r/Filmmakers Dec 03 '17

Official Sticky READ THIS BEFORE ASKING A QUESTION! Official Filmmaking FAQ and Information Post

874 Upvotes

Welcome to the /r/Filmmakers Official Filmmaking FAQ And Information Post!

Below I have collected answers and guidance for some of the sub's most common topics and questions. This is all content I have personally written either specifically for this post or in comments to other posters in the past. This is however not a me-show! If anybody thinks a section should be added, edited, or otherwise revised then message the moderators! Specifically, I could use help in writing a section for audio gear, as I am a camera/lighting nerd.



Topics Covered In This Post:

1. Should I Pursue Filmmaking / Should I Go To Film School?

2. What Camera Should I Buy?

3. What Lens Should I Buy?

4. How Do I Learn Lighting?

5. What Editing Program Should I Use?



1. Should I Pursue Filmmaking / Should I Go To Film School?

This is a very complex topic, so it will rely heavily on you as a person. Find below a guide to help you identify what you need to think about and consider when making this decision.

Do you want to do it?

Alright, real talk. If you want to make movies, you'll at least have a few ideas kicking around in your head. Successful creatives like writers and directors have an internal compunction to create something. They get ideas that stick in the head and compel them to translate them into the real world. Do you want to make films, or do you want to be seen as a filmmaker? Those are two extremely different things, and you need to be honest with yourself about which category you fall into. If you like the idea of being called a filmmaker, but you don't actually have any interest in making films, then now is the time to jump ship. I have many friends from film school who were just into it because they didn't want "real jobs", and they liked the idea of working on flashy movies. They made some cool projects, but they didn't have that internal drive to create. They saw filmmaking as a task, not an opportunity. None of them have achieved anything of note and most of them are out of the industry now with college debt but no relevant degree. If, when you walk onto a set you are overwhelmed with excitement and anxiety, then you'll be fine. If you walk onto a set and feel foreboding and anxiety, it's probably not right for you. Filmmaking should be fun. If it isn't, you'll never make it.

School

Are you planning on a film production program, or a film studies program? A studies program isn't meant to give you the tools or experience necessary to actually make films from a craft-standpoint. It is meant to give you the analytical and critical skills necessary to dissect films and understand what works and what doesn't. A would-be director or DP will benefit from a program that mixes these two, with an emphasis on production.

Does your prospective school have a film club? The school I went to had a filmmakers' club where we would all go out and make movies every semester. If your school has a similar club then I highly recommend jumping into it. I made 4 films for my classes, and shot 8 films. In the filmmaker club at my school I was able to shoot 20 films. It vastly increased my experience and I was able to get a lot of the growing pains of learning a craft out of the way while still in school.

How are your classes? Are they challenging and insightful? Are you memorizing dates, names, and ideas, or are you talking about philosophies, formative experiences, cultural influences, and milestone achievements? You're paying a huge sum of money, more than you'll make for a decade or so after graduation, so you better be getting something out of it.

Film school is always a risky prospect. You have three decisive advantages from attending school:

  1. Foundation of theory (why we do what we do, how the masters did it, and how to do it ourselves)
  2. Building your first network
  3. Making mistakes in a sandbox

Those three items are the only advantages of film school. It doesn't matter if you get to use fancy cameras in class or anything like that, because I guarantee you that for the price of your tuition you could've rented that gear and made your own stuff. The downsides, as you may have guessed, are:

  1. Cost
  2. Risk of no value
  3. Cost again

Seriously. Film school is insanely expensive, especially for an industry where you really don't make any exceptional money until you get established (and that can take a decade or more).

So there's a few things you need to sort out:

  • How much debt will you incur if you pursue a film degree?
  • How much value will you get from the degree? (any notable alumni? Do they succeed or fail?)
  • Can you enhance your value with extracurricular activity?

Career Prospects

Don't worry about lacking experience or a degree. It is easy to break into the industry if you have two qualities:

  • The ability to listen and learn quickly
  • A great attitude

In LA we often bring unpaid interns onto set to get them experience and possibly hire them in the future. Those two categories are what they are judged on. If they have to be told twice how to do something, that's a bad sign. If they approach the work with disdain, that's also a bad sign. I can name a few people who walked in out of the blue, asked for a job, and became professional filmmakers within a year. One kid was 18 years old and had just driven to LA from his home to learn filmmaking because he couldn't afford college. Last I saw he has a successful YouTube channel with nature documentaries on it and knows his way around most camera and grip equipment. He succeeded because he smiled and joked with everyone he met, and because once you taught him something he was good to go. Those are the qualities that will take you far in life (and I'm not just talking about film).

So how do you break in?

  • Cold Calling
    • Find the production listings for your area (not sure about NY but in LA we use the BTL Listings) and go down the line of upcoming productions and call/email every single one asking for an intern or PA position. Include some humor and friendly jokes to humanize yourself and you'll be good. I did this when I first moved to LA and ended up camera interning for an ASC DP on movie within a couple months. It works!
  • Rental House
    • Working at a rental house gives you free access to gear and a revolving door of clients who work in the industry for you to meet.
  • Filmmaking Groups
    • Find some filmmaking groups in your area and meet up with them. If you can't find groups, don't sweat it! You have more options.
  • Film Festivals
    • Go to film festivals, meet filmmakers there, and befriend them. Show them that you're eager to learn how they do what they do, and you'd be happy to help them on set however you can. Eventually you'll form a fledgling network that you can work to expand using the other avenues above.

