Lance Tang

Anyone looking to pick-up a DXA-5da for cheap? http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190548211236 Thank you!

You are right about NYC vs LA. LA is all about the studios. It's very difficult to do independent work. NYC may be similar. It might even be better to check out Chicago, Austin, Albuquerque, etc. Those places are boom towns now for indie filmmakers. You might want to try doing grad school, will give you an opportunity to find a job and then you can stay.

Hey guys, Just wanted to share some information about a new short film festival. Free Entry. Not too many strict rules. Open to all short films under 15 minutes. If you've guys have made any shorts, might as well enter them. It's free. http://flickfire.com/festival

Hey guys, I'd love to get your feedback on my short film, Their Symbols. http://flickfire.com/kevin?pv=demo_reel&reelid=260 Thanks in advance!

It's very interesting, I'd like to have more visuals though. Pretty much the majority of the doc you had him sitting down or you were showing images of his games.

You might want to try a portfolio page on FlickFire, it's pretty, does the job, and also helps with networking. http://flickfire.com/kevin

UT is a good school, especially for documentary, as they have some of the best documentary professors. Look for the crowd to be mostly indie. There's not as many filmmakers who are interested in mainstream works, and most of the professors' works are very experimental and indie in nature. With that being said, UT is a good school with good resources. Probably not going to be as good as Los Angeles, but it's set in a great film boom town. Anymore questions? Just talk to me.

I'm a complete audio noob so please excuse my questions. Here we go. 1) Are mixers able to record sound too or are they just fed into the external audio recorder? 2) Is the pre-amp the key to noise-free sound? If not, what is? 3) Is pre-amp and mixer the same thing? If not, what's the difference? 4) Don't recorders like the zoom h4n and tascam dr-100 have pre-amps? Thanks!

Hey everyone, Worked as a DP and edited for this short film. Here's a scene from the film. Would like to get critiques on the shots, lighting, and overall cinematography. Also would like critiques on the acting if you could.

No I completely get the idea of film first, beg forgiveness. I think my question more has to do with, if I make my film and it goes to the festival, then some guy sees his property in there, can he sue me or make me get shots of my footage out of my movie.

What are the laws regarding filming in public, such as on street corners, etc. for LA. Also, let's say you're filming outside an apartment complex, is that legal? Thanks.

So it was just good lighting, good camera, good DP?

Here is the video I am talking about. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAktw3rU22k It looks like the quality of the image is just superb, but I can't really figure out why (maybe lighting? color correction?). To me it almost looks like HDR. How can this be achieved in the editing room?

You can already get it for 700 if you get it used. When Canon 60D comes out it'll probably be even cheaper. Your call.

Has anyone had the problem of needing a tough location and not being able to find it? Is there a website where you can find locations for films? For example, I really need a shot inside a prison. How would I go about getting that shot?

Just to let you know, some professional productions are now being shot on the 5D Mark II including one episode of House MD that was shot completely on the camera. So don't underestimate the camera's power.

Thanks a lot Kevin Wilson! That looks like exactly what I need. Also can any one comment on how much faster your workflow is after you convert to Apple ProRes rather than editing natively in h.264 mov

Are there any programs that are used for converting native video files from the camera (I'm using a Canon 5D EOS Mark II) to be faster for editing on Final Cut Pro (I think its the Apple ProRes format that works best on FCP, I could be wrong though). What program do you use?

Hey guys, Do any of you know what software was used to make the film "MONSTERS," and more specifically, for the visual effects? Apparently all the visual effects were done on a budget of less than 15k. You can see a behind the scenes of the movie at http://www.slashfilm.com/2010/06/03/how-gareth-edwards-shot-monsters-on-an-incredibly-low-budget/

I am more interested in how they got to that level. I mean you can't just get an agent right off the bat right?

Once you are an established director, are you then pretty much hired by production companies, paid a salary, and then do your work and movie goes to theatres? Or is it more like, you still need to come up with your own financing, make the movie, and then sell your movie to companies, etc. Also part 2 of this question is, how do the top directors get to the top? Was it through making lower budget films and then slowly working their way up? I'm not talking about guys who already had connections to film industry (like an experienced actor), but the kids who went to film school, made their films, and then somehow got signed to do a multi-million dollar film (think Justin Lin)

It's always better to be prepared. Also there are many indie films shown in theaters but not in a wide release. - Lance

Ok so lets say hypothetically my indie film was going to be picked up for distribution in theatres. What kind of format, for example is 1080p good enough for theatres? Do they need seperate audio/dialogue tracks? Anything else that would be required for wide distribution?

Yes I heard about the 24p vs 30i. But I'm wondering if you could maybe shed some light on WHY the 24p makes the video look more "film-like." I'm just so baffled by the difference but can't really describe it. If we are shooting on HD and we want our film to look cinematic, I'm guessing we'll need to get a camera with a 24p mode?

So I was watching a short-film called "When the Light's Red." Despite it being quite obviously shot in a pretty high resolution, the movie felt very home-video. Now it's bugging me because I'm not sure why it felt like that because the movie was in high res, probably HD, and there wasn't any noticeable hand-held like shaking or anything like that. But yet it still felt like it was shot on a home video camera instead of with a professional camcorder. Why? Anyone care to shed some light on this?