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

Thanks! I have reposted here a condensation of a thread on the alternative to using large tow plants to power large HMIs (the original thread can be found in its entirety here.) One of the biggest hurdles to obtaining good production values in low budget digital cinema productions is the high cost of the blimped studio generators required to power large HMIs. Not only are blimped generators expensive to rent, but they also come with hidden costs. Since rental trucks like those from Ryder