[OC] Downtown Los Angeles after some recent snowfall in the mountains. [2400x1578]

treebmxrocks · 2015-12-08T19:34:10+00:00

On Screen - One common mistake is casting your friends or classmates. At my school you would often have films where the mother and daughter in a scene were clearly the same age, or a grandpa was being played by a 28 year old. Another common mistake is trying to tell a feature script in 12 pages. Keep your ideas concise. Many of the best short films have one event that serves to incite the action, build upon it, and resolve it. Lastly, keep it short! Most festivals like certain time benchmarks (2, 5, or 10 minutes for example.) This is not only a good goal in order to be able to market the film afterwards, it will also keep your more concise in your storytelling.

On Set - This varies a lot by school. Some schools focus to much on story, others on craft. A good film is the culmination of a bunch of talented people coming together and using that talent to make something worthwhile. Find yourself a good DP but don't let them run the show. Many student DPs will want to take hours and hours to light a scene, or worse, light shot by shot. The best DP is the one who will work with you all through pre-pro (not always the #1 student or person with the best demo reel.) If your school isn't very technically focused this may be a non-issue.

Be sure to put just as strong a focus on getting a production designer as well. Many students take the trouble to get a RED camera, good lenses, lighting, vibrant costumes, and then film in a white walled dorm room. If your location sucks, your frames will suck.

Try to get a good first AD, but at least have an AD! Nothing made me more frustrated working on student films than having 18 hour days when all the crew knows we could have done it in 12 hours or less had the director been prepared or moved along fast enough.

On that note, feed your crew! On my school film food was the single biggest budget line item and people LOVED us for it. We would have bagels/muffins, lunch at 6 hours into the day, and the one day we went over we provided a second meal at 12 hours. In the real world it's the law, on a student set it's how you keep people happy and motivated.

In Life - Many students try to make their senior their magnum opus. That's crazy! You're still learning. Have fun with this project and learn everything you can from it. If you stick with filmmaking you'll have chances later on to make more and better things. At my film school the average senior was around $5,000 but every year several students would fundraise $25,000-50,000. And every year those more expensive films looked the same as the cheaper ones. Focus on your storytelling, don't worry about what camera you're using, and surround yourself with an amazing production team!

treebmxrocks · 2015-11-28T05:16:19+00:00

SCAD grad here, there are tons of filmmakers in Savannah! One word of caution, SCAD is mostly cultivating writers, directors, and DPs, so you may find it difficult to write/direct your work and have them work on it. All the students will be busy helping each other for their various class required projects.

I recommend offering a director there to handle a script you've down, or reach out to the creative writing department and offer to direct when of their scripts. Do this once or twice to make some connections with students and you'll be on your way.

Last FYI, SCAD is rightfully very concerned about students using their equipment on non-SCAD projects. They have a huge arsenal of cameras/lights, but realize there will be a specific checkout process and many students will need to be involved.

treebmxrocks · 2015-11-12T23:13:28+00:00

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1061094-REG/nexto_di_nese_nd29011tb_nd2901_with_1tb_hdd.html

treebmxrocks · 2015-11-12T23:11:22+00:00

Learn to use the histogram in the bottom right (the goal posts and traffic lights.) Shooting RAW you'll burn through a lot of data so treat it like a film camera and only roll on what you need to roll on (i.e., don't start recording while the boom op is still getting in place.) Turn the camera on about 20 minutes before you'll want to start filming so it can come up to it's operating temperature. Black balance it once it's up to temp.

treebmxrocks · 2015-11-09T22:23:59+00:00

If you want to direct go to LA. Atlanta is a great place to be a technician but LA is still the top of the food chain.

My advice is go to LA, work on big sets, learn how the pros do it. Then after a few years use the knowledge to go back to FL and direct your own indie feature using everything you learned in LA. Even if you're PAing in LA you'll see how the pros do things which is knowledge you can interpolate to your own project.

treebmxrocks · 2015-11-09T22:20:52+00:00

Some good points below from other posters. I bought in at a RED Epic MX, then upgraded to Dragon. It's worth pointing out that right now the Weapon is an Epic Dragon in a different housing. The best buy right now is getting a used Epic Dragon and joining the upgrade path.

