importantly: your future self!

I know you're more talking about time when you say budget but this tool is amazing for making Storyboards, it's super quick, has some great templates and tools and is free:

https://wonderunit.com/storyboarder/

Mpeg Streamclip is a pretty multifaceted program. It's free to download and should help with your compression. You might have to play with some of the settings to compress your video that much. And there's no guarantee that it'll keep as much quality as you're looking for, but worth a shot. Good luck!

Mpeg Sreamclip

Consider DaVinci Resolve for color grading (https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve). I find it far more powerful for color grading and now with a full NLE built into it, it's giving Premiere, Final Cut, and even Avid a run for their money. If you don't like the NLE, Resolve can import/export to/from all three.

DaVinci Resolve has a free light version that is a pretty powerful color-grading tool. For editing, I use Adobe CC. Premiere Pro is fantastic and when combined with the other applications like After Effects, Illustrator, Speed Grade, etc. you have a pretty powerful pro-level setup for the cost of a night out.

Pretty sure his budget was $7,000 - but still a great story, thanks for posting.

The trailer for the picture is here: https://youtu.be/lmExWuMBzgE

If you want to watch the entire movie, you can rent or buy it on Amazon [Referral Link]

Here is the iTunes and Amazon

from the bottom of my heart I truly hope you enjoy it.

I'm a filmmaker but one that makes decent money independently. Please read The Millionaire Next Door. Talks a lot about doctors, engineers and lawyers that are broke, yet easily make 6 figures. Best of luck to you!

As a medical student that's just started figuring out what he loves, I needed to ask myself this.

I'm torn between so many things. I want to read classical novels. I want to study and learn about the human body. I want to write novels. I want to play sports and compete with my peers.

My problem, like everyone else, is that the world is only lived 24 hours at a time. And what I do in those hours is filled with distraction. Damn it, look at the internet. If I didn't have it around all the time, I probably would have read my ass off, but I wouldn't have been able to watch all these amazing films.

My biggest weakness is that I want to create something beautiful that speaks to me and (hopefully) other people. And I can't just throw myself into that without leaving something behind.

So, I've decided to stop procrastinating. I've realized that I want to make an impact on the world by helping people. Whether it's medicine or film-making or writing, I have decided that I must discipline myself from straying from that goal.

I've recently made friends with a photographer, whose experience with lighting photos has inspired me to research Jack Cardiff and his excellent ability to light scenes.

I've recently taken up writing after reading Steven King's On Writing, as well as watching a documentary on John Milius.

I've started reading Count of Monte Cristo in order to inspire myself with storytelling, the likes of which have rarely been matched.

I'm working towards something. It may not happen this year, or next year, or even in the next ten. But I'm working on it...

I am in a similar situation and downloaded FiLMic Pro. It's really popular on the iPhone, and I find it a great app for filming. Hope this helps!

Although I also have an android phone, I thought that since a lot of people own iPhones as well, it might be worth mentioning that this app is also available for iOS as well as Android.

A marketing company (whose client is the Dominica tourism board) created a "Dominica Film Challenge", in which people could apply (as teams of two) to go to the island for a week and capture/create photo, film, etc. (EDIT: for a giggle, here is our application video https://vimeo.com/86798665)

We were lucky enough to be selected from over 1100 people that applied from around the world.

Honestly, I don't know really know how to land gigs like this, since this was such a unique little situation. And it's the type of content that I previously have had those catch-22 moments where potential clients want to see that you've already made something similar before hiring you. Luckily now I have something to show off as an example.

If I had to give some sort of advice though, it would be to open yourself to opportunities. This week-long trip was unpaid. We got a small per diem to basically cover two of our meals a day (breakfast free at hotel. Lodging was also paid, of course). I actually had to turn down paid gigs (worth at least a few thousand dollars) to go on this trip. But the benefit was two fold: I made amazing memories, and I came away with work that I'm incredible proud of and filled a void in my shooting experience.

This is the type of industry where you need to be making the stuff you want to be paid to make. You can't be shooting action sports and expect to get hired to do stop-motion animation. So find any way you can to start making the things you want, whether it's taking on an unpaid opportunity like this or investing some of your own time/money into a personal project.

Not home right now, so i have to post the budget breakdown i did for Kickstarter. I will post a more detailed breakdown later when i get home.

