Hot DIY Filmmaking Posts

How To: Build a DSLR Helmet Rig

This tutorial shows you how to build a helmet rig for DSLRs to achieve a first person look. This is a minimalist rig, its rather simple looking and easy to make. Check out the tutorial for more information and the Schematics of the rig.

News: Please Read the Following Before the Movie: The Hobbit's HFR 3D 101

Well, it’s almost time! Tomorrow advance tickets are set to go on sale for the biggest blockbuster of the holiday season – The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. As we’ve discussed previously on the site, the film will be available in a wide variety of formats. There will be 2D screenings for you traditional folk, RealD 3D for people that like their films to pop out at them, IMAX 3D for those who like their films to pop out at them while being very big (this is my choice), and then there is HFR 3...

News: Interview with Manborg Director Steven Kostanski! | the Film Lab

One of our favourite movies of 2011—Manborg, which we saw at Toronto After Dark—has become one of our favourite movies of 2012 with its week-long run here in Toronto at the Royal. A gloriously funny pastiche of ultra-cheap kung-fu, horror and sci-fi, Manborg is also a perfect example of the DIY ethic: it wears its rough, hand-made edges proudly, and its intense roughness makes its devotion to ‘80s channel-100-at-3-AM crap-cinema ephemera even funnier. We had a chance to speak with director St...

News: Skyfall's DOP, Roger Deakins | WTI

As we've already mentioned, Skyfall is an awesome James Bond movie - one of the best, really (if not THE best?). Today's very special Watch This Instead looks at one of the reasons it turned out so great: cinematographer Roger Deakins. He's worked with Skyfall director Sam Mendes many times before and has a special relationship with the Coen bros. also. If you're not a James Bond freak or you can't make it out to see Skyfall, then check out some of his other work instead!

News: William F. White's Student & Filmmaker Open House! | Gear Guide

William F. White International Inc. is more than just a place that rents out lights and cranes and generators and dollies and green screens and camera cars. They've also got heaps of training and certification programs that can help you become a more knowledgeable set denizen. And every fall they throw their doors open to young filmmakers and students so they can get their hands on some pro-level gear and talk to some experts with field experience, and maybe win a rental voucher. Gear Guide w...

How To: Fig Rig & Compact Lighting Packages - an Intro! | Gear Guide

The Toronto International Film Festival is but a distant memory, though we are still getting compliments on all the awesome footage we shot, both for our Midnight Madness coverage and interviews with directors like Don Coscarelli and Rob Stewart. But here's the thing - we had big, large help. Even though we've been at it for 5 years, shooting an event like TIFF is never easy! It's hectic and unpredictable and as a result, getting good looking footage can be difficult if you don't have the rig...

News: Post-TIFF Micro-Blurbs

Every year the fine folks at Row Three do a post-TIFF mega-wrap up, collecting the micro-blurbs of a bunch of attendees into a giant meta-analysis of what everyone liked, loved, hated, etc. etc.. We'll link to that post when it goes up on the weekend, but in the mean time, here's my contribution:

News: Paul Thomas Anderson | the v.I.D.a.D.I.F.H. Show

The buzz at TIFF surrounding The Master, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman was near-deafening... film fans all across this great city were clamouring to see director Paul Thomas Anderson's follow-up to his 2007 masterpiece There Will Be Blood. Matthew Price of MAMO takes this opportunity mid-hype to give us a brief overview of the young auteur's relatively short but extremely potent career and explore exactly what makes him a Very Important Dude in Film History. Paul Thomas ...

News: Charles Officer Talks About 100 Musicians | TIFF '12

The director of 100 Musicians and Nurse/Fighter/Boy talked with us about old school filmmaking Charles Officer has directed shorts, music videos for K’naan, and the features Nurse/Fighter/Boy and Mighty Jerome, a documentary about Canadian track star Harry Jerome. His new short 100 Musicians, which screens Monday as part of Short Cuts Canada, is a small ode to civic optimism, concerning itself with a lovers’ argument over who exactly misheard a radio DJ reporting the plans of Toronto’s much m...

News: Mike Clattenburg Talks About Crackin' Down Hard | TIFF '12

Shorts, learning from your audience and the fundamental plausibility of being hustled in the desert Mike Clattenburg, creator of Trailer Park Boys and Afghan Luke, was kind enough to talk to us from Nova Scotia, where he was hard at work in preproduction, about Crackin’ Down Hard, his short that screens Monday and Tuesday as part of TIFF’s Short Cuts Canada Programme. We picked his brain about realism versus surrealism in comedy, the virtue of shorts, and the virtue of turning negative skinny...

News: Paul Thomas Anderson | the v.I.D.a.D.I.F.H. Show

Last week at TIFF the buzz surrounding The Master, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman was near-deafening... film fans all across this great city were clamouring to see director Paul Thomas Anderson's follow-up to his 2007 masterpiece There Will Be Blood. Matthew Price of MAMO takes this opportunity mid-hype to give us a brief overview of the young auteur's relatively short but extremely potent career and explore exactly what makes him a Very Important Dude in Film History. Pa...

The Film Lab: Chroma Keying in Final Cut Pro

We've explained exactly what Chroma Keying is. We showed you how to set up a green screen from Whites Interactive. We showed you how to light your green screen evenly. Now, here's Rajo in The Film Lab's edit suite to show you what to do with your green screen footage in Final Cut Pro. Check it out!

News: What is 'Chroma Keying'???

We've all seen it - during the weather report, in a Star Wars movie, on a televised baseball game... Weird graphics slapped onto a moving image that normally wouldn't (or couldn't) be there. You've heard about green screens... But how do filmmakers use green screens to create a shot that takes their actors out of a studio and puts them into some exotic locale? How does the camera or the editing software know what to do with that green patch in your shot? Welcome to Chroma Keying...

News: A Simple Trick to Help Stabilize Your DSLR

We're about to get real here... DSLR filmmaking has made every would-be filmmaker's dreams of shooting a feature that looks as good as a 'professionally shot' Hollywood film a reality. These consumer-level cameras bring with them many advantages, but they also have their disadvantages - namely, they were never intended to be used primarily as video cameras, and so their design doesn't exactly make using them easy or comfortable (especially when you're shooting long takes). Thus, you're gonna ...

News: 2012 Film Festival Submission Deadlines

It's that time of year again, filmmakers... time to make your new year's resolutions. And no, I don't mean quit smoking or stop drinking - smoke and drink all you want SO LONG AS YOU FINALLY GET THAT FILM FINISHED AND SUBMIT IT TO A FESTIVAL OR TEN. Rajo has signed up for a withoutabox.com account and scoured the internet for the latest film festival submission deadlines just so he can clue you in to which ones are coming up soon - whatta guy. And just for fun (a.k.a. future reference), here'...

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