Michael LaVoie

I will second this as a graduate of a 90's era art film program at SUNY Purchase. Film school may teach you everything about how to make a film and yet nothing about how to get a film made. USC is a notable exception in this arena. One need only watch the documentary Misfire about the rise and fall of The Shooting Gallery. Purchase Alumni to get a sense of exactly what can go wrong.

Whether anyone in production cares about the crew size or not, you run a very big risk when you deliver excellent results under budget with a skeleton crew that, in most cases, require a full crew and a lot more money. The danger lies in the precedent. You inadvertently will create future expectations and you may find yourself asked to do even more with even less later on where the demands really require more than you are being given. Think they'll agree to supply you with your wish list and dream crew then? Think again. They will always set you up to fail and will not believe you when you try to "explain" why in this particular case, you need a 1st a.c. or grip.

This new 4K Laser projector from LG looks hilarious. Resembles a trashcan. However, given the price and the size of the image it's described to project, I'd say the home theater revolution is upon us. Sony's answer to this cost at least 5x as much.

Not to mention the lack of proper staff to actually run film projectors. Film projection isn't rocket science by any stretch but you do need responsible people who have some amount of pride in their work and the paygrade for that type of individual is definitely more than any cinema chain is willing to cough up.

If you search the forum this topic has been covered before.

One winter trick to keep your feet warmer is to stand on a 1/4 apple box, rather than the cold hard cement or asphalt.

When you're just starting out, if you write and direct a film, it's always a good idea to hire someone qualified to edit the film. Mostly because having a fresh pair of eyes in the editing room is your last hope of having a coherent story. You know the story as the writer. So you can all too easily make decisions on the day and in the edit room that correspond only to your understanding of the story. Not the audiences. An editor who wasn't involved in the shoot and who only has the script and the footage to go on, has to make the film understandable to everyone else and they will keep the film from sliding into messy, incoherent and vague territory because they have to. It has to make sense to them before it will make sense to anyone else. And if an editor is trying to make sense of your story and they succeed, the odds are good it will make sense to the average viewer. On the other hand, you can edit a movie that you wrote and all the plot points will be obvious to you and at the same time totally confusing to everyone else. An outside editor can't get away with any shortcuts based on their own interpretation the way that the writer can. In other words, a writer/director will always take massive liberties in the edit room because they think it's all obvious. When it isn't at all. The writer director only think it's obvious because the story exists in their own head. Always get an editor if you want the entire audience to really understand what you're trying to say. Also, don't advertise a short you did as "shot on film". Looks like you're trying too hard to give a better reason to watch it then just for the story. It was pretty obvious that it was film from the beginning shot. So you don't really need to point that out. Makes sense to on this forum but in general, it's the same as saying your movie is "shot on an I-phone" Every caveat and qualifier looks weak. It's just your latest short. That should be strong enough to warrant a viewing. That said, congrats on tackling film your first time out. Definitely a challenge.

Reed has been a top shelf DP for a while. No surprise she's still shooting her own films. Why wouldn't you if you're that good at it. I love that she's a go-to example for making the case that directors can shoot their own work with stellar results. That can sometimes be a hard sell when you're not Soderbergh.

Most practical units will blow out past 100 IRE at 800 ISO. So if you're looking for a camera that's more sensitive than that, just realize you'll have to be able to adjust all those practicals in the frame with lower wattage bulbs and or ND gels so that they look realistic. Car headlights look like helicopter search lights at 2000ISO for example. So you have to gel the hell out of everything. And if youre practicals are things like candles or torches, they will look unnaturally hot past 500 ISO in most cases. This is why imho I'm not in favor of super sensitive cameras for night shooting. Unless you're on a beach and really trying to use moonlight. In that case Canon has some kind of special high ISO camera for that. When Collateral Damage came out there wasn't a lot of choices and sensors weren't nearly as good as they are now. Everything is pretty clean at 800 these days.

A good first step is to think of specific questions you would like to pose to the forums various members and then go through the site and search if threads have already been created that answer those questions. You may find a lot of useful information that way. Good luck.

I'm a big fan of hazing interiors. You need the right production team though cause it's a hassle with the smoke detectors and everyone has to agree to at least try to keep the continuity of the haze consistent throughout the scene which can be hard depending on the length of it and the size of the space, amount of bodies walking through etc.

