Indie Tricks-of-the-Trade, or how to get good production values on a modest budget
It takes more skill to make an indie film than a big budget studio picture. Where a Hollywood production can throw money at a problem, an indie production must work smart. I have started this thread as a place where we can share indie tricks-of-the-trade for realizing big budget production values on a modest budget. Or, as Phil Rhodes so eloquently put it in a recent thread “by the application of hard-won and exquisitely-realized skill.” Posts to this thread should not herald DIY lights, nor l
Don’t try to light your talent with only practicals. After exposing for the light they throw on the talent several feet away, the practicals themselves will blow out. Not only is supplemental lighting required to light your talent, but practicals must be treated to make them look realistic. I find that practical lamps never look convincing unless one treats the lampshade as well as boost the bulb wattage. That is because if you stop down to keep the shade from burning out, the output of the prac