A Beautiful Man: In Memory of James Avery
James Avery has passed away. I had the honor of working with the Gentle Giant on a feature film I produced, shot and edited. The director Jhon Doria got James...
Production
Behind the Scenes with Shane Hurlbut, ASC
A film set is a chaotic, fluid and high-pressure situation. Every member of the crew must be professional, creative, flexible, diligent and dedicated. Cameras can't roll until the DP has...
Making Video Look Like Film with LUTs
Digital Video is the de facto capture medium for almost all productions these days. The cost, ease and immediacy are all significant factors that make it so appealing. The visual...
Splitting The Focus in De Palma’s ‘Blow Out’
[caption id="attachment_2500" align="alignleft" width="200"] Schneider Optics Split Focus Diopter[/caption] SPLIT DIOPTER A Split Focus Diopter is half convex glass that attaches in front of the camera’s main lens to...
GO DADDY Breaks All The Rules:
The Smart and Funny commercial
Go Daddy has long been known for its sexy commercials with big breasts and racy double-entendres. Their latest commercial has a baker kneading dough, Jean Claude Van Damme and...
800,000+ Digitized Pages
of Film/TV/Sound History For Free
Every Filmmaker owes a debt of gratitude to the people in "The Industry" who have come before them. Every creative or technical decision you make on your film, TV show,...
Visual Effects – Low Budget Filmmaking
Miniatures and Forced Perspective
FORCED PERSPECTIVE In filmmaking, sometimes the simplest solution will be the cheapest, most realistic and easiest. This doesn't happen often...but when it does, embrace it and enjoy it. In...
Cinefex – The Movie Special Effects Magazine
Cinefex is an amazing quarterly magazine that came out in March 1980. Growing up...I remember trolling my local bookstore in Detroit and always hoping that the new edition of this...
The Ultimate Aspect Ratio Guide For Filmmakers
[caption id="attachment_1317" align="aligncenter" width="1600"] Aspect ratios throughout cinema history[/caption] The boundaries of the canvas that filmmakers use can take many forms. The Aspect Ratio of the frame size...
Rotorview Steadicam – $4000 3-Axis Stabilizer
[caption id="attachment_1196" align="aligncenter" width="1659"] 3-axis handheld gimble stabilizer[/caption] I expect to see an onslaught of 3-axis handheld gimble stabilizers over the next couple months. Rotorview Sweden has one available...