It’s true there are some things that are primed for post-production and are better done in front of a computer rather than in front of a camera. But there’s a difference between planning a shot to be enhanced in post and relegating a shot to be fixed in post. As camera assistants, we may have a small role to play, but if we play it effectively, we can help avoid some major “fix it in post” headaches.
Filmmaking Tips and Advice
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Find the Perfect Lighting Gels with These LEE Filters and Roscolux Pocket Guides
Knowing which lighting gels do what is crucial to using them properly. So Brian Dailey has created Gel Pocket Guides: a reference for lighting gels that you can put on your phone or in your toolkit to consult in a pinch.
Learn for a Lifetime, Not a Product Cycle
If you want to be a professional, you’re going to have to dive deeper than these obsessed filmmakers. You’re going to have to do the hard work. You’re going to have to actually learn beyond the product cycle.
The Empty Calendar Can Be Your Friend
It’s the empty calendar that scares us. The days without call sheets, the afternoons with nothing to do, and the nights open for drinking with friends.
5 Below the Line Lessons from David Fincher’s House of Cards
When Netflix handed David Fincher the keys to a $100-million production called “House of Cards,” nobody knew what was going to happen. Would the investment pay off? Would Fincher flounder or flourish in television? Is it still considered TV even if it never broadcasts over the cable pipes?
25 Filmmaking Terms that Sound Like Sex Acts (and What They Actually Mean)
Here’s a list of filmmaking terms I’ve compiled that, in a twisted world, would be spoken only in a hotel room with a hooker and a $100 bill. Instead we shout them on set.
How to Handle Working for an Asshole
I wish I could tell you that everyone in the film industry is nice as cherry pie, but I know it’s not true. At some point, you’re going to encounter an asshole. How you deal with them will have a tremendous effect on the path your career takes — for better or worse.
The Unwanted Job of Curating a Blacklist
He never even knew it happened. I didn’t tell him and, as far as I know, he has never found out. What effect it’s had on him, if any, I’m not even sure of. But adding him to my blacklist was something I needed to do — because I never wanted to work with him again.
The Quick and Dirty Video Guide to Marking Actors
At less than two minutes long, the video above, from Jared Abrams at Wide Open Camera, covers the most popular types of marks you need to know. And I have a few extra tips of my own to share with you.
100 Resources (Even More) for Filmmakers, Cinematographers, and Crew
I’ve reached back into the well and found another 100 resources perfect for filmmakers, cinematographers, camera assistants, and just about anyone who has ever stepped on a film set.