1. use a small and lightweight camera with good low light performance
2. use a set of only 4 lenses, one lens can be a cheap zoom with ois when you need stabilization, the other lenses can be fast lenses for shallow dof with wide, normal, tele equivalent to 35mm, 50mm and 85mm infull frame, enough for all king of framing
3. carry the number of batteries you need, but dont carry chargers, charge batteries at home. Only carry chargers if you need to sleep in another place
4. AA and 9v batteries will need a enclosure to avoid short circuit
5. use a small battery powered led light with dimmer and color temperature setting so you dont need gels or filters, viltrox L116T is great
6. if you work alone use a dual wireless lavalier mic system so you can avoid wires and get audio from two people in separated left and right channels at same time
7. if you work with another person to hold the mic close to the talents you can use a small shotgun and a small boom pole like the Godox AD-S13
8. the shotgun can use wire or can use the same transmiter/receiver from the lavalier system, use deadcat to avoid wind noise
9. use a camera monopod because it is small, lightweight and easy to transport and easy to setup among shots, avoid tripods and sliders. (using handheld camera long time can be tiring)
10. the monopod can be used as a stabilizer for walking handheld shots togheter with the OIS lens
11. use a backpack with two compartments, bellow compartment for camera and lenses, top compartment for other equipment, and also a compartment for monopod. Some backpacks have a cover to protect from rain. See images bellow. This one is good: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Rain-Cover-DSLR-SLR-Camera-Backpack-Shoulder-Bag-Case-For-Canon-Nikon-Sony-HOT/183874822190?hash=item2acfcb202e%3Ag%3A8lcAAOSwTM5Yx3ZO&LH_BIN=1&LH_ItemCondition=1000
12. use a dual shoe mount adapter for put both wireless mic receiver and led light on top of camera
13. use ambiente light as it is, and use the on camera led light just to reduce shadows in people face
14. use a memory card with enough space for all the shoots, avoid changing cards, buy a big one like 128 or 256gb
15. use a small in ear headphones to monitoring audio, avoid big headphones
16. do not use external monitor, use lcd and viewfinder
17. carry a black cloth to put over your head to see the lcd protected from ambient light
18. do not carry a computer notebook, it is big and heavy
19. carry small amount of personal objects, just keys, money, documents, and charged smartphone
20. remember to have the script and a copy for the talents, and a pen for notes
21. use only one filter, a variable nd with step rings for all lenses
22. do not use mattebox because it is big and heavy, use a simple lens shade
23. do not use external preamp for audio, use mics with high level output and avoid preamps. Boya is cheap and good
24. carry a small gaff/masking tape to fix the lavalier mic and other things
25. record audio in camera, do not use external audio recorder
26. use a multi pocket photo jacket so you can avoid open and close the backpack during shots
27. you can use a suction cup to attach the camera to the car/bus/train window if you do not have space to operate the camera
28. use public transport, bus, metro, cab/taxi. This will avoid loosing time to find a place to park the car, and will be cheaper
29. wear light clothes that cover the whole body and also a hat to protect from the sun. wear clothes and shoes that facilitate body movements to not get tired.

Amazon today announced Amazon Storywriter, a free, cloud-based screenwriting software for writers of all levels to create movie and TV screenplays in standard format, offering an alternative to costly industry options. Also, in an effort to further enable talented writers to present their work for consideration and to expand its search for the next great movie or TV series, Amazon will now accept drama submissions and will no longer take a free option on scripts submitted directly to the amazonstudios.com site.

Starting today, creators can simply log in with their Amazon account to access Amazon Storywriter. This writer-friendly software takes the pain out of formatting, with features including auto-format as you type and import/export of PDF, FDX and Fountain formats. Screenwriters can write online while their scripts are saved as they work, knowing all their material is being stored securely in the cloud. Additionally, they can write offline with a free installable Chrome app for Mac and PC.

