Any filmmaking tip
When shooting with a greenscreen, make sure the model is away from the screen. You don’t want any light reflected back from the greenscreen onto your model. Your effects person will bless your heart, assuming they’re on set.
(more…)Internal microphones suck. Never use the microphone that’s attached to the camera body.
(more…)Over time, you can find practically any prop you need at a thrift store, or even the bins store (where the thrift stores dump their excess inventory). The sooner you tell your Art Department what you’re looking for, the cheaper the whole thing’ll be.
(more…)A cheap-ass steadicam you built using $15 worth of parts is better than no stabilizing tool at all, especially if you practice diligently with it, but it’s not a $1000 Steadicam, and it’s not realistic to compare the two. Make do with what you’ve got.
(more…)There are three words that should drive everything in Production: “Get the shot.” The only two types of activities on set are activities that help get the shot and activities that are preventing the shot. Keep the former going, and minimize the latter. Food belongs to the former category, by the way.
(more…)If you can’t cut around bad acting, the best you can hope for is to be saved by your cutaways, and by the reaction shots of other actors. Another alternative is to rewrite the scene on-the-fly to be one of those moody contemplative scenes with billowing cloth and slow-motion cigarette smoke. I suggest you grab lots of cutaways, though.
(more…)In a pinch, shop light’s do just fine. The color balance is great and they’re cheap as hell. Every home improvement place has ’em. You have to take off those little grills, but you probably would figure that out on your own.
(more…)Bagels and doughnuts are not the same thing. Not even close. No amount of goo spread on a bagel makes it a doughnut. It’s still a bagel, only now it’s a bagel covered in schmeer. If your crew asks for doughnuts, give them doughnuts.
(more…)If you find extension cords for sale, especially long ones, get a bunch. Use a sharpie and write your name and contact information on each one, at each end. If you can, get a weird color (I have a purple extension cord that I have never lost), but if not, definitely mark them at each end. And it’s probably the case that you can’t have too many.
(more…)Have prize drawings for extras, if you have more than half a dozen. Everybody puts their name in a hat, and at the end of the shoot, draw for prizes. Movies are good prizes. Must be present to win. Helps ’em stick around longer, too.
(more…)