Featured In: Uncategorized
Crop Factor and Depth of Field We’re gonna nerd out a bit in this article, but there are two topics that can be pretty confusing to new filmmakers: Crop factor and Depth of Field. We’ll cover crop factor here and depth of field later. Before we do that, let’s make sure we’re on the same […]
Featured In: Post Production, Training
Want Your Digital Films To Look Better? Of course. We all do, right? As modern filmmakers we LOVE the convenience and cost of digital cinema cameras and all that goes with that. No expensive film. No problems when the 1st AC lets a reel unwind in the tent. We can watch a take instantly instead […]
Featured In: Production
When lighting your scene you must create depth, have a motivated light and shoot shadow side—to name a few things! But how do you approach all of this? An understanding of basic 3-point and 4-point lighting setups will get us going in the right direction. Take the image below—me in a large garage. We’re going […]
Featured In: Training
So You Want To Make Movies? I was in the middle of a career in IT when the filmmaking bug hit. I was crazy about movies—watched THE MATRIX 18 times in the theater. But for whatever reason, the idea to make movies didn’t hit until age 27. I swiveled in my office chair, Googled film […]
Featured In: Training
First, Why Listen To Me? Why hear what I have to say about film school? Two reasons. First, I attended The Los Angeles Film School in the heart of Hollywood on Sunset Boulevard. Private school. $32K for one year of education—not including room and board in LA. Secondly, I’m an active independent filmmaker. I have […]
Featured In: Pre-Production
After a screenwriter is done writing the script, who do you think sees the movie first? The Director. Part of the director’s job during pre-production is to “see” the entire film ahead of time. By this I don’t mean some relaxed, dreamlike state on a beach sipping tropical drinks. It’s a meticulous task of visualizing […]
Featured In: Pre-Production
You just typed “FADE TO BLACK” on your script. Congrats! But your script isn’t quite ready for production. A film production must run off a locked script so everyone has the same info. During pre-production your script becomes the blueprint for shooting the film. And everyone must operate off the same blueprint. But what if […]
Featured In: Pre-Production
So you’re done with development and ready for pre-production. Congrats! Now it’s time to breakdown your script. Why do we do this? It helps you plan for every detail needed for production. You don’t want to show up on set only to realize a prop isn’t there, someone’s costume didn’t arrive, etc. Breaking down a […]
Featured In: Development
Help Your Story Feel Fluid Setups and payoffs are crucial tools for a filmmaker. They help your film feel fluid. Ever watched a movie that felt a little disjointed? More episodic than a cohesive story? Setups and payoffs can be a glue that helps your scenes stick together. Setups and Payoffs also keep your audience closely […]
Featured In: Post Production
If you’re a seasoned filmmaker, you know that when it comes to editing you just can’t beat the keyboard. We’re going to take a deep dive into changing your keyboard mappings in Resolve. You can watch the video or read the article! How To Map Commands To Specific Keys Let’s first look at mapping three […]
Featured In: Post Production
If you’re like me, you’ve spent a lot of time working in various non linear editing systems. They each have their own way of doing things. The first thing I do on a new NLE is familiarize myself with how to do the common tasks required to edit quickly. In Resolve, a fast way to […]
Featured In: Post Production
This tutorial is written for DaVinci Resolve Studio 19. Adding audio fades are extremely easy and highly flexible in DaVinci Fairlight and Resolve, but not 100% intuitive. So allow us to clear the flog! With an open project, click over to the DaVinci Fairlight page (the music notes icon on the bottom of Resolve). 1) […]
Featured In: Post Production
In case you’re new to external media and/or random array of independent disks (RAID) let’s real quick cover some key reasons why, as a filmmaker, you need to invest in RAID: A RAID Array is FAST An array of disks has an advantage over a single hard drive. When you copy your camera and audio […]
Featured In: Production
What is exposure? It deals with controlling the light entering your camera to capture details in a scene. Let in too much light and you lose details in the brights. Not enough light? You lose details in the darks. The exposure layers available to us are: ISO, Shutter Speed, Aperture and Light. You’ll hear of […]
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