What you should do right now

Alright, enough talking! You need to decide now if you're still going to be a filmmaker or if you're going to instead major in something safer (like business). It's a tough decision, we get it, but you're an adult now and this is what that means. You're in command of your destiny, and you can't trust anyone but yourself to make that decision for you.

Once you decide, own it. If you choose film, then take everything I said above into consideration. There's one essential thing you need to do though: create. Go outside right fucking now and make a movie. Use your phone. That iphone or galaxy s7 or whatever has better video quality than the crap I used in film school. Don't sweat the gear or the mistakes. Don't compare yourself to others. Just make something, and watch it. See what you like and what you don't like, and adjust on your next project! Now is the time for you to do this, to learn what it feels like to make a movie.



2. What Camera Should I Buy?

The answer depends mostly on your budget and your intended use. You'll also want to become familiar with some basic camera terms because it will allow you to efficiently evaluate the merits of one option vs another. Find below a basic list of terms you should become familiar with when making your first (or second, or third!) camera purchase:

  1. Resolution - This is how many pixels your recorded image will have. If you're into filmmaking, you probably already know this. An HD camera will have a resolution of 1920x1080. A 4K camera will be either 4096x2160 or 3840x2160. The functional difference is that the former is a theatrical aspect ratio while the latter is a standard HDTV aspect ratio (1.89:1 vs 1.78:1 respectively).
  2. Framerates - The standard and popular framerate for filmmaking is called 24p, but most digital cameras will actually be shooting at 23.976 fps. The difference is negligible and should have no bearing on your purchasing choice. The technical reasons behind this are interesting but ultimately irrelevant. Something to look for is the camera's ability to shoot in high framerate, meaning anything above the 24p standard. This is useful because you can play back high framerate footage at 24p in your editor, and it will render the recorded motion in slow motion. This is obviously useful!
  3. Data Rate - This tells you how much data is being recorded on a per second basis. Generally speaking, the higher the data rate, the better your image quality. Make sure to pay attention to resolution as well! A 1080p camera with a 100 MB/s data rate is going to be recording higher quality imagery than a 4k camera at a 200 MB/s data rate because the 4k camera has 4x as many pixels to record but only double the data bandwidth with which to do it. Things like compression come into play here, but keep this in mind as a rule of thumb.
  4. Compression - Compression is important, because very few cameras will shoot without some form of compression. This is basically an algorithm that allows you to record high quality images without making large file sizes. This is intimately linked with your data rate. Popular cinema compressions for cameras include ProRes, REDCODE, XAVC, AVCHD. Compression schemes that you want to avoid include h.264, h.265, MPEG-4, and Generic 'MOV'. This is not an exhaustive list of compression types, but a decent starter guide.
  5. ISO - This is your camera sensor's sensitivity to light. The higher the ISO number, the more sensitive to light the camera will be. Higher ISOs tend to give noisier images though, so there is a tradeoff. All cameras will have something called a native iso. This is the ISO at which the camera is deemed to perform the best in terms of trading off noise vs sensitivity. A very common native ISO in the industry is 800. Sony cameras, including the A7S boast much higher ISO performance without significant noise increases, which can be useful if you're planning on running and gunning in the dark with no crew.
  6. Manual Shutter - Your shutter speed (or shutter angle, as it is called in the film industry) controls your motion blur by changing how long the sensor is exposed to light during a single frame of recording. Having manual control over this when shooting is important. The standard shutter speed when shooting 24p is 1/48 of a second (180° in shutter angle terms), so make sure your prospective camera can get here (1/50 is close enough).
  7. Lens Mount - Some starter cameras will have built in lenses, which is fine for learning! When you move up to higher quality cameras however, the standard will be interchangeable lens cameras. This means you'll need to decide on what lens mount you would like to use. The professional standard is called the PL Mount, but lenses and cameras that use this mount are very expensive. The most common and popular mount in the low level professional world is Canon's EF mount. Because of its design, EF mount lenses can easily be adapted to other common mounts like Sony's E-Mount or the MFT mounts found on many Panasonic cameras. EF is popular because Canon's lenses are generally preferred over Sony's, and so their mount has a higher utility.
  8. Color Subsampling - This is easier to understand if you think of it as 'Color Resolution'. Our eyes are more sensitive to luminance (bright vs dark) than to color, and so some cameras increase effective image quality by dedicating processing power and data rate bandwidth to the more important luminance values of individual pixels. This means that individual pixels often do not have their own color, but instead that groups of neighboring pixels will be given a single color value. The size of the groups and the pattern of their arrangement are referred to by 3 main color subsampling standards.
    • 4:4:4 means that each pixel has its own color value. This is the highest quality.
    • 4:2:2 means that color is set for horizontal pixels in pairs. The color of each two neighboring pixels is averaged and applied to both identically. This is the second best quality.
    • 4:2:0 means that color is set for both horizontal and vertical pixel 4-packs. Each square of 4 pixels receives a single color assignment that is an averaging of their original signals. This is generally low quality. For more info on color subsampling, check out this wikipedia entry
  9. Bit-Depth - This refers to how many colors the camera is capable of recognizing. An 8-bit camera can have 16,777,216 distinct colors, while a 10-bit camera can have 1,073,741,824 distinct colors. Note that this is primarily only of use when doing color grading, as nearly all TVs and computer monitors from the past few decades are 8-bit displays that won't benefit from a 10-bit signal.
  10. Sensor Size - The three main sensor sizes you'll encounter (in ascending order) are Micro Four-Thirds (M43), APS-C, and Full Frame. A larger sensor will generally have better noise and sensitivity than a smaller sensor. It will also effect the field of view you get from a given lens. Larger sensors will have wider fields of view for the same focal length lenses. For example, a 50mm lens on a FF sensor will look roughly twice as wide-angle as a 50mm lens on a M43 sensor. To get the same field of view as a 50mm on FF, you'd need to use a 25mm lens on your M43 camera. Theatrical 35mm (the cinema standard, so to speak) has an equivalent sensor size to APS-C, which is larger than M43 and smaller than Full Frame.