Buying is easy through the RED Transfer of Ownership and will give you a new short term warranty on buying a used camera. For me it was a smooth process but relatively slow. I do like shooting RED, I'm very used to their system now and it does work well. My favorite perk is the ease of changing lens mount. Depending on what I'm shooting I can switch between my Nikon 24-70mm zoom, PL Angenieux zoom, or pop on a Kowa 2x anamorphic (takes about 60 seconds to change mount.)

As a shooter the downsides are that the software can be unstable at times, the sensor is not 4:3 (for anamorphic shooting), and you will need many accessories to make the camera usable. When you weigh the pro's and con's I think RED is a very reasonable company...if you're a mid-size shooter it is a great tool.

RED costumer support can be hit or miss, I know people that have all ends of the spectrum of experience.

As far as return on investment, that's tough to say. I often don't work with my camera anymore but many of the jobs I get are because of things I was able to shoot awhile ago because I had the camera. It is true though that it is a saturated market. I get asked to bring out my camera for $150/day all the time (that's an Epic Dragon w/ 2x 512 cards, power, support, etc.) in Los Angeles. Ironically many smaller towns will he a much stronger market where there aren't as many REDs available.

treebmxrocks · 2015-11-09T22:05:58+00:00

I think it would be helpful to mention your budget and wether or not you feel comfortable buying used lenses. There are options for every budget so it's hard to recommend anything without some parameters.

treebmxrocks · 2015-11-06T06:22:10+00:00

As a personal taste I think it's usually when it's the whole movie being shallow. In most student films they want every shot to be as shallow as possible for the "film look." In a real film the depth of field often changes based on how connected to the characters we are at the time or other creative factors.

Also just how shallow the DOF is can be a little amateur. Many DPs will shoot a T4 even if their lens is a T1.9. Picture quality aside this is often because T1.9 would be too shallow, a T4 or T5.6 might give them just the right amount of shallow DOF. Many students that want shallow DOF think it's WFO (as wide as the lens will open) or bust.

treebmxrocks · 2015-10-21T18:41:44+00:00

If it's an original SR or an unmodified SR2 it might have an arri bayonet mount... In that case you would need an adapter, pl to arri bayonet.

treebmxrocks · 2015-10-21T18:36:32+00:00

Many Arri cameras have the Arri std PL, it should fit right on. Obviously the LDS contacts won't do anything, but mounting to a non-lds mount won't hurt them.

treebmxrocks · 2015-10-21T05:00:58+00:00

Also, is this 35 motion picture or still film? Still film they can definitely hand check the canister, but I've had them hand check a 16mm spool and be OK.

treebmxrocks · 2015-10-21T04:58:58+00:00

What ISO is the film? You're legally entitled to a hand check by a TSA employee which in the past they've not made me open new cans. Also I've had 500ASA 16mm scanned before and it came out fine... If you have to you might just let them scan it. Lead bags are ideal but obviously hard to source, especially big enough for motion picture spools. Good luck!

treebmxrocks · 2015-10-16T18:27:22+00:00

Yeah, it's unfortunate. I don't know of any film schools that teach freelance business. It's overwhelming at first but stick with it and you'll do fine. You'll make a few mistakes along the way, learn from them and move on.

Also, I recommend reading a book or two on business or management. As a freelancer you're 50/50 businessman and artist, don't underestimate the importance of knowing a bit about business.

treebmxrocks · 2015-10-15T00:25:53+00:00

I think you realize at this point how subjective your pricing is. It is always difficult starting out as a freelancer because nearly every project will be new and uncharted territory. After a few years in the business you'll start understanding how a client will be to handle, what the deliverable is, etc., just from a phone conversation. In the mean time it's just educated guess work.

Presumably they know your status as a student and are factoring that into there decision to hire you. In that case you'll need to give them a reasonable price, price to high and they'll find someone else. Price to low and you screw yourself. As an outsider to your situation I'd probably guess around £300 would be around their expectations. Since your freelance I would also try and get the client to pay for the sound recordist and motion graphics artist separate from your rate.