“Amazon is thrilled to support the evolution of our creative community by offering advanced tools like Amazon Storywriter to assist both established and aspiring writers in telling their stories,” said Roy Price, Vice President, Amazon Studios. “Amazon is dedicated to producing high-quality, original films and television series that customers love, and enabling more writers to obtain access to creative resources will ultimately help us discover great new talent. Just recently we were thrilled to debut the second season of Gortimer Gibbon's Life on Normal Street, a kids show that came to us as a script submission. The show has been a huge hit with customers and a testament to the open door process—we can’t wait to see what comes in next.”

Amazon is always on the lookout for compelling new voices and interesting characters in series and movies that have the potential to become hits. Amazon continues to accept original scripts for feature films, primetime comedy series for adults, series for children between the ages of 2-14, and now for the first time also welcomes drama series submissions. In addition, Amazon will no longer take a free option on script submissions, thus allowing Writers Guild of America and the Animation Guild members to submit their original material through the online submission process.

Check at https://storywriter.amazon.com/

We just finished a commercial film production and thought I share some insights on why we have chosen to shoot this with the GH4. Our key requirements have been

1. 10Bit 4k capability (greenscreen project!)
2. Light weight (we had challeging camera angles and limited budget for rigging => e.g. birdeye shots with shitty rig)
3. Long battery life (we didn't want to add external battery solutions => our rig had very low weight limitations)
4. Problem free (e.g. no overheating)

So after long discussions choosing between Sony A7s II and GH4, we decided to use the latter one and I don't regret this decision.

We had a lot of challenges but they have not been regarding camera choice, more related to the customers corporate colors (yellow turning green in shadows) and lighting the massive greenscreen. The only real challenge on the GH4 for us was the shitty HDMI port but we solved that with adding a Zacuto Port Protector (without that, it would have been a nightmare!).

But judge for yourself, feedback welcome! (note: the project required massive effort in post production)

Worth watching this if only for his thoughts about location selection for a low budget movie.

Help appreciated and sorry if this has already been answered here, haven't had the time to browse.

Cheers Chris

https://www.masterclass.com/classes/aaron-sorkin-teaches-screenwriting

What you probably didn't know is that Cinema 4D Lite comes standard with After Effects now. And those who did know probably thought to yourself, "I have absolutely no use for that..." Well, now you do.

Warning: I kinda have a little rant in the middle of this tutorial - but there's a point to it. I'm not just being an asshole for the fun of it.

thanks for the feedback! vaitor

These are the sort of companies that more than likely would not have engaged a video production before, or just made their own simple youtube videos.

The success rate in getting initial meetings is about 20:1, we're getting favourable comments regarding our corporate examples. However the main worry for these companies is controlling the cost and knowing what they are going to get for their budget.

On some recent projects with a customer I know well I've used the script as a sort of 'contract' as to what they are going to get - if they want more or a change to the script after it has been shot they know that there will be a charge incurred.

I've expanded the idea a bit more and made this page on our website:

     http://wbavproductions.co.uk/resources/script.html

I'd be curious to learn if anyone here has any tips for engaging with companies that need video but haven't started yet.

Thanks for thinking .... Andy

Anyone here have any experience in this or other production-planning/scripting/scheduling software?

Neil

Just write your story

All the worlds best movies, from Casablanca to Star Wars, started with text. That’s why in Plotagon, you start your movie with text. There are no timelines or animation clips. Just the ancient technologies of creativity and the written word.

You don’t have to learn complicated tools or know anything about animation. Plotagon animates everything for you. Press play, and environments and props are put into position, dialogue is converted into speech, and characters come alive before your eyes.

It is free and beta now.

https://plotagon.com/

Learn storytelling basics such as antagonist/protagonist relationships, narrative/narrated time, ...

• have a look at exciting current media projects
• analyze how they are designed and executed based on aforementioned basics
• and discuss how (and if) new online tools and formats change the way stories are told and perceived.

The 8-chapter course starts on October 25th, 2013 and ends on December 20th, 2013.