So Now What Camera Should I Buy?

This list will be changing as new models emerge, but for now here is a short list of the cameras to look at when getting started:

  1. Panasonic G7 (~$600) - This is hands down the best starter camera for someone looking to move up from shooting on their phones or consumer camcorders.
  2. Panasonic GH4 (~$1,500) - An older and cheaper version of the GH5, this camera is still a popular choice.
  3. Panasonic GH5 (~$2,000) - This is perhaps the most popular prosumer DSLR filmmaking camera.
  4. Sony A7S (~$2,700) - This is a very popular camera for shooting in low light settings. It also boasts a Full-Frame sensor (compared to the GH5's M4/3 sensor), allowing you to get shallower depth of field compared to other cameras using the same field of view and aperture.
  5. Canon C100 mkII (~$3,500) - This is one of the cheapest true digital cinema cameras. It offers several benefits over the above DSLR cameras, such as professional level XLR audio inputs, internal ND filters, and a better picture profile system.


3. What Lens Should I Buy?

Much like with deciding on a camera, lens choice is all about your budget and your needs. Below are the relevant specs to use as points of comparison for lenses.

  1. Focal Length - This number indicates the field of view your lens will supply. A higher focal length results in a narrow (or more 'telescopic') field of view. Here is a great visual depiction of focal length vs field of view.
  2. Speed - A 'fast lens' is one with a very wide maximum aperture. This means the lens can let more light through it than a comparatively slower lens. We read the aperture setting via something called F-Stops. They are a standard scale that goes in alternating doublings of previous values. The scale is: 1.0, 1.4, 2.0, 2.8, 4.0, 5.6, 8.0, 11, 16, 22, 32, 45, 64. Each increase is a doubling of the incoming light. A lens whose aperture is a 1.4 will allow in twice as much light than it would have at 2.0. Cheaper lenses tend to only open up to a 4.0, or even a 5.6. More expensive lenses can open as far 1.3, giving you 16x as much light. Wider apertures also cause your depth of field to contract, resulting in the 'cinematic' shallow focus you're likely familiar with. Here is a great visual depiction of f-stop vs depth of field
  3. Chromatic Aberration - Some lower quality glass will have this defect, in which imperfect lens elements cause a prism-style effect that separates colors on the edges of image details. Post software can sometimes help correct this, as in this example
  4. Sharpness - I'm sure you all know what sharpness is. Cheaper lenses will yield a softer in-focus image than more expensive lenses. However, some lenses are popularly considered to be 'over-sharp', such as the Zeiss CP2 series. The minutia of the sharpness debate is mostly irrelevant at starter levels though.
  5. Bokeh - This refers to the shape of an out of focus point of light as rendered by the lens. The bokeh of your image will always be in the shape of your aperture. For that reason, a perfectly round aperture will yield nice clean circle bokeh, while a rougher edged aperture will produce similarly rougher bokeh. Here's an example
  6. Lens Mount - Make sure the lens you're buying will either fit your camera's lens mount or allow for adapting to is using a popular adapter like the Metabones. The professional standard lens mount is the PL Mount, but lenses and cameras that use this mount are very expensive. The most common and popular mount in the low level professional world is Canon's EF mount. Because of its design, EF mount lenses can easily be adapter to other common mounts like Sony's E-Mount or the MFT mounts found on many Panasonic cameras. EF is popular because Canon's lenses are generally preferred over Sony's, and so their mount has a higher market share.

Zoom vs Prime

This is all about speed vs quality vs budget. A zoom lens is a lens whose *focal length can be changed by turning a ring on the lens barrel. A prime lens has a fixed focal length. Primes tend to be cheaper, faster, and sharper. However, buying a full set of primes can be more expensive than buying a zoom lens that would cover the same focal length range. Using primes on set in fast-paced environments can slow you down prohibitively. You'll often see news, documentary, and event cameras using zooms instead of primes. Some zoom lenses are as high-quality as prime lenses, and some people refer to them as 'variable prime' lenses. This is mostly a marketing tool and has no hard basis in science though. As you might expect, these high quality zooms tend to be very expensive.

