Music Video Production

Music Video Production

By Tips/Techniques

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 want it to look like a concert setting for some of it, now we’re talking about staging and lighting and potentially hundreds of extras.  (Like in this music video from “Rising Stars”)   Production Value Matters Or it’s a concept video, with a variety of locations and actors.  So…

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OnSite Editing

On Site Editing

By Tips/Techniques

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 that night. In 2000, it had become even more simple.  I took a laptop to a clients event and ingested the tape footage and played back a video– all as a one man crew. On Site Video…

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Serendipitous Films

Screenfighting Workshop – Saving Time on the Set

By Seminars

(We’ve got a workshop for screenfighting coming March 24-25.  Register at the SFilms Store). Experienced & Trained Actors Save Time & Money Early in my directing career, I was casting a day player speaking role on one of my films.  I auditioned the part with some sides that included her lines.  I looked at whether she could pull off the part as an actor.  But I made a mistake.  On the day of the shoot, it was required that she get roughed up a bit– not really a stunt situation– but needed to move a bit and the actor I cast was extremely stiff.  It showed.  It was not pretty. The lesson I took moving forward was not to be so tunneled-vision in the audition. If the part requires the person to take a punch, I might want to see how…

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Movement Towards Realism in Acting – Weapons

By Seminars

This is one of the topics we’ll cover in the Screenfighting Workshop on March 24-25.  This material will be covered in class 1 on Feb 18 “Weapons 1.”  If you want to register, go to the store. Bad Guys From Above The Hollywood cliche of the cop turning the corner with the pistol pointed up in the air is disappearing.  The “tea-cup” grip is rightfully becoming rare.  Not as rare are the bottomless magazines, but many filmmakers are spending more time to make their weapons sequence more closely resemble real life.  The Hollywood types are hiring real life consultants to make sure it’s done the way it really would be done. Real Law Enforcement officers and military don’t point their weapon in the air unless there’s a threat from up there.  Why?  Because it has been proven (many years ago)…

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Weapons Master Doug Williams talks about Pistols

Screenfighting Workshop

By Seminars

Hands-on Screenfighting Workshop! On March 24-25, the Screenfighting Workshop will take place at S Films in the Studios121 building, 6125 Airport Freeway, Haltom City, TX.  To register, go to the store.  There are four classes at $49 each or take all four for $155.  If you take the special effects class, you can add a squib for $35 (this is where we’ll place a squib on you and you’ll experience what a bullet hit on screen is like). Saturday, March 24 Weapons 1 – Doug Williams Instructor – 8:30 to 12 noon In this class, basic handling of pistols will be covered, with emphasis on the Law Enforcement techniques.  You will have hands-on experience with real weapons and will learn firearm safety, set etiquette with firearms, how to properly carry, present and fire the pistol.  The goal if this class is to…

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Screenfighting Instructors

Meet Screenfighting Instructor Steve Krieger

By Seminars

He blows things up for a living. And he floods things, sets things on fire and smokes things.  If you need a gag on camera, you call Steve.  Steve has been a stuntman.  He is an actor.  But his day job is Special Effects Coordinator. Some of Steve’s SFX credits include: Necessary Roughness, Bonnie & Clyde, Captain Ron, A Promise Kept, A Killer Within, Living and Dying, and work on shows like Walker, Texas Ranger and Wishbone. The way it works is that Steve is sent the script and he goes through it, tagging what might be on-camera special effects (different than computerized “visual effects”).  If the script reads “it explodes” or “his body is riddled from the bullet hits,” Steve takes note and starts preparing. In one of the Serendipitous Film’s movie (“Striking Range” with Lou Diamond Phillips), Steve…

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Screenfighting Series Instructor

Meet Screenfighting Series Instructor Doug Williams

By Seminars

This is our series on Screenfighting, taking place in Dallas-Fort Worth on March 24-25.  Cost is $49 per class (four classes total, with a discount if you sign up for all four). For registration, go to http://s-films.com/store .  Space is very limited. Doug Williams Doug will be teaching on Saturday March 24, both classes.  He will be teaching weapons basics in the morning.  This involves safety on the set, difference between military and law enforcement regarding weapons use, and handling of hand guns.  This is a hands-on workshop, so you’ll be handling real weapons (please do not bring your own or have any live ammo on premises). In the afternoon, for Weapons 2 Intermediate, Doug will teach about rifles and how they’re used and carried.  If time allows, we’ll workshop movement as individuals and teams. Doug has trained at some…

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Learning to fight for the camera

Screenfighting Workshop is Back!

By Seminars

The most feedback we’ve ever gotten with the seminars and workshops has been for the screenfighting one.  So we’ve scheduled a full weekend course for the Screenfighting Series.  Coming Feb 18-19, time to get your fight on and come on down to the Studios121 for some workshopping.  Class size will be limited (we had too many the first time), so it’s first come first serve. Weapons for Actors Police officers do not hide behind the corner pointing their pistols up into the air… that’s not where the bad guys are.  They don’t have a tea-cup hold on the gun either.  Unless they’re idiots.  In today’s television and film, the quest for authenticity is in full gear.  And if you look like you know what you’re doing in that audition for the law enforcement character or the military character, you’ve got…

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actor auditions rising stars

Credits on your Actor Headshot Resume

By Seminars

Director to Actor I like to address the most common questions I get in the seminars and workshops.  This past Saturday, we had the Acting: A Director’s POV Child/Teen acting class, and while talking about the headshot and resume, I had a couple of recurring questions.  If you find this useful, please feel free to retweet or facebook forward this page. Extra Work Do I post all the extra work I’ve done or should I leave it off?  Does this turn off a director? Generally speaking, when I flip over the headshot to look at the resume and it’s chock full of extra listings, I mentally downgrade you at that point.  You haven’t been able to land any real roles.  And I know it’s the easiest thing in the world to be an extra on a film.  So as a…

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Mixing Color in Lighting– An Example

By Tips/Techniques

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 a rare case where the subject is standing rather sitting.  It’s preferable to sit because a person tends to shift and sway.  It’s also why it’s best not to put them in a swivel chair if seated.  I chose this location for the lines– I really liked the long throw which added to the depth of…

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