Tips/Techniques
Here we discuss different tips and techniques for your Corporate video, commercial and feature film. Feel free to search for topics that interest you.
Editing the Corporate or Documentary-style Interview
Telling the Corporate Story Many corporate videos today are built around the interview. Clients, employees, spokespeople are recorded talking about the product or service. It’s a quick and effective way to tell your corporate story. This usually involves the video production of shooting an interview (discussed Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3). What we’re discussing today is the mechanics behind the editing of the corporate interview. How We Shoot Interviews in Dallas First, we like to shoot interviews with two cameras. Lately,...
read moreHow To Start A Feature Film
First Steps to Making Your Own Feature Film How do I get started? One of the questions I get asked by new filmmakers is exactly how to get started. They want to know what their next step is. Here is an extremely practical, where the rubber meets the road answer to that question. What’s my First Step towards making my feature film? I usually start the answer by asking a couple of clarifying questions. Do you have a screenplay written? (If no, then that’s your next step). It doesn’t have to be polished and locked for...
read moreMusic Video Production
I Want a Music Video Shot One of the services we provide is music video production. Artists will contact us looking for production services. The problem comes in trying to determine a quick cost estimate, because music videos can cost as little or as much as you want, depending on how much production value you want. It’s like asking… How long is a piece of string? Well it depends. For music videos, how many locations? How many days of shooting will be required? What about other performers? Dancers, extras? If you...
read moreOn Site Editing
Old Days of Onsite Video Editing I remember in 1997, we offered our big client the ability to do live onsite editing for playback right then at their closing event in the hotel ballroom. Sure, we had done some betacam editing, linear style in a few rare instances, but this time, we’d be playing back on our relatively new non-linear editing computer. We had a crew of 8 or so and felt we could do it. It was scary– the computer had a propensity to crash or to fail and we would not have time to output to tape. But it all worked...
read moreMixing Color in Lighting– An Example
Lighting For Video and Film Production A Study In this picture, it’s a simple, standing interview. A first glance, it might seem like it’s what we call “news style” interviewing. This technique is where you catch somebody in their environment, maybe a single light coming from atop the camera. This technique is used for quick, “man on the street” type interviews where you need it and don’t have time to light it. But this is actually more the “documentary style” lighting. And this is...
read moreLighting Color Temperature
A Primer on Light Color Temperature for Film and Video In film and video production, a common mistake for amateurs is to ignore the color temperatures of various light sources. I had a filmmaker show me his film, asking for input. The opening scene was a night time exterior with one instrument and shot wide. The next was a daytime scene shot inside the back seat of a car. The director of photography lit them with an incandescent. The result was a very yellow look. Light is not necessarily “white.” Light changes color...
read moreChildren & Teen Actors
As a working film director, I’ve had lots of opportunities to work with children and teen actors. And it seems to me that most of the training is actor to actor– so here’s some information to children and teen actors and their parents from a director to actor. I’ll be teaching a class in Fort Worth on January 21 on this subject. You can register at the store. There’s a morning session and an afternoon– you just need to pick one– they’re identical. First of all, the child actor needs to...
read moreBBB Spam Email
The spammers/virus spreaders/frauders keep getting better. I *almost* clicked on the newest one yesterday. I had an email from the Better Business Bureau telling me I had a customer complaint. I didn’t click and here’s why. If I get an email that reads a non-personal “dear valued customer” or “to business owner” a flag gets raised immediately. If the BBB has a complaint against me, they know my name. Same goes with all these spam/virus emails. And as always, remember, do not click anything...
read moreAudition Tips from a Working Film Director
In addition to our corporate video productions we do in the Dallas, Fort Worth area, SFilms has made five feature films over the years starring Adam Baldwin, Mimi Rogers, Lou Diamond Phillips and others. In today’s post, we talk to actors about quick tips to instantly impact their auditions and give a better chance for landing that role. The Dilemma for Local Actors When I was casting for Rising Stars in New York City, the producer that hired me (as well as most producers in LA and NYC) had a bias against local actors. They were...
read moreHow to Land Name Actors for Your Film
So you want to make a feature film. You might have even heard that the biggest factor, bar none, for the distribution success of your movie is to cast name actors. But how do you do it? The Name Actor’s 4 Factors First, you need to know the four factors that weigh in a name actor’s decision to be in your movie. A director they want to work with A script they want to do A producer or producing team they can trust The money I’ve had people go into this process thinking that they can land anyone for a price and it’s...
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