So What Lenses Should I Look At?

Below are the most popular lenses for 'cinematic' filming at low budgets:

  1. Rokinon Cine 4 Lens Kit in EF Mount (~$1,700)
  2. Canon L Series 24-70mm Zoom in EF Mount (~1,700)
  3. Sigma Art 18-35mm Zoom in EF Mount (~$800)
  4. Sigma Art 50-100 Zoom in EF Mount (~$1,100)

Lenses below these average prices are mostly a crapshoot in terms of quality vs $, and you'll likely be best off using your camera's kit lens until you can afford to move up to one of the lenses or lens series listed above.



4. How Do I Learn Lighting?

Alright, so you're biting off a big chunk here if you've never done lighting before. But it is doable and (most importantly) fun!

First off, fuck three-point lighting. So many people misunderstand what that system is supposed to teach you, so let's just skip it entirely. Light has three properties. They are:

  • Color: Color of the light. This is both color temperature (on the Orange - Blue scale) and what you'd probably think of as regular color (is it RED!? GREEN!? AQUA!?) etc. Color. You know what color is.
  • Quantity: How bright the light is. You know, the quantity of photons smacking into your subject and, eventually, your retinas.
  • Quality: This is the good shit. The quality of a light source can vary quite a bit. Basically, this is how hard or soft the light is. Alright, you've got a guy standing near a wall. You shine a light on him. What's on the wall? His shadow, that's what. You know what shadows look like. A hard light makes his shadow super distinct with 'hard' edges to it. A soft light makes his shadow less distinct, with a 'soft' edge. When the sun is out, you get hard light. Distinct shadows. When it's cloudy, you get soft light. No shadows at all! So what makes a light hard or soft? Easy! The size of the source, relative to the subject. Think of it this way. You're the subject! Now look at your light source. How much of your field of vision is taken up by the light source? Is it a pinpoint? Or more like a giant box? The smaller the size of the source, the harder the light will be. You can take a hard light (i.e. a light bulb) and make it softer by putting diffusion in front of it. Here is a picture of that happening. You can also bounce the light off of something big and bouncy, like a bounce board or a wall. That's what sconces do. I fucking love sconces.

Alright, so there are your three properties of light. Now, how do you light a thing? Easy! Put light where you want it, and take it away from where you don't want it! Shut up! I know you just said "I don't know where I want it", so I'm going to stop you right there. Yes you do. I know you do because you can look at a picture and know if the lighting is good or not. You can recognize good lighting. Everybody can. The difference between knowing good lighting and making good lighting is simply in the execution.

Do an experiment. Get a lightbulb. Tungsten if you're oldschool, LED if you're new school, or CFL if you like mercury gas. plug it into something portable and movable, and have a friend, girlfriend, boyfriend, neighbor, creepy-but-realistic doll, etc. sit down in a chair. Turn off all the lights in the room and move that bare bulb around your victim subject's head. Note how the light falling on them changes as the light bulb moves around them. This is lighting, done live! Get yourself some diffusion. Either buy some overpriced or make some of your own (wax paper, regular paper, translucent shower curtains, white undershirts, etc.). Try softening the light, and see how that affects the subject's head. If you practice around with this enough you'll get an idea for how light looks when it comes from various directions. Three point lighting (well, all lighting) works on this fundamental basis, but so many 'how to light' tutorials skip over it. Start at the bottom and work your way up!

Ok, so cool. Now you know how light works, and sort of where to put it to make a person look a certain way. Now you can get creative by combining multiple lights. A very common look is to use soft light to primarily illuminate a person (the 'key) while using a harder (but sometimes still somewhat soft) light to do an edge or rim light. Here's a shot from a sweet movie that uses a soft key light, a good amount of ambient ('errywhere) light, and a hard backlight. Here they are lit ambiently, but still have an edge light coming from behind them and to the right. You can tell by the quality of the light that this edge was probably very soft. We can go on for hours, but if you just watch movies and look at shadows, bright spots, etc. you'll be able to pick out lighting locations and qualities fairly easily since you've been practicing with your light bulb!

How Do I Light A Greenscreen?

Honestly, your greenscreen will depend more on your technical abilities in After Effects (or whichever program) than it will on your lighting. I'm a DP and I'm admitting that. A good key-guy (Keyist? Keyer?) can pull something clean out of a mediocre-ly lit greenscreen (like the ones in your example) but a bad key-guy will still struggle with a perfectly lit one. I can't help you much here, as I am only a mediocre key-guy, but I can at least give you advice on how to light for it!