This was for a 15 minute narrative. Here is the completed Kickstarter for those interested.

• 1600---- SAG Student Film Minimum for Actors ($100/day for 2 actors)
• 1100---- Lodging and Travel for Actors/Crew
• 500----- Art Direction
• 200----- Marketing Material (Graphic Design)
• 200----- Professional Composer
• 390----- Kickstarter and Amazon Fees
• Total: $3,990

I know off the top of my head i ended up going over $500 for production design and we didn't need all 8 days for both actors so we saved some money there. Overall, i think we actually did closer to a grand for production design.

We used equipment from both the university and some of the people on set. We shot on the Black Magic Pocket Camera.

We easily went over what we raised on Kickstarter. Some grants helped out with that as well as my own personal savings. Sound design cost us $700 alone.

The total spent was probably closer to $6000 and that is without considering festival fees, which is what we will move into by the end of summer.

Just wanted to share with this community as I know you guys know how much hard work goes into a film.

This industry is tough as nails and can really bring you down... but every once an a while there are little moments that remind you why we all kill our selves over an over in such a crazy line of work.

Edit: Mine is this one

I like it. I've got a Manfrotto MN-577 Quick Release Plate attached to it which is really useful to attached the camera quickly. It fits into my bag really well when dismantled, with the camera next to it. Here is some footage i shot with it https://vimeo.com/26903230

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but 2.35/2.39 isn't, by definition, anamorphic. Anamorphic usually refers to anamorphic lenses which, when stretched back out to "normal", have the widescreen ratio. Here's an interesting video on the history of widescreen and aspect ratios in general.

I'm very introverted, I think most great creatives spend a lot of time in their own head.

You can get better at any skill by training, and I train my leadership and social skills. In fact I'm taking a free online course in public speaking this week: https://www.coursera.org/learn/public-speaking

It's very mediocre. I felt little emotion despite it being a supposed "feel good" piece. The cinematography was exceptionally bland and looked like a typical I bought a Red and now I'm a filmmaker.

This is what an "Awesome" Ad looks like... https://vimeo.com/45376967

This is an amazing project (like scuzzify, I'm not involved in it, just mates with the guys that are). They made that trailer with £300, so just imagine how awesome a fully backed feature would be.

If you want to donate anything (even if it's just $10), you can do it here - http://www.indiegogo.com/I-Have-a-Bad-Feeling-About-This

And if it doesn't get the full amount, you get your cash back, so really you've got nothing to lose

The look and overall grade of that video remind me of Super 16 film. These vintage inspired LUTs by Daniel Schiffer came to mind. I bought them a few weeks ago, and really like the feel. They’re super affordable too. The link is: https://sellfy.com/danielschiffer/

Once you have dumped your .mov's to your Mac, use either 5DtoRGB or MPEGStreamClip to decompress your files to ProRes.

Once you've done that, THEN import into FCP.

/u/JAdoubleWHY - the G7's Amazon US price history chart shows a pattern of repeated markdowns with brief returns to the $797.99 suggested retail price.

The price goes up and down based on sales (mostly centered around holidays). This time, it is probably a Mother's Day sale.

Best price I could find today is this one for $497.99 with the kit lens, as 32GB SD card, a camera case and a tabletop tripod/pistol grip.

If you decide to get the G7, you might want to subscribe over at /r/PanasonicG7 - lots of knowledgeable folks there who can help you get the most out of your new camera.

I have a tripod. I was working freelance for someone using their equipment who specifically requested handheld footage from me. I'm still relatively new to professional film work so figured I'd ask what is generally a supportive community for any pointers. Was it worth taking the time out of your day to be unhelpful and rude to me for asking for help? Amazon have $20 tripods but if you're willing to spend $5 more you could buy yourself this lovely stepladder to get down of your fucking high horse.

Granted I’m pretty new at this also. But this is the one I ended up buying on recommendation from my gf who is way more experienced in this than me, and coincidentally it’s the one that my school uses. I just finished a recording arts program. The video program, which I start in August, uses them.

The B&H link didn’t like it since I used their education site which brought it down to $127 from $159. So a bit higher than what you were hoping for maybe.

