You can make money with your talents, and the best time to start is now!
A lot of us Filmmakers are very talented individuals, but we fall into the trap of the Starving Artist. We have the talent, but we struggle to monetize it. I know we all just want to make artistic films, but bills and responsibilities don't care about our art. Filmmakers need to develop some business skills, and a great way to do that is by getting paid work.
I'm talking about doing Music Videos, Corporate Videos, Weddings, Live Events, and everything in between that doesn't fall in the conventional Movie category. In this post I'll give you some basic tips on getting started with paid gigs, and share a little about my experience.
How I got started.
All throughout my High School years I never once entertained the idea of doing anything other than movies. My big plan was to graduate High School, go to college, get a film-related job, and become the next big movie director. That plan was, to say the least, naive, and I'm glad my eyes opened when they did. Things don't always go according to plan, unfortunately, so I began doing things the unconventional way.
With all the recent news of new cameras and Filmmaking gear coming out, I began to notice something. I guess I've noticed it before but never took the time to think about it. What I'm seeing is that a lot of us Filmmakers (myself included) keep waiting and waiting and waiting for that perfect time to make a movie.
"If only I had that Camera/editing software/lens I would finally make a movie." *sad face* Really? Would you? Because there is always going to be better equipment coming out, and once you go down that road nothing will ever be good enough for your movie (and it will never happen). I feel like a lot of us (again, myself included) sometimes use our lack of "proper" gear as an excuse to sit on our butts and do nothing.
Why it's not a valid excuse.
Lack of having the "right" equipment is only a valid excuse if you don't have a camera and editing software. I understand that in some cases our script requires something that we aren't currently able to get, but in most cases WE DON'T EVEN HAVE A SCRIPT!
Hey guys! If you sense some slight anger in this blog post, that's because I'm really getting tired of a dangerous creature that roams independent film sets. This creature is aggressive, rude, annoying, and will stop at nothing to ruin your film. I do not know the land these creatures come from, all I know is the name we give them in our world: Know-it-alls. This past weekend I was helping a friend of mine light a film he was working on. Everyone there were volunteers, and as far as I could tell there wasn't much money involved in the shoot. I knew nothing of the movie, and my sole purpose there was to help with the lighting.
I brought my light kit, and started setting it up in the room we were filming. It was then that it happened; the know-it-all entered the film set. This was the single worst case of Know-it-allism I had ever experienced. The moment this guy entered the set, he acted like it was his moral duty to tell everyone how to work.
This wasn't my set, so I was in no mood to get myself worked up over this. I figured if the director brought this guy on board, he must have had a good reason. This know-it-all then proceeded to tell me how to light. He started to point out "mistakes" he was seeing in the lighting. I calmly let him know that we weren't done setting up the lights, and kept working. Next thing I know, he's telling me about the difference between daylight and tungsten light.
What's up Filmmakers! So we all should know that filming outside in bright sunlight is usually a pain. In fact, the worst time to film is when the sun is high up in the sky (like at noon). Not only is it freakin' hot, but there's so much light reflecting everywhere that you'll run into a lot of exposure issues.
When filming in bright sunlight, the contrast between dark and light objects is increased and it becomes hard to keep all areas of the frame in correct exposure. When you watch professional videos, you'll notice that the exposure usually is more or less correct in all areas of the frame; that's because these scenes are controlled with lights, reflectors, flags/scrims etc.
Because there is so much scattered light on a bright sunny day, it becomes nearly impossible to control in a wide shot. This results in sub par footage, no matter what fancy camera you're using.
Thanks to Circular Polarizing Filters, you can tone down those harsh reflections to get a better image and richer colors. You screw the filter in from of your lens, and turn it to adjust the amount of light that gets cut off. Unlike ND filters that darken the whole image, CPL filters target specific areas of light.
The following is a Guest article written by filmmaker Michael Malko.
Making your own films is great, but what if you want to pursue filmmaking as a lifetime career? There are a lot of jobs out there in the industry that doesn’t even involve holding a camera or directing. If you’ve ever wanted to get into the digital video/film industry, or wanted to know what half of the people do in the credits after watching a film then keep reading. I’ve made a chart of the main jobs you’ll come across in your journey and descriptions of what exactly you do on a professional set. This will help give you brownie points on sets and give you more of an understanding of what others are doing. Production team: - Producer: In charge of hiring everyone from actors to the director. They also have the final word on the way the film will look.
- Director: The main visionary for the project. They use the script to help envision a feeling and mood.
- First Assistant Director: The 1 A.D. runs the set. Making sure actors are in place; cameras are rolling and let the director know when everyone is ready.
- Second Assistant Director: The 2 A.D. makes the call sheets for each day for the production schedule and makes sure those actors who are not on set are getting through make-up and wardrobe. Also they sometimes make the lunch order or call the pizza place.
- Script Supervisor: This title is also known as the continuity person, their job is to make sure everything matches up take after take, they take notes on everything from actor placement to prop movement. (It’s pretty tedious)
Hey guys! Recently a user posted a thread on our Forum asking for advice on how to get ready for a film shoot, so I thought this would be a nice subject to cover on Film Tips. I've been on many shoots over the years (both free and paid projects), so this post will be based on what I've experienced shooting. So you have your actors, your locations, and your equipment? Great! But what now? Whatever you do, don't just "wing it" on set. When it comes to filmmaking, preparation, no matter how small, will always make a big difference in the final outcome. Here are 5 things to remember before filming.
Tip #1: Visit the location and take pictures/video.
I never used to do this step back when I was making videos for fun, but when I started my video production business I knew I couldn't leave certain things to chance. Anytime you go visit the location, be sure to take pictures or film the place.
DO NOT use your phone camera, or any other basic camera to shoot. The point of this is to not simply remember what the location look like, but to actually see the location like your camera would. So whenever possible, bring the camera that you'll use to shoot your scene when you're location scouting.
Hey guys!
The "film look" can be described as many different things. Some say the film look is when your footage looks like it was shot on actual film rather than a digital camera. While that can be part of it, that's not the definition that I adopt.
To me and most of the general public, the "film look" or "movie look" simply refers to a video looking professional--like movies look. You see, viewers usually don't care if your footage has film grain because they're not trained for that sort of things. To them, there are either professional looking videos that look like movies and TV shows, or amateur videos that look like something their mom could film with her digital camera.
In this post I will teach you some basic tips on what to consider to get your videos looking more professional.
Hello everyone! Glad you all could join me on my second post. When I made the What Would You Like to Learn post, I got many requests to talk about Color Grading, fight scenes, and VFX. So I decided the best way was to make a short film (emphasis on short) that would cover all of these subjects. My plan is to take you guys through the whole production of this new short, and teach you along the way. So what am I teaching you now? Well, pre-production of course. Now I know a lot of you already know what a storyboard is and how to you use it. You guys can go ahead and download the free template and X my window out (I won't be mad if you just download and leave)! Those of you who want to learn more, read on! |  Click to download template |
Hello everyone!
Welcome to the first ever post of our Film Tips series. To kick things off, I (Rodolphe) will start with this basic tutorial covering the Rule of Thirds. I do plan on making more advanced video tutorials in the near future, not just articles, but for right now let's start things simple. The Rule of Thirds is one of the key guidelines to framing beautiful and interesting shots, so let's learn all about it!
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