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THE FILM LAB: SUMMERHOOD - Jacob Medjuck Interview #1
Jacob Medjuck, writer/director of SUMMERHOOD talks to The Film Lab about his writing process and the collaboration of his cast and crew in making his film (Part 1).
THE FILM LAB: Motion Tracking
This particular chunk of our Gareth Edwards (Monsters) interview contains this message: grab your camera, install some commercial post-production graphics software on your computer and start motion tracking!
THE FILM LAB: MONSTERS - Gareth Edwards Interview!
Gareth Edwards has made a miracle of a film: cheap, gorgeous, smart, super entertaining and, effects-wise, on par with a lot of Hollywood's more expensive sci-fi projects. He talked to Mike at this past TIFF...
THE FILM LAB: Fake Blood
Happy Hallowe'en! Mike shows us how far a little corn syrup, warm water and food colouring can go, especially if you're looking to save a few bucks in your SFX budget. Fake Blood!
THE FILM LAB: Non-Linear Editing Basics, Final Cut Pro - Part 01
Here's a quick and dirty little series on the very basics of non-linear editing. If you're not using FCP, don't worry, every non-linear editing software package functions in more or less the same way.
THE FILM LAB: Pre-production Scheduling Basics
Mike runs down the whys and the what-fors surrounding pre-production scheduling. Surprise: a lot of it has to do with keeping your cast and crew happy.
News: The V.I.D.A.D.I.F.H. Biography Show: Wes Craven
Wes Craven is a very important dude in film history primarily because of his role in shaping the modern horror genre into what it is today. Plus he has a really badass sounding name.
THE FILM LAB: Ode to Production Coordinators!
Hail to the hardworking facilitators in the production office!
THE FILM LAB: Bingo's Lingo - Cucalorus
What the heck is a cucalorus? Maybe Bingo can explain it, if he calms down a bit first....
News: THE FILM LAB - Attending Film Festivals
Ok, so your new film got selected for the fancy-pants film festival. Now what? Kris Booth, director of AT HOME BY MYSELF WITH YOU talks about going to Cannes, and sharing his passion..
THE FILM LAB: Submitting to Festivals
Just in time for TIFF, we chat with AT HOME BY MYSELF WITH YOU's Kris Booth about applying to festivals as a canadian director..
News: The Film Lab - Above The Line Budgeting
Exactly how did Sly manage to collect all our favourite 80s action stars in one super-movie? And why couldn't such a movie come out IN the 80s?
News: THE FILM LAB - Pulling Focus
Pulling focus is a neat trick that you should definitely try sometime! It's a great filmmaking technique, and it's not that hard to pull off.
News: THE FILM LAB - Pulling Focus
Pulling focus is a neat trick that you should definitely try sometime! It's a great filmmaking technique, and it's not that hard to pull off.
News: Good do-it-yourself micro budget video lights
Professional video lights are great tools. They are color balanced, versatile, and offer great control over the light they give. There is a wide variety of video lights made for different situations. Unfortunately, they are also very expensive. The cheapest ones cost you easily hundreds of dollars.
THE FILM LAB - On Location #4: Lighting Gags
THE FILM LAB - We're back on set with our favourite grip department. This time around they let us in on a trade secret: Lighting Gags.
News: THE FILM LAB - Dutch Tilt
THE FILM LAB - Bingo's back to explain just what the heck a Dutch Angle (or Dutch Tilt) is! Ha ha!
News: YouTube, Ridley Scott Crowdsource Feature Documentary
On July 24th, producer Ridley Scott and director Kevin Macdonald will open their inboxes to the YouTube filmmakers for their groundbreaking, or at least rule-breaking documentary "Life in a Day".
THE FILM LAB - On Location #3: Grips
ON LOCATION #3 - The misfits, the long-hairs, the toughguys with the tough job. They hold flags, they hold scrims, they hold your life in their hands... come spend a few minutes on the grip/electric truck on location in the Film Lab & see what's what.
News: Cheap Ass Videocameras and Citizen Journalism
The idea that you could buy a cellphone sized video camera that shoots 720p for a hundred bucks would literally seem like nonsense to me five or six years ago, as I sat trying to get a shot worth looking at out of my old Sony pd150. They're here, though, the Flips and iPhones and Kodaks and whatever else and while most of their impact can be measured in the increased frequency of Bieber-tribute videos hitting youtube, having a $100 hd camera also puts me in a mind to go - me a regular old idi...
Cyrus: The Puffy Chair meets Money and Famous People
Cyrus comes out tomorrow, having wowed people at Sundance and at SXSW where the directors, the Duplass brothers, had earlier success with their mumblecore feature The Puffy Chair. It's very funny, and very well made and it should be of particular interest to lo/no-budg filmmaking dudes and dudettes because it is literally the model of what can be done with talent and hard work.
News: Why would I buy a video camera. Tell me, Canon, please.
So the Canon 5d mkII, iirc, can shoot video that looks like 35mm film, due to its huge sensor and ability to use all of the Canon still lenses. The Canon XH-A1 can't do that. The Casio Exilim ex-f1 can shoot up to 1200 fps looking... ok well not so hot but seems to look good at slightly less fast framerates, letting moms and dads shoot slo-mo video in their backyards. The Canon XH-A1 can't do that. Of course folks have to go through a big rigamarole to get sound synched with the 5d and it has...
LEE Filters Gel Swatch book: A Rad as Hell Thing
We made a video about the basics of ND gels the other day, and given that we don't have a grip truck to haul stuff off of we had to go actually buy gels from the photo supply store. I took the opportunity while there to grab another of my favourite things on the earth, a little sample-book put out by Lee Filters (Rosco makes them, too) containing little swatches of all the gels and scrims and reflectors that they make, which is a lot of different gels, scrims and reflectors.
News: iMovie on iPhone, coming in June
So as of now June 24th or whenever it is precisely that the new iPhone comes out, we'll likely be in a situation where two of the most popular, talked-about filmmaking tools will be non-traditional video cameras: the new 720p-shooting/cutting Apple Flip-smasher and the Canon 5d. I feel positively old fashioned, a dinosaur, an archaic wreck, stumbling about with my mammoth Canon XH-A1. I can't slip it into my pocket, I can't take the lens off and put a f/1.8 50mm on it and get kabonkers depth ...
News: CELTX - Free media pre-production tools
The free version of tools is great and offers tons of useful features. The paid "suite" version is a great value too - it lets users collaborate, share updates, manage edits.......the list goes on.
News: Welcome to The Film Lab!
This quick intro video only scratches the surface of all the DIY filmmaking technique tutorials that are waiting for you in The Film Lab -- join Mike and Rajo as they shed some light on important stuff that will help you pull together your masterpiece!
News: The Snoot-less Snoot
I was shooting last Friday and for a particular shot I wanted a special on a product; I wanted it focused, but soft. Unfortunately we had run out of flags to cut it so my Key Grip came up with a great DIY solution: cut a hole in black wrap, put it on a stand a few feet away from the light (Dedo 400W HMI) and cover that hole with a light diffusion (Opal). The distance from the light guaranteed a defined shape while the diffusion softened up the light itself.
News: FilmmakingStuff.com
Resources for Independent Filmmakers
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