I used this vimeo tutorial to build one for myself 3 years ago. I still use it on all of my work today and I've never had to replace the PVC pipe. It's not meant to be stood on whilst in use but I weigh 180 lbs and I've stood on it multiple times throughout the years; the pipes have never shattered. Just saying, PVC is a lot sturdier than people give it credit for.

I can agree with others when they say aluminum is sturdier, but the nice thing about PVC is that it mostly stays straight while being semi-flexible. That means you don't have to stick wedges all over the place if the surface it rests on isn't perfectly flat. Again, aluminum is probably more stable, but with my setup it just works out better for me personally - mainly because I'm a one-man band most of the time.

Hi there. Fellow filmmaker here, and I too make films about food and farming. Here's my channel: https://vimeo.com/gusandwesproductions I'm biased, but I love the love that is expressed in this film--the warm lighting, soft sounds of animals, extreme close ups that showcase all that beauty of life there. My main suggestion, if you're doing another edit, is to cut out anything that lingers after the point is made. The intro montage of animals goes on too long without getting any story; we don't need both boots being tied, just a quick shot of one; we don't need four shots of cooking breakfast, only one or two. A dramatic change might be to put the title in the second or third shot and then have his voice-over begin right after that. Likewise, the interview/voice-over has too many repetitive ideas. I would cut whole things he has to say in favor of a tighter, shorter video--like 3-4 minutes in length. It sucks when I get to this point in my editing and have to cut some of my "darlings," but the trick is to hold fast and remember that you're lucky to keep an audience's attention after three minutes, let alone five or six. Overall, great work. You have a true gift for camera work.

https://vimeo.com/96477547

Here you go! Not the grade I did in resolve but you get the idea. This is with the REC709 Picture Profile. Slog is a little flat for 10 bit i think but i found this to be perfect.

There's a lot of talented people over at Newgrounds.

Remember that it's all about when and how you use the music. Even the best song will seem out of place if not used correctly.

SMALLRIG D Shaft D-Ring 1/4 Inch Male Mounting Screw (Pack of 2) for Camera Tripod Quick Release Plate - 838 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01N1MYQX0/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_5W9VAHPJTJS2YAKR5SX3

Something like this?

This is the only thing that comes to mind. Take your budget up a bit and get a DSLR.

Sleepwalking in the Rift blows my mind. Its not a trailer, its a film.

Skip Town. Not a word is said, yet the tension is crippling. Marvelous editing.

You should look at the Tascam DR-60D audio recorder. It can record internally to SD cards, it can also act as a preamp for the BMD Pocket Camera. I think it can do both at once.

Yes you can, and you're actually allowed to used it commercially as well as long as you provide give attributuion. Here's a summary of the CC Attribution license:

> You are free to:

> Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format

> Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.

> Under the following terms:

>Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.

> No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

Basically, just mention the music came from Punch Deck and you're free to use or modify it however you like, including commercially. The full text of the license is here.

Hi, I've never used it personally, but my friends have had good experiences with it. Free Music Archive with a filter for Creative Commons. I'm not entirely sure witht he rules but you can find them here https://creativecommons.org/about/program-areas/arts-culture/arts-culture-resources/legalmusicforvideos/

I recommend the Panasonic GH2. Because it has a Micro-4/3s mount, you can put nearly any lens on it with an inexpensive adapter. Since modern cameras are all automated, you can buy amazing glass like Nikon for cheap if you buy an old manual lens. (All pro movie lenses are manual anyway, so it's good practice for the big time.)

Also, the GH2 has been hacked, sort of like super Magic Lantern, and it makes the imagery the best you can get per pound. Check out this website for everything you need to know about the free GH2 hack. They also have great deals on inexpensive gear.

Finally, the sensor size is close to 35mm movie film, so it gets a very cinematic look. Take a look at these samples.

This is my latest project, I've been directing, filming, and editing the whole thing... I've been working on this movie for two years now, and all I have left to do is edit it. Hope you like the trailer.

Thanks! And for the export settings, I always go with H.264 at around 10,000 kbs or more. If you can, set it to 2-pass (or multi-pass) encoding, that is a big help in the quality. If you use Premiere Pro, the the Vimeo preset is usually pretty good. But check out the guidelines on Vimeo for some good tips as well: https://vimeo.com/help/compression

This is my Vimeo. https://vimeo.com/backlash/videos

Shades of Colour and Tech Roulette were written by me. No Regrets was 48hr, and oh god it's terrible. I apologize in advance if you click on it. Other vids are things I have shot on.

