Awesome Sound Design on a Tight Budget, Part 2
In part one of this double feature, we talked about designing a sound plan for your film, including music and background sound. Now let's look at how to collect and execute the various components of...
View ArticleShoot Full Cinematic Style on a Micro-Budget
You don't want your micro-budget film to look like what it is. Shooting pro-style is essential. Fortunately, you live in the age of affordable enabling electronics and DIY. If you look at shooting as a...
View ArticleGrab your Audience on a Microbudget: Posters, Trailers, and Opening Titles
For a microbudget film, your poster and trailer will be your main selling tools. A professional look is important for credibility and a good flow is necessary to keep people watching. After studying...
View ArticleSurviving Your Directorial Debut
I've been working on this piece for a while. It turns out a lot of people go into film production thinking it's going to be a piece of cake, or feeling they know what they're up against. For a first …...
View ArticleYour Low Budget 4K Shoot
When it comes to filmmaking, technology is evolving fast, and I'm ready to take another look at my recent proclamation that filming in 4K should be avoided. Developments are occuring so quickly in...
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Stay Employable: A Primer for Established VFX Artists
Staying employed in the same place is really tough these days. I'm not sure how much the California tax incentives are going to help. They won't make a dent at Sony Imageworks, because Sony doesn't...
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So You Want to Make a Movie
This is the first in a series of blog entries on cleverly creating cinema—starting with the screenplay. Is This Script Worth Filming? Yeah yeah, your script is brilliant. But is it? If you wrote it,...
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Casting Your Low-Budget Movie
There are several parts to the casting process. Putting out a cattle call is probably not for you on your first film. You don't really know what you'll get. You're better off identifying your...
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Seven Production-Design Tips for Low-Budget Filmmakers
Among the most neglected key elements in low-budget films are production design and art direction. That's a problem because production design impacts all aspects of your project. It is the detailed...
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Awesome Sound Design on a Tight Budget, Part 1
It's been said over and over again that film is a visual medium. Please don't buy that crap. Film is a gestalt medium wherein the whole is much more than the sum of the parts. A gestalt is an entity...
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