Darrell Abney

Most short films aren't profitable, so I am curious if anyone has had any luck raising money to make one? I am in the works writing my next short and I think I could do the whole thing for 2k barebones (with "free" friends helping with some of the crew tasks) I plan to have the whole film prevized (I come from a art/vfx background)with every shot planned out and taking this to a potential investor. I realize this question is probably asked alot. Raising money for a feature you could at least say to an investor that it might get picked up at a festival but for a short I'm just not sure how to "sell" anyone on it, even tho I think it will be very cool. Thanks for any info, Darrell

Thanks Freya I don't want this thread to turn into a flame so I'll just end it here. I appreciate the answers from most of you.

Mr. Lewis, I'm not sure why you need to all caps me. When I said real world examples I mean a tutorial where someone goes through their camera settings and shows you why they set it for certain situations. Thanks for the exposure tip. Don't hate on me just because I'm learning.

and to clarify I am not using "low light mode" just IAF, HDV Cine mode 24p.

I go tthe cam a day before the shoot (not a great idea but thats life) so I pretty much used out of the box settings. I just made sure to turn on 24p and Cinema mode. I had instant auto focus on, stabalizer on (which im reading is a bad idea too?) and default exposure/gain settings. I was reading about the technique of putting the white cell phone in front of the camera, very good idea. I read alot of tech stuff but don't see any "real world" examples. Maybe I'm just thick headed but lets say for example (to kill the video noise) on this particular shot what do I do: I have 4 arri lights setup (Lights are as bright as possible to keep the low key mood without making it look fake) , then I'm assuming I should use the cameras built in ND filter (I did some research yes its built in) and then quoting the last guys post "When you enable the exposure adjustment you have to have a bright light covering the entire lens. I do this by having an all white background on my cell, cover the lens with it and then I hit the exposure. I get a wide range of apertures locked at 48 shutter with no gain." How do you "hit the exposure". Let's say I do all these steps, then I should be good to go? Sorry for the long winded response this is all new to me, but I love this stuff. I'd love to get the most out of my HV20. Thanks

Thanks for the responses. I am doing low key lighting. I will post a jpeg so you can see what it looks like. I'm jus tnot happy with teh grain and the somewhat random colors that got thrown in there when you view it at the full hd resolution. I will look into how to adjust the gain for the HV20, not sure how I can attach a neutral density filter to it without some type of modification. I can't wait to kill that grain! - D

My first real attempt at making a short took place this weekend. Overall it was pretty good, I learned alot. I filmed with the Canon HV20 in 24p HDV Cinema Mode. I rented an Arri light kit for the shoot. Shot to HDV Master tape. It's a short horror film so its relatively low light. I tried to light it up as much as possible but I feel like if I would have lit the scenes any lighter it would have looked like daytime. So I got home and used final cut studio to capture the footage and its not very clear. Lots of grain almost like i added film grain. and some blue spots show up (shot inside a cabin). So, if you cant turn up the lights any brighter on set, is there another solution to get rid of the grain/noise? I'm looking for as clear of an image as possible for this movie but I have to keep the scenes from getting too bright since it needs to be creepy. Thanks for your help

Hi I am shooting a short in 2 days and just got access to the consumer Canon HV20. I know this isnt the best HD cam out there, but I was hoping I could get some barebones tips on shooting with this. I plan on using HDV tape (the capture card route is too pricey for my project) and I plan on turning on Cinemode to get the 24p. Other than that Im not that familiar with this camera. Any input will be appreciated. Im using this with an Arri light kit and bounce cards, silks, etc. - Darrell

Hi I am shooting a short in 2 days and just got access to the consumer Canon HV20. I know this isnt the best HD cam out there, but I was hoping I could get some barebones tips on shooting with this. I plan on using HDV tape (the capture card route is too pricey for my project) and I plan on turning on Cinemode to get the 24p. Other than that Im not that familiar with this camera. Any input will be appreciated. Im using this with an Arri light kit and bounce cards, silks, etc. - Darrell

Holy Moley that is a great find! An hour of googling did not lead me to that.

Thank you all for your great answers!

I am shooting a scene for a short film this weekend. I need to make an electric lantern look like its a flame based one. Since the location owner asked me not to carry around a flame I am using an electric lantern - Problem is the light is either on or off. Anyone have an ideas to make it flicker like a real flame? I frosted the glass so you cant see that theres an electric bulb in there. Hit me up with any thoughts/suggestions thanks!

So I've been researching this and I'm still stumped. I'm shooting a short film in a few weeks with the GL2. (no lens attachments unforunately) I'm going for the widescreen look. This film is mostly going to be shown online and on dvd. I'm using the GL2 primarily and I'm curious what will give me more resolution if any, do I shoot with 16x9 mode on, or shoot 4x3 then add black bars later? From what I'm reading 16x9 on a GL2 isn't "true". Also in my editing package I'm curious if I'll have to set the project to 16x9 or not (if i go the 4x3 mode with black bars added in post route). If you had a GL2 and you had to chose between 16x9 mode and 4x3 (keeping in mind final output will be 16x9) which would you chose? Thank you