Thanks /u/kaidumo

I followed this tutorial for a DIY dolly that uses PVC pipe as track. I built it with my dad back in 2011 and it has served me extremely well - 3 years later and I still use it on all my own shoots.

It's nice because unlike metal tracks for professional dollies, the pvc pipe conforms to the ground a bit and also acts as a shock absorber of sorts - no need to deal with adjustment wedges. Obviously, you'll want to lay the pipe track down on a relatively flat surface to begin with but it works surprisingly well. I'm almost always a 1-man crew and this dolly has added a ton of production value to my work for less than $100.

Test shoot. This director asked his kids to star in an over-the-top camera move, so he could find out how the MoVI performs, and what kind of setup is required. Now he knows, for his next commercial shoot.

Recently built some LED friendly dimmers for Quasar crossfades that I recently acquired, friend suggested I make a walk-through tutorial as it may seem a little daunting to someone that has never built something like this before. Hopefully this video shows that it's not all that scary!

Full part list &amp; tools required available here.

You going to want to go and get a battery backup if you don't already have one. Especially if you're working with Red. If the electricity goes out, which is common if you're on a smaller set and there aren't Ginny's, you can lose everythingon the card that's in the process of being dumped. Terrifying.

Edit: Here's an example of a good one you can get at Walmart.

Invest in a monopod, they can be found relatively cheap and as a filmmaker I use mine constantly. They are small, maneuverable and offer many technical advantages. Here are some examples https://vimeo.com/69972568.

Audio is immensely important to any production. Connecting a shotgun mic to your camera is better then recording with the built in mic however the quality will still be fairly low. I recommend finding an external recording device that fits your budget. I use a zoom h4 and attach a shotgun mic to that, pretty great results for the price.

Good luck with all.

Really nicely done. One of the better no-budget zombie shorts I've seen, which is saying a lot for me, since I will give pretty much anyone a few minutes.

My favorite part by far was the final credit sequence... really well done, impressive work there, told a lot of story simply and beautifully, with some impressive effects. Obviously inspired by Zombieland, but what they did for millions you pulled off for nothing. I'll try to check back for the tutorial... I've been wanting to pull something off like that myself.

Here's a no-budget zombie short I shot & edited (didn't direct), we went for a comedy tone: https://vimeo.com/23131154

For outdoors, reflectors work great. Soft, evenly diffused light is your friend, and unless you have a major film budget, it can be difficult to light an outdoor scene properly at night since you need huge amounts of light to get a natural look. http://encendedor.co.nz/?page_id=29

This Vimeo(er) has some good lighting tutorials and some tips of inexpensive options. https://vimeo.com/33672808

Before you go with $53 per month on Adobe, give Davinci Resolve as shot.

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve/?gclid=CjwKCAjwlrqHBhByEiwAnLmYUAupt1tjmzTnzfA4gIMTzD42LyAabBBqvbL83s9NNt9b46E-Wyy6tBoCGr8QAvD_BwE

They have a free version.

Good luck

This is the license the music is distributed under. It says "You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission."

I'm also not sure it's strictly, technically, exactly "copyright free" though. I'm not sure you get a choice about having copyright on your work, you're just allowed to license it in a way that obviates the legal protection that would normally grant you.

Searching "royalty free" is always going to find the pay to license sites. Try searching instead for public domain (government images - say if he took a picture with the president) or creative commons licensed images. If you use creative commons licensed images, you'll have to pay attention to the specific license but that shouldn't be a problem for a student short. Flickr has a creative commons search, Google Images might, and Wikimedia Commons is all CC or public domain content.

Here is one such CC licensed image from Wikimedia.

Sadly, a regular XLR to 3.5mm adapter won't work.

It is possible use the H1 as a preamp for the NTG2, but you would first need to match the NTG2's low impendance output to the H1's high impedance input with something like this $19.19 CAD Hosa MIT-156 line matching transformer/adapter Referral Link.

Again, hope this is helpful!

Has novacut thought to talk to the kdenlive or lumiera people as they are already designing open NLEs and have already dealt with many of the problems that novacut would just be getting into?