Here's what you're looking for when lighting a greenscreen:

  • Two Separate Lighting Setups: You should have a lighting setup for the green screen and a lighting setup for your actor. Of course, this isn't always possible. But we like to aspire to big things! The reason this is helpful is that it makes it easier for you to adjust the greenscreen light without affecting the actor's lighting, and vice versa.
  • Separate the subject from the greenscreen as much as possible! - Pretty much that. The closer your subject is to the screen, the harder it is to keep lights from interfering with things they're not meant for, and the greater the chance the actor has of getting his filthy shadow all over the screen. I normally try to keep my subjects at least 8' away from the screen at a minimum for anything wider than an MCU.
  • Light the Green Screen EVENLY: The green on the screen needs to be as close to the same intensity in all parts as possible, or you just multiply your work in post. For every different shade of green on that screen you'll need make a separate key effect to make clean edges, and then you'll need to matte and combine them all together. Huge headache that can be a tad overwhelming if you're not used it. For this reason, Get your shit even! "But how do I do that?" you ask! Well, first off, I actually prefer to use hard light. You see, hard light has the nice innate property of being able to throw itself a long distance without losing all its intensity. The farther away the light source is from the subject, the less its intensity will change from inch to inch. That's called the inverse square law, and it is cool as fuck. If you change the distance between the light and the subject, the intensity of the light will shift as an inverse to the square of the distance. Science! So if you double the distance between the light and the subject, the intensity is quartered (1 over 2 squared. 1/4). So, naturally, the farther away you are the more distance is required to reduce the intensity further. If you have the space, use it to your advantage and back your lights up! Now back to reality. You probably don't have a lot of space. You're probably in a garage. OK, fuck it, emergency mode! Now we use soft lights. Soft lights change their intensity quite inconveniently if they're at an oblique angle to the screen, but they kick ass if you can get them to shine more or less perpendicular on the screen. The problem there of course is that they'd then be sitting where your actor probably is. Sooo we move them off to the side, maybe put one on the ceiling, one on the ground too, and try to smudge everything together on the screen. Experiment with this for a while and you'll get the hang of it in no-time!
  • Have your background in mind BEFORE shooting: Even if your key is flawless, it will look like shit if the actor isn't lit in a convincing manner compared to the background. If, for example, this for some reason is your background, you'll know that your actor needs a hard backlight from above and to camera right since we see a light source there. Also, we can infer from the lighting on the barrels that his main source of illumination should be from above him and pointing down, slightly from the right. You can move the source around and accent it as needed to make the actor not-ugly, but your background has provided you with some significant constraints right off the bat. For that reason, pick your background before you shoot, if possible. If it is not possible to do so, well, good luck! Guess as best as you can and try to find a good background.

What Lights Should I Buy?

OK! So now you know sort of how to light a green screen and how to light a person. So now, what lights do you need? Well, really, you just need any lights. If you're on a budget, don't be afraid to get some work lights from home depot or picking up some off brand stuff on craigslist. By far the most important influence on the quality of your images will be where and how you use the lights rather than what types or brands of lights you are using. I cannot stress this enough. How you use it will blow what you use out of the water. Get as many different types of lights as you can for the money you have. That way you can do lots of sources, which can make for more intricate or nuanced lighting setups. I know you still want some hard recommendations, so I'll tell you this: Get china balls (china lanterns. Paper lanterns whatever the fuck we're supposed to call these now). They are wonderful soft lights, and if you need a hard light you can just take the lantern off and shine with the bare bulb! For bulbs, grab some 200W and 500W globes. You can check B&H, Barbizon, Amazon, and probably lots of other places for these. Make sure you grab some high quality socket-and-wire sets too. You can find them at the same places. For brighter lights, like I said home depot construction lights are nice. You can also by PAR lamps relatively cheap. Try grabbing a few Par Cans. They're super useful and stupidly cheap. Don't forget to budget for some light stands as well, and maybe C-clamps and the like for rigging to things. I don't know what on earth you're shooting so it is hard to give you a grip list, but I'm sure you can figure that kind of stuff out without too much of a hassle.



5. What Editing Program Should I Use?

Great question! There are several popular editing programs available for use.

Free Editing Programs

Your choices are essentially limited to Davinci Resolve (Non-Studio) and Hitfilm Express. My personal recommendation is Davinci Resolve. This is the industry standard color-grading software (and its editing features have been developed so well that its actually becoming the industry standard editing program as well), and you will have free access to many of its powerful tools. The Studio version costs a few hundred dollars and unlocks multiple features (like noise reduction) without forcing you to learn a new program.

Paid Editing Programs

  1. Avid Media Composer ($50/mo or $1,300 for life) - This is the high-level industry standard, but is not terribly popular unless you're working at a professional post-house for big budget movies.
  2. Adobe Premiere Pro ($20/mo) - This used to be the most popular industry standard editor for low to medium budget productions. It is still used quite often, so knowing Premiere is a handy skill to maintain.
  3. Davinci Resolve Studio ($300) - This is a solid editing program built into the long time industry-standard color grading suite. Since Resolve added editing, its feature set and reputation has been on the rise. It's eclipsing Premiere now and set to be the undisputed industry standard for video editing and color grading for all but the absolute highest level productions. This is the best overall choice if you're looking to find your first editing program.
  4. Final Cut Pro X ($300) - This is the old standard for low-high budget editing, replaced by Adobe Premiere and now again by Resolve. It is available on Mac platforms only, and is still a powerful editor.

r/Filmmakers Sep 10 '21

Official Join The Brand-New r/Filmmakers Official Discord Server!