If you're stealing grabs of an actor at a stone alone then you should probably be allright. If you're doing business with 2 or more actors in a walk and talk type scene I'd suggest permits. Even when you have location permits, always check in with the person working that day, the night before the shoot and make sure that individual working their that day knows you are coming. Most people uninvolved in your shoot have no idea who you are and what you're doing and always assume that people outside your shoot are clueless and can't be trusted to relay logistical information to their own people.

Based on that pic, it's already pretty moody. Those shrubs give you a great advantage cause you can light that up to look like daylight no matter the hour. Haze also helps sell a moody look.

Looks great. Thanks for sharing. How many days was the shoot so far?

If you're a photographer you can buy film pretty cheap. Shoot on various stocks and get familiar. The key difference with cinematography is you're generally gonna keep a fixed shutter rate most of the time. Exposure changes are commonly done with aperture on the lens and filters. Unless you push or pull the negative in processing. But you don't have the luxury of changing shutter for exposure compensation in cinematography the way you can in photography cause it affects the look too much. You also have to factor in the 24fps that the film is shooting at. If you change that for a slow or quick effect it changes your exposure. You also need a way, way better tripod than you do in still photography. It will run pretty expensive if you want to hold up a heavy film camera. Otherwise, most of the principles are the same. But those are the basics.

I remember someone mentioning here that IATSE's rate is $98 per hour for the DP. But you can always call the hall and check with them.

There's a filmtrooper podcast that's hysterical about a filmmaker who was approached by Netflix. Someone there saw his documentary at the Toronto film fest and approached the filmmaker expressing interest. This employee at Netflix who was in touch with the filmmaker left Netflix shortly after without giving the director any follow up contact info for anyone else at Netflix. It took the filmmaker years to get back in touch with Netflix about his movie. Even though Netflix actually wanted it. haha. Point is, yeah, you can't reach them. Even when they want your film you can't reach anyone there. If you do make a contact. Make sure they give you an additional email or phone number for someone else just in case. Here's a link to the site for the podcast. I think it's episode 135. It's worth checking out. http://filmtrooper.com

Hard to compete with overcast mostly because it's flat. So in case you haven't added it to your list, if you have the budget and crew, also consider giant 12x12 frames of black as "negative fill" to help you shape and model the ambient light on location.

My key grip once tried to move a light without lowering the head. It was up pretty high and I saw him losing balance so I told him to stop. Lower the light and then move it. Also common is plugging in a light and not checking to see if the unit is switched on. Which, when barn doors are closed, leads to a cooked set of doors and a blown lamp. Basic safety protocol in G&E is common sense but it's always better to have experienced crew on board. Even they can get tired and forget the usual checks and balances so just imagine the damage and injury an intern or student can do. Not worth it.

Watch Kane and then read My Lunches with Orson. A series of conversations that indie filmmaker Henry Jaglom had over lunches with Orson when Orson was much older and not a "marketable" director in Hollywood anymore. They were recorded and then transcribed You get an excellent sense of Orson as an individual and his struggle to get subsequent projects developed after Kane. Depressing and hilarious at times but full of very interesting Hollywood anecdotes.

Viltrox has a monitor that's $450 with a waveform. HDMI and HD-SDI with loop through. Doesn't cross convert though. Supposedly handles 4k with no trouble. I have one of their 1080p monitors that I got for $150 as a super cheap directors monitor. It's not the best for color but it shows the frame accurately and I don't care if it gets dropped or broken. But yeah, adding a waveform does add cost. I think they are probably identical to feelworld. Menus look the same.

These are some items I might consider if I was putting a studio together; As a time saver, I'd include a subgrid that can be raised and lowered for when you're doing tabletop. Some studios, install a large mirror into the grid so you can shoot overheads easily by shooting up into the mirror as opposed to rigging a camera up there.. As for the units, you would probably want all LED's with DMX controls so you can change color at will via an app on your Ipad. This is all stuff that would live in the ceiling. For ground units, I'd go with the lights and frames and whatnot suggested above. Kinos, Celebflos or Skypanels or L10's Mixing old and new is good for studios that may want to rent their space out to other productions. Personally, I love when a studio has empty 4x4 frames and lots of rolls of diff I can choose to put on them. Sadly not a given anymore in a lot of places.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbiiik_T3Bo

You could probably find used Scandles really cheap too. They are Lowell's daylight flourescent version of the Rifa light. Way better as they don't get super hot to the touch the way Rifas will.

Seeing the track is one reason most of those shots are done from low angles and cropped in a 2:35 mode. You could try using a Kira...http://motorizedprecision.com/ It's great for precise repeatable moves that you can time to music.