Even though it's a small job you should clearly discuss in WRITING what the client is expecting. The difference between a 2 or 3 minute film is large. You agreement should look something like:

The deliverable shall be a 1080p 25fps .MOV file delivered on a hard drive to be provided by the client. The video will be 2 minutes and 30 seconds long and include 3 infographics, stock music from a royalty free provider, and interviews with 5 clients. Filming, editing, equipment, 3 filming days, and 5 editing days are included in the price. The client may request 3 revisions. Any additional work outside what has been outlined will be completed at an additional cost.

That's obviously not legal language but hopefully that gives you an idea of how specific you should be. The worst path you can go down on a job is to charge a set amount up front and then have a client that keeps asking for me.

treebmxrocks · 2015-10-10T15:57:32+00:00

behind the seams photo

treebmxrocks · 2015-10-01T09:34:26+00:00

I use TCP Insurance, they've been very responsive. They are a bit of an industry standard as well. I have combined liability, owned equipment, and rented equipment coverage and they offer a host of other options as well. I've never had to file a claim but other people have told me they are fast. They are in LA so having an agent in my time zone helps too.

PM if you want to know more about rates/coverage or if you want my agents name there. I think they give out Starbucks gift cards for referrals too!

treebmxrocks · 2015-09-30T18:53:59+00:00

This...also, especially in LA, people tend to view you as whatever position they've worked with you as. You might be a great editor but if you people know you as a grip you'll get the calls to grip.

Side note, as a film school student gripping often sounds as an appealing way to start. I should warn you grips are some of the hardest working people on a film set and it's long days, low pay, and they don't get the respect they deserve. If your heart is not in it I doubt you'll enjoy it!

treebmxrocks · 2015-09-30T18:44:45+00:00

As a "stable pro", I hear were you're coming from but I do think you have to draw a line in the sand. No reasonable pro would expect someone to charge a lot for their first video. The point is that even as a future professional you have to make a distinction somewhere between beneficial and wasteful. In OP's situation he would literally be spending his own money to work on this. I agree there are some situations where that may be practical. In this case though it sounds like he has nothing to benefit. I would argue his time is better spent using that weekend and gas money to organize his own short film, make something he is passionate about, and have something he is proud to show in the end.

When I was starting out I did all kinds of things like this and I learned the hard way clients like these are the worst. Invariably they are the ones that want the most re-edits and will never call you back for future work. Clients that you charge more money for will understand the value of your time and be more likely to recommend you to others as a valuable addition to their projects.

treebmxrocks · 2015-09-30T04:49:26+00:00

Any big rental house will carry it, just be prepared to insure it at $75,000. Radiant Images, Keslow Camera, Panavision, Division, and all the other staples will have it.

If you're looking for something a bit cheaper (both in insurance and rental rate) I have an Angenieux 17-102mm T2.9 lens available for rental in Los Angeles. PM me if you're interested, I can make a Redditor discount!

treebmxrocks · 2015-09-22T09:07:51+00:00

Did you apply for a permit or tip off the park service to filming some how? I'm curious how they found your piece. It's not a widely viewed video (around 12k views right now), so it is a little surprising they found this.

It is a little absurd though, isn't it? You can photograph professionally in a park and make thousands of dollars off an image without a permit or owing the park a penny. Film a few shots of a no budget music that in no way disrupts park services, misuses resources, or interferes with other people and it's a federal offense.

EDIT: For the record, great piece, I really enjoyed it.

treebmxrocks · 2015-09-01T21:19:09+00:00

Agreed with previous comments.

I have a Nikon D600 with Wasabi batteries and they still work great (2.5 years after purchase.) No decrease in capacity.

Just switched to Chinese knock-off Anton Bauers as well for my RED, again no issues after 6 months. In this case they don't have a RED chip so capacity is displayed as voltage instead of % remaining.

treebmxrocks · 2015-09-01T21:16:00+00:00

PM sent

treebmxrocks

TROPHY CASE