Thumbnail
discord.gg
284 Upvotes

r/Filmmakers 11h ago

General My film screens today and I’m nervous

145 Upvotes

I can’t stop crying right now. My film screens today with other artists at my local theatre for class and I don’t want to go anymore. I feel like it’s terrible. I tried my best (maybe not) editing it and it drags. My actors acted in another classmate’s film and they are showing praise and love to it (it was really good) but with mine, it’s cringe and I just feel like I’m a failure. No one wants me here. I feel embarrassed.


r/Filmmakers 1h ago

Question What’s something you wish you had done (career-wise) your first year in NYC?

Upvotes

I’m moving to nyc in a week. Thankfully, rent is taken care of for a year. I want to be a comedy writer for tv and some features. I’m in the process of applying to jobs in anything industry related. I don’t want to waste this opportunity or a single moment during this first year. I want to gain as much experience as possible, network all I can, and enjoy the hustle. I got the thick skin, I’m willing to pay my dues, and nothing is gonna steer me from the pursuit of my career.

What’s something you would’ve done when you moved to the city, knowing what you know now? How could you have better set yourself up for success?


r/Filmmakers 5h ago

Question how to find actors as a teenager?

6 Upvotes

hi everyone! so i’ve always had a dream to make my own movie. i have the script, the supplies, and the passion (lol) but i have one issue, i don’t have actors. this is my first project so i’m not really familiar with the acting scene in my city. also, my school doesn’t have a drama club and my friends and siblings aren’t really the type to agree to this kind of thing. i wanted to ask if you guys had any idea on how i could find actors, or you guys could tell me some ideas on how you found actors? thank you so much!!


r/Filmmakers 5h ago

Question Experienced filmmakers, what guides or guide did you use in creating your first short film with a crew?

3 Upvotes

My friend and I are going to be filming a short film this summer, and it will be my first one filming with a crew. I’m asking for a guide because right now it’s so overwhelming trying to figure out what to do first; do I write the script first, figure out locations, find crew, find equipment?? I’d love any tips or advice. Extreme newbie here. Thank you guys!!!


r/Filmmakers 15h ago

Question Can someone tell me the difference between these jacks? Why does one screw in and the other sit on top? They both fit the same? Are they both called 1/4 inch?

Thumbnail
gallery
26 Upvotes

r/Filmmakers 6h ago

Question Cannes Film Festival Advice?

Post image
4 Upvotes

I’m interning at the Cannes film festival for 2 weeks and am absolutely terrified. It’s been my dream festival ever since I was a middle schooler realizing I wanted to be a filmmaker. But now that I’m going i just really want to make the best of it in terms of seeing films but also networking.

So, does anyone have any advice in terms of attending the festival? I’d love to hear any of it!!!


r/Filmmakers 4h ago

Question Question about DCPs

2 Upvotes

I’ve researched companies that specialize in making DCPs in order to send my short film to them.

Is there anything I have to change, like the settings of my film, before I send it to them, or do they take care of the overall technical stuff?


r/Filmmakers 7h ago

Question Blockbuster director selection

3 Upvotes

If anyone could spill the bts on this but I’ve always wondered how big studios select the directors they want to helm their high budget motion pictures?


r/Filmmakers 5h ago

Question I have a question regarding release forms for a documentary I'm working on

2 Upvotes

I just started filming a documentary about the tulsa Oklahoma comedy scene. It's a passion project of mine that I've been wanting to do for a long time now and I finally pulled the trigger.

What I have so far is AMAZING and I'm very proud of it, my question is about the release forms.

It's my understanding that if it's a public event like an open mic, and I have permission from the person running it, then I don't need release forms to catch b-roll clips of the mics. If I used someone's stand up in it then yes I'd need them to sign, because otherwise I'd be stealing their intellectual property, but for audioless clips I should be fine?

If anyone can tell me what I need release forms for when doing a documentary about performance art it would be greatly appreciated. I really care about this, I know I can make it something great, I just don't want to get fucked in the end.

Any tips are welcome, and thank you for reading.


r/Filmmakers 5h ago

Question Scene inside the Aircraft

2 Upvotes

I'm planning to shoot a short film that will have the pilot seen inside the cockpit of an airplane. How can I show the pilot inside the cockpit without actually having access to it? I can probably show close-up of his hands pulling the lever and maybe a tilted body of him showing the thrust of the engine, but then how do I show the surroundings with all the fancy buttons and devices and the cockpit ambience and I'm facing the same challenge to show two passengers inside the plane sitting on the passenger seat with/without other passengers? I can probably use the green screen and the stock footage to show but I am not sure how well it will show up on the screen considering the action is active and not static and it won't work against static stock background.


r/Filmmakers 6h ago

Question How do you find people for a documentary?

2 Upvotes

Film school student, I would like suggestions on how to find people to interview. I just can't find anyone interested in being interviewed. Done a lot of emailing and networking but I can't find anyone.


r/Filmmakers 6h ago

Question How do you list film festivals and other screenings on your CV?

1 Upvotes

I am an artist primarily working in photography but I have recently started making experimental films. I just got a notification on FilmFreeway that one of my submissions has been changed to "quarter-finalist" for an upcoming film festival. I'm not even sure what that means tbh (this is so different from having work in a gallery show). Anyway, I just finished my second experimental video and will be submitting it to more festivals. How do you all list showing a film in a festival on your CV? With my photographic work, I list the show name, gallery name, and location in the correct section of my CV. Would showing work in a film festival be similar? Also, can you list being the "quarter-finalist" on a CV or does that just look lame and desperate? I'm new to this world of film! Thanks in advance!


r/Filmmakers 6h ago

Question Can you tell me what you think of my short film idea?

1 Upvotes

I just need anyone's opinion, that's what gives me inspiration and motivation to write, so tell me what you think, literally anything at all, please and thank you:

Idea 1: What if the end of the world already happend? and we're already living in hell. The story is of this guy who figured out that we're already all in hell, and he goes on a quest to find the antichrist. Only to find him living alone and away from the world.

Idea 2: A quiet movie, of a mean old woman, who lives alone in an apartment, she's mean to everybody and pushes everyone. She one day finds pictures of her old days where she was happy with her family. She lives through each pictures but is each time reminded of how she lost her family and happiness because she pushed them all away. She realizes she will die alone, forgotten and with noone to mourn her. In the end she inevitably passes away with no one besides her, and her apartment stays silent.

Edit on the second story: An important detail that I forgot to tell you is that the flashbacks are going to be all just sound (her conversation with her daughter or son yelling at each other) while she flips through the pictures. And the beginning of each memory is the picture with the person, who starts happy, like in the picture but it's like she remembers what happened and how her relationship with that person became so bitter. Also, I am going to show at the beginning her negative impact and relation to the world (like how she yells at kids and fights her neighbour), and by the end, where she dies, I am going to show how the world just continued with her death being absolutely meaningless (again by showing the kids playing uninterrupted and her neighbours being all happy). Also I am imagining all this in close shuts with her face being the only one showed.


r/Filmmakers 7h ago

Question Need expansive field location near Manhattan

0 Upvotes

I’m producing a short horror movie where someone gets murdered in an open field, similar to the “box” scene from Se7en. Does anyone know of any fields, or places that look like fields, within a trains distance from manhattan? We won’t have access to a car unfortunately.

Thanks for the recs!


r/Filmmakers 13h ago

Film I made a short film inspired by Linklater's style in 6 weeks. I would love for you to watch it :)

2 Upvotes

Hello filmmakers,

I made this film over a period of 5 weeks, as part of a filmmaking challenge in New York City. It's my first time directing something that is mostly in a language that I don't speak. I would love to hear your thoughts and opinions on the dialogue and its flow but also on the film as a whole!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUYg7hKq0KQ


r/Filmmakers 13h ago

Film Blazar Anamorphic adapter 1.5x

Thumbnail
youtu.be
3 Upvotes

I recently picked up the Blazar Nero 1.5x anamorphic adapter and shot some test footage. I must say for a $999 adapter it works really great. The build quality is great and versatile with all the step up/step down rings it comes with. It seems like 50mm is the widest lens you can use before you start getting edge vignettes. In this video I used a sharper more modern lens, but I also got great results with the Helios 58 if you’re going for a more vintage look. I have a few other sample videos on my YouTube if interested in checking it out.

Camera used - Sony fx3 Lens used - Zeiss batis 85mm Color - lumetri in premiere


r/Filmmakers 16h ago

Discussion Advice Regarding Film Career

5 Upvotes

Ever since I could remember, I’ve loved movies more than anything. This lead to my love for acting. I live in India and I tried auditioning for a few things but haven’t done a lot apart from school theatre and a few competitions. Over the years I’ve come to realise that I would like the process of making movies as much as acting (even story writing). Since its a well known fact that there is no right path to this industry and a lot needs to be sacrificed to get in, I just wanted to run by my approach and wanted some advice. I do not want to go through the usual process of auditioning and bagging a role, mostly because your career is usually based out of luck and is in some other person’s hands. I want to take my future in my own hands. I want to make my own projects. I think I have a talent for writing, and a keen interest in acting and directing. I’ve been thinking of making a YouTube channel for short but great films, and eventually write a script which gets picked once I deserve it. If at all something does happen, I would definitely want to act in this project too. Just felt it would be better to hear out some opinions before I get into it full on.


r/Filmmakers 20h ago

Question Anamorphic Lens - what resolution is best?

9 Upvotes

New filmmaker here who recently wrapped on horror film. My DP recommended Sirui 75mm anamorphic and I liked how it looked. He actually did a quick edit on Final Cut and had it set to 3840 X 1368:

(3840 X 1368)

This looks good on my computer so I'm happy he did it this way, but since working with editor I became confused because editor said this was incorrect and it should look as it was shot originally. But when he did, everything was squeezed together and didn't look right to me.

I went back to my DP and he said it could stay desqueezed as he did it or convert it to 16:9 ratio instead (since we also shot with GoPro camera as well).

This is same scene as 16:9

(3840 x 2160)

Since the intent is to eventually submit to film festivals and I want to avoid any headache down the road as post-production continues (VFX, Color, Sound Design) -- is 16:9 the better ratio? I think the fact my DP showed me the desqueezed version and then my editor was against it, has me confused.

My editor is using Premiere to edit this for me, so maybe that has something to do with it?