It will offer weekly video material, lessons, interviews and tasks on the following topics (not necessarily in this order):

• storytelling basics
• serial formats (on the TV, web and beyond)
• storytelling in role-playing games
• interactive storytelling in video games
• transmedia storytelling
• alternate-reality gaming
• augmented reality and location-based storytelling
• the role of tools, interfaces and information architectures in current storytelling

https://iversity.org/courses/the-future-of-storytelling

Some friends and I are shooting our first feature film in a couple weeks. I'm the DP and using my GH2 (not sure which hack yet), but just wondering where we should prioritize any of the funds we do have? Also, I know we're not supposed to solicit on here, so I won't, but have any of you had success with Kickstarter or other crowd-funding resources? We've just put one up, but it's rather slow going.

Thanks!

Amazon Storyteller is a new application from Amazon Studios that lets you turn a movie script into a storyboard. You choose the backgrounds, characters, and props to visually tell a story. A successful storyboard can tell the full story of a script, or capture its essence in short form, like a trailer. Either approach can be a great way to build an audience for your story and see how people respond to it.

Amazon Storyteller is brand new, and is limited in the kinds of scripts it can visualize. For example, we don’t have robots and spaceships, but maybe we should. We need help from storytellers like you to make it better. During the Beta period, we’ll regularly ask for feedback on how Amazon Storyteller works for you, and ensure it delivers an even better experience in future releases.

How long should my Amazon Storyteller storyboard be?

That’s really up to you. You can visualize an entire screenplay scene-by-scene, or you can make a trailer-length storyboard that conveys the basic story in highlights. Whether you create 10 panels or 100, you can choose how best to visualize your story.

http://studios.amazon.com/storyteller

Using Maya, I was able to determine what angles the light needed to be at to make this scene work, sit down in front of Maya with the sets, props, and people loaded up, and begin to block and shoot the scene with the director and production designer. Then have a discussion over lighting and production design, then go back and make those adjustments, and end up with this "sketch" quality render of one of the shots. [inserted further down]

Doing so makes things so much easier - as I now know what lens I need, which lights, which camera angle, which gels, etc. And setting up and shooting should be a breeze. I have in essence already shot the scene, now I only need to recreate it. Which is faster and less stressful than trying to figure it all out on set.

I'll do some tutorials on this at some point. One using Maya, and another using some of my Storyboard Artist friends.

Check out the free version at http://www.celtx.com if you want to try out a free screenwriting program.

So today when I saw a second video done in a similar way (slow/flares/night/sad,romantic music/color,bw), and some people also says it is not good to review a product, so I started to think we could open another kind of topic: "How to use a hardware" instead of "How good a hardware is"

So feel free to post videos here, but just post them if you can do an analyses in how the director used the hardware to create a mood/feeling.

The video I did and described above is this number on vimeo: 52730117

And the second video I saw today with similar direction is this number on vimeo: 54266780

Just created this group on vimeo: https://vimeo.com/groups/167217

Before heroes come to the big screen in huge black rooms ,they were in stories as ancient as mankind. Depends on our country or culture of origin we learned about different Myths and religions. When you study these different myths and also the different religions of the world you find similarities. In a way most of heroes make the same journey.

Joseph Campbell,an american philosopher, has studied all this and bring us a nice theory : The monomyth. His work and books and derivative books are IMHO a must read for understanding the hero and the hero's journey ! This might be useful for those who are planning an epic movie and for Star Wars fans too :p Ofc this is not the only way to build a hero character and ofc Joseph Campbell work is not limited to the hero ,it's about mankind and unity...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Campbell

An example of this thoughts

his main book(ofc i recommend others too) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hero_with_a_Thousand_Faces

http://www.amazon.com/Thousand-Faces-Collected-Joseph-Campbell/dp/1577315936

A book from tv docs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_of_Myth

http://www.amazon.com/Power-Myth-Joseph-Campbell/dp/0385418868

A derivative book from his work http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Writer%27s_Journey:_Mythic_Structure_For_Writers

http://www.amazon.com/The-Writers-Journey-Structure-Edition/dp/193290736X

The hero's journey