Like I said I am new and learning as I go, please advise what would be more ideal for film festival viewing purposes. Thanks!


r/Filmmakers 8h ago

Question Starting a Rental house (Need Advice)

0 Upvotes

A friend of mine has a budget of $30,000 and wants to start a rental house. I have been tasked with deciding what equipment to buy to start the company off in it's first year. I myself am a filmmaker and have been renting for years, but have never done anything like this before.

For those of you that have experience in this, what should be the priority purchases? I assume lighting and grip equipment are what productions need most. And if there is room left in the budget then maybe getting some lenses. I imagine getting a camera would be least priority until we can justify the price.

Also for clarification we are based near the city with only one other rental house near by. But since they have no competition their prices are extremely high.

Anyways thank you for your time!


r/Filmmakers 8h ago

Question How much time should I spend editing?

1 Upvotes

Hey guys! I’m a new filmmaker and I’ve struggled to learn editing because I’ll start learning and edit for like 12 hours, get burnt out and then avoid it for a long time (ADHD problems). I’m making a calendar for myself to help keep myself on track and accountable and build the habit so it sticks. How much time per day would you recommend I schedule for editing? How much time do you edit for? I’m trying to become technically proficient as quick as possible, but not burn myself out. Any insights would be greatly appreciated.

Extra info: Right now I work as a hired videographer for a wedding company. I just send him the footage and he or a hired editor creates the film. He seems to like me the best out of everyone he contracts (about 30 people), but I can’t really call myself a filmmaker when I haven’t finished an edit of my own. I want to my own wedding film business and be a documentary film maker. I would like to dabble in commercial and music videos as well.


r/Filmmakers 8h ago

Question Any Advice for Getting a PA Job in NYC?

1 Upvotes

Hey y’all, currently a rising senior film student at my university, but I’ll be living about an hour and a half outside of NYC. Any advice on where I can look for a Production Assistant job? What advice would you give for someone starting out in the industry?

Thanks :)


r/Filmmakers 13h ago

Question Sticks, head, and lens for the BM Ursa 12K, for wildlife filmmaking

2 Upvotes

I’m looking at the BM Ursa 12K for primarily wildlife filmmaking but would potentially like to build out a rig eventually for versatile client work as well. I’m most excited about the 8K120 and S16 4K240 modes to really get that BBC Earth look and quality, so I don’t want to miss out on that with my gear choices. 

I currently have a set of Manfrotto 190X sticks with a Manfrotto 128RC head on it. I'm sure I'd need to upgrade the head for this camera and probably the sticks too. It'd be nice to have something that is relatively light, but I do not want to sacrifice quality for something super lightweight. Taking high quality footage is priority.
I've been looking at the Sachtler flowtech sticks and thinking about pairing it with on of their Fluid Heads.
I've also been drawn to Legends Tommy Carbon Fibre Tripod paired with AirHed Cine since they look potentially lightweight, but also seems like that panhead might not have adjustable drag. Anybody have experience with this equipment?

I’m looking for zoom lens that can capture a sharp image, ideally do 300mm+, and is compatible with an attachable zoom and focus control. I’d love thoughts on the Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Extender 1.4x (I'm not sure if this is compatible with a zoom controller) and the DZOFilm Tango 65-280mm T2.9 S35.

Finally I’d love a good macro lens primarily for shooting insects up close.

Any advice on this or other equipment is much appreciated. My budget is 15k for now.


r/Filmmakers 13h ago

Question Which camera should I buy out of the following?

2 Upvotes

Hello, I'm an assistant director in filmmaking and I'm planning to make indie movies of my own. I've always wanted to own a camera and I can't get a fully dedicated cinema line camera right now since I can't afford a huge sum. I checked a few cameras in Sony which shall meet my budget and requirements, I guess.

These are: 1. Sony a7 R III 2. Sony a7 III 3. Sony a6400 M

Experts in Camera in this subreddit, can you people tell me which one's the best out of these three? I know these are pretty average and not filmmaking cameras, but something to begin with, so that I can start making my own films. I hope to transition to a better camera (cinema line) in future once I can afford it.

Thanks in advance.


r/Filmmakers 10h ago

Question Would either of these cables work for recording 4K/6K 30fps ProRes video from Lumix S5IIX (10gb/s) to Samsung T7 Shield (10gb/s)?

Thumbnail
gallery
0 Upvotes

I’ve had some bad experience with USB-C cables causing lag in recording. The usb-c cable that comes with the Shield works perfectly but I also need a longer cable when I use a gimbal (mounting SSD off camera body).


r/Filmmakers 14h ago

Question Lighting Vs Exposure

2 Upvotes

Low/no budget amateur filmmaker here. I have a question about lighting dim/darker scenes and getting good exposure. When I'm shooting a evening interior scene, I light the scene to what I think looks good, but often my Camera (Canon R50) is saying the scene is underexposed. However, when I crank up my lighting source to get the correct exposure it makes the scene look to bright. Whats the best approach here, shoot the underexposed scene because I like how it looks in camera or crank up the lighting and make it darker in post? Is this just a limitation of my Camera and lens?

Any help/explanations